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Article: The population explosion: why we should care and what we should do about it.(Symposium on Population Law)
- Article from:
- Environmental Law
- Article date:
- December 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Almost everyone has heard about the population explosion, but few people understand its significance. Following is a brief overview of the basic problem caused by the rapid increase in human numbers from roughly one billion people in 1800 to some, six times that number less than two centuries later. Half of that growth has occurred just since 1960, and it appears that, at a minimum, two to three billion more people--and possibly several billion beyond that--will be added to the population before growth ends (assuming a disastrous die-off can be averted). The significance of numbers in the billions is often difficult to grasp; suffice it to say the world is annually adding ...