Ensuring Global Prosperity on an Increasingly Crowded Planet
Whether the earth is overpopulated should be a simple calculation to make and easy to answer, yet this multifaceted question has perplexed many for generations. Does the Earth have enough resources to supply its population in the foreseeable future?
Based on a population forecast to reach 10 billion by 2050, and assuming that half of the earth’s 150 million square kilometers is habitable, then each person would have access to a plot of land slightly less than 4 acres in size. This would easily be enough for everyone to grow their own food for sustenance, especially considering that in the 50 years to 2010 agricultural productivity tripled and the proportion of land under cultivation increased by only 12 percent.…