Second reading summary sample

Hans Rosling on global population growth

Mr Hans Rosling made a speech on the global population growth between 1960 and 2010.

He started by presenting the situation in 1960, when the world population consisted of 3 billion people, 1 billion living in industrialized countries and 2 billion in developing countries. Whilst the former were healthy and well-educated with the aspiration of buying a car, the latter were poor with the aspiration of buying enough food for the day.

Afterwards, Mr Rosling presented the population figures in 2010. He said that the world population had doubled, and the gap between the richest and the poorest had widened. In particular, he pointed out that there were still 2 billion people living in industrialized countries, and their aspiration was to buy a trip to go somewhere on a luxurious airplane. People living in developing countries were split between those who lived in emerging economies with the aspiration of buying cars, e.g., in China, or bicycles, and those who were as poor as they had been in 1960.

Then, the speaker gave an overview of the situation as it is predicted for 2050. He said that China would likely close its gap with industrialized countries, and that low-middle income countries would move forward provided that they can tackle challenges such as energy security and climate change. However, the total population of the poorest countries is expected go up from 2 to 4 billion.

Finally, Mr Rosling explained that the only way to deal with the challenge of the global population growth is to increase investments in education and greener technologies in order to alleviate poverty and improve good governance. Along these lines, the main objectives are improving child survival and decreasing family sizes.

The new role of the old Western countries in this future world will then be to serve as the foundation of the modern world.