Population Pressures : Features
There are 86 documents in this section.
The stark lesson China teaches
14 March 2005
For China's 1.3 billion people, the American dream is fast becoming the Chinese dream, but unless its lessons are learnt it could become a nightmare for the world, says Lester Brown.
China becoming world's leading consumer
21 February 2005
Although the United States, with only 5 per cent of the world'spopulation, has long consumed the lion's share of the earth's resources, this situation is changing fast, says Lester Brown. For China, with over a fifth of the world's population and a surging economy, has overtaken the United States in the consumption of one resource after another.
World population climbs by 76 million
11 January 2005
During 2004, 133 million people were born and 57 million died, expanding world population by 76 million. This excess of births over deaths was concentrated in the developing countries, which added 73 million people compared with only 3 million in the industrial countries. World population, growing by 1.2 percent annually, is projected to reach 6.4 billion in 2005 (see Figure 1).
COMMENTARY: Why populatIon growth should slow
2 November 2004
Global debates about population policy are confusing, says Jeffrey Sachs. One side argues that rising populations threaten our environment and prosperity. The other side, mainly in rich countries, argues that households are now having so few children that there won't be enough around to take care of aging parents. Here Professor Sachs puts his personal view.
SPECIAL REPORT: POPULATION REVISITED Cairo's broken promises
25 October 2004
The 10th anniversary of the UN Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in October 1994, saw much agonising over its impact, and the chances of fulfilling its hard-won Plan of Action by 2015. Here, John Rowley, who edited the first population conference newspaper in Bucharest, in 1974, sums up their findings.
Growing concern over China 's 'missing millions'
7 September 2004
This website was among the first to highlight the problem of 'missing girls' in China. Now the Chinese authorities are stepping up their efforts to combat the continuing sex imbalance in the newborn, which could have severe social and economic implications for China's future. Ma Guihua reports from Beijing.
New flows of environmental refugees
3 February 2004
Ten years ago, Norman Myers produced an influential report in which he said that the world was experiencing a rising tide of environmental refugees, of which he estimated there to be some 25 million. That situation is with us still, both as a human tragedy and a symptom "that modern civilization is out of sync with the earth's natural resource systems" says Lester Brown, in this topical review.
The earth in peril, scientists warn
22 January 2004
The earth has entered a new geological era in which humans are a dominating force, and the result could be catastrophic unless precautionary action is taken now.
Humans and other species
2 October 2003
In his latest book, Sparing Nature, Jeffrey McKee, Professor of Anthropology at Ohio State University in the United States, argues that there is a fundamental connection between population growth and the destruction of the earth's biodiversity. Here he summarises these findings
The Indian numbers game
22 July 2003
In several Indian states, average family size has been reduced to between two and three children, and the 'total fertility rate'(measuring the number of children a women can expect to have in her lifetime) continues to decline across the country. Why then is India's current population growth rate still a ause for concern? Nitin Jugran Bahuguna reports.
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