Good news on global population, health, climate solutions

Let’s end the week with good news from Future Crunch.

— The nonprofit Club of Rome has published a follow-up to its seminal 1972 Limits to Growth study, saying its long-feared "population bomb" may never go off. 

Global population will peak at 8.6 billion in 2050 and decline to 7 billion by 2100 if current trends continue, the group estimates. 

— Tuberculosis deaths in Africa dropped 26 percent between 2015 and 2021, the World Health Organization says. 

“African countries have made remarkable progress against TB. The question is no longer about whether we can end TB, but how fast we must act to reduce the disease burden, save lives and maintain a high momentum towards a TB-free world,” says Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

— "Bangladesh isn't just ground zero for climate disaster,” says Future Crunch. "It's also a hotspot for solutions, where a mix of technology and community have resulted in cyclone-related mortality declining more than 1,000-fold in the past 40 years.”

"I tell my American friends, 'You should send your skeptics to Bangladesh! The awareness of climate change here is the highest in the world,'“ says Saleemul Huq, director of the Bangladesh-based International Center for Climate Change and Development. "But we have gone through the doom and gloom phase. That's yesterday's news in Bangladesh."