People and the Planet. A report by the Royal Society

Here is a report produced by the Royal Society that you might like to read.   
Rapid and widespread changes in the world’s human population, coupled with unprecedented levels of consumption present profound challenges to human health and well being, and the natural environment. The report (above) gives an overview of how global population and consumption are linked, and the implications for a finite planet.

Key recommendations include:

1.  The international community must bring the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day out of absolute poverty, and reduce the inequality that persists in the world today. This will require focused efforts in key policy areas including economic development, education, family planning and health.

2.  The most developed and the emerging economies must stabilise and then reduce material consumption levels through: dramatic improvements in resource use efficiency, including: reducing waste; investment in sustainable resources, technologies and infrastructures; and systematically decoupling economic activity from environmental impact.

3.  Reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes urgently require political leadership and financial commitment, both nationally and internationally. This is needed to continue the downward trajectory of fertility rates, especially in countries where the unmet need for contraception is high.

4.  Population and the environment should not be considered as two separate issues. Demographic changes, and the influences on them, should be factored into economic and environmental debate and planning at international meetings, such as the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development and subsequent meetings.

Other recommendations made in the report focus on: the potential for urbanisation to reduce material consumption, removing barriers to achieve high-quality primary and secondary education for all, undertaking more research into the interactions between consumption, demographic change and environmental impact, implementing comprehensive wealth measures, developing new socio-economic systems.

 The 21^st century is a critical period for people and the planet.  The global population reached 7 billion during 2011 and United Nations projections indicate that it will reach between 8 and 11 billion by 2050.  Human impact on the earth raises serious concerns, and in the richest parts of the world per capita material consumption is far above the level that can be sustained for everyone in a population of 7 billion or more.  This is in stark contrast to the world’s 1.3 billion poorest people, who need to consume more to be raised out of extreme poverty.

The report goes on to say that the highest fertility rates are now seen primarily in the least developed countries while the lowest fertility rates are seen in the more developed countries. This fact has a significant flow-on effect in the poorer areas, in the ability of families to feed, educate and provide the basic necessities of life for their off spring.

Developing countries will be building the equivalent of a city of a million people every five days from now to 2050. The continuing and rapid growth of the urban population is having a marked bearing on lifestyle and behaviour: how and what they consume, how many children they have and the type of employment they undertake.  Urban planning is essential to avoid the spread of slums, which are highly deleterious to the welfare of individuals and societies.

The Royal Society, a fellowship of the worlds most eminent scientists,  seek a more equitable future for humanity where consumption levels between developed and developing nations is rebalanced alongside a stabilisation of the worlds population by voluntary methods.