The Numbers Game
ne of the keys to sustainability is the growth of human population, and that population's consumption of resources. It took a million years for the population to reach 2 million at the end of 1945. It soared to 5 billion in the 1980s and current predictions are that by 2050 there will be approximately 10 billion people. The United Nations estimates that the human population will eventually level out at 14 billion. The present growth rate is clearly unsustainable as in perhaps 300 year's time it would leave only one square metre per person. Effective birth control programmes for all societies must be clearly to the fore of any international moves towards environmental sustainability. Yet even in New Zealand there are those who argue for a dramatic increase in immigration to boost our economic growth.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI19900201.2.14
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Forest and Bird, Volume 21, Issue 1, 1 February 1990, Page 10
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138The Numbers Game Forest and Bird, Volume 21, Issue 1, 1 February 1990, Page 10
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