Page added on October 23, 2011
The population of the world is expected to more than double, growing from 7billion to 15billon by 2100, according to the United Nations.
The figure has shocked experts who say the numbers will be catastrophic if realised and claim urgent action is needed to curb growth and save the planet’s resources.
Previous UN estimates predicted the population to reach 10 billion people by the end of the century, however the startling new figure will be released in a report by the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa) later this week.
The State of World Population 2011 report will mark the birth of the person that takes the world’s population to over 7billion – expected to happen this month.
Roger Martin, chairman of Population Matters, which campaigns on population control, told the Observer newspaper that the Earth was entering a dangerous new phase.
He said: ‘Our planet is approaching a perfect storm of population growth, climate change and peak oil,’
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The planet is not actually sustaining 7 billion people.’
The population has doubled since the sixties due to better medicine and healthcare and high birth rates across Africa, Asia, and Latin America while mortality rates of children have declined.
The population increase is also being boosted by increased lifespans across the globe.
However other experts have criticised the figure and remain unconvinced that the population would reach such huge numbers before action was taken.
Professor Jack Goldstone of George Mason University, author of The Population Bomb, told the newspaper he believed it was more realistic for the figure to plateau around 10-12million.
He said: ‘The means and the desire to reduce the number of children people have is spreading around the world,’
Family planning throughout the developing world is a key aspect to controlling the population according to some experts, however cultural and religious reasons can limit the use of contraception.
John Bongaarts, the vice-president of the New York-based Population Council told the newspaper: ‘What’s really critical is the political commitment of governments. Family planning is not actually that expensive,’
12 Comments on "World population will more than double to 15billion by 2100, says UN"
RedStateGreen on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 1:28 pm
That last point is the key. Educating women, making it safe for them to say “no” (without being raped, beaten or impoverished in their old age), and providing them with birth control are the only ways this will end without tears. Otherwise the four horses will make sure this ends in a much harsher way.
Peter on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 3:00 pm
What is being said here is that without the intervention of something messy the population is on course to reach 15B.
I don’t think anyone believes that will happen. Instead of the population following a fairly predictable double exponential, it is likely to turn at a cusp. And a cusp means one of the horseman: war, pestilence, or famine.
No reputable prediction is going to show a cusp as by the very nature of the problem such events are hard to predict more than a year or two out. If that.
Analoggod on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 4:24 pm
It’s like the people that make these estimates live in a bubble that surrounds and protects them from reality,as if they are somehow not one of those billions,reinforced in their speculations on reality by a debate where the limits of discussion are laid out before the conversation begins.
Peak “filth” has obviously been reached and if not yet very soon,either way i pity “sane” to crawl out the soup after 7 billion.
sunweb on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 6:39 pm
That is just plain silly. 7 billion is overshoot with or without fossil fuels. We are devastating the earth for what?
Dusko on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 7:45 pm
What are 15 billion people supposed to eat? Soy-lent Green? Why can’t we just decide to do the rational thing and construct a steady state economy without debt and level the population off? Human nature keeps getting in the way I suppose?
James on Sun, 23rd Oct 2011 11:51 pm
The boulder is rolling, let it crash into rational and give birth to a new way of life on earth. Just remember to tell your kids to tell their kids what we did.
Btritt on Mon, 24th Oct 2011 2:43 am
The Four Horsemen will make sure we never reach anywhere near that point. We have about peaked and the decline will be slow at first and then pick up steam as systems collapse and we revert to a 1 billion max population earth…sometime before 2100.
Crazy_Dad on Mon, 24th Oct 2011 12:44 pm
Our kids are so fucked.
EnergyUnlimited on Mon, 24th Oct 2011 2:19 pm
It seems that all these predictions are not worth a paper on which they are written.
Every few months we are getting grossly different predictions.
Windmills on Mon, 24th Oct 2011 3:26 pm
This really puts a damper on my desire for immortality. I don’t want to live through this. Perhaps Rumplestiltskin had the right idea…
Kenz300 on Mon, 24th Oct 2011 4:36 pm
15 billion is a very scary thought. We were not able to solve the worlds problems of poverty, hunger and despair when the world had 5 billion people and adequate resources. Wa are currently struggling with a food crisis, a water crisis, an oil crisis, an energy crisis, a financial crisis and a jobs crisis. The worlds population continues to grow and the resource limitations are becoming more apparent. This population growth is not sustainable. It will not end well for many.
Rick on Tue, 25th Oct 2011 12:47 am
15 billion will not happen. Resources will not allow it. I’ll be dead well before 2100, and I never had kids – I knew long ago, we were screwed. Humans need to wake up now! Though, I’m not sure that is going to happen.