Lecture warns of population dangers of the next century
Ballroom. Fornos’ speech focused on issues concerning the overpopulation of underdeveloped nations and he offered solutions to the problems faced by the world’s governments.
Fornos, president of the Population Institute, is widely considered one of the most prominent spokesman on global population.
He has earned a number of honors for his work, including the Humanist of the Year Award and the Order of Merit from Germany, which is the highest distinction in humanitarianism anon-German citizen can obtain.
He authored the book, “Gaining People; Losing Ground,” which tackles the dilemma of overpopulation.
In his lecture, Fornos brought attention to many of the factors caused by or causing overpopulation, particularly in undeveloped nations. In developed nations in regions such as Europe and North America, the population is expected to climb by only 58 million people by 2050, leading some critics to argue, Fornos said, that the “population ‘bomb’ has been diffused.”
However, Fornos countered, “In that same period, the poorest countries will add 2.6 billion people,” a number much more staggering than the industrialized world will experience.
No matter where the most growth will occur, Fornos argued overpopulation is a problem that will affect everyone.
Specifically, Fornos cited the prospect of vast water shortages, a problem even the United States could face, he said.
“The water crisis is very real and it threatens world peace,” he said.
Despite the harsh realities of overpopulation, Fornos believes there are still “rational and human solutions” to the population crunch.
He emphasized, “This is not a gloom-and-doom lecture,” and he encouraged this generation to be a “conservation generation.”
Fornos offered several solutions to the global population issue, largely indicating female empowerment as a key concept to his solutions.
He expressed concern for the wide-scale gender inequalities that plague many poor countries, pointing out that while women do two-thirds of the world’s work, they only earn one-tenth of the world’s income.
After Fornos’s lecture, the audience members participated in a short question-and-answer session.
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