The Uncertain Future of Global Population Numbers

An anonymous reader writes "The question of global population is a pretty crucial one; how many people will there be in ten years? In forty? The New York Times notes research done by a group called the Worldwatch Institute, research that concludes world population figures are too fluid to make any sort of educated guesses. Childbearing populations combined with severe resource shortages in some parts of the world make pinning down a global headcount unfeasible for ten years from now, let alone out to 2050. The article continues beyond its original borders, as well, with commenters in the field of population studies noting we don't even have a good grasp on how many people were alive in 2007."

Comments

Re:Carrying capacity overshoot

[timmarhy]

all of these problems would have occurred 2 decades ago if they were a real problem. we aren't running out of oil anytime soon inspsite of what the rabid global warming nutters want you to think. most of the price rises are due to artificial restrictions on supply.

Re:Self limiting to a certain extent?

[TheRaven64]

As populations grow out of control, lack of food and resources in some parts of the world will limit population growth, and as diseases and virus' change, our antibiotics are becoming less effective Yup. Eventually the problem will take care of itself in the form of plagues, mass famines and so on. Having been fortunate enough to be born into one of the more affluent parts of the world, most of this will probably not affect me directly, but I'd still rather we avoided it globally. Arthur C. Clarke probably had it right with his prediction of the burning of the Vatican in 2015 - without the Catholic church opposing birth control the situation in a lot of parts of the developing world would be a lot better.