[NV Greens] eramos pocos y la abuelita parió

[Paul Etxeberri]

PEOPLE, PEOPLE WHO BREED PEOPLE
Better make room -- world population to hit 9.1 billion by 2050

There will be 9.1 billion people on this li'l planet of ours by 2050, 
according to revised U.N. population figures released yesterday. 
That's a 40 percent increase from today's mere (!) 6.5 billion. While 
population in developed countries is expected to remain largely 
stable at 1.2 billion -- mainly due to immigration, as their native 
birth rates are declining -- the world's 50 poorest countries will 
see their numbers more than double.  At the same time, life 
expectancy in southern Africa has declined from 62 years in 1995 to 
48 years in 2000-2005, and is projected to hit a low of 43 before a 
slow recovery.  That means Africans are being born and lost to AIDS 
at a rate almost incomprehensible to comfortable Westerners. Speaking 
of which, U.S. population is set to rise from 298 million in 2005 to 
394 million in 2050, with immigration the main driver of growth. 
Meanwhile, India will probably surpass China as the world's most 
populous nation in coming decades, due to higher birth rates. "It is 
going to be a strain on the world," said Hania Zlotnik, U.N. 
Population Division director and master of understatement.

straight to the source:  The Globe and Mail, Associated Press, 25 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4416>

straight to the source:  BBC News, 25 Feb 2005
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4417>


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand