The President and the Planet, on a Budget: ENN -- Know Your E...

President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 20 will become the most important leader of a species that has exploded in just six generations from a total population of 1 billion (around 1830) to a point today when teenagers alonenumber 1 billion, a species that is on a path toward more or less 9 billion people by mid-century. In numbers, think roughly of adding two Chinas on top of the one that exists today.

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Mr. Obama will of course be mainly focused first on economic renewal and finding a way forward in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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But inevitably issues related to humanity’s growth spurt — both in numbers and resource demands — will come to the fore.

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“There will be fiercer struggles over scarce resources, starker divisions along factional lines

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we essentially live on “Planet Teen”� right now. Depending on the level of governance and economic opportunity they experience, today’s young people could either become soldiers or students, agitators or innovators, terrorists or teachers.

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