What is the State of the World?
We all know about rising food and energy prices, water scarcity, climate change and this all leads to increasing migration and political instability
The 2008 State of the Future report by the Millennium Project has reported on this and also insists that “advances in science, technology, education, economics and management seem capable of making the world work far better than it does today”.
The report did go on to highlight 15 global challenges, ranging from water and energy to organised crime and global ethics that require priority attention.
The report pointed to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organisation that 37 countries were facing a food crisis because of higher demand from the world’s rapidly developing countries, higher oil prices, use of crops as biofuels, high fertiliser costs and market speculation. “Basic food prices are doubling around the world,” it said. “The price of cereals, including wheat and rice, have risen 129% since 2006.
Apparently there are nearly 3 billion people who get less than $2per day so higher food prices have a huge impact.
The world population figures were interesting. The human population is currently 6.7 billion and is expected to reach 9.2 billion by 2050 then peak soon afterwards at 9.8 billion before slumping to 5.5 billion by 2100, according to the United Nations’ lower forecast. I am glad I will not be around when the population halves.
The biggest shortage is water. Today 700 million people face water scarcity (defined as less than 1000 cubic metres per person per year) and the figure could grow to 3 billion by 2025 because of climate change, population growth and increasing demand for water per capita. As a young biology student that was my prediction when we debated world population growth and resource shortages.
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