In The News

Questions for a New Era of Business: Fortune

James Manyika and Lareina Yee December 24, 2019
A new era of business, much like the industrial revolution or the internet boom, is underway. Companies that recognize the trends including aging populations, new technologies, growing economies, improved health and increased influence of developing economies will flourish. Challenges include inequality, stagnant incomes, populism, climate change, rivalries that disrupt trade and concentration of...

Japan Times: Sense of Crisis Over Depopulation

Hisakazu Kato September 6, 2018
Japan’s aging population has been in decline since 2008 – the country has 126 million people today and that could sink to 88 million by 2065.The culprit is a fertility rate of 1.43, well below replacement levels. Japan is not alone. “A declining fertility rate has also been observed in many other Asian countries in recent years,” writes Hisakazu Kato for Japan Times. “The rate in South Korea,...

Chatham House: Keeping the Taps Running

Thomas Sagris, Martin Shouler and Mark Tindale June 25, 2018
Cities are already starting to run out of water, and Cape Town made headlines this year when it announced a “Day Zero” crisis when taps were to run dry. Worldwide urbanization, along with agriculture, industry and tourism have put immense pressure on the limited yet essential resource. Arup experts provide three examples of cities with limited supplies of water that have utilized successful...

The Failure of Free Migration

Robert Skidelsky July 20, 2016
One immigrant’s brutal crime – using a truck to kill 84 people and injure hundreds during Bastille Day festivities in Nice, France – heightens mistrust for all immigrants and boosts support for a swift crackdown. “Throughout the Western world, a toxic mix of physical, economic, and cultural insecurity has been fueling anti-immigration sentiment and politics precisely at the moment when the...

As China’s Workforce Dwindles, World Scrambles for Alternatives

Kathy Chu and Bob Davis December 15, 2015
China’s factory workers were once willing to work long hours for wages as low as “a few dimes an hour,” report Kathy Chu and Bob Davis for the Wall Street Journal. But China is aging, workers expect higher wages; factories invest in technology: ‘The changes will mark a new chapter in the history of globalization, where automation is king, nearness to market is crucial and the lives of workers and...

Population Controls Will Not Solve Environment Issues

Matt McGrath October 31, 2014
Tight population controls alone won’t make the world a sustainable place in the short term, suggests research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The damage has been done with the population climbing from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion now. Projections suggest the world’s population will jump to 12 billion by the end of this century; even with a global one-child...

World Population Trends Signal Dangers Ahead

Barry Mirkin April 3, 2014
Demographers are often called upon to predict the future by extrapolating from population statistics and trends. The United Nations has revised population projections upward, and demographer Barry Mirkin suggests the warning signs are clear: The globe can anticipate a billion more people in a decade and another 2 billion by the end of the century for a total of 10.9 billion. People live longer,...