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MASS PRODUCTION

Cover: Franรงois Boucher, Hercules en Omphale

MASS PRODUCTION — POPULATION GROWTH “Go Forth And Multiply!” That’s what the human population has successfully been doing for thousands and thousands of years, expanding, exploring, migrating, conquering, utilizing, evolving, civilizing, industrializing, and now, destroying the very land upon which we live. Many feel that the major international wars to be fought in the future will continue to be over natural resources. Power conflicts and self-interest will perhaps mean that there will be a gross violation of basic rights and death or misery for millions of innocent people. Throughout history, most wars have had trade and resources at their core (leading to ideological battles) fueled by imperialistic motives. In the future, while this pattern is likely to continue, as resources get depleted and wasted in these wars (hot and cold), additional conflicts and contention will arise through access to even more limited resources. Many of us have grown up learning and being told that 7 billion is too much and this “over population” is primarily impacting the planet’s ability to cope. But is that really the case? Sure, the planet is facing incredible stress. But how much of that is due to large populations, and how much is based on other factors, such as how we choose to live, how we produce, consume and waste our resources?

“World population did not reach one billion until 1804. It took 123 years to reach 2 billion in 1927, 33 years to reach 3 billion in 1960, 14 years to reach 4 billion in 1974 and 13 years to reach 5 billion in 1987.” — United Nation, 1999

500 million

1500 1525 1550 1575 1600 1625 1650 1675

9.3 billion (2050) 7 billion (2011)

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

1700 1725 1750 1775 1800 1825 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 2025 2050

William Adolphe Bouguereau, Les OrĂŠades

Population itself is not the problem, the problem is what comes with it â€” Consumption.

02 12 38 Contents:

POPULATION

CONSUMPTION Water

Energy Food

SOLUTION Family Planning Womenâ€™s Rights Curing Poverty

Ferdinand Georg WaldmĂźller, The Soup Kitchen

POPU LATION In the past, infant and childhood deaths and short life spans used to limit population growth. In todayâ€™s world, thanks to improved nutrition, sanitation, and medical care, more babies survive their first few years of life. The combination of a continuing high birth rate and a low death rate is creating a rapid population increase in many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa and people generally lived longer. Over-population is defined as the condition of having more people than can live on the earth in comfort, happiness and health and still leave the world a fit place for future generations.

It took the entire history of humankind for the population to reach 1 billion around 1810. Just 120 years later, this doubled to 2 billion people (1930); then 4 billion in 1975 (45 years). The number of people in the world has risen from 4.4 billion people in 1980 to 5.8 billion today. And it is estimated that the population could double again to nearly 11 billion in less than 40 years. This means that more people are now being added each day than at any other time in human history. Looking ahead, world population is projected to exceed 6 billion before the year 2000. And according to a report by the United Nation Population fund, total population is likely to reach 10 billion by 2025 and grow to 14 billion by the end of the next century unless birth control use increases dramatically around the world within the next two decades.

Both death rates and birth rates have fallen, but death rates have fallen faster than birth rates. There are about 3 births for each death with 1.6 births for each death in more developed countries (MDCs) and 3.3 births for each death in less developed countries(LDCs). The worldâ€™s population continues to grow by 1 billion people every dozen years. On one hand, some politicians call for countries, especially MDCs to increase their population size to maintain their economic growth and military security. On the other hand, critics denote that one out of five people living here today is not properly supported and believe that the world is already limited in resources. These critics maintain that slowing world population growth is one of the most urgent issues. Those who believe that the world is overpopulated argue that if we donâ€™t sharply lower birth rates, we are raising death rates by default. 5

The causes of rapid population growth Until recently, birth rates and death rates were about the same, keeping the population stable. People had many children, but a large number of them died before age five.6 During the Industrial Revolution, a period of history in Europe and North America where there were great advances in science and technology, the success in reducing death rates was attributable to several factors: (1) in-creases in food production and distribution, (2) improvement in public health (water and sanitation), and (3) medical technology (vaccines and antibiotics), along with gains in education and standards of living within many developing nations.7 Without these attributes present in many children’s lives, they could not have survived common diseases like measles or the flu. People were able to fight and cure deadly germs that once killed them. In addition, because of the technology, people could produce more and different kinds of food. Gradually, over a period of time, these discoveries and inventions spread throughout the world, lowering death rates and improving the quality of life for most people.

“The world’s population of 6.8 billion in 2009 was expected to grow by another 2.4 billion to reach 9.2 billion in 2050. That’s the same as adding nearly two more Chinas or eight more USAs.”

FOOD PRWODUCTION AND DISTR IBUTION The remarkable facts about the last 150 years has been the ability of farmers to increase food production geometrically in some places. Agricultural practices have improved in the United States in the last two centuries. Much of the world experienced agricultural success, especially in the last 50 years. Between 1950 and 1984, for example, the amount of grain harvested worldwide increased from 631 million tons to 1.65 billion tons. This represents a gain of 2.6 times at a time when the world population increased by only 1.9 times. In more recent years, the technology has produced a broader variety of techniques: new kinds of seed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and more sophisticated machinery. The use of technology has made possible the rapid expansion of agri-culture in the United States and other MDCs and LDCs. The use of pesticides in LDCs, for example was expected to increased between 400 to 600% in the last 25 years of the twentieth century.

During the past 10 years, the worldâ€™s food production has increased by 24 per cent, outpacing the rate of population growth. However, this increase was not evenly distributed throughout the world. For example, in Africa, food production decreased, while population increased. And world cereal production fell in 1993, according to the FAO, which predicted a food shortage in 20 countries during 1994. However, most experts agree that there is no shortage of food, and that equitable distribution should be sufficient to meet all needs for the future. Lack of money to buy food is the problem of malnourishment. Poverty, in effect translates the world adequacy into national and local shortages. Within households, men and boys have priority for whatever food is available, while women and children, especially girl children are the first to suffer malnutrition. Few resources are available to women, even though they are often responsible the for food supply. 7

IMPROVEMENT IN PUBLIC HEALTH People have concerns about surviving daily living, such as meeting basic needs: food, water, and housing. First, access to safe drinking water was related to the incidence of epidemic diseases such as cholera and child survival. Less than 50% of the population had access to safe drinking water before 1990. By 1990, access to safe drinking water had increased by 75 per cent. But between 1990 and 2000 the numbers of people without access to safe water are projected to increase. An increasing number of countries both developed and develop-ing are approaching the limits of sustainable water use based on their own renewable resources. Second, the pressure to provide adequate housing increases as the population grows. More than half of the developing worldâ€™s population will be living in urban areas by the end of the century. This growth outstrips the capacity to provide housing and services for others. In some countries, finding a place to live is hard, especially for women. Some women and children are forced to live in the poorest community where they are open to exploitation and abuse.

â€œReversing population growth is one of the measures needed to ensure environmental survival. It can be done by voluntary and peaceful means, given a political and individual will to act without delay.â€?

The priorities for getting rid of poverty, improving food supply, ending malnutrition, and providing adequate housing coincide at all points with those required for balanced population growth.

CONQUEST OF DISEASE The biggest population story of the last hundred years has been the conquest of disease. Scientists have learned a great deal about the ways to prevent and cure many types of disease. Thus, millions of people who would have died of disease a century ago are more likely to live to old age. The most effective tools in the conquest of disease have been improved knowledge about nutrition, vaccinations, better public health practices and the development of new medicines. In the late 80s, a baby born in Iceland was 32 times more likely to live to the age of one year as a baby born in Afghanistan. The major reason for this large difference in survival rate is nutrition. When young children get enough of the right kinds of food, they are likely to live to be adults. In many nations the people know about proper nutrition for young children and adults. Unfortunately, in many LCDs the people lack the money and skills that would allow them to use the knowledge about nutrition they already have. As a result, infant death rates and therefore, overall death rates, remain high in many LDCs.

The second most important factor is vaccinations. As far back as 1800, scientists knew how to use vaccines to protect people from infectious disease. Use of that knowledge has reduced the rate of diseases like influenza, smallpox, polio and rubella in MDCs. Again, lack of resources has prevented many LDCs from making similar use of vaccinations to reduce the rate of infectious disease and death rates in their countries. Moreover, vaccines are still not available for some dis-eases-malaria is the most obvious example and the greatest concern in LDCs.

Third, better public health practices â€” the germ theory of disease, discovered by Louis Pasteur in the 1870s clearly demonstrated that a personâ€™s health was also a community problem. Sewage dumped into a public water supply could cause dis-ease throughout the community. With this understanding, the science of public health was born. Today, public health measures like waste treatment, water purification, vaccination, and nutritional education are well developed in MDCs. How-ever, public health measures are still absent in many LDCs. As a result, disease continues to spread and cause high death rates. And finally, with the advent of new medicines, disease was less of a problem in MDCs because medical science has invented a whole range of new medicines with which to treat everything from infections to pneumonia. In many LDCs, new drugs and medicines are simply not available. 9

The Consequences Of Rapid Population Growth Rapid human population growth has a variety of consequences. Population grows fastest in the world’s poorest countries. High fertility rates have historically been strongly correlated with poverty, and high childhood mortality rates. Falling fertility rates are generally associated with improved standards of living, increased life expectancy, and lowered infant mortality. Overpopulation and poverty have long been associated with increased death, and disease. People tightly packed into unsanitary housing are inordinately vulnerable to natural disasters and health problems. However, most of the world’s 1.2 billion desperately poor people live in less developed countries (LDCs). Poverty exists even in MDCs. One in five Soviet citizens reportedly lives below the country’s official poverty line. In the United States, 33 million people — one in eight Americans are below the official poverty line. The rapid expansion of population size observed since the end of World War II in the world’s poorest nations has been a cause of their poverty. Poverty is a condition of chronic deprivation and need at the family level. Poverty, is a major concern of humankind, because poverty everywhere reduces human beings to a low level of existence. Poor people lack access to enough land and income to meet basic needs. A lack of basic needs results in physical weak-ness and poor health. Poor health decreases the ability of the poor to work and put them deeper into poverty.

Instead of allowing poverty to persist, it is important to limit our number be-cause in dense populations too many lack adequate food, water, shelter, education and employment. High fertility, which has been traditionally associated with prosperity, prestige, and security for the future, now jeopardizes chances for many to achieve health and security. Rich and poor countries alike are affected by population growth, though the population of industrial countries are growing more slowly than those of develop-ing one. At the present growth rates, the population of economically developed countries would double in 120 years. The Third World, with over three quarters of the worldâ€™s people, would double its numbers in about 33 years. This rapid doubling time reflects the fact that 37 percent of the developing worldâ€™s population is under the age of 15 and entering their most productive childbearing years. In the Third World countries (excluding China), 40 percent of the people are under 15; in some African countries, nearly half are in this age group. The worldâ€™s current and projected population growth calls for an increase in efforts to meet the needs for food, water, health care, technology and education. In the poorest countries, massive efforts are needed to keep social and economic conditions from deteriorating further; any real advances in well-being and the quality of life are negated by further population growth. Many countries lack adequate supplies of basic materials needed to support their current population. Rapid population growth can affect both the overall quality of life and the degree of human suffering on Earth.

Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Silverware and Lobster

CONSUMPTION Modern humans have been on Earth for 200 centuries. True sustainability means providing every person now alive, as well as generations yet to come, with a reasonable standard of living that can be maintained into the foreseeable future. Today humanity uses the resources of the equivalent of 1.5 Earths. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.

Water, energy and food are inextricably linked. Water is an input for producing agricultural goods in the fields and along the entire agrifood supply chain. Energy is required to produce and distribute water and food: to pump water from groundwater or surface water sources, to power tractors and irrigation machinery, and to process and transport agricultural goods. Agriculture is currently the largest user of water at the global level, accounting for 70% of total withdrawal. The food production and supply chain accounts for about 30% of total global energy consumption (FAO, 2011b ). There are many synergies and trade-offs between water and energy use and food production. Using water to irrigate crops might promote food production but it can also reduce river flows and hydropower potential. Growing bioenergy crops under irrigated agriculture can increase overall water withdrawals and jeopardize food security. Converting surface irrigation into high efficiency pressurized irrigation may save water but may also result in higher energy use. Recognizing these synergies and balancing these trade-offs is central to jointly ensuring water, energy and food security. This chapter considers the implications of water and energy for food security by focusing on irrigation, hydropower and biofuels.

â€œPresent lifestyles in the richer countries have a disproportionate impact. For example, the ecological footprint per capita of the USA is more than 10 times that of Malawi or Mozambique.â€?

World’s Poorest 20% consume 1.5%

World’s Middle 60% consume 21.9%

World’s Richest 20% consume 76.6%

Share of Worldâ€™s Private Consumption

Water, Energy and Food An estimated 870 million people are undernourished due to a lack of food or a lack of access to food (FAO, 2013a ). Demographic projections suggest that world population will increase by a third — to 9.3 billion — by 2050 (UNDESA, 2012). Most of this increase will occur in developing countries, where population growth will be coupled with rising incomes, urbanization and climate change to place considerable pressure on national and global food systems. Estimates suggest that global food production will need to increase by as much as 60% by 2050 to meet demand (FAO, 2012). Achieving such a dramatic increase is a formidable challenge.

“Human consumption of renewable resources is already overshooting Earth’s capacity to provide. Resources are becoming scarcer and the number of hungry people increasing year by year.”

Agriculture currently uses 11% of the world’s land surface, and irrigated agriculture uses 70% of all water withdrawals on a global scale. Rain-fed agriculture is the predominant agricultural production system around the world, and its current productivity is, on average, little more than half the potential obtainable under optimal agricultural management. Water scarcity and decreasing availability of water for agriculture constrain irrigated production overall, and particularly in the most hydrologically stressed areas and countries. As many key food production systems depend on groundwater, declining aquifer levels and the depletion of non-renewable groundwater put local and global food production at risk. Increasing food production is not, on its own, sufficient to achieve food security and eradicate hunger. Hunger can persist in the midst of adequate national and global food supplies. Efforts to promote food production must be complemented by policies that enhance household access to food, either by creating employment and income opportunities or by establishing effective safety net programs.

The experiences of countries like Brazil and China, which have undergone strong economic growth and succeeded in significantly reducing hunger and malnutrition, show that economic growth alone does not automatically ensure food security — the source of the growth matters too, along with the distribution of the economic gains and social benefits. Growth originating in agriculture, in particular in the smallholder sector, is at least twice as effective as growth in non-agricultural sectors in benefiting the poorest members of society in rural areas (FAO, 2009a ). Access to modern energy services is extremely problematic for households in many developing countries, particularly in rural areas. The IEA estimates that one-fifth of the world’s population lacks access to electricity and that two-fifths rely on traditional biomass for cooking — a cause of severe indoor air pollution, which affects women in particular. Rural electrification can address these issues and boost rural economies, in turn increasing household food security. It also frees up time spent by household members — mostly women and girls — in collecting the biomass. To meet rising household energy demands, an especially difficult challenge in rural areas, new energy sources must be found that are technically, economically and environmentally viable.

William Adolphe Bouguereau, Jeune Fille Allant à la Fontaine

Water 783 million people do not have access to clean water and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation.

Various estimates indicate that, based on business as usual, ~3.5 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or North American. Global population growth projections of 2–3 billion people over the next 40 years, combined with changing diets, result in a predicted increase in food demand of 70% by 2050. Over half of the world population lives in urban areas, and the number of urban dwellers grows each day. Urban areas, although better served than rural areas, are struggling to keep up with population growth (WHO/UNICEF, 2010).

“85% of the world population lives in the driest half of the planet.”

With expected increases in population, by 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050) (Bruinsma, 2009), while energy demand from hydropower and other renewable energy resources will rise by 60% (WWAP, 2009). These issues are interconnected – increasing agricultural output, for example, will substantially increase both water and energy consumption, leading to increased competition for water between water-using sectors.

Water availability is expected to decrease in many regions. Yet future global agricultural water consumption alone is estimated to increase by ~19% by 2050, and will be even greater in the absence of any technological progress or policy intervention.

Water for irrigation and food production constitutes one of the greatest pressures on freshwater resources. Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals (up to 90% in some fast-growing economies). Economic growth and individual wealth are shifting diets from predominantly starch-based to meat and dairy, which require more water. Producing 1 kg of rice, for example, requires ~3,500 L of water, 1 kg of beef ~15,000 L, and a cup of coffee ~140 L (Hoekstra and Chapagain, 2008). This dietary shift is the greatest to impact on water consumption over the past 30 years, and is likely to continue well into the middle of the twenty-first century (FAO, 2006).

“6 to 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water related diseases.” About 66% of Africa is arid or semi-arid and more than 300 of the 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in a water-scarce environment – meaning that they have less than 1,000 m3 per capita (NEPAD, 2006).

A Resource Without Borders Water is not confined to political borders. An estimated 148 states have international basins within their territory (OSU, n.d., 2008 data), and 21 countries lie entirely within them (OSU, n.d, 2002 data).

basin. Depending on how they are counted, there are between 63 (UNEP, 2010b) and 80 (UNECA, 2000) transboundary river and lake basins on the African continent.

There are 276 transboundary river basins in the world (64 transboundary river basins in Africa, 60 in Asia, 68 in Europe, 46 in North America and 38 in South America).

Rich nations are tending to maintain or increase their consumption of natural resources (WWF, 2010), but are exporting their footprints to producer, and typically, poorer, nations. European and North American populations consume a considerable amount of virtual water embedded in imported food and products. Each person in North America and Europe (excluding former Soviet Union countries) consumes at least 3 m3 per day of virtual water in imported food, compared to 1.4 m3 per day in Asia and 1.1 m3 per day in Africa (Zimmer and Renault, n.d.).

185 out of the 276 transboundary river basins, about two-thirds, are shared by two countries. 256 out of 276 are shared by 2, 3 or 4 countries (92,7%), and 20 out of 276 are shared by 5 or more countries (7,2%), the maximum being 18 countries sharing a same transboundary river basin (Danube). 46% of the globe’s (terrestrial) surface is covered by transboundary river basins. 148 countries include territory within one or more transboundary river basins. 39 countries have more than 90% of their territory within one or more transboundary river basins, and 21 lie entirely within one or more of these watersheds. Russian Federation shares 30 transboundary river basins with riparian countries, Chile and United States 19, Argentina and China 18, Canada 15, Guinea 14, Guatemala 13, and France 10. Africa has about one-third of the world’s major international water basins — basins larger than 100,000 km2. Virtually all sub-Saharan African countries, and Egypt, share at least one international water 22

Land grabbing is another increasingly common phenomenon. Saudi Arabia, one of the Middle East’s largest cereal growers, announced it would cut cereal production by 12% a year to reduce the unsustainable use of groundwater. To protect its water and food security, the Saudi government issued incentives to Saudi corporations to lease large tracts of land in Africa for agricultural production. By investing in Africa to produce its staple crops, Saudi Arabia is saving the equivalent of hundreds of millions of gallons of water per year and reducing the rate of depletion of its fossil aquifers. Nearly all Arab countries suffer from water scarcity. An estimated 66% of the Arab region’s available surface freshwater originates outside the region.

William Adolphe Bouguereau, Jeune Fille Allant Ã la Fontaine

Energy Consumption and production increased for all fuels, reaching record levels for every fuel type except nuclear power. For each of the fossil fuels, global consumption rose more rapidly than production. The data suggests that growth in global CO2 emissions from energy use also accelerated in 2013, although it remained below average. Emerging economies dominated global growth again, but the increase was below the ten-year average in these countries, and above average in the OECD. China once again had the largest growth increment, Energy price developments in 2013 were mixed, generally rising in North followed by the US. ConsumpAmerica (except for coal) and falling elsewhere. The annual average tion in the EU and Japan fell to price for Brent, the international crude oil benchmark, declined for the the lowest levels since 1995 and first time since 2009 but remained near record levels (in money-of-the1993 respectively. day as well as inflation-adjusted terms). This was the third consecutive year with the Brent average price above $100 per barrel. Crude oil prices weakened in early 2013 amid strong growth of oil production in the US, but rebounded later in the year due to a range of supply disruptions and cold weather that boosted demand growth. The differential between Brent and the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) narrowed but remained elevated. Natural gas prices rose in North America (for the first time since 2010) and the UK, but fell elsewhere. As with Brent â€“ WTI, differentials between North American and international gas prices generally narrowed but remained elevated. Coal prices declined in all regions for a second consecutive year.

OIL Global oil consumption grew by 1.4 million barrels per day (b/d), or 1.4% â€” this is just above the historical average. Countries outside the OECD now account for the majority (51%) of global oil consumption and they once again accounted for all of the net growth in global consumption. OECD consumption declined by 0.4%, the seventh decrease in the past eight years. The US (+400,000 b/d) recorded the largest increment to global oil consumption in 2013, outpacing Chinese growth (+390,000 b/d) for the first time since 1999. Light distillates were the fastest-growing refined product category by volume. Global oil production did not keep pace with the growth in global consumption, rising by just 550,000 b/d or 0.6%. The US (+1.1 million b/d) recorded the largest growth in the world and the largest annual increment in the countryâ€™s history for a second consecutive year. The US accounted for nearly all (97%) of the non-OPEC output increase of 1.1 million b/d (the strongest since 2002) to reach a record 49.9 million b/d. Increases in Canada (+210,000 b/d) and Russia (+150,000 b/d) offset declines in Syria (-120,000 b/d), the UK and Norway (-80,000 b/d each) and Australia (-70,000 b/d). OPEC output fell by 600,000 b/d, the first decline since 2009. Declines in Libya (-520,000 b/d), Iran (-190,000 b/d), Saudi Arabia (-110,000 b/d) and Nigeria (-100,000 b/d) outweighed an increase in the UAE (+250,000 b/d).

+2.3% Growth in global primary energy consumption.

NATUR AL GAS World natural gas consumption grew by 1.4%, below the historical average of 2.6%. And, as was the case for primary energy, consumption growth was above average in the OECD countries (+1.8%) and below average outside the OECD (+1.1%). Growth was below average in every region except North America. China (+10.8%) and the US (+2.4%) recorded the largest growth increments in the world, together accounting for 81% of global growth. India (-12.2%) recorded the largest volumetric decline in the world, while EU gas consumption fell to the lowest level since 1999. Globally, natural gas accounted for 23.7% of primary energy consumption.

+1.1% Growth in global gas production.

Global natural gas production grew by 1.1%, which was well below the 10-year average of 2.5%. Growth was below average in all regions except Europe and Eurasia. The US (+1.3%) remained the worldâ€™s leading producer, but both Russia (+2.4%) and China (+9.5%) recorded larger growth increments in 2013. Nigeria (-16.4%), India (-16.3%), and Norway (-5%) recorded the largest volumetric declines. COAL Coal consumption grew by 3% in 2013, well below the 10-year average of 3.9% but it is still the fastest-growing fossil fuel. Coalâ€™s share of global primary energy consumption reached 30.1%, the highest since 1970. Consumption outside the OECD rose by a below-average 3.7%, but still accounted for 89% of global growth. China recorded the weakest absolute growth since 2008 but the country still accounted for 67% of global growth. India experienced its second largest volumetric increase on record and accounted for 21% of global growth. OECD consumption increased by 1.4%, with increases in the US and Japan offsetting declines in the EU. Global coal production grew by 0.8%, the weakest growth since 2002. Indonesia (+9.4%) and Australia (+7.3%) offset a decline in the US (-3.1%), while China (+1.2%) recorded the weakest volumetric growth in production since 2000. 28

NUCLEAR AND HYDROELECTR IC Global nuclear output grew by 0.9%, the first increase since 2010. Increases in the US, China and Canada were partly offset by declines in South Korea, Ukraine, Spain and Russia. Japanese output fell by 18.6% and has fallen by 95% since 2010. Nuclear output accounted for 4.4% of global energy consumption, the smallest share since 1984. Global hydroelectric output grew by a below average 2.9%. Led by China and India, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 78% of global growth. Drought conditions reduced output in Brazil by 7% and in Finland, Norway and Sweden by a combined 14.5%. Hydroelectric output accounted for 6.7% of global energy consumption. R ENEWABLES Renewable energy sources – in power generation as well as transport – continued to increase in 2013, reaching a record 2.7% of global energy consumption, up from 0.8% a decade ago. Renewable energy used in power generation grew by 16.3% and accounted for a record 5.3% of global power generation. China recorded the largest incremental growth in renewables, followed by the US, while growth in Europe’s leading players – Germany, Spain and Italy – was below average. Globally, wind energy (+20.7%) once again accounted for more than half of renewable power generation growth and solar power generation grew even more rapidly (+33%), but from a smaller base. Global biofuels production grew by a below-average 6.1% (80,000 b/doe), driven by increases in the two largest producers: Brazil (+16.8%) and the US (+4.6%).

+2.7% Growth in North American gas consumption, the only region with above-average growth.

Food There is enough food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment necessary for a healthy and productive life. The sensation of hunger, a lack of food in your stomach, is universal. But there are different manifestations of hunger which are each measured in different ways: Under-nourishment is used to describe the status of people whose food intake does not include enough calories (energy) to meet minimum physiological needs for an active life. At present, there are 842 million undernourished people worldwide, most of them in developing countries. Malnutrition means ‘badly nourished’, but is more than a measure of what we eat or fail to eat. Malnutrition is characterized by inadequate intake of protein, energy and micronutrients and by frequent infections and diseases. Starved of the right nutrition, people will die from common infections like measles or diarrhea.

“Food waste at the consumer level in industrialized countries (222 million tons) is almost as high as the total net food production in sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons)”

Malnutrition is measured not by how much food is eaten but by physical measurements of the body - weight or height - and age. Wasting is an indicator of acute malnutrition that reflects a recent and severe process that has led to substantial weight loss. This is usually the result of starvation and/or disease.

While there are various definitions of famine, many experts say that there must be evidence of three specific outcomes before a famine can be declared: At least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages with limited ability to cope. The prevalence of global acute malnutrition must exceed 30 percent. Death rates must exceed 2 deaths per 10,000 people per day. Despite the impression you often get from the media, emergencies account for less than eight percent of hunger’s victims. Few people realize that there are 870 million hungry people in the world who don’t make the headlines — more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union. They are of all ages, from babies whose mothers cannot produce enough milk to the elderly with no relatives to care for them. They are the unemployed inhabitants of urban slums, the landless farmers tilling other people’s fields, the orphans of AIDS and the sick, who need special or increased food intake to survive.

farming areas. However, the share of the hungry in urban areas is rising. Of the total number of the 870 million chronically hungry people, over half are in Asia and the Pacific and about a quarter are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Whereas good progress was made in reducing chronic hunger in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, hunger has been slowly but steadily on the

Sub-saharan Africa is set to be the fastest growing region, with population rocketing from 1bn today to between 3.5 billion and 5 billion in 2100.

Above all, children, women and rural communities are on the frontlines of hunger. The percentage of hungry people is highest in east, central and southern Africa. Around three-quarters of undernourished people live in low-income rural areas of developing countries, principally in higher-risk 32

rise for the past decade, FAO said. The number of hungry people increased between 1995-97 and 2004-06 in all regions except Latin America and the Caribbean. But even in this region, gains in hunger reduction have been reversed as a result of high food prices and the global economic downturn that started in 2008. Today, one in nine people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, making hunger and malnutrition the number one risk to health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

Bartolomé Estéban Murillo, Two Young Boys and a Negro Boy 33

â€œAt least one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year.â€?

Most of the worldâ€™s hungry live in developing countries. According to the latest Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics from 2014, there are 805 million hungry people in the world and 98 percent of them are in developing countries. WHO AR E THE HUNGRY? RUR AL R ISK Three-quarters of all hungry people live in rural areas, mainly in the villages of Asia and Africa. Overwhelmingly dependent on agriculture for their food, these populations have no alternative source of income or employment. As a result, they are vulnerable to crises. Many migrate to cities in their search for employment, swelling the ever-expanding populations of shanty towns in developing countries. HUNGRY FAR MER S FAO calculates that around half of the worldâ€™s hungry people are from smallholder farming communities, surviving off marginal lands prone to natural disasters like drought or flood. Another 20 percent belong to landless families dependent on farming and about 10 percent live in communities whose livelihoods depend on herding, fishing or forest resources.

The remaining 20 percent live in shanty towns on the periphery of the biggest cities in developing countries. The numbers of poor and hungry city dwellers are rising rapidly along with the worldâ€™s total urban population. CHILDR EN An estimated 146 million children in developing countries are underweight - the result of acute or chronic hunger (Source: The State of the Worldâ€™s Children, UNICEF, 2009). All too often, child hunger is inherited: up to 17 million children are born underweight annually, the result of inadequate nutrition before and during pregnancy. WOMEN Women are the worldâ€™s primary food producers, yet cultural traditions and social structures often mean women are much more affected by hunger and poverty than men. A mother who is stunted or underweight due to an inadequate diet often give birth to low birthweight children. Around 50 per cent of pregnant women in developing countries are iron deficient (source: Unicef ). Lack of iron means 315,000 women die annually from hemorrhage at childbirth. As a result, women, and in particular expectant and nursing mothers, often need special or increased intake of food.

Raffaello Sanzio , La Scuola di Atene

SOLUTIONS On a finite planet, nothing physical can grow indefinitely. The more of us there are, the fewer resources there are for each of us and members of other species with which we share the planet. The question of human population size is fundamentally one of sustainability. Only resources that can be sustained indefinitely can support humanity in the long term. Given this limitation, we must consider carefully our consumption, what living standards are acceptable, what technologies make best use of the resources available and how to maintain the ecosystems on which we depend.

William Adolphe Bouguereau, La Caridad 40

Family Planning More than 200 million women worldwide would like to delay or prevent pregnancy but are not using modern contraception. There are many reasons, including a lack of supplies, high costs, a limited choice so the most appropriate method is not available, insufficient information about the options and a lack of womenâ€™s rights. The consequences of unintended pregnancy can be disruptive at best and fatal at worst. Reproductive health issues are one of the biggest causes of death and chronic health problems for women of childbearing age worldwide. Even if these are avoided, unintended pregnancy can disrupt education, employment and life chances.

Women’s Rights Women are disadvantaged in relation to men in many developing countries. Limited access to education, together with a traditionally subordinate status, limit women’s opportunity to develop independent economic roles or achieve positions of authority within society. Traditions of early marriage further reduce opportunities for education, autonomy and authority. Early marriage typically leads to larger families and can also result in greater prevalence of maternal death and injury related to childbirth and in additional difficulties in bringing up children. Following marriage, a woman’s lack of economic independence coupled with patriarchal traditions means that her ability to determine the number and spacing of children may be limited. Women are also vulnerable to violence and sexual assault, both within and outside marriage, further reducing their ability to play a full and independent role. Coercive sex leading to pregnancy is a major and under-reported abuse of human rights. In situations of conflict, rape can even become a deliberate and systematic “weapon of war”.

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Slave Auction

Alexandre Jean Pierre Antigna, Gathering Sticks 44

Curing Poverty A billion people live in extreme poverty in our world today. It is these people who are most at risk from the threats of environmental damage, climate change and the consequent loss of resources. Most of these people live in developing countries. Some countries find themselves in a â€œself reinforcing poverty trapâ€?; poor people in these countries have large families to counter high levels of child mortality and to sustain them in their old age. At societal level however, the resultant overall numbers of population together with limited resources condemn their people to ongoing poverty. Concerted action is called for on the part of the developed world. Humanitarian assistance and development aid to provide education, encourage female empowerment and ensure access to family planning resources are necessary to help developing countries break out of their poverty trap.

References: populationmatters.org census.gov theguardian.com nationalgeographic.com worldometers.info globalissues.org populationinstitute.org royalsociety.org wfp.org unwater.org eia.gov eea.europa.eu iea.org unfpa.org optimumpopulation .org norwich.edu upack.com oeaw.ac.at unep.org unu.edu

Art Sources: wikiart.org most-famous-paintings.org theguardian.com commons.wikimedia.org

Typography: Rosario Adobe Jenson Pro ITC Avant Garde Gothic Std Jack T. XÃ¼ Spring, 2015 Communication Design 3 Ramone Munoz 47