Issue 429 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

January-February 2010

Jan/Feb 2010

With world population at around 6.7 billion and predicted to hit 9 billion by 2050, we are in the grip of a new panic about numbers. But is it reasonable? This month's NI sifts the evidence.

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In this issue

  • *Jonathon Porritt* and *the Corner House* offer two very different perspectives on one of the big debates of the day.
  • The climate refugees of tomorrow.
  • How ‘abstinence’ is pushing up the abortion rate.
  • Every home in Sierra Leone is well stocked with candles, gasoline lanterns and trusty flashlights. These are life essentials in the capital, Freetown, where electricity is intermittent at best.
  • Includes a murky past.
  • The average age of the population is increasing – people are living longer. Also, women are having fewer children. But is this greying of nations really a ‘crisis’?
  • Vanessa Baird wonders why the demographers aren’t panicking.

  • Israeli *Rami Elhanan* and Palestinian *Bassam Aramin* forged an unlikely friendship through a terrible tragedy. They share their story.