That's our possible population by 2100, though a writer who predicts a "population crash" says not to panic
BY PETER FINOCCHIARO
Demographers estimate that the human population will eclipse 7 billion by the end of October -- only 12 years since we crossed the 6 billion-person threshold. And while experts long predicted that the global population would level out at 9 billion by mid-century, the United Nations has now adjusted those projections upward. According to a new report, we can expect 10.1 billion people on Earth by 2100.
The U.N. attributes the additional billions in part to faster-than-expected growth in Africa -- whose population could triple in the next 90 years -- even as fertility rates in the developed world continue to decline. The figures raise questions once more about the sustainability of such a massive population growth.
English journalist Fred Pearce argues in his recent "The Coming Population Crash: And Our Planet's Surprising Future" that the world's population is peaking -- and that the "population bomb" has been defused. (He argued the merits of his theory in an interview with Salon last April.) And despite the U.N.'s new theories, Pearce is sticking by his thesis. We spoke to him by phone Wednesday afternoon.
You've said that global population is likely to stabilize in the coming years -- that there will be, in fact, a "population crash." Does the fact that the U.N. has adjusted its projections upward have any impact on your central thesis?
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