Chairperson, on behalf of the DA I wish to give notice that at the next sitting of the Council I shall move:
That the Council notes that -
1) this week the world's population increased to the seven billion mark and the population is set to increase even faster in future;
2) in the 18th and 19th centuries it took 125 years to increase the world population by one billion people - these days it takes only 12 years;
3) the good news is that it is anticipated that the world's population will stabilise in the 21st century;
4) the bad news is that the world's population will be more than nine billion people and Africa's population will continue to grow;
5) the depletion of the world's rain forests, fishing resources and fresh water and the emission of greenhouse gases, leading to global warming, are a major threat to the world as we know it; and
6) the world's resources are finite, not infinite and this calls for a drastic change of lifestyle.