This WSU Newsline Podcast is available at http://www.wichita.edu/newslinepodcast. See the transcript below:

You’re listening to the podcast edition of the Wichita State University audio newsline. Learn more about WSU on the Web at wichita.edu.

Without a lot of fanfare, the world population topped 7 billion people about Oct. 31, according to United Nations’ estimates. The actual date may be fuzzy, but there’s no mistaking the challenges facing the world, according to Wichita State University sociologist Charles Koeber.

Koeber: “If you listen to politicians and economists, we are dependent on growth for our economy and to sustain our population, so growth is not necessarily a bad thing. However, when you look at the world consisting of a finite amount of resources, it does raise some important questions about how much we can grow.”

Koeber says it’s hard because most of us can’t comprehend how large 7 billion is.

Koeber: “So the population being 7 billion, that’s a very large number. However, it’s been a very large number for a very long time, and I don’t think people can really comprehend how large it actually is.

“Seven billion is kind of like a birthday. When you’re 5 or 10 years old, it’s a big deal. That’s when we had maybe 1 or 2 billion. But when you get into your 40s and 50s, it’s just another birthday, and that’s what 7 billion is.”

The world’s population is unevenly distributed, with six of the world’s seven continents being permanently inhabited on a large scale. Asia is the most populated of Earth’s continents, with more than 4 billion inhabitants accounting for more than 60 percent of the world’s population. Koeber says the growing world population presents some challenges.

Koeber: “Environmental sustainability and energy are key issues. When we look down the road, we have to be able to replace our sources of energy and our natural environmental resources at a rate that’s equal to that which we’re consuming them.”

In the United States, the issue isn’t so much the size of the population as the amount of resources being consumed, as Koeber explains.

Koeber: “Population alone is not the only issue. You have to look at the level of affluence. So, for example, the United States, a very affluent country with a lower level of population, is using a disproportionate amount of resources and contributing to a disproportionate amount of waste and pollution.”

In lesser developed countries, the challenge is survival and meeting needs.

Koeber: “In lesser developed countries that have large populations, the problem is more related to survival and needs. So they may be using up their resources at incredibly fast rates just for the population to survive and stay alive on a daily basis.”

Koeber says as the world population grows, a major concern is whether there will be enough food to go around.

Koeber: “A larger population globally makes the issue of food more complicated. And while technology has kept up in being able to produce enough food, the problem is distribution, and you have all sorts of factors including civil strife, politics, economic policy that interfere with the distribution of food in different areas.”

Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University, famous for his book “The Population Bomb,” said people will have trouble feeding themselves as climate change worsens. But it’s a Catch-22, he said, because we need to expand agriculture, but as it’s practiced today it is also one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Thanks for listening. Until next time, this is Joe Kleinsasser for Wichita State University.