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Is predicting population growth over the next century within the experts’ reach?
The first United Nations population forecast came in 1958, when the world population sat just under 3 billion. Many were skeptical of the UN experts’ predictions that the population would double to roughly 6 billion by the year 2000, but their forecasts proved remarkably accurate. In this brief video, Professor Hans Rosling of the Karolinska Institute looks back at how UN population outlooks have played out in the past, and charts new predictions for the human population between now and 2100.
Video by Gapminder
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History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
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Fairness and equality
‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation
7 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes
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Information and communication
‘Astonished and somewhat terrified’ – Victorians’ reactions to the phonograph
36 minutes
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Family life
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them
21 minutes
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History
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War
22 minutes
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The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes
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Art
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece
31 minutes
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Human rights and justice
Can providing humanitarian aid be illegal? A troubling case from the US-Mexico border
17 minutes