Missing Numbers• Numbers count!• Population is the critical driver in

most environmental andmany economic & social problems

• But it is not the only driving forceand interacts with other ones

Progress! Success!

A world under too much pressure

Peak oil

Climate change

Congestion

Housing shortages

Explosive growth of slum cities

Air pollution

Water pollution

Overflowing landfills

Growing shortages of key minerals

Decreasing quality of life

Unemployment

‘Affluenza’

Growing food shortages

Growing water shortages

Overfishing

Competition for land

Biodevastation

Urban disorders

Civil wars & terrorism

Austerity & declining ‘social wage’

Toxic & radioactive contamination

Crumbling education, health & other services

Inequality & discrimination

Acidification

Technology:extraction, cultivation, refining, manufacture, transportation, services, buildings, disposal etc.

Per capita consumptionor ‘affluence’

• Generalisations like ‘developing’ and ‘industrialised’ regions can be misleading: great variety within such vague entities• Growth rates have turned out to be higher than previously predicted

Technology is an important variablebut the potential of ‘alternatives’ is frequently exaggerated

Often the ‘technofix’ creates more problems than it solves.

‘P’ factor is uniquely decisiveyet the ‘P’ word is seldom spoken

Greater Tokyo, Japan, crams in over 34 million inhabitants

World population size2 billion 1927 3 billion 19604 billion 1974 5 billion 19876 billion 19997 billion 20118 billion 2025 9 billion 204310 billion 2085

UK population size

50 million 1950

60 million 2005

70 million 2033

75 million 2089

Current world population growth rate

78 million per year1.5million per week214,000 per day8,900 per hour148 per minute2.5 per second

Seehttp://www.prb.org/http://www.census.gov/ No wonder we

are called the human race!

Africa’s population projected to growfrom1 billion people today to2.2 billion by 2050.40% of the total population is under age15

Misconceptions & misconceiversMisconceptions & misconceivers

Vice President Jejomar C. Binay of the Philippines:"As we resolutely blaze our path to progress, we draw strength from each life that springs forth and welcome the birth of new minds and hearts… While even the most austere homes in our Philippines celebrate the arrival of each child with great joy”

With an estimated population of about 94 million people, the Philippines is the world's 12th most populous country. An additional 11 million Filipinos live overseas. Forest cover declined from 70% of the country's total land area in 1900 to about 18.3% in 1999.Many species are endangered and scientists say that Southeast Asia, which the Philippines is part of, faces a catastrophic extinction rate of 20% by the end of the century.The population's median age is 22.7 years with 60.9% aged from 15 to 64 years old. The overall growth rate is about 2%