With an annual growth rate of over 1 percent, more than 70 million people are currently being added to the world's population each year. In the last 40 years, the world's population has doubled from 3 to 6 billion. The high proportion of young people now entering their child-bearing years worldwide guarantees that population growth will continue at a rapid pace for some time. Population growth taxes the earth's natural systems. Forests and wetlands disappear so that people can grow more food.
Water becomes scarce as it is diverted to urban areas and agriculture.
Greenhouse gas concentrations increase as more and more people use greater quantities of fossil fuels. The trend can be reversed. One key measure is to increase educational and economic opportunities for women. Another is to provide universal access to a wide range of voluntary family planning services. These measures were important goals set at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, a conference where 179 countries reached an agreement on ways to slow global population growth.