[00:45.79]STANDING ROOM ONLY
[00:50.34]Look at your watch for just one minute.
[00:54.80]During that time,the population of the world increased by 259.
[01:05.54]Perhaps you think that isn't much.
[01:10.87]However,during the next hour,over 15,540 more babies will be born on the earth.
[02:30.44]So it goes on,hour after hour.
[02:37.52]In one day,people have to produce food for over 370,000 more mouths.
[02:46.27]Multiply this by 365.
[02:52.90]Just think how many more there will be in one year!
[02:58.83]What will happen in a hundred years?
[04:19.42]The increasing population may be the greatest challenge of the world today.
[04:26.27]The world's population is growing faster and faster.
[04:31.44]Two thousand years ago,there were only 250 million people on the earth.
[06:05.19]Four hundred years ago,the number was over 500 million.
[06:21.44]At the beginning of the twentieth century,
[06:26.80]the world's population was about 1.7 billion.
[06:51.66]In 1970,this number was over 3.6 billion.
[07:10.92]In 1990,it reached more than five billion.
[07:18.36]Now at the beginning of the 21st century
[07:27.01]the world's population has passed six billion.
[07:31.97]People say that by the year 2010,it may be seven billion.
[08:27.14]That means that in about 600 years,there will be standing room only on the earth.
[08:38.09]Each person will have one half to one square metre of space to live in |