We all think that we know about the world and its problems, particularly the apparently exponential growth of the human race and the accompanying explosion of the backward and poverty ridden masses of the third world.
So with the news that the UK population is to reach a staggering 70 million (driven by immigration and birth rate rises accompanying this fact). This was first reported in Oct 2011 BBC, but apparently was repeated again recently, causing much shock in the Daily Telegraph newspaper and others ... (Interestingly none of the reports have picked up on the fact that this "70m plus" population figure isn't some upper quartile figure, and in fact the next 10 million of population growth after that in the UK will be arrived at even faster, because we haven't stopped immigration to the UK) .... a Swedish professor, Hans Rosling, says it's time for a reality check.
That in fact all our conceptions on many of these issues are plain wrong when it comes to population growth, literacy, life expectancy, etc (although the same also applies to climate degradation - but in an opposite way, with many thinking that the worlds in far better shape than it actually is).
So here, are the 'facts' according to Professor Hans Rosling .....
As you can see some of these 'facts' are very different from what you may have thought of as the 'truths' .....
I admit that I only got 5 of the answers 'correct' when I took the test ...... so although I consider myself well informed on the subject, I only got the average sort of result. Still, what this information doesn't really address is that in absolute terms all the figures rise, even while the trends flatten out.
So the road to hell is apparently paved with 'flattening trends' ....
So with the news that the UK population is to reach a staggering 70 million (driven by immigration and birth rate rises accompanying this fact). This was first reported in Oct 2011 BBC, but apparently was repeated again recently, causing much shock in the Daily Telegraph newspaper and others ... (Interestingly none of the reports have picked up on the fact that this "70m plus" population figure isn't some upper quartile figure, and in fact the next 10 million of population growth after that in the UK will be arrived at even faster, because we haven't stopped immigration to the UK) .... a Swedish professor, Hans Rosling, says it's time for a reality check.
That in fact all our conceptions on many of these issues are plain wrong when it comes to population growth, literacy, life expectancy, etc (although the same also applies to climate degradation - but in an opposite way, with many thinking that the worlds in far better shape than it actually is).
So here, are the 'facts' according to Professor Hans Rosling .....
As you can see some of these 'facts' are very different from what you may have thought of as the 'truths' .....
I admit that I only got 5 of the answers 'correct' when I took the test ...... so although I consider myself well informed on the subject, I only got the average sort of result. Still, what this information doesn't really address is that in absolute terms all the figures rise, even while the trends flatten out.
- So there will be more people on the planet, not less.
- More people in poverty, not less.
- More people illiterate, not less (and concentrated in certain cultures).
So the road to hell is apparently paved with 'flattening trends' ....
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