The planet is home to a LOT of people.
Photo by James Cridland
Hans Rosling is one of our favorite experts on global population information. Always ready with an interesting way to grasp the size and impact of human populations worldwide, Rosling's presentations give us an understanding of how our numbers alter economies, ecologies, and our own ideas of our species. In this TED Talk, he shows us that the only way to check our population growth is to raise the living standards of the poorest people. Seems contradictory, right? How might boosting living standards (and thus life expectancy) slow population? Through a brightly colored and highly logical demonstration, the answer appears.
Population growth is tied to the over-consumption of resources and therefore a loss in biodiversity and imbalance of the planet's systems. But slowing population growth doesn't mean losing out on anything. It could mean everyone gains -- a lot. As has been pointed out often, it isn't necessarily the numbers of people in the developing world that is problematic, but the consumption habits and pollution of people in the developed world which is being mimicked by those in rising economies. The way of the west is not sustainable, and focusing on changing how we live our lives is more important than focusing strictly on how many people are alive at one time.
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