Fascinating facts from top TV show

A RECENT TV programme presented by David Attenborough presented some fascinating facts on our Earth including the following.

During David’s lifetime the population of the earth has increased from just under 2 billion to more than 7 billion. This is expected to rise to about 9 billion by 2050 and is largely due to increased life expectancy.

More than 1 billion people already lack access to safe clean drinking water. Furthermore, colossal quantities of water are used in industry and agriculture.

We already use 30 to 40% of the worlds available land for food production.

To meet their future needs, some of the most powerful countries in the world are doing land deals with some of the poorest countries.

Fossil fuels have been widely harnessed for fertiliser, pesticide and mechanisation to feed the growing population. Much of this has been done without much thought for the long term effect on the earth’s environment. Fish stocks have been depleted massively. A third of all amphibians, a fifth of all mammals and two-thirds of all plants are currently under threat of extinction.

The population that the earth can support in the future depends on how individuals impact on its resources. Estimates suggest that if everyone on the earth was a light user of resources, the earth could sustain 15 billion people, whereas if everyone used resources as we do in Britain, the earth could only sustain 2.5 billion people.

David’s conclusions are: “We need to reduce our impact on the earth urgently. We can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce the growth in our population - we probably need to do all three.”

As one contributor said “The question our children are going to ask us is, if you saw this coming why weren’t you able to do anything about it?” G Kent by email