Sample listening summary

The Challenges of Population Growth

Professor Hans Rosling introduces his theory on why population growth should be kept under control. After describing the situation between 1960 and 2010 by using boxes in different colours, he makes predictions for 2050.  By then world population will have grown to 9 billion.

In 1960 world population was 3 billion. In the industrialised world there were 1 billion people who were healthy, educated and rich with high child survival rate and small families. Their aspiration was to buy a car. However, in the underdeveloped world of 2 billion people with poor child survival and big families, there was only one aspiration: having food for the day, and if possible, saving enough to buy a pair of shoes. The gap was enormous.

From 1960 to 2010, 4 billion people were added to the world population. The economies in the industrialised world grew, and the people there were aspiring to fly to remote destinations for their holidays.

From 1960 on, the most successful developing countries, the total population of which amounted to 1 billion in 2010, had been receiving better education, hygienic living conditions and medication, while they were aspiring to own a car. The 3 billion people living in the rest of the developing countries had also been getting healthier and better educated, while they were aspiring to buy a bicycle. In 2010 the average number of children per woman in the developing world was two to three due to family planning.

In the meantime, the 2 billion people in underdeveloped countries were still aspiring to have food and shoes. The gap between the richest and the poorest was still big, but there was a continuous world concerning levels of welfare; most people tended to be in the middle.

Rosling then introduces a projection for 2050. If the world invests in the green technology to avoid climate change, and energy becomes cheaper, then emerging economies will indeed become sustainably richer. He predicts the total population in the underdeveloped world, which was 2 billion in 2010, to double. If these people get out of poverty, have better education and improve child survival, then their population increase will stop. As he puts it, "Child survival is the new green." Thus it is possible to have a just world with green technology and global governance. The old West will be the foundation of this new modern world.