Earth 'unrecognisable' by 2050

[Geriatrix]

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/02/21/3144164.htm

A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognisable" world by 2050, warn researchers.

The United Nations has predicted the global population will reach seven billion this year, and climb to nine billion by 2050, "with almost all of the growth occurring in poor countries, particularly Africa and South Asia," says John Bongaarts of the non-profit Population Council.

To feed all those mouths, "we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the last 8000," says Jason Clay of the World Wildlife Fund at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

"By 2050 we will not have a planet left that is recognisable" if current trends continue, says Clay.

John Casterline, director of the Initiative in Population Research at Ohio State University says the swelling population will exacerbate problems, such as resource depletion.

But incomes are also expected to rise over the next 40 years - tripling globally and quintupling in developing nations - and add more strain to global food supplies.

According to experts, people tend to move up the food chain as their incomes rise, consuming more meat than they might have when they made less money.

Previous research shows it takes around 7 kilograms of grain to produce a kilogram of meat, and around 4 kilograms of grain to produce a kilogram of cheese or eggs.

"More people, more money, more consumption, but the same planet," says Clay, urging scientists and governments to start making changes now to how food is produced.
Family planning

Population experts, meanwhile, called for more funding for family planning programs to help control the growth in the number of humans, especially in developing nations.

"For 20 years, there's been very little investment in family planning, but there's a return of interest now, partly because of the environmental factors like global warming and food prices," says Bongaarts.

"We want to minimise population growth, and the only viable way to do that is through more effective family planning," says Casterline.

 

[marine1]

I wonder if we will make it to 2050 with the abuse we are inflicting on this planet.

 

[Venom Rush]

African countries need to implement the system that China (I think it's China, may be one of the other asian countries) have where a couple may only have one child.

 

[TJ99]

Oh look, another doom & gloom prediction. *yawn*

People writing this crap usually forget that while population grows, technology advances and becomes more effecient as well.

Oh yes, by 2050 the world will be unrecognisable, because it will have ended 38 years ago, remember?

 

[(@) (@) twister]

Oh look, another doom & gloom prediction. *yawn*

People writing this crap usually forget that while population grows, technology advances and becomes more effecient as well.

Oh yes, by 2050 the world will be unrecognisable, because it will have ended 38 years ago, remember?

You wrong TJ - December 2012 will be the beginning of the end. How long it will last nobody knows

 

[Mantis]

People writing this crap usually forget that while population grows, technology advances and becomes more effecient as well.

Yip, so people who should have died a long long time ago, are still alive, crapping in their pants and using up resources meant for people who contribute to society.

By 2050 I'll be one of those old farts ...

 

[bsntombela]

You wrong TJ - December 2012 will be the beginning of the end. How long it will last nobody knows

I thought the beginning of the end was 1000 BC ?

 

[Pooky]

This type of stuff makes me wanna just drop out of university and wait for my inevitable death.

 

[Nokkie]

+1 I don't know how many times this so called "earth" is going to end. it would be a marvel just to make it through the first cataclysmic disaster.

This type of stuff makes me wanna just drop out of university and wait for my inevitable death.

 

[murraybiscuit]

/sarcasm
another fud article. everybody knows mankind doesn't really have any impact on the planet, that things will just sort themselves out and if they don't, we probably won't need to worry about it during our lifetime anyways, so who cares?

 

[LazyLion]

Don't worry, I'll still be able to recognise it. As long as my feet are still on the ground I will know where I am.

 

[Nokkie]

+1

/sarcasm
another fud article. everybody knows mankind doesn't really have any impact on the planet, that things will just sort themselves out and if they don't, we probably won't need to worry about it during our lifetime anyways, so who cares?

 

[Ninja'd]

I just wanna see Halley's Comet before I croak.

 

[Keeper]

Zeitgeist is all a lie, remember?

Unsustainable Monetary system FTW!

 

[SoulTax]

/sarcasm
another fud article. everybody knows mankind doesn't really have any impact on the planet, that things will just sort themselves out and if they don't, we probably won't need to worry about it during our lifetime anyways, so who cares?

+1
Of course the planet will sort itself out. The thing that all those pacifist anti-doomday people forget to mention is that if the planet needs to sort itself out, that balance will only be achieved by a hard reset of the human race. Extinction or near extinction.
ahhhhh. Would that I were part of an advanced alien race, I would provide said hard reset as a charity.

 

[killadoob]

At our current rate i doubt us making 2020 let alone 2050.

 

[Polymathic]

Who cares 21 December 2012 we all going to die

 

[porchrat]

African countries need to implement the system that China (I think it's China, may be one of the other asian countries) have where a couple may only have one child.

LOL instead African countries give social grants for every child produced.

 

[Keeper]

LOL instead African countries give social grants for every child produced.

it keeps the votes up.

 

[TheHiveMind]

African countries need to implement the system that China (I think it's China, may be one of the other asian countries) have where a couple may only have one child.

India needs this desperately too, aswell as many middle eastern countries.