How global is the issue of population growth?
HUMAN population is a global phenomenon and changes have often been cause for concern. In 1798, Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population examined the balance between population and food production in England. In the 1960s and ’70s, authors such as Paul Ehrlich in The Population Bomb focused on the rate of world population growth and the need to reduce births because of the limited carrying capacity of the Earth. Today the main issue for many countries is an ageing population. Global population growth has been rapid. From about 1 billion people in 1800, our planet now supports about 6.5 billion. Between 1960 and 1999 the world added 3 billion people, with the last billion being added in only 12 years. Annually, global population is growing by some 75 million, although the rate of growth is now declining. These changes have been attributed to improvements in food production, education, medicine and hygiene, which resulted in rapidly decreasing death rates, especially among in
