Sir John Beddington the UK chief scientific adviser gave a speech last week at SDUK09 pointing to the potential perfect storm of falling food production, rising population and climate change. Some of his key points are below but actually the dateline of 2030 is interesting in itself. ie within most of our lifetimes.
Growing world population will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned. By 2030 the demand for resources will create a crisis with dire consequences, Prof John Beddington said.
Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the population tops 8.3 billion, he told a conference in London. Climate change will exacerbate matters in unpredictable ways, he added.
'Complacent' "It's a perfect storm," Prof Beddington told the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference.
'Perfect storm' poses global threat, says Professor Beddington
"There's not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don't tackle these problems."
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