The following text is an extract from a magazine article written by Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. In the article, Annan warns of the global consequences of overpopulation on planet Earth. Red Alert We are running out of space. Fly over Africa at night and you will see mile after mile of fires burning red in the dark as scrub is removed to make way for human beings. Satellite images of nocturnal Europe or America show vast areas lit up like an enormous fairground. From Shanghai to Sydney, from Moscow to Mexico City, the skylines of our major cities are no longer fixed and familiar. Where we cannot build into the sky, we construct vast chequerboards of smogbound, low-rise dwellings that stretch from one horizon to the other. Our cities expand in every direction as we fight to house a population that is growing at the rate of 200,000 each day. That adds up to a headcount the size of Germany every year. To feed this growing number requires ever more land to farm: each year, more than 150,000 square kilometres of natural forest are lost to agricultural or urban development. Forests cover a third of our planet's surface. They produce life-giving oxygen and, by absorbing carbon dioxide, also mitigate the otherwise catastrophic effects of climate change. Not only do they provide a habitat for many of the world's most endangered animals, around 1.6 billion people rely on them for food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter. Yet they are under threat from rampant deforestation in its many forms: fires, clearing for agriculture, unsustainable logging, ranching and development. We speak reverentially of the savage beauty and teeming biodiversity of the world's great wildernesses, from the tropical rainforests of Amazonia and central Africa, to our wetlands and deserts, and on to Patagonia and the frozen wastes of Antarctica. We are increasingly aware of the threats to such spaces and have encouraged sustainable conservation and ecotourism. But still the threats remain. The greatest unexplored space on our planet lies beneath the oceans. Yet rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere are causing acidification, which disrupts food chains and marine habitats. Huge floating masses of plastic dumped in the oceans turn into hazardous waste that endangers not only marine life but also, indirectly, human populations – and the planet itself. Overfishing, illegal and damaging trawling practices and past whaling have emptied the oceans before we have even properly understood what riches they contain. And the great spaces of the oceans are the lungs of the planet. The very air we breathe is filling up with toxins. For years, gases have burned through the ozone layer, exposing us to ultraviolet rays and affecting climate change. Airborne diseases – such as Zika, swine flu and bird flu – have multiplied and threatened to become global pandemics. Great clouds of smog hover above our cities and airborne diseases multiply. Inhalation of toxic gases is said to reduce average lifespans by one to two years. Various estimates suggest that air pollution accounts for between half and two- thirds of all premature deaths in Asia, while anywhere between 10 and 20% of all worldwide deaths are attributable to the same cause. Typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones are harbingers of disaster, yet the winds are also, for some, an important source of energy. The debate about the effectiveness of wind farms rages on. Protesters claim they are ineffective and even dangerous eyesores, while pro-campaigners trumpet the positive impact of these wind farms. Space itself - famously the final frontier – has not been colonised but has, instead, become a dumping ground to such an extent that scientists are now calling on nations to reduce the quantity of orbital junk they produce or risk inhibiting future space activity. And yet, as overpopulation and decreasing landmass become a conundrum for future generations, will outer space provide an inhabitable environment?