Specialist branches into economic, environmental issues in
Harvard talk
Projections that global population growth will level out in
coming decades are not assured, an expert said Wednesday, adding that just a
one-child difference in global fertility would mean an extra 10 billion people
by century’s end.
“It matters enormously what we do right now,” said Joel
Cohen, a professor at Rockefeller University and head of the Laboratory of
Populations at Rockefeller and Columbia universities. “The world is not fixed.
Demography is not destiny. We can influence the world of our children and
grandchildren by what we do right now.”