Iam no Ponce de Leon, but I think our time for revitalization has come. And that's not necessarily a good thing.
If you think oil prices are a mess now, imagine what they'll be like when a couple more billion people have the opportunity to buy a Hummer in 50 years. Today we have water, food and many other goods at our fingertips. The luxuries that we take for granted in the United States, however, are already on the verge of disappearance in other parts of the world. As America continues to pump, cut down and eat away our future, it's also consuming the world's hope for survival.
According to overpopulation.org, the population of the world -- currently 6.5 billion -- is growing by 76 million people per year. UN statistics show that the world will add another 2.6 billion people by 2050. As population growth continues at such a rapid pace, resource demand will increase greatly. Water demand already has tripled since the 1950s while the amount of fresh drinking water has declined because of over-pumping and contamination. Five-hundred million people live in water-stressed or water-scarce countries, and by 2025 that number will grow to three billion. In addition, over the last 50 years cropland has been reduced by 13 percent and pasture by 4 percent.
While outrage at the government-imposed two-child norm in India and one-child norm in China continues to grow, third-world countries also are learning how unhealthy population growth can be. For example, war-torn Angola has the highest fertility rate on the African continent -- 7.2 children for every woman of reproductive age -- and is expected to undergo a population explosion, increasing to 20 million by 2015.
Now that I have painted you the picture of reality, imagine a world in which people live 30 percent longer. Hasta la vista, Bush social security plan.
The Klotho gene
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