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Articles on Population

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Population growth fuels knowledge, leading to new technology and energy use, fueling more population growth. Robert Essel/The Image Bank via Getty Images

8 billion humans: How population growth and climate change are connected as the ‘Anthropocene engine’ transforms the planet

The UN estimates the global population will pass 8 billion people on Nov. 15, 2022. From the Stone Age to today, here’s how things spiraled out of control.
Image of Earth’s city lights, created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. NASA/Newsmakers via Getty Images

What the controversial 1972 ‘Limits to Growth’ report got right: Our choices today shape future conditions for life on Earth

A 1972 report warned that unchecked consumption could crater the world economy by 2100. Fifty years and much debate later, can humanity innovate quickly enough to avoid that fate?
Coastal cities like Port Arthur, Texas, are at increasing risk from flooding during storms. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

New flood maps show US damage rising 26% in next 30 years due to climate change alone, and the inequity is stark

A street-by-street analysis shows where the risks are rising fastest and also lays bare the inequities of who has to endure America’s crippling flood problem.
Sandstorm approaching Merzouga Settlement in Erg Chebbi Desert, Morocco. Pavliha/Getty Images

Six areas where action must focus to rescue this planet

Humanity’s biggest challenges are not technical, but social, economic, political and behavioural. Effective actions are still possible to stabilise the climate and the planet, but must be taken now.
Rising global temperatures are increasing heat risks for outdoor workers and the urban poor. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

Dangerous urban heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s, with the poor most at risk

Hot, humid population centers are becoming epicenters of heat risk as climate changes worsens. It’s calling into question the conventional wisdom that urbanization uniformly reduces poverty.
Biologists and demographers are actively debating whether there is a natural cap on the human life span, and how high that might be. eucyln/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The maximum human life span will likely increase this century, but not by more than a decade

Jeanne Calment of France died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days. That record will be broken this century, statistical models suggest.
Men largely determine the fertility rate in Nigeria. These men are drumming for dancers at a festival. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images

Family size: why some Nigerian men want more children

The Nigerian government must design more interventions to improve education, employment opportunities and the economy in order to control the country’s population growth.

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