Upon entering the Ricketts Building there was a packed auditorium of people waiting to listen to Werner Fornos, president of the Population Institute, give his lecture concerning the world population crisis. Carl McDaniel, professor of biology, introduced Fornos, highlighting his rise to US citizenship and eventually his position with the PI.
Taking the podium, Fornos began his lecture with some light hearted quips, and then on a more serious note began his discussion on the world’s current population issue.
The population today is 6.2 billion people and is steadily increasing. Considering that the State of New York has a population equal to that of Bangladesh it’s evident the rate isn’t slowing down any time soon.
After highlighting factors contributing to this problem, including declining forests, eroding topsoil, expanding deserts, and resource shortage, Fornos stated that he was not there to give a “doom and gloom lecture, because we have the power to change.”
With 70 percent of the world’s developing countries’ families depending on wood as a source of fuel, there are as many as 100 acres of rain forest cut down per minute. Top soil is being lost at a rate of 26 billion tons per year resulting in about a million acres of farm land that are lost.
The United States, which has four percent of the world’s population yet consumes 30 percent of the world’s resources and produces a large percentage of its waste, is a primary source of the problem. Fornos recommended looking at the statistics found at www.fao.org in order to better understand the severity of this problem; currently there are 86 countries who are unable to feed their inhabitants.
Fornos continued, touching on the decline of natural resources, including water. “The water crisis of the 21st century will make the oil crisis of the 70s seem like child’s play.” Fornos stated that, contrary to what Rush Limbaugh thinks, the world is going to suffer from this sort of crisis in the future if action is not taken now.
As a solution to these problems, Fornos and the PI proposed the following: eradication of female illiteracy, the availability of employment with pay for all women, better prenatal care in order to reduce infant mortality, and education for people to facilitate better “family planning.”
There is a place for everyone in Fornos’ solution, including one for the US government. President Bush decided to cut funding to the United Nations Population Division, and instead feels that the money is better spent on religious organizations. Fornos responded to this saying “A bone thrown to the Christian Right [movement] which I propose to you is neither Christian nor right.”
Most importantly, Fornos made it clear that the bulk of the work has to be done by today’s youth—the “under 24 crowd”—whose job it is “to make this life and to make this planet livable for future generations.”
In my opinion, Fornos has an excellent plan, and has done remarkable things in his presidency with the PI. If you’d like to contribute to solving the population issue visit the Population Institute online at www.populationinstitute.org.
