World population projected to reach 7 billion in 2011(CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The world's population is forecast to hit 7 billion in 2011, the vast majority of its growth coming in developing and, in many cases, the poorest nations, a report released Wednesday said.

A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet.

"The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth -- nearly 90 percent -- are in developing countries," said Carl Haub, a co-author of the report. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia.

"During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care," Haub continued, calling it one of the major social questions of the next few decades.
***
"Even with declining fertility rates in many countries, world population is still growing at a rapid rate," said Bill Butz, president of the bureau. "The increase from 6 billion to 7 billion is likely to take 12 years, as did the increase from 5 billion to 6 billion. Both events are unprecedented in world history."
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/12/world.population/index.html





LALALALALALALALALALALALA nothing to see here -- don't worry be happy -- pay no attention to that Grim Reaper behind the curtain --

When population hit 6 billion, CNN was running ads showing a birthday cake. :banghead:

[Taverner]

1. And there are some, even here, that think overpopulation is not a problem

[Nederland]

5. It is a problem

The same way that dying is a problem--it is a problem that humans have always suffered from. Quite simply, it is nothing new.

[stuntcat]

9. nothing new, yes, quite simply

:applause:

[Nederland]

11. Glad you understand

...but I suspect you do not, so I will explain.

Human populations have always been limited by resources, and they have always gone through cycles of boom and bust. The only thing that is different is today we are much better at growing food, so our max limit is way higher than it used to be. The limit still exists, it's just a lot higher than it used to be. The developing world have been cycling through boom-bust cycles for tens of thousands of years, just like they do today. They will continue to do so until they get a handle on their reproductive rates. Like I said, it's really nothing new.

[frebrd]

2. It's like a plague that the world refuses to control. eom

[The Doctor.]

3. This is pretty big news...

Who would unrec it and why?

[progressoid]

4. Woo hoo! God should be happy.

We're fucking and churning out souls for heaven like crazy.

[The2ndWheel]

6. I get a chuckle out of it

The more we try and control things, the less control we end up having.

[amborin]

7. i don't follow?!

admittedly, i'm not up on this topic at all....but haven't public health officials in many countries worked hard, with some success, to lower birth rates?

what would the rate be without those programs?

guess it all comes down to trying to shape the culture, such as right here in the u.s., where we
have 'celebrities' with biological children of their own, already, hiring surrogates to have yet more....what kind of message is this sending?

[The2ndWheel]

10. I just like the madness of it all

We fix a problem, which creates the next problem, which we then fix, creating two more problems, which we then try to fix at the same time, which creates another problem, which is worse then one of the two problems were were working on, so we start trying to fix the new bigger problem, which we finally fix, but it makes the prior problem we stopped working on even worse then it was originally, so we try and fix that problem, which then brings back the very first problem we thought we fixed, which then creates three new problems because of the solutions to the two problems that we fixed after the first problem don't fit with the needs of the moment, so we have to go back and re-work those first few solutions, which then make the 4th and 5th problems we had fixed into problems again, but we still haven't solved the 3rd problem, and then we somehow end up on problem #12 before problem #8 even existed, and we just keep around and around.

[stuntcat]

8. humans have more than QUADrupled in less than a century

It took thousands of years of human history for us to reach 1 million. Then we started taking over the Earth with our farms and making enough food that a lot of FAT GREEDY apes (some of whom I'm closely related to) can throw some of it away every day. How can anyone think our taking over the planet like this will be sustainable?? Why, here on this very board some cheesehead claims that "quite simply" (:eyes:) human population growth is "nothing new." That kind of short attention span bullshit is why we won't save ourselves much less the rest of the species.

[amborin]

12. scary & out of control