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As Planet’s Population Approaches 8 Billion, are WEF Neo-Malthusians’ Fears Justified?

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World - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.11.2022
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Neo-Malthusians have spent decades warning that Earth’s carrying capacity is limited, and have called for drastic measures to control population growth, especially in the Global South. Russian researchers have dismissed these conclusions, pointing out that Western economies consume the lion’s share of the planet’s resources.
The world’s population is on the brink of eight billion, with worldometers offering a handy widget allowing users to count down to the moment 7,999,999,999 hits that magic number.
According to the statistical service, which aggregates data from official national and international organizations like the UN, the WHO, and the OECD, at the time of this writing, the planet is currently carrying over 7,999,507,000 people, with over 115.9 million born this year, including 280,000+ of them over the past 24 hours alone. Over 58 million people passed away this year, 140,000+ today, with a net annual population increase approaching 58 million.
The United Nations expects the world’s population to top 8 billion on November 15. In a report published in July, the agency forecast a population of 8.5 billion by 2030, and 9.7 by 2050, and a peak of 10.4 billion in the 2080s before a gradual decline begins.
Growth and growth projections differ radically depending on country, with the UN calculating that globally, the population increase has actually slowed to its lowest levels since 1950 and the start of the agricultural Green Revolution. Moreover, two thirds of the world already lives in a country where the fertility rate per woman is below 2.1 births – equivalent to net zero growth. The UN projects that just eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania will account for more than 50 percent of global population growth to 2050, with India expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by 2030.
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Neo-Malthusians from the Club of Rome and the World Economic Forum have spent decades warning that global population growth is environmentally unsustainable, and for drastic measures to be taken to reduce growth. Russian scientists have been debunking these claims going back to the 1970s, with prominent mathematician Nikita Moiseev and physicist and popularizer of science Sergei Kapitsa pointing out that the Club of Rome’s ‘Limits to Growth’ concept ignored the massively outsized consumption of resources by the so-called ‘golden billion’ – the US, Western Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly referenced the ‘golden billion’ concept in speeches this year criticizing the West’s hybrid war with Moscow and the reshaping of the world order. Accusing the West of treating the rest of the planet as their colonies, Putin has suggested that today, “the myth of the Western welfare society, of the so-called ‘Golden Billion’ is collapsing,” and that the entire world is being made “to pay the price for the ambitions of the West, its attempts by any means to preserve its illusive dominance.”
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