Word: earthly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...doubling numbers, the earth could accommodate...
...science-fiction vision of civilization's breakdown, perhaps after a nuclear war. In fact, Mexico City has been described as the anteroom to an ecological Hiroshima. With 20 million residents -- up from 9 million only 20 years ago -- the Mexican capital is considered the most populous urban center on earth. Mexico City has been struck not by military weapons but by a population bomb...
Ultimately, no problem may be more threatening to the earth's environment than the proliferation of the human species. Today the planet holds more than 5 billion people. During the next century, world population will double, with 90% of that growth occurring in poorer, developing countries. African nations are expanding at the fastest rate. During the next 30 years, for example, the population of Kenya (annual growth rate: 4%) will jump from 23 million to 79 million; Nigeria's population (growth rate: 3%) will soar from 112 million to 274 million. Expansion is slower in Brazil, China, India and Indonesia...
Prospects are so dire that some environmentalists urge the world to adopt the goal of cutting in half the earth's population growth rate during the next decade. "That means a call for a two-child family for the world as a whole," explained Lester Brown, president of the Worldwatch Institute. "In some countries there may be a need to set a goal of one child per family." That is a daunting challenge. During the past decade, many of the world's poor nations condemned the notion of family planning as an imperialist and racist scheme touted by the developed...
...effort needs to be speeded up. For starters, contraceptive information and devices should be available to every man or woman on earth who wants them. According to surveys by the United Nations and other organizations, fully half the 463 million married women in developing countries (excluding China) do not want more children. Yet many have little or no access to effective methods of birth control, such as the Pill and the intrauterine device (IUD). The World Bank estimates that making birth control readily available on a global basis would require that the $3 billion now spent annually on family-planning...