The world's population in 1804, the year before the Battle of Trafalgar, was estimated to be one billion people. In 1927 when more accurate figures were available, it was two billion and last year, 2011 and only 84 years later, it was seven billion with nine billion predicted by 2050. Scary isn't it.
How will all these people live today and in the future? If they live at all most will not live very well.
As the world population grows we are using up more and more resources: water, food timber. Essential resources we need for eating, drinking, warmth and shelter.
The effect of these diminishing resources already is evident in sub-Saharan Africa where drought and the destruction of trees for fuel has led to serious famine and social unrest as more people complete for limited food. The United Nations has stepped in but even the aid provided by Western nations and many charities is insufficient to help everyone in need, even if corruption, poor transport, waste and general inefficiency is overcome.
With living conditions deteriorating and social unrest increasing large numbers of people are on the move. Most, mainly families, end up in squalid camps supported by international assistance but many single people risk their lives in dangerous ocean and desert crossings. Still more in countries at peace end up in overcrowded slums of already unsustainable cities.
Yet still the world's population grows. Infant mortality in countries without welfare services obliges the poor to have large families so someone will survive to look after the parents in old age, lack of birth control and too early marriage, limited education for females, more bodies to work the fields - a litany of reasons which add up to one result: more people.
Although some promise is offered by increasing Third World education and contraception for women it is a race against time and societal beliefs which humanity will not win and we can anticipate with concern large scale population shifts of a millennium ago, except now there is no more empty spaces to move into.
As populations increase and liveable space decreases civilised society will come under threat. Safety and security will become paramount as the world shrinks to the narrow dimension of medieval times. As always however there will be those who are better off than others; those whose lifestyles are more comfortable, more protected than most. And there will continue to be those with ambitions whose optimism rises above the shabby future facing everyone.
The above scenario is not far fetched because academics have been warning of world overpopulation for many years. Unfortunately their concerns largely have been ignored, not least because their worries have been expressed in learned journals of little or no comprehension to the layman - the ordinary man and woman to whom the issue should be addressed if only in the interests of their grandchildren who will face the problem in the crowded future.
This need to alert if not educate our non-academic community encouraged me to write "Shangri-la... when the world is overpopulated" - a fictional novella about the future available from Bookpal (http://www.bookpal.com.au/) or Kindle.
Greg Cornwell
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