In The News

Easing One-Child Policy May Be Too Late

Joseph Chamie January 7, 2014
A Chinese policy that generally limited families to one child has been revised: Couples can have two children if either spouse is an only child. But China may discover that increasing family size is tougher than reduction, warns demographer Joseph Chamie. “This mid-course correction in population policy will have marginal effect as China is aging at a much faster pace than occurred in other...

Cheap Food Seen as Bygone Era by FAO and OECD

Rudy Ruitenberg June 25, 2013
The outlook for agriculture through 2022, from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, indicates that a period of low prices for farm goods is over. High energy prices, falling growth in productivity and rising demand is already leading to higher prices. Even as population growth slows in the next decade, the world is predicted to...

Autumn of the Patriarchs

June 14, 2013
Shifting population patterns are expected in emerging developing countries. In Latin America the population is quickly moving from high birth rates and early mortality to low birth rates and longer life expectancies. “In Latin America the changes have happened in half that time and all at once, resulting in faster, less predictable social change,” reports the Economist. Brazil and Chile’s...

Water, Down The Drain

Nayan Chanda April 30, 2013
Subsidies can lead to excess and waste. India is an export leader in water-intensive crops like rice and cotton due to subsidy-driven overproduction, aiming to provide low-cost grain. “Huge subsidies and wastage of food grains belie record exports and reckless use of India’s precious water patrimony,” argues Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor, in his column for Businessworld. One study suggests...

US Could Be World’s Most Populous Country

Joseph Chamie April 15, 2013
Nations that manage to satisfy a large population politically, economically, socially can become beacons of hope for the rest of the world. The US is the world’s third most populated country, trailing China and India, but could aim to become most populated by the end of the century: An eightfold increase in annual immigration would lead to a fivefold increase in the US population, explains...

Middle East Rivers Losing Critical Water Reserves

Lee Rannals February 13, 2013
Water shortages and secrecy over how much is used will only exacerbate tensions in the Middle East. Researchers, in the journal Water Resources Research, report a rapid decline of freshwater in the Middle East region. Lee Rannals of redOrbit.com reports on the University of California’s Center for Hydrologic Modeling study that relied on NASA satellite images to show that most of the loss in...

Singapore Calls for 30% Population Growth

Jeremy Grant February 4, 2013
Asia’s vibrant city state has a problem: Its citizens are not producing enough children to sustain the economy. The government’s response is traditional and paradoxical: More people spur a society’s economic growth and wealth, but more children for individuals can curtail careers and prosperity. Singapore’s government has released a report pointing to a need for foreign workers as long as...