#17 Dorling - Population 10 Billion

"In 2011 the top demographic experts of the United Nations suggested that by 2100 there would be 10.1 billion of us. Moreover, they implied that the global human population might still be growing a century from now. So what can we do? Are there too many people on the planet? Is this the end of life as we know it?"

Population 10 Billion: the coming demographic crisis and how to survive it - Danny Dorling

First things first:

1. The underlying foundations of this book are the UN demographic predictions from 2011, which suggested that by 2025 there would be 8 billion of us, by 2045, 9 billion of us, and by 2100, there would be a grand total of 10.1 billion of us - with 'our numbers still rising in a century's time'. 
2. Dorling himself does not think that the world population will reach 10.1 billion people. 
3. He in fact ends the book suggesting that we 'worry' less about population and more about other pressing matters, notably Climate Change. 
4. Dorling is also 'a possibilist', not a pessimist nor an optimist (though much of his book is very optimistic about our demographic future). 
5. I so enjoyed this book - would recommend it. 

Population has long fascinated me, and, I would argue, it is something that captures much of the world too; the rise in popularity of dystopian series such as 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins or 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth (if you haven't thus far, I seriously recommend reading both), as well as sci-fi movies like 'Interstellar' exploring the idea of finding another world to inhabit, evidence this ongoing fascination. It's so compelling how what we watch, read, and generally create reflects our fears and dreams, the things that concern us as they are being created. As I write these words, there are 7.28 billion of us, and our population continues to grow. Were you to watch the 'world population clock' I linked (click on 7.28 billion), you would find that more than double the amount of people who have died today have been born, just as the number of people born this year is more than twice the number of those who have died; hence you may conclude that we are experiencing high natural increase, and that our population is growing - fast. However, the rate of increase has in fact slowed, and continues to slow. The global acceleration that began in the 1850's ended in the 1970's, and we are now, very gradually, experiencing slower annual changes in population. The factors combining to slowly brake our population include decelerations in birth rates, death rates and total fertility rates, and there are many factors that combine to slow these themselves. 

#16 Tuan - Space and Place

"Space' and 'Place' are familiar words denoting common experiences. We live in space. There is no space for another building on the lot. The Great Plains look spacious. Place is security, space is freedom: we are attached to one and long for the other. There is no place like home. What is home? It is the old homestead, the old neighbourhood, hometown, or motherland. Geographers study places. Planners would like to evoke 'a sense of place'. These are unexceptional ways of speaking. Space and place are basic components of the lived world; we take them for granted. When we think about them, however, they may assume unexpected meanings and raise questions we have not thought to ask."

Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan

I have long been intrigued by this book, due to both its premise and its reputation (Tuan is credited as being one of the, if not the, founders of Human Geography as a discipline), and also admittedly given the price - £12 for 203 pages. My intrigue eventually won over the ludicrous Amazon price (cost-benefit analysis: intellectual reputation vs. 6p a page), and here we are. It's a book/essay-published-as-a-book of unconventional matter, dealing with something utterly commonplace and everyday in an utterly stimulating, abnormal way. It's 203 pages of intellectual workout, of existential challenge and introspective analysis. I was disappointed however by the lack of a coherent argumentative thread running throughout the text and no summative conclusion (one could argue that the Prologue serves this role); although the common theme of exploring 'space' and 'place' with regards to experience was present throughout, I found each chapter often narrated something largely unrelated to the former chapter. Such made Tuan's argument harder to follow. Nevertheless, he proposed a multitude of interesting observations and ideas with regards to the relationship between us and the physical world. One thing I can conclude for certain: Yi-Fu Tuan is so clever in his perceptions of the world.