Multiplying at a brisk pace

What's more scary than the dangers of terrorism spreading its tentacles around the globe? Population! Don't agree?

The population of the world, long expected to stabilize just above 9 billion in the middle of the century, will instead keep growing and may hit 10.1 billion by the year 2100, the United Nations projected in a report released Tuesday.

What's worse, most of this will be in under-developed Africa. Growth there remains so high that the population there could more than triple in this century, rising from today’s one billion to 3.6 billion, the report said.

The projections were made by the United Nations population division, which has a track record of fairly accurate forecasts. In the new report, the division raised its forecast for the year 2050, estimating that the world would most likely have 9.3 billion people then, an increase of 156 million over the previous estimate for that year, published in 2008.

As the UN population division director said, should the funding nations focus on programs that encourage family planning? Conservatives have attacked such programs as government meddling in private decisions, and in some countries, Catholic groups fought widespread availability of birth control.

But unless we do somehting fast, feeding 10 billion will be an impossible task!