Peace amongst nations means educating the population on the need to obtain a negative average annual population growth rate.
Our planet is overpopulated. There is no doubt about that. Resources are getting low. Peak oil of the Middle East has already gone by.
There many solutions and one of them is described here. 
The following solution to overpopulation will affect the societal family image aspects and issues.
This 21st century is very crucial for humanity as it will determine our survival or not for the next million year. The Earth Community Organization is proposing to the world a way to achieve our survival. The policies described in this article are by no means the only ones and we do need the global community to send suggestions and recommendations.
Earth has existed for the past 4.5 billion years. Life on Earth has existed for almost 4 billion years. Human activities are influencing the climate to change in many ways. We have transformed entire landscapes. Although our influence is huge our control is minimal. Having initiated the breakdown of the Ozone layer and having set the global warming of the planet in motion it will be hard to reverse these events. History shows that the beneficence of the planet cannot be taken for granted. It has always been hospitable to life of a kind, but not always of our kind. The kind of conditions that suit us are very narrow and our influence is far greater than our control. We are creating global conditions that are threatening all life on Earth. Our manipulations of the Earth atmosphere may generate conditions that could be suitable to only to bacteria in marshes. It is an enormous mistake to take our present good fortune as a given.
The humans species has to regulate its population by means that are voluntary and benign and has to take along with a fair proportion of other lifeforms. Proper Earth management will certainly be a necessary tool to achieve our goal. If not there will be a collapse of humanity and of the environment. From now on every global decision we do will have tremendous consequences on our future.
In general, populations of all lifeforms grow exponentially that is by a steady proportion of whatever was there before. When there is no practical limit on resource then populations usually grow maximally and the only limit is that of the reproductive capacity of the female animal. About 10,000 years ago, human beings were obliged to commit themselves more or less fully to agriculture and the human population was 5 to 10 million. By the time of Christ, after only 8,000 years of large-scale agriculture, the human population was 100 to 300 million. After this time, the exponential growth of the population entered its rapid phase. The billion mark was passed by 1800 A.D. By year 2000, the human population exceeded 6 billion. Thus agriculture allowed a thousand-fold increase in numbers over a period of 10,000 years.
In practical sense, agriculture cannot feed a human population that has grown beyond the capacity limit. We must ask ourselves whether we can stop the growth by means that are voluntary and benign, or whether the eventual environmental restraint will be out of our hands. At some questionable time in our future we will find that our soil will no longer have the nutrients it needs to produce quality food. For some time we may counter this problem by fresh weathering of rock. Not for long! The loss of lifeforms on Earth will be permanent.
Obviously something has to be done! The Global Community proposes a tight global policy, benignly implemented, or it will be very nasty indeed. In practice, a human population of 10 to 12 billion would be too uncomfortably high and would add a high strain on world resources. What kind of world population would be reasonable? What goal should we aim at? A population should be small enough to be sustainable indefinitely and still allow plenty of leeway for ourselves and other lifeforms. It should also be large enough to allow the formation of healthy civilizations.
We propose a world population of 500 million. The policy to apply is for every family to have only one or two children. It would take a thousand years to reach our goal of a population of 500 million.
Some religious people will argue that to reduce human reproduction is to prevent the birth of possible babies, to deny life for the glory of God, and that more babies means more glory. We understand this view as we have discussed the sanctity of all life during Global 2000 and Global Dialogue 2002. Proceedings
are on our website. Read section 'Evolution, Creation and now, Guiding Souls' 
. Let
us discuss those legitimate concerns.
A short while ago God said:
What is the Divine Plan for humanity?
The Divine Plan is the greatest hope for humanity and is now being revealed. God could not have created a universe with billions of galaxies, each one with billions of stars such as our Sun, unless He had a plan for Life, especially for an advanced species such as ours.
We have the responsibility of managing Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as oppose to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
Life exists on millions of other planets in the universe, and our species got to be who we are today through the evolutionary process. Other lifeforms in the universe may have evolved to be at least as advanced as our species. Their Souls may even be more complicated than ours. They may have merged a trillion times more than our Souls. They may have evolved as well.
The Divine Plan for humanity is:
Our proposal of a world population of 500 million does not in any way contradict God's Plan for humanity. On the contrary, it reinforces the Will of God for the diversity of Life throoughout the universe. By accomplishing our higher purpose we will be able to propagate trillions of liferforms and much more over the universe. Beside, with such a small population, there is no doubt that our species would last at least a million years. That is
0.5 x billion x 1 million = 0.5 x 10 15 person-years
But if we let our population rise to about 20 billion then we may not survive more that 1,000 years or so. That is
20 billion x 1,000 thousand = 2 x 10 13 person-years
In order words, if we exercise restraint the total number of human beings who will be on the planet could be at least 25 times greater than it would be if we allowed the population to increase to 20 billion. Who, then, are those who deny life for the glory of God?
In practice, if our proposal of one or two children was accepted then the population would eventually fall. We would make all efforts to minimize infant mortality. We need to ensure that the women of the world who have shown an interest in the proposal of family planning would have access to all the help needed to achieve their goal. Contraception for men is also desirable.
If that is still possible, what are those other lifeforms we should take along with us?
The creatures we are most directly aware, the grand survivors of the overkill by the human species over the past several million years, are bears, beavers, elephants, mooses, lions, rhinos, wolves, tigers, camels, kangaroos, deer, camels, antelope, cheetahs, coyotes, koalas, and others you may want to add. None of them has a chance to survive in the wild, unless we take their cause seriously. Even then it will be difficult to keep them with us for a long future. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights was designed to protect the ecosystem of the Earth and that certainly includes do what we can to take along with us as many God's creatures as possible. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights takes first into account all reasonable needs of the human species. On top of the scale are the protection of the global life-support systems without which no life could survive on the planet. Then the primordial human rights are those basic human rights that have kept us going throughout the evolutionary stages of life on Earth.
Beside the global warming, the human activity that affects Earth most is that of food production. We need to form a global ministry dealing only about agriculture and the protection of our soils. All nations will be part of the ministry. We have to design systems of food production that meet our own needs, and also leave room for these other lifeforms we want to take along with us. Western agriculture is designed in the end to maximize profit. As a primordial human right, the prime concern of the human species is to feed people. Therefore we have to do things differently. We will have to produce less livestock as we effectively double the population we need to feed: ourselves, plus the livestock that is supposed to be feeding us. We also have to apportion the land surface of the whole world more efficiently, using some for highhly intensive food production (which makes use of less land), some for extensive agriculture (combining food production with wildlife conservation) and designing some specifically as wilderness areas with global corridors between them. Hopefully this will help natives of British Columbia, Canada, to settle their land claims in their favor as they are the only people in Canada who can help protecting wildlife, at least for now. There should be a definite and specific clause in any agreement with the natives that it is what they will do with the land and not turn it into a huge industrial site as would the white man do.
Global warming is certainly affecting the survival of these other lifeforms we want to take along with us over the next million years. Climate change has always been a major factor throughout the entire evolutionary stages of life on Earth and will continue to be so in the future. We will have to make sacrifices not only for our own survival but also for all life on Earth. Changes now are far too rapid for these other lifeforms to adapt. They will have to tolerate us more to survive.
Obviously our survival on Earth and that of these other lifeforms are dependent on our behavior and attitude to the world. This point was largely discussed during Global 2000 and Global Dialogue 2002. The Global Community has researched and developed sound solutions to humanity's problems and recommendations are made available on our website. Our new ideas are part of life natural selection process and will be passed on from generation to generation. The human gene pool is changing naturally worldwide. We ourselves are in a position to change our species and create a new one depending of natural circumstances. Because the human population is now so large, mutations are accumulating more rapidly than ever before over the entire evolutionary stages of our species. This do not necessary means we are evolving to become smarter people. That is an unlikely option. It means we are adapting to new circumstances. Evolution will be active most likely in circumstances occurring after an ecological crash or a world war involving nuclear weapons. Such catastrophic events might eliminate all life as we know it on Earth. But we cannot predict which particular lifeforms are liable to evolve and be dominant species. Our brain may be turned off by an evolutionary step for survival, to adapt to the new circumstances. That is if we survive as a species after such huge ecological change. But then we dont really know of what life is capable of...! What life has created so far on Earth may be a small sample of what it is capable of in the future.
Whatever happen in this 3rd Millennium, which we have called the Global Civilization of the 3rd Millennium, will depend of us and to what extent we are willing to make a difference to manage Earth wisely. Will our actions be geared to survive a decade, a hundred years, a thousand years, or a million years? If our actions were geared to survive a million years, the chances are that we would learn to master great things including harnessing the sun flare energy, interstellar travels, genetic engineering, and reajusting the planetary position of another planet in our system to initiate a new life on its surface. Is it no worth to make sacrifices now?
A sound governance of the Earth is needed for the long term survival of our species. This is 'la raison d'etre' of the Global Community. The Global Community has proposed the creation of global ministries to manage Earth and humanity's global problems. The higher purpose of humanity is to serve God by propagating Life throughout the universe. So dont we have an obligation to do whatever we can to protect life on Earth?
The problem and solution to the world overpopulation was described in length in the October Newsletter (see Article H: Earth policies to reduce human population to 500 millions). So there is a human solution. We propose a world population of 500 million. The policy to apply is for every family to have only one or two children. It would take a thousand years to reach our goal of a population of 500 million. We would make all efforts to minimize infant mortality. We need to ensure that the women of the world who have shown an interest in the proposal of family planning would have access to all the help needed to achieve their goal. Contraception for men is also desirable.
Today most major global problems stemmed from our overcrowded planet. Human activities of an overpopulation create major global problems. Global warming is certainly an obvious example of such global problem caused by an overpopulation of the planet. Conflicts over freshwater usage are on the rise. It is only a matter of time before a global war over water becomes a reality. We seem to rely on technology to resolve all these problems. But you cant. They are major problems and each one of them take time to resolve. When all global problems are thrown at you at the same time there is no way humanity can survive the 21st century. Even today too many nations have a nuclear arsenal that can easily destroyed and be the cause for the destruction of all life on Earth. Doubling the world population would make the world situation a thousand fold worst than it is now.
More healthy civilizations could coexist together in peace if the global population was 500 million.
The factors that could reduce world's population are:
The following solution to overpopulation will affect the societal family image aspects and issues.
This 21st century is very crucial for humanity as it will determine our survival or not for the next million year. The Earth Community Organization is proposing to the world a way to achieve our survival. The policies described in this article are by no means the only ones and we do need the global community to send suggestions and recommendations.
Earth has existed for the past 4.5 billion years. Life on Earth has existed for almost 4 billion years. Human activities are influencing the climate to change in many ways. We have transformed entire landscapes. Although our influence is huge our control is minimal. Having initiated the breakdown of the Ozone layer and having set the global warming of the planet in motion it will be hard to reverse these events. History shows that the beneficence of the planet cannot be taken for granted. It has always been hospitable to life of a kind, but not always of our kind. The kind of conditions that suit us are very narrow and our influence is far greater than our control. We are creating global conditions that are threatening all life on Earth. Our manipulations of the Earth atmosphere may generate conditions that could be suitable to only to bacteria in marshes. It is an enormous mistake to take our present good fortune as a given.
The humans species has to regulate its population by means that are voluntary and benign and has to take along with a fair proportion of other lifeforms. Proper Earth management will certainly be a necessary tool to achieve our goal. If not there will be a collapse of humanity and of the environment. From now on every global decision we do will have tremendous consequences on our future.
In general, populations of all lifeforms grow exponentially that is by a steady proportion of whatever was there before. When there is no practical limit on resource then populations usually grow maximally and the only limit is that of the reproductive capacity of the female animal. About 10,000 years ago, human beings were obliged to commit themselves more or less fully to agriculture and the human population was 5 to 10 million. By the time of Christ, after only 8,000 years of large-scale agriculture, the human population was 100 to 300 million. After this time, the exponential growth of the population entered its rapid phase. The billion mark was passed by 1800 A.D. By year 2000, the human population exceeded 6 billion. Thus agriculture allowed a thousand-fold increase in numbers over a period of 10,000 years.
In practical sense, agriculture cannot feed a human population that has grown beyond the capacity limit. We must ask ourselves whether we can stop the growth by means that are voluntary and benign, or whether the eventual environmental restraint will be out of our hands. At some questionable time in our future we will find that our soil will no longer have the nutrients it needs to produce quality food. For some time we may counter this problem by fresh weathering of rock. Not for long! The loss of lifeforms on Earth will be permanent.
Obviously something has to be done! The Global Community proposes a tight global policy, benignly implemented, or it will be very nasty indeed. In practice, a human population of 10 to 12 billion would be too uncomfortably high and would add a high strain on world resources. What kind of world population would be reasonable? What goal should we aim at? A population should be small enough to be sustainable indefinitely and still allow plenty of leeway for ourselves and other lifeforms. It should also be large enough to allow the formation of healthy civilizations.
We propose a world population of 500 million. The policy to apply is for every family to have only one or two children. It would take a thousand years to reach our goal of a population of 500 million.
Some religious people will argue that to reduce human reproduction is to prevent the birth of possible babies, to deny life for the glory of God, and that more babies means more glory. We understand this view as we have discussed the sanctity of all life during Global 2000 and Global Dialogue 2002. Proceedings
are on our website. Read section 'Evolution, Creation and now, Guiding Souls' . Let
us discuss those legitimate concerns.A short while ago God said:
It was necessary for our species to reach today's population of 6.157 billions in order to leap to our next stage of evolution that will bring us closer to God and propel humanity to fulfill the Divine Plan.
1. Thou shall be One with humanity and thou shall have a higher purpose, and that is to propagate Life throughout the Universe. I shall provide you with means to travel the galaxies.
2. Thou shall have another higher purpose, and that is to manage Earth responsibly.
What is the Divine Plan for humanity?
The Divine Plan is the greatest hope for humanity and is now being revealed. God could not have created a universe with billions of galaxies, each one with billions of stars such as our Sun, unless He had a plan for Life, especially for an advanced species such as ours.
We have the responsibility of managing Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as oppose to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
Life exists on millions of other planets in the universe, and our species got to be who we are today through the evolutionary process. Other lifeforms in the universe may have evolved to be at least as advanced as our species. Their Souls may even be more complicated than ours. They may have merged a trillion times more than our Souls. They may have evolved as well.
The Divine Plan for humanity is:
a) for everyone to manage Earth responsibly, andThe higher purpose of humanity is to serve God by propagating Life throughout the universe. Humanity will evolve spiritually to fulfill God's Plan. Soon God will show us the way to reach the galaxies.
b) about to reach the stars and spread Life throughout the universe and thus help other Souls to evolve and serve God in the best possible ways.
Our proposal of a world population of 500 million does not in any way contradict God's Plan for humanity. On the contrary, it reinforces the Will of God for the diversity of Life throoughout the universe. By accomplishing our higher purpose we will be able to propagate trillions of liferforms and much more over the universe. Beside, with such a small population, there is no doubt that our species would last at least a million years. That is
0.5 x billion x 1 million = 0.5 x 10 15 person-years
But if we let our population rise to about 20 billion then we may not survive more that 1,000 years or so. That is
20 billion x 1,000 thousand = 2 x 10 13 person-years
In order words, if we exercise restraint the total number of human beings who will be on the planet could be at least 25 times greater than it would be if we allowed the population to increase to 20 billion. Who, then, are those who deny life for the glory of God?
In practice, if our proposal of one or two children was accepted then the population would eventually fall. We would make all efforts to minimize infant mortality. We need to ensure that the women of the world who have shown an interest in the proposal of family planning would have access to all the help needed to achieve their goal. Contraception for men is also desirable.
If that is still possible, what are those other lifeforms we should take along with us?
The creatures we are most directly aware, the grand survivors of the overkill by the human species over the past several million years, are bears, beavers, elephants, mooses, lions, rhinos, wolves, tigers, camels, kangaroos, deer, camels, antelope, cheetahs, coyotes, koalas, and others you may want to add. None of them has a chance to survive in the wild, unless we take their cause seriously. Even then it will be difficult to keep them with us for a long future. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights was designed to protect the ecosystem of the Earth and that certainly includes do what we can to take along with us as many God's creatures as possible. The Scale of Human and Earth Rights takes first into account all reasonable needs of the human species. On top of the scale are the protection of the global life-support systems without which no life could survive on the planet. Then the primordial human rights are those basic human rights that have kept us going throughout the evolutionary stages of life on Earth.
Beside the global warming, the human activity that affects Earth most is that of food production. We need to form a global ministry dealing only about agriculture and the protection of our soils. All nations will be part of the ministry. We have to design systems of food production that meet our own needs, and also leave room for these other lifeforms we want to take along with us. Western agriculture is designed in the end to maximize profit. As a primordial human right, the prime concern of the human species is to feed people. Therefore we have to do things differently. We will have to produce less livestock as we effectively double the population we need to feed: ourselves, plus the livestock that is supposed to be feeding us. We also have to apportion the land surface of the whole world more efficiently, using some for highhly intensive food production (which makes use of less land), some for extensive agriculture (combining food production with wildlife conservation) and designing some specifically as wilderness areas with global corridors between them. Hopefully this will help natives of British Columbia, Canada, to settle their land claims in their favor as they are the only people in Canada who can help protecting wildlife, at least for now. There should be a definite and specific clause in any agreement with the natives that it is what they will do with the land and not turn it into a huge industrial site as would the white man do.
Global warming is certainly affecting the survival of these other lifeforms we want to take along with us over the next million years. Climate change has always been a major factor throughout the entire evolutionary stages of life on Earth and will continue to be so in the future. We will have to make sacrifices not only for our own survival but also for all life on Earth. Changes now are far too rapid for these other lifeforms to adapt. They will have to tolerate us more to survive.
Obviously our survival on Earth and that of these other lifeforms are dependent on our behavior and attitude to the world. This point was largely discussed during Global 2000 and Global Dialogue 2002. The Global Community has researched and developed sound solutions to humanity's problems and recommendations are made available on our website. Our new ideas are part of life natural selection process and will be passed on from generation to generation. The human gene pool is changing naturally worldwide. We ourselves are in a position to change our species and create a new one depending of natural circumstances. Because the human population is now so large, mutations are accumulating more rapidly than ever before over the entire evolutionary stages of our species. This do not necessary means we are evolving to become smarter people. That is an unlikely option. It means we are adapting to new circumstances. Evolution will be active most likely in circumstances occurring after an ecological crash or a world war involving nuclear weapons. Such catastrophic events might eliminate all life as we know it on Earth. But we cannot predict which particular lifeforms are liable to evolve and be dominant species. Our brain may be turned off by an evolutionary step for survival, to adapt to the new circumstances. That is if we survive as a species after such huge ecological change. But then we dont really know of what life is capable of...! What life has created so far on Earth may be a small sample of what it is capable of in the future.
Whatever happen in this 3rd Millennium, which we have called the Global Civilization of the 3rd Millennium, will depend of us and to what extent we are willing to make a difference to manage Earth wisely. Will our actions be geared to survive a decade, a hundred years, a thousand years, or a million years? If our actions were geared to survive a million years, the chances are that we would learn to master great things including harnessing the sun flare energy, interstellar travels, genetic engineering, and reajusting the planetary position of another planet in our system to initiate a new life on its surface. Is it no worth to make sacrifices now?
A sound governance of the Earth is needed for the long term survival of our species. This is 'la raison d'etre' of the Global Community. The Global Community has proposed the creation of global ministries to manage Earth and humanity's global problems. The higher purpose of humanity is to serve God by propagating Life throughout the universe. So dont we have an obligation to do whatever we can to protect life on Earth?
The problem and solution to the world overpopulation was described in length in the October Newsletter (see Article H: Earth policies to reduce human population to 500 millions). So there is a human solution. We propose a world population of 500 million. The policy to apply is for every family to have only one or two children. It would take a thousand years to reach our goal of a population of 500 million. We would make all efforts to minimize infant mortality. We need to ensure that the women of the world who have shown an interest in the proposal of family planning would have access to all the help needed to achieve their goal. Contraception for men is also desirable.
Today most major global problems stemmed from our overcrowded planet. Human activities of an overpopulation create major global problems. Global warming is certainly an obvious example of such global problem caused by an overpopulation of the planet. Conflicts over freshwater usage are on the rise. It is only a matter of time before a global war over water becomes a reality. We seem to rely on technology to resolve all these problems. But you cant. They are major problems and each one of them take time to resolve. When all global problems are thrown at you at the same time there is no way humanity can survive the 21st century. Even today too many nations have a nuclear arsenal that can easily destroyed and be the cause for the destruction of all life on Earth. Doubling the world population would make the world situation a thousand fold worst than it is now.
More healthy civilizations could coexist together in peace if the global population was 500 million.
The factors that could reduce world's population are:* promoting one or two child per family
* increase income
* improve literacy
* insure protection of new born children
* educate men and women to family planning and let them be equal partners in all aspects of life
* make men and women use of inexpensive contraceptives with easy access to them
* promote a more healthy and rewarding lifestyle with just one child per family
* expanding women's opportunities
* access to high-quality reproductive health services
Most major global problems would disappear with a world population of 500 million. Today the urban population is increasing at the rate of 60 million
a year requiring the resources necessary for the equivalent of an additional six megacities every year; there are already 19 megacities in the world.
It is imperative that action be taken to control the overpopulation and human activities so that planetary security is not endangered. The current world's population is 6.2 billion and is expected to grow to 9.3 billion by 2050. Nearly 98% of this growth will be in the poorer countries. At that time, there will be more older people than children, and the number of people who 60 or older is expected to reach 2 billion, putting stress on retirement and health care systems worldwide.
About half the world lives in cities on 2% of the land, consuming about 75% of the resources and producing roughly the same percentage of the pollution. In one generation, 3 billion city dwellers will grow to 5 billion while, at the same time, natural resources to support this growth are shrinking. Biodiversity feeds directly 40% of the economy of the developing countries, yet this natural resource is rapidly being destroyed.
About one out of every children under five years old in the developing countries is malnourished. Sufficient nutrition, shelter, water, and sanitation will have to reach people in slums, or the world will see more migrations, disease and conflicts. Medical and social advances have allowed to increase significantly life expectancy. Older people will be require to continue work few more years to help the younger generation.
North America
The United States are the only industrial nation with a fertility rate at or above the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. North Americans need to be educated on the impacts of an aging population and immigration on the economy and resources. The average American consumes about 50 times more resources than the average Indian. North American consumers obtain resources at a cost lower than the true value and at the expenses of less economically fortunate regions.
Countries in Latin America & the Caribbean
There is a rapid urbanization of the region due to migration from rural areas and by high fertility among new arrivals in urban settings. About 54 million people are hungry in the region. Political unrest is caused by a disproportionate income gap.
Africa
Africa's population is expected to grow from 13% of the world's population in 2000 to 20% by 2050. Africa has major management problems in all areas. In fact, much of the urban management class is being reduced by AIDS. AIDS orphans grow up in crime groups and join armed conflicts over natural resources. Several major global problems can be resolved by:
Europe
Its population is expected to fall from 12% of world's population in 2000 to 7.1% by 2050. Future benefits for an aging population will therefore be difficult to provide. The EU is enforcing the U.N. decisions on development in the region. More conflicts with immigrants are expected.
Asia & Oceania
Because of its low birth rates, by 2080 Japan's population will be half of what it is today. Low birth rates are also seen in Australia. About 60% of all Arabs are under 25 years old with very little employment. In China, 7% of the population is older than 65. Its annual population growth rate is 1.07% and its fertility rate is 1.82 %. When translated in absolute numbers, the increase causes major challenges to social and economic development.
It is imperative that action be taken to control the overpopulation and human activities so that planetary security is not endangered. The current world's population is 6.2 billion and is expected to grow to 9.3 billion by 2050. Nearly 98% of this growth will be in the poorer countries. At that time, there will be more older people than children, and the number of people who 60 or older is expected to reach 2 billion, putting stress on retirement and health care systems worldwide.
About half the world lives in cities on 2% of the land, consuming about 75% of the resources and producing roughly the same percentage of the pollution. In one generation, 3 billion city dwellers will grow to 5 billion while, at the same time, natural resources to support this growth are shrinking. Biodiversity feeds directly 40% of the economy of the developing countries, yet this natural resource is rapidly being destroyed.
About one out of every children under five years old in the developing countries is malnourished. Sufficient nutrition, shelter, water, and sanitation will have to reach people in slums, or the world will see more migrations, disease and conflicts. Medical and social advances have allowed to increase significantly life expectancy. Older people will be require to continue work few more years to help the younger generation.
The Global Community Overall Picture
North America
The United States are the only industrial nation with a fertility rate at or above the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. North Americans need to be educated on the impacts of an aging population and immigration on the economy and resources. The average American consumes about 50 times more resources than the average Indian. North American consumers obtain resources at a cost lower than the true value and at the expenses of less economically fortunate regions.
Countries in Latin America & the Caribbean
There is a rapid urbanization of the region due to migration from rural areas and by high fertility among new arrivals in urban settings. About 54 million people are hungry in the region. Political unrest is caused by a disproportionate income gap.
Africa
Africa's population is expected to grow from 13% of the world's population in 2000 to 20% by 2050. Africa has major management problems in all areas. In fact, much of the urban management class is being reduced by AIDS. AIDS orphans grow up in crime groups and join armed conflicts over natural resources. Several major global problems can be resolved by:
* promoting one or two child per family
* increase income
* improve literacy
* insure protection of new born children
* educate men and women to family planning and let them be equal partners in all aspects of life
* make men and women use of inexpensive contraceptives with easy access to them
* promote a more healthy and rewarding lifestyle with just one child per family
* expanding women's opportunities
* access to high-quality reproductive health services
* community-based natural resource management practices and security of land tenure
Europe
Its population is expected to fall from 12% of world's population in 2000 to 7.1% by 2050. Future benefits for an aging population will therefore be difficult to provide. The EU is enforcing the U.N. decisions on development in the region. More conflicts with immigrants are expected.
Asia & Oceania
Because of its low birth rates, by 2080 Japan's population will be half of what it is today. Low birth rates are also seen in Australia. About 60% of all Arabs are under 25 years old with very little employment. In China, 7% of the population is older than 65. Its annual population growth rate is 1.07% and its fertility rate is 1.82 %. When translated in absolute numbers, the increase causes major challenges to social and economic development.
