| Abstract: | The population problem cannot be solved by a few heads of state sitting round a table and reaching an agreement, is not susceptible to short-term action, and cannot be solved by some new miracle of science and technology. There are no shortcuts, no easy answers, and no undiscovered escape routes to the problem of population. This crisis will change the face of the world and change it in the lifetime of most persons alive today. When and how changes will occur is uncertain. The only certainty is change itself. The injustices are mounting: trade structures which do not allow half the world to earn a decent living; consumption patterns which pollute and strain the world's resources far more than population growth; economic systems which benefit the few at the expense of the many; and political forces which deny people power over their own lives. All this will change as the deprived majority of the world increases in numbers and in awareness and organized power. It is a fair assumption that unemployment will provide the flashpoint. Unemployment and underemployment in the 3rd world are hovering between 25-30% and are still rising. In the next 10 years over 300 millions people will be added to the world's labor force and an estimated 230 million of them will be school leavers in the developing world. Unemployment is no longer confined to the older, illiterate, rural dwellers who are "hidden away" and cared for by their extended families or villae communities. Increasingly the unemployed are young, educated city dwellers. They know more about the world and expect more from it. These facts suggest radical changes. The only choice is to work and plan for that change to be reasoned and rapid. Otherwise, it will be a bloody and sudden change. Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. |
