By Joel E. Cohen
Keypoints:
- Before 2000 young people outnumbered old people
- In 2007 rural people outnumbered urban people
- In 2003 the median woman will have too few children
- 2.1% was the highest population growth we have ever had
- it is expected to reach 9.1 billion people in 2050
- 1/3rd of population growth is based on high immigration rates
- Our earth can only hold up to 50% more people in terms of space, food, etc.
- In 1999 people were exploiting the environment faster than it could regenerate
- Scientific numbers are intended to describe reality
- Long term sustainability is a diversion of making tomorrow better than today
- Urbanization threatens frightening hazards from infectious disease
- Marital status is key for living conditions with the elderly
- Sustainability of elderly is based on the supportive offspring
Summary
Some time in the next century, we humans as a species will reach our carrying capacity on this earth. The births and death rates will be equal to each other resulting in a zero population growth. As we reach this capacity, changes in the young and old, rich and poor, and the urban and rural will begin to take place. Changes have already been taking place as for the first time in history, elderly people have already surpassed the number of youth. 2.1% has been the highest population growth we have ever had but that will be as far as we go. Our carrying capacity will eventually be reached and till then we are going to need to find ways of finding a stable population without lower our standard of living drastically.
My thoughts:
I found this article very interesting. I myself have always thought of what would happen if there were too many people on earth. After reading this article I believe we should start acting now. If we don't, consequences will be high as the human population would need to be lower to meet the carrying capacity. Resources should be managed more carefully and our standard of living would need to be cranked down a bit.
So What..If we don't think smart of our resources and the quality of living standards then our carrying capacity will be lower.
Says who?says Johel E. Cohen
What If...What if we all lived on really high living standards?
This reminds me of..This reminds me of Elysium because the world became bad to live on so the higher ranked people get to live in a better place with no wars and unlimited resources.