ABU DHABI - The current patterns of global population growth will have an impact on world peace and prosperity, so we need to provide increased awareness of the serious, perhaps devastating, impact upon the human race.

This was stated by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, while delivering his speech during the Second Gulf Intelligence Food Security Forum on Thursday, in the Capital.

Shaikh Nahyan said, if our global society does not become more concerned about growth, environmental quality, and sustainability, the current patterns of global population growth will also have an impact on world peace and prosperity.

A 2009 report by UNESCO states that 776 million adults around the world, two third of them women, lack even the most basic literacy skills and that 75 million children currently are not in school.

In its plans for the future, Abu Dhabi has seized the opportunities to become a truly global city, not only a centre for finance, business, education, technology, and culture but also a nurturing source of innovation and creativity that promises to benefit the world, Shaikh Nahyan said.

“Our world and all of us are waiting for luck, but we cannot wait for it to come. The world continues to spin while we wait. Some people are still waiting for proof of global warming. While they waited, the earth changed.”

Abu Dhabi is moving aggressively into a sustainable future. Abu Dhabi and the UAE are laying the foundation for a socially cohesive and economically sustainable community that preserves the country’s unique cultural heritage while gathering power from its connections with other countries and other cultures, Shaikh Nahyan asserted.

If the human assault upon our environment continues unabated, future generations will live at a time when rising ocean levels submerge coastal regions, agricultural patterns shift, drought conditions increase and major outbreaks of diseases infect new regions of the world, Shaikh Nahyan emphasised.

Women’s education is remedy

Nobel peace prize winner, Sir Bob Geldof suggested that the remedy to global overpopulation is clear; it is not through diktat by an overweening government, but the education of women.

This year, the world reached another milestone in global population growth with seven billion inhabitants on earth, with two billion living in poverty, surviving on less than two dollars a day.

It has only taken us 12 years to add an additional 1 billion people to the planet. This kind of rapid population growth puts strains on environmental, political, and financial resources, forcing countries to explore curbing population growth, Geldof said.

“When women are educated, it is quite clear they choose to have fewer children,” said Geldof, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on seven occasions.

anwar@khaleejtimes.com