| Science
Friday > Archives
> 1999
> October
> October 8, 1999:
Hour One: World Population
This year, October 12 isn't just the traditional Columbus Day. According to United Nations Population Fund estimates, October 12 is the Day of Six Billion -- the day on which the numbers on the world population clock flip over to zeros again.
Every second, an estimated three people are added to the world's population. (5 are born, while two die.) And while there have been slight decreases in the rate of population increase worldwide, due to slightly declining birth rates in Africa coupled with the huge death toll caused in some developing countries by AIDS, the population continues to creep ever higher. | Some demographers say that the trend is nothing to worry about -- that in a few decades, we'll actually be worrying about declining populations. Others say that those estimates are in error -- that the population will continue to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger -- outstripping the world's resources. | 
Chart courtesy UN Population Fund | What's the population story? And what steps should be taken to ensure that the world of the six billionth child (and the six billion and third ... sixth ... ninth ...) will be able to sustain itself? We'll talk about it, on this hour of Science Friday.
Guests:
Gretchen Daily
Co-author, "The Stork and the Plow: The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma"
Bing Interdisciplinary Research Scientist
Department of Biology
Stanford University
Stanford, California
Brian Halweil
Co-author, "Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Challenge"
Staff Researcher
Worldwatch Institute
Washington, DC
Jerry Taylor
Director, Natural Resources Studies
Cato Institute
Washington, DC
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
USAID: Population, Health & Nutrition
United Nations POPIN Home Page
Population Reference Bureau
CATO INSTITUTE: Natural Resource Studies
Worldwatch Institute's Population Web Site
Science Friday: September 13, 1996, Hour Two:Population
CREST: Sustainable Energy and Development Online
-
- This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
|