The World Population

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A very important world problem- in fact, i think it may be the most important of all the great world problems which face us at the present time- is the rapidly increasing pressure of population on the land. It works out to be about 1.6 per cent per annum net increase. In numbers this means something like forty to forty- five million additional people every year. Canada has a population of twenty million- rather less than six months increase in world population. Take are ten million people in Australia. So it takes the world less than three months to add to itself a population which peoples that vast country. Let us take our own crowded country, England and Wales- forty-five to fifty million people. This is just about a year's supply. I am not talking about birth rate. This is net increase. To give you some idea of birth rate, look at the second hand of your watch. This enormous increase of population will create immense problem. By A.D. Two thousands, unless something terrible happens, there will be as many as seven hundred millions people on the surface of the earth! So this is a problem which you are going to see in your lifetime.