Population growth

• “Demand for ownership housing in the GTA will start improving in 2024.
• Record population growth, a resilient economy, low unemployment and declining mortgage rates in the second half of the year will result in increased home sales compared to 2023.
• This will be the start of a multi-year recovery as some households will still face affordability challenges, even as borrowing costs begin trending lower.
• There will be a total of 77,000 sales in 2024.

• There is a growing consensus that environmental problems, particularly the effects of climate change, pose a grave challenge to humanity.
• Pollution, habitat destruction, intractable waste issues and, for many, deteriorating quality of life should be added to the list.
• We forget, though, that environmental impacts are a consequence of per capita consumption multiplied by the number of people doing the consuming.
• The most recent United Nations projections point to a global population of 9.7 billion by 2050 and 10.4 billion by 2100.

It’s the whole world’s problem

• Many would agree overpopulation is a problem in many developing countries, where large families keep people poor.
• Per person, people in high-income countries consume 60% more resources than in upper-middle-income countries and more than 13 times as much as people in low-income countries.
• The principal problem of overpopulation received little attention.
• The outskirts of Sydney and Melbourne are carpeted in big, ugly houses whose inhabitants will be forever car-dependent.

Doing nothing has a high cost

• We live very long lives, on average, so once we’re born, we tend to stick around.
• Falling reproduction rates should not be regarded as a disaster but as a natural occurrence to which we can adapt.
• Recently, we have been told Australia must have high population growth, because of workforce shortages.

Let women choose to have fewer children

• Where women are given the choice, they restrict the number of children they have.
• A much-needed demographic transition could be under way right now, if only the population boosters would let it happen.
• Women will show the way, if only we would let them.

Jenny Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Spanning over 650,000 square feet, the Project is located in downtown Sarasota, which has attractive supply/demand fundamentals and strong population growth in recent years.
• The Aster & Links complex includes 424 apartments and 778 parking spaces for multi-family and retail components.
• “We are excited to support Belpointe OZ’s development of Aster & Links, a project that we believe will become a vibrant hub for commerce and community in Sarasota,” said Brian Sedrish, Chief Executive Officer of Southern Realty Trust.
• “Strategically, we believe investments in Class A multi-family real estate have the potential for stable cash flow and strong risk-adjusted returns.”

On 27 January 2024, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announced their plan to withdraw from membership of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), despite repeated efforts at reconciliation. Diplomacy scholar Nicholas Westcott explains how the decision may be the latest symptom of a deepening crisis in the Sahel, the area south of the Sahara desert stretching from Mauritania in the west to Chad in the east.

Why does their decision pose a threat to the region?

• So does the risk of potential hostility to Malian and Burkinabe migrants in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.
• Stopping free movement between these three countries and the rest of west Africa would have serious economic consequences for all concerned.
• Other western countries risk being tarred with the same neocolonial brush unless they reform international institutions to reflect African concerns.

What are the drivers?

• This has been brought on by years of sluggish growth following the 2008 financial crisis, COVID and the Ukraine war, the impact of climate change and population growth.
• Elected governments are finding it increasingly difficult to satisfy the expectations of their citizens.
• It is almost a re-run of the 1970s when drought, corruption and development failures led to a rash of coups in the region.

Why have regional bodies like Ecowas not been able to help?

• Faced with the juntas’ threat of secession, African regional organisations, in this case Ecowas and the African Union, face a dilemma.
• Or do they compromise their principles to preserve at least nominal unity, and allow authoritarian governments back into the club?
• Nevertheless, it’s possible that the departure announcement is a bargaining chip to get more lenient terms for their reintegration into Ecowas.

What lies behind the military regimes’ announcement?

Regime survival has become their overriding objective. Their explicit intention seems to be to undermine the principle that African nations should apply standards to each other. The fact that African governments themselves signed up to these principles is as irrelevant to the insurrectionists, who want to retain power, as it is to the jihadists, who want to seize it. They have set out the following justifications for their withdrawal:
Ecowas provided no support against the jihadists
Ecowas has imposed “illegal” sanctions that are harming the people
Ecowas has fallen under the influence of foreign governments.

• They reflect an attempt to look like defenders of the poor and opponents of western influence.
• Populations are being mobilised and armed to fight the jihadists.
• Their official justification may be anti-terrorist duties, but their real purpose is to protect the regime from further threats of mutiny, coup or invasion.
• The migrant trade is already thriving again in Agadez, the key transit point in northern Niger to the Mediterranean coast.

Nicholas Westcott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.