The Facts

There are an estimated 5.5 billion people of the planet. About 4.3 billion live in the South, about 1.2 billion in the North.

The UN produces three different projections on future population. By the year 2025 there could be:

. 9.5 billion people (high variant/gradual slow-down)
. 8.5 billion people (medium variant/ current slow-down)
. 7.5 billion people (low variant/dramatic slow-down)

The differences depend on whether the rate at which population is growing slows down more gradually than at present, or at its current rate, or more dramatically.¹

Fewer people doesn't mean less pollution. The countries of the North have fewer people but to stabilize the global climate they will have to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions drastically.²

. The military is the most environmentally destructive institution in the modern world. The US Pentagon produces more toxic waste than the five largest multinational chemical companies combined, pumping out nearly a ton of toxic pollutants every minute.³

. An F-16 Jet taking off for a regular training mission consumes 3,400 litres of fuel. In less than an hour the plane uses almost twice as much gas as the average US motorist during one year⁴ - approximately 1364 litres.

Fewer people doesn't mean less consumption. The North has fewer people but at present consumes:⁵

Fewer child deaths doesn't mean bigger population size. Fertility tends to drop when parents are more confident that their children will survive. It does not happen all at once. At first, falls in the death rates of children under five years old are not usually accompanied by significant falls in fertility. But later, the pattern becomes mixed. And later still, as under-five deaths drop to 100 per 1,000 births or less, the birth rate falls dramatically.⁶