My first knowledge of population projections occurred about 1970 during one of my geography courses. Amazingly those projections haven’t changed much. Did the experts see a culture change in the advanced countries, cheap and easily available birth control, and advances in keeping people alive longer?

            The United Nations’ experts stated the eight billionth person was born somewhere on November 15. Their projections are another half billion in eight years and an additional 1.2 billion by 2050. Imagine 9,500,000,000 in another 28 years. Where will they live, how will they live, where will their food come from, and how will Climate change affect them?

            Most of the growth is said to be from Africa but India is going to surpass China with the largest population. China’s economic problem is shared by many other countries. Their population is skewing towards an older population which has retired from working. This means less people are working to support a greater retired group living longer. Cultural changes dictate small families using birth control and advancing health services keeping people alive longer.

            Climate change is causing a real disruption in where people will be living. The news is full of people needing to find other places to live due to drought, starvation, war and economic disruption. The Syrian War was caused by drought which caused Syrians to flee to Europe and Turkey. Drought in Africa is the reason for the exodus to Europe. A major cause of the immigration to the United States from Latin America is cropland destruction. Many low countries and island nations are preparing for the ocean to flood their surface land. Together with low lying cities a couple of billion will need to go some somewhere higher. They will be moving to much needed farmland.