African Population Projection Falls By David Briscoe Associated Press Writer Saturday, September 26, 1998; 6:00 p.m. EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Population experts now believe that several African countries may achieve zero population growth in just a few years. But family planners are not cheering. The reasons are gruesome and worrisome: populations devastated by AIDS and further threatened with food shortages, water depletion, ecological collapse and social chaos. Family planners have been trying for decades to halt the population explosion in countries projected to double or triple populations by 2050. But they didn't want it to happen this way. They don't want allies that kill and destroy societies. ``A lot of countries will not see expected population increases because of rising death rates,'' said Lester Brown, president of World Watch and author of a new report on world population problems. Revised United Nations projections for population growth will be out at the end of October, and U.N. demographers confirm that the impact of AIDS in some African countries will be dramatic, even ``unbelievable.'' AIDS, which killed 2.3 million adults and children last year, will not slow worldwide population growth, however. That will reach 6 billion by the middle of next year and is expected to rise to between 7.7 billion and 11 billion by 2050. (snip) Anyone wanting complete article, email me. Steve Source: free population news list- NPG Population-News Listserve http://www.npg.org To subscribe: send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message text: subscribe population-news -------------------------------------------------------------
