There’s no simple “yes” or “no” answer to whether we should produce more children when Earth is in such dire straits.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford talks to the media on a construction site in Brampton, Ont., in May 2022. Later in the year, the Ford government justified its adoption of sweeping housing legislation and the opening of parts of the Greater Toronto Area Greenbelt for development, stating that it was needed to address “the housing supply crisis.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Evidence suggests that Ontario neither had a shortage of pre-authorized housing starts to accommodate its growing population, nor did it have a shortage of designated land to build such homes.
The human population has doubled in 48 years, and worsening climate change has left the world facing serious health risks, from infectious diseases to hunger and heat stress.
Population growth fuels knowledge, leading to new technology and energy use, fueling more population growth.
Robert Essel/The Image Bank via Getty Images
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.
Nigeria’s economy needs to diversify away from oil.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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?
According to the 2021 Census there are now almost one million Indigenous people in Australia. Although increase in population is a reason for this, there are some other factors to consider.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
India is now the third-largest birthplace of Australian residents behind Australia and England, while for the first time less than half of the population has identified as Christian.
Nigeria last conducted a census in 2006.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
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.
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.
Small inland towns can offer a haven for people escaping coastal climate change.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
If rural communities plan carefully – and some already are – they can reinvent themselves as the perfect homes for people fleeing wildfire and hurricane zones.
Rising global temperatures are increasing heat risks for outdoor workers and the urban poor.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images
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.
Millions of young Nigerians live on the streets of Lagos and survive through street trading.
Pius Utomi EkpeI/AFP via Getty Images
Youth unemployment in Nigeria is a skills mismatch problem – corporations can’t find suitable workers in the midst of a large pool of unemployed workers.
Anthropologue et démographe, professeur émérite au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle et conseiller de la direction de l'INED, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University