blog




  • Essay / Hans Rosling and his explanation of population growth

    Hans begins by recounting how stunned he was when his teacher told him that the world's population had increased to three billion; in 1960. Rosling explains that instead of using digital technology; he will use IKEA boxes to represent a billion people. He begins by explaining how things were in 1960: the blue IKEA box represented the developed, industrialized countries, while the two green boxes represented the developing countries. Hans goes on to explain that there was a major divide between the industrialized and developed worlds; An example he gives is how people in Western countries saved money to buy a car, while people in developing countries saved money to buy shoes. Hans observes the extent of this gap in the 1960s and concludes that the world needs to change its mentality towards the West and the rest. Rosling explains the situation in more detail in 2010: the population size has doubled since he went to school. In the West, the economy continued to grow, but so did the most prosperous developing countries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay However, in very poor economies, they are still in the same situation as they were 50 years ago. Now that there is more of the middle class, the gap between the richest and the poorest is wider than ever. By 2050, Rosling says, the bottom half of the middle class will only advance if we invest in green technology so that energy is relatively cheap and they can move up. It describes that the bottom two billion will continue to grow due to population growth. Rosling concludes that to stop exponential population growth, they must be educated. Rosling shows a graph of population growth from the 1960s to 2008. We see in 1960 that there is a 60-70% chance of a child surviving and a mother also having 6-8 children in a developing country . By 2008, we see that there is a 90-100% chance that a child will survive in most parts of the world, and family planning is increasing. However, the two billion people who still have a 60 to 70% chance of surviving in families without family planning remain. Rosling concludes that to avoid this situation, we must take steps to continue to improve child survival..