As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for
everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone's greed.” The
size of the human population – currently at an estimated 7.4
billion people – sets the scale of human behaviour and its
concomitant environmental impact. According to a United
Nations report, the human population could reach 9.7 billion
by 2050, and over 11 billion by 2100, but it could be anywhere
between 6.7 billion at the low end, and over 16 billion at the
high end.
Put plainly, it seems unlikely that Earth could sustain a
population of 11 billion, let alone 16 billion. Add to that the
vast disparities in the consumption of resources among the
A minority of our population is
consuming far beyond their basic
needs, while the majority scramble
to survive on the bare minimumbillions of people on the planet: At least 2.5 billion of the
7.4 billion people living on Earth today desperately need
more material resources if they are to escape poverty and
achieve minimally acceptable standards of nutrition, housing
and sanitation.