Humanity at Eight Billion

A U.S.-China war over Taiwan would be catastrophic for all sides and the world. Preventing such a war requires understanding how it might unfold—from start to finish—including worst-case scenarios. How much warning would there be? Where might China strike first? Which countries j ...  Show more

The wars unleashed by October 7th have left the Middle East deeply fractured—Iran battered and defiant, Gaza destroyed, Israel militarized, the Gulf insecure and divided. And an even bigger disruption lies just ahead: the oil revenues that built the modern Arab world will halve b ...  Show more

As India is poised to overtake China as the world's most populous country, we put questions from World Service listeners to the author of 8 Billion and Counting. Dr Jennifer Sciubba explains how the number of humans is growing in some countries, declining in others, how people ar ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malthusianism.In the eighteenth century, as expanding agriculture and industry resulted in a rapid increase in the European population, a number of writers began to consider the implications of this rise in numbers. Some argued it was a positiv ...  Show more

This month the world population reached 8 billion people - and India is leading the charge. It's set to overtake China as most populous country in the world next year. India is currently home to more than 1.39 billion people. By April, the UN says it will hit 1.42 billion. What’s ...  Show more

<div class="DraftEditor-paragraphElement" data-block="true" data-editor="6ms3l" data-offset-key="7pdu7-0-0"> <div class= "public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="7pdu7-0-0"><span data-offset-key= "7pdu7-0-0">"Demographic Winter" occurs when a ...  Show more