Resumen

LIVI-BACCI, Massimo. Looking at the future. The question of 4 billion. Pap. poblac [online]. 2018, vol.24, n.96, pp.15-28. ISSN 2448-7147.  https://doi.org/10.22185/24487147.2018.96.13.

Population interacts with the external constraints such as space, land, water, air, non-renewable resources and energy. Humankind, throughout its history on this planet, has found these resources in almost unlimited supply. But things have changed rapidly in recent times and some natural resources -particularly air, land and water- are under stress because of rapid population growth. During an exceptional twentieth century, the world population increased fourfold; during the current century it will fall short of doubling. Global warming is primarily “anthropogenic”, or due to the increase in the volume of human activities, that are a function of the increase of the number of people and of their per-capita consumption. On the other hand, an expanding population requires more land and space in a finite world. As population grows, the available space declines, and anthropization of land increases. The paper discusses the implications of the interaction between population, global warming and anthropization of land.

Palabras llave : Population projections; global warming; anthropization.