PIP: Population projections for the next quarter century are reasonably predictable, and related resource challenges are quite visible. The world's population is expected to grow to around 8 billion by 2025. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, if current levels of investments in agriculture and social welfare continue, food grain production will increase by about 1.5% and livestock production by 2.7% a year over the next 2 decades. These levels are much lower now compared to previous decades, and population could outstrip supply unless there is a big increase in developing country imports. The continued destruction of the earth's forest mantle as a result of human activities is another desperate concern. By 2025, some 3 billion people will live in land-short countries and another 2 billion will be living in urban areas with high levels of air pollution. In addition, coastal ecosystems, which are already exposed to unbridled coastal development and mounting pollution loads, will experience more pressures as the number of people living near them increases in the next 25 years. One final challenge is the unprecedented rate of habitat loss and species extinction. Ecosystem destruction is so severe that as many as 60,000 plant species could be lost by the year 2025.