h. Developing nations often promote industries that pollute to compete economically. These industries are less tightly regulated in order to stimulate growth. Besides causing the environmental strains on the earth, overpopulation causes a large number of the social problems in today's society. A recent study by Ohio State University shows that children whose family sizes are larger did much worse in school. The research, published in October's American Sociological Review, found that as family size increases, parents talk less to each child about school, have lower education expectations, save less for college and have fewer educational materials available (CAPS, 1995). According to the medium-fertility scenario, which assumes fertility will stabilize at replacement levels of slightly above two children per woman. The world population will grow from 5.7 billion persons in 1995 to 9.4 billion in 2050, 10.4 billion in 2100, and 10.8 billion by 2150, and will stabilize at about 11 billion persons around 2200. If fertility rates were to stay constant at 1990-2000 levels for the next 150 years, the world in 2150 would need to support 296 billion people. The future will see a continued geographical shift in the distribution of the world population as the share living in the currently more developed regions will decrease from 19 to 10 percent between 1995 and 2150. The Earth's population reached 6 billion in September 1999. It will increase this decade by another billion, the fastest population growth in history. It was only 2 billion in 1930, so todays older generation was the first in history to see a tripling of the Earth's population during their lifetimes! Every second, three people are added to the world; every day a quarter of a million are added. Every year, about 87 million people (about the population of Mexico, or 3x the population of California, or the combined populations of the Philippines and South Korea) are added...
