At the beginning of the 1970s, a wide range of meetings were held at the United Nations because of increasing interest in international environmental issues. At one such meeting, some researchers reported that we had sufficient resources to support an extremely optimistic maximum of 40 billion people.
Prof. Falkenmark also attended the meeting and questioned the report. She felt that the researchers had not considered the amount of water required for that number of people. She wondered if we had sufficient water to share with 40 billion people.
This motivated her to inform people around the world about the importance of water for us.