How will the planet cope with an increasing population?

Sir David King discusses the global challenges of the 21st century - News

Monday 27 November 2006
By Naomi Weston

"How will the planet cope with a population of nine billion in 2050?", asked the Chief Scientific Adviser to the government, Sir David King, at the 2006 Dennis Gabor lecture at Imperial College London last week.

Science helps us understand the problems but technology will provide the solutions. This was the key message from Sir David’s presentation. “We can cope with a population of nine billion but we need to take a different approach by focusing on these key challenges and sustainably living with the key resources the planet offers,” he explained.

Climate change, energy, disease and sustainability are the key global challenges that face us today, he said. Even with an ageing population and levels of female fertility dropping, the population is growing although at a slower rate. Sir David asked the question, “Can we feed nine billion people in 2050?”

“We need another spurt in food growth efficiency,” explained Sir David, “We have already had two agricultural revolutions.” It will be advances in technology and economics that make sure the planet will cope with the population increase, Sir David concluded.

One initiative Sir David is personally involved in to address these key challenges is the Energy Technology Institute. The institute’s remit is to accelerate the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective low-carbon energy technologies towards commercial deployment, in support of the UK’s climate change goals. Many international companies including BP, Shell, EDP and E.ON have already announced their intention to be involved. “It is a UK based Institute but we are open to it becoming a multi-national one,” said Sir David.

The fifth Dennis Gabor lecture took place at Imperial College London on Wednesday 22 November.

• Watch a RealPlayer stream of the Dennis Gabor Lecture

About Sir David King:

Sir David King was appointed as the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Office of Science and Innovation in October 2000 playing a key role in disseminating information on scientific issues to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and across government. His early career began at the University of Witwatersrand, before coming to Imperial for a brief period where he was a Shell Postgraduate Scholar between 1963-1966.

He became the Brunner Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Liverpool in 1974. In 1988, he was appointed 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and subsequently became Master of Downing College (1995-2000), and Head of the University Chemistry Department (1993-2000). He retains his position at Cambridge University as Director of Research in the Department of Chemistry.

About Dennis Gabor:

Dennis Gabor (1900-1979) is best remembered for inventing holography. He discovered that two electron images could be combined and lit optically to create a 3-D image. This idea remained theoretical until the invention of lasers in the 1960s which allowed his theory to be put into practice.

As a result, Dennis Gabor was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 and described himself as "one of the few lucky physicists who could see an idea of theirs grow into a sizeable chapter of physics.”

From 1948 Gabor was Reader in Electron Physics at Imperial College London. He later became Professor of Applied Electron Physics, and stayed at Imperial even after his retirement in 1967 as a Senior Research Fellow.