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Population Explosion Getting Out of Hand by Richard Kwong Over the past 100 years, hundreds of new cities have popped up all over the world. This has occurred mainly because of the population explosion that has been taking place for the past half century. At the end of the 20th century, there were about 6 billion people in the world and it was expected to double every few years. Conflict after conflict inhibited this massive growth: the Balkan war in 2000, then the Iraqi war in 2001, and finally the Chinese Civil War in 2038. Natural disasters have also taken their toll on the world population: the floods of 2017 in China, the 36 hurricanes of 2056 in the Caribbean, and the New York earthquake of 2074. Nevertheless, the human race persevered throughout all this and managed to double the population by 2060. Since then, it has doubled again, but would have increased more if not for government controls on the birthrate. The government itself has contributed to the population increase by establishing their cloning program. Since its implementation, the program has introduced more than 75,000 clones to the world. The current population of the world is about 26 billion. With this enormous growth, there has been an accompanying demand for more living space. New York City reached could not accommodate any more by 2050, Tokyo by 2054, and London by 2061. People began to move to urban and suburban areas. By 2076, all population centers were filled and new cities had to be founded. Canada, Alaska, and Greenland were totally filled with new cities in ten years. Then the colonization of Antarctica began. The development of weatherproof material allowed for its quick colonization. Since then, a steady flow of people has migrated to Antarctica in search of living space. Demographers predict that Antarctica will be full by 2108. NASA has already begun to prepare to start its StarCity project—where it and 20 other nations will participate in a large-scale construction of space stations and also a colony on the moon. Other scientists have designed a city on the sea—a floating, metal city. If approved, construction of numerous cities will begin within one month |
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