World Health - The Real Issue

I am posting an extra blog this week as I have been doing a lot of thinking related to our planet.  We had a great discussion at our UBBT meeting this past Saturday, much of which was related to choices.  The choices were related to our environment such as non-renewable resources and food choices.  There are many perspectives and viewpoints related to the following issues;

non-renewable fossil fuels
alternative energy sources
CO2 emmissions from all industries
global warming (this one is vague in my opinion)
fresh water supply (most critical in my opinion)
meat vs vegetarian vs vegan diets
conflict over control of the above

All of these and many others seem to be top of mind for most people and governments within the industrialized nations.

This is my take on it, and only my opinion.  The world needs to get control of world human population.  In the year 1900 the world population was 1.6 billion.  In the year 2009 this has grown to 6.8 billion.  This is a growth rate of 325% from the base 1900 year.  This means that there are 325 more people today for every person who existed in 1900.

For a more micro perspective, the world population is growing at a rate of about 200,000 people per day.  This is staggering growth and the world population projected for the year 2050 is 9.2 billion.

World population is growing and the natural resources are dwindling?  This will become more staggering as the bulk of the developing countries, which represents the bulk of the world population, becomes industrialized.  The developing countries represent about 75% of the world population.

Based geographically here is where the world population is located:

Asia - 61%
Africa - 21%
Europe - 5%
North America - 7%
South America - 5%
Other - 1%

In summary, over the last 100 years our population has increased from 1.6 billion to 6.8 billion and is ramping up at the rate of 200,000 people per day.  To me the solution is simple.  What can we do as a group to influence world population?

A nice little video,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thuViaxRd_w&NR=1

Allan Gamble
Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta