The Elephant Room

In the The effects of human overpopulation – in pictures

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” The size of the human population – currently at an estimated 7.4 billion people – sets the scale of human behaviour and its concomitant environmental impact. According to a United Nations report, the human population could reach 9.7 billion by 2050, and over 11 billion by 2100, but it could be anywhere between 6.7 billion at the low end, and over 16 billion at the high end.

Put plainly, it seems unlikely that Earth could sustain a population of 11 billion, let alone 16 billion. Add to that the vast disparities in the consumption of resources among the billions of people on the planet: At least 2.5 billion of the 7.4 billion people living on Earth today desperately need more material resources if they are to escape poverty and achieve minimally acceptable standards of nutrition, housing and sanitation.

A minority of our population is consuming far beyond their basic needs, while the majority scramble to survive on the bare minimum