Crowded, stretched world awaits 7 billionth baby

[Pepsi]

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this is the reason in a nut shell I am both pro-choice and pro-contraceptive.. there are just too many people on this earth

Crowded, stretched world awaits 7 billionth baby

BAGHPAT, India (Reuters) - The world's 7 billionth person will be born into a population more aware than ever of the challenges of sustaining life on a crowded planet but no closer to a consensus about what to do about it.

To some demographers the milestone foreshadows turbulent times ahead: nations grappling with rapid urbanization, environmental degradation and skyrocketing demand for healthcare, education, resources and jobs.

RESOURCE CRUNCH

With the number of people on earth more than doubling over the last half-century, resources are under more strain than ever before.

First among the short-term worries is how to provide basic necessities for the additional 2-3 billion people expected to be added in the next 50 years.

Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries as rising rural populations move to towns and cities.

"The problem is that 97.5 percent of it (water) is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen," says Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation.

"So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world."

Nutritious food is in short supply in many parts of the globe. The World Bank says 925 million people are hungry today, partly due to rising food prices since 1995, a succession of economic crises and the lack of access to modern farming techniques and products for poor farmers.

To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization says.

http://news.yahoo.com/crowded-stretched-world-awaits-7-billionth-baby-142738068.html

[ivanm]

In time natural  causes will limit the population growth in these under developed countries.  It is a sad and frightening way to go.
Disese preys on famished people and shows no mercy. Natural disasters like the earthquakes in Turkey and the flooding in the Asian countries also exact a heavy toll on indigent people who for some reason have not moved to higher ground or who cann live in a structure that is more resistant to quakes. 

Too many structures in the old world of the ME are simply made of blocks stacked on each other and when a quake comes along the whole thing comes down on the people inside. If it were not for the elements, it would be safer to live in a tent.