The world’s population is growing, but resource supply isn’t.
Here in the U.S. the Occupy Wall Street movement has taken hold, and a key message of the occupiers is: we are the 99%. The slogan highlights the growing income disparity between the wealthiest one percent of the U.S. population and the rest of Americans.
But there is another one percent to consider when we talk about resource distribution. Sometime last fall the Earth received its 7-billionth person. This year it will gain another 70 million inhabitants—a one percent increase that adds the population equivalent of Iran to our numbers each year.
Much of global population growth will happen in developing counties. And this new one percent has the desire to live at least as well as the Americans that have been protesting in Zuccotti Park and across the nation.
As we address the environmental problems before us, the most difficult will be to provide resources for an ever increasing global population with a desire to live a decent life. And we are not talking about the lifestyle enjoyed by Wall Street power brokers. We are talking about access to clean water, protection from disease, electricity, and a diet that includes protein.
Already we have demand for fossil energy that is causing conflicts, price rises, and willingness to sacrifice environmental protection to gain access to the last drop of oil in the Earth’s crust. Our fisheries are a mess. Throughout much of the world clean water supplies are scarce. And we are headed to a global population of 10 billion by 2050.
Youth dominate the world’s population. Given their ability to drive change, we should invest in international family planning programs and education opportunities for girls to help ensure that every child added to the global family has a chance at the prosperity that many of us take for granted.