7 challenges for 7 billion
Updated Thu 3 Nov 2011, 9:36am AEDT This week the world's population ticked over to 7 billion. By 2050 that number is expected to grow to 9 billion. From water shortages to rising sea levels, experts from the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne paint a grim future for life on Earth. They forecast dramatic changes unless significant steps are taken to curb population growth. Here seven academics outline seven challenges they say a population of 7 billion must confront. Is it all doom and gloom as they suggest, or do we have a brighter future? Climate Australia is one of the most affluent and also the most effluent nations on Earth. What we're putting into the atmosphere really constitutes an unprecedented experiment with our planet that is going to lead to changes that haven't been seen in millions of years. Water Access to fresh water in Australia, the driest inhabited continent, is incredibly difficult. Energy Economy Ageing population Birth control Food security
Poverty.com - Hunger and World Poverty
Infographic: Feeding the World in 2050 - Blogs
27 Feb 2013 view larger version Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, has described the challenge of feeding the world in 2050 as “the greatest moral problem facing us all.” This new IIEA infographic explores some headline statistics which reveal the sheer scale of the future challenge and the depth of current global inequalities. See this blog for further information on the challenge of feeding the world in 2050 and this new IIEA video infographic for a simple explanation of the water-energy-food nexus. The Environment Nexus project is co-financed by the European Parliament. This content forms part of the Environment Nexus project, which is co-financed by DG Communication of the European Parliament. As an independent forum, the Institute does not express any opinions of its own.
Causes of Poverty
Author and Page information by Anup ShahThis page last updated Sunday, September 28, 2014 Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day). Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Poverty Facts and Stats Poverty Around The World
“Eat Half as Much Meat”, New UN Report Says to World’s Richest Nations
Scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) are urging citizens of the richest nations on earth to reduce meat intake by half, in order to thwart any further damage to the environment. “Demitarians” is the term Professor Mark Sutton—lead researcher of the UN report—coined for halving meat consumption, reports the Guardian. Entitled Our Nutrient World: The challenge to produce more food and energy with less pollution [PDF], the report focuses on the demand for cheap meat that’s driven meat consumption and the livestock industry to dangerous heights, highlighting the recent horsemeat scandal in Europe for uncovering “the dark side of our lust for meat, which has fuelled a trade in undocumented livestock and mislabeled cheap ready meals.” The report recommends adding more plant foods to meals and opting for the common large cuts of meat less often, but “make it special,” said Sutton.
Poverty
While poverty has been steadily declining since the last economic recession in the early 1990s, it is still higher than the 1970s, when dramatic reductions in poverty were achieved in the aftermath of the War on Poverty during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Because of its persistence even in times of plenty, some may view poverty as an unsolvable problem. In fact, programs comprising the federal government’s existing social safety net — including Social Security, the Earned Income Tax Credit, cash assistance, and in-kind programs like food stamps and housing aid — have achieved substantial reductions in poverty. Official Estimates of Poverty Before examining the impact of federal programs on poverty, it is important to discuss how poverty is measured. According to the Census Bureau, 34.5 million Americans (12.7 percent) were poor in 1998, the latest year for which data is available. Distribution of Poverty Sponsored Listings
Poverty Facts and Stats
This figure is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), which basically suggests that prices of goods in countries tend to equate under floating exchange rates and therefore people would be able to purchase the same quantity of goods in any country for a given sum of money. That is, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Hence if a poor person in a poor country living on a dollar a day moved to the U.S. with no changes to their income, they would still be living on a dollar a day. The new poverty line of $1.25 a day was recently announced by the World Bank (in 2008). For many years before that it had been $1 a day. The new figures from the World Bank therefore confirm concerns that poverty has not been reduced by as much as was hoped, although it certainly has dropped since 1981. However, it appears that much of the poverty reduction in the last couple of decades almost exclusively comes from China:
