New York Times (September 18)
“Children born today will very likely live to see the end of global population growth.” Estimates range from the 2060s to 2080s, but “all of the predictions agree on one thing: We peak soon. And then we shrink. Humanity will not reach a plateau and then stabilize. It will begin an unprecedented decline.” It’s not too soon “to start talking about what this means. “Waiting until the population peaks to ask how to respond to depopulation would be as imprudent as waiting until the world starts to run out of fossil fuels to begin responding to climate change.”
Tags: 2060s, 2080s, Children, Depopulation, Fossil fuels, Global, Humanity, Peak, Population growth, Response, Shrink, Unprecedented decline
MSN (October 10)
“It’s more critical than ever to construct cost-efficient housing quickly since the UN predicts that by 2030, almost 100,000 homes will need to be built daily to keep up with population growth. In less than eight years, the organization expects three billion people to need housing, which makes the concept of inflated homes even more necessary.”
Tags: 2030, Built, Construct, Cost-efficient, Critical, Homes, Housing, Inflated homes, Population growth, UN
Wall Street Journal (August 21)
“Water crises are unfolding all across India, a product of population growth, modernization, climate change, mismanagement and the breakdown of traditional systems of distributing resources. India is running out of water in more places, in more different ways, putting more people at risk, than perhaps any other country.” Though it is “the 13th most water-stressed country in the world,” India has a population three times “the combined population of the other 16 countries facing extremely high water stress.”
Tags: Climate change, Crises, India, Mismanagement, Modernization, Population growth, Resources, Risk, Traditional
Los Angeles Times (January 25)
We mustn’t forget that any solution to climate change is centrally linked to limiting population growth. “It is not a sustainable scenario to keep producing larger young populations. Our finite planet cannot host infinite growth. It’s already showing the strain.” Family-planning programs can “make a real difference, both in slowing the rate of warming and in helping vulnerable nations adapt to its effects.”
Wall Street Journal (December 4)
With rising production and falling prices, the ‘Peak Oil’ theory has again been debunked. The world routinely panics, then “relearns that supply responds to necessity and price.” The Malthusian hysteria has not been restricted to oil. There have “been regular warnings that the world is running out of soybeans, helium, chocolate, tunsgsten, you name it—and that population growth has become unsustainable. The warnings create a political or social panic for a while, only to be proved wrong.”
Tags: Chocolate, Debunked, helium, Malthus, Necessity, Panic, Peak Oil, Population growth, Price, Production, Soybeans, Supply, Tunsgsten
New York Times (April 6)
“In reality, slower population growth creates enormous possibilities for human flourishing.” Japan may be at the forefront of graying societies, but the nation is hardly alone. Most developed countries are already shrinking. Many developing countries, like China, are soon forecast to contract. This is fueling “dark prophecies” and causing alarm over the future. It shouldn’t. “Population doom of one kind or another is a recurring fad. Like most fads, this one can be safely ignored. Humanity has many legitimate problems to worry about. Falling fertility is not one of them.”
Tags: Alarm, China, Dark prophecies, Developing countries, Doom, Fad, Fertility, Future, Graying, Humanity, Japan, Population growth, Possibilities, Reality
Ethical Corporation (March Issue)
“For decades, many companies have typically responded to sustainability challenges by pursuing incremental operational improvements. But we are beginning to see an interesting new trend—businesses using sustainability as a tactic for long-term offense, rather than just short-term defence.” Who are these companies? Bosch, BMW Group, Daimler, DuPont, Ecolab, GE, Ikea, Kimberly Clark, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Toyota and Volvo were among the cited companies. What’s driving the trend? “Leading companies are demonstrating a growing belief that their future profit and growth will be tied to how effectively they respond to looming global challenges including resource scarcity, population growth, and climate change.”
“For decades, many companies have typically responded to sustainability challenges by pursuing incremental operational improvements. But we are beginning to see an interesting new trend—businesses using sustainability as a tactic for long-term offense, rather than just short-term defence.” Who are these companies? Bosch, BMW Group, Daimler, DuPont, Ecolab, GE, Ikea, Kimberly Clark, Kingfisher, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Toyota and Volvo were among the cited companies. What’s driving the trend? “Leading companies are demonstrating a growing belief that their future profit and growth will be tied to how effectively they respond to looming global challenges including resource scarcity, population growth, and climate change.”
Tags: Climate change, Future profits, Leading companies, Population growth, Resource scarcity, Sustainability
