Population growth driving climate change, poverty

PARIS (AFP)

The UN currently projects that global population will rise from 6.8 billion today to between 8.0 and 10.5 billion by mid-century.

The researchers said that with one and a half million more humans climbing aboard the planet every week, a recipe is looming for ecological overload, famine and broken states.

…The papers, authored by 42 specialists in environmental science, economics and demography, are published by the Royal Society, Britain’s de-facto academy of sciences.

“There is no doubt that the current rate of human population growth is unsustainable,” summarised Roger Short, a professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

“The inexorable increase in human numbers is exhausting conventional energy supplies, accelerating environmental pollution and global warming and providing an increasing number of failed states where civil unrest prevails.”

AFP