Seven Billion Today!
Today the world’s population is projected to reach 7 billion humans! This comes just 12 years after reaching a global population of 6 billion, reflecting the rapidly growing pace of the world’s population and the complex changes and challenges facing the globe. Growth is highest in poorest countries where life expectancy is increasing due to health care and hygiene advances while birth rates remain relatively high.
People are also increasingly moving to urban areas, leading to denser living with increased pressure to reduce energy use and build new infrastructure . Currently over 50% of people live in cities compared to just 28.8% in 1950 with the United Nations projecting that 69% of people will live in cities by 2050 when the world population is projected to be 9.3 billion.
Another challenge is the increasing number of mouths to feed with a finite amount of land suitable for agriculture. In a new article Worldwatch proposes “two main approaches to mitigate the impacts of a soaring global population: 1) Empower women to make their own decisions about childbearing and 2) Consume fewer resources and waste less food.”
National Geographic magazine special year-long series on population explores many of the challenges we face with our growing world population. Additionally, they are offering a limited time free iPad app 7 Billion: How your world will change - to coincide with the arrival of the 7 billionth human being to our world, exploring the challenges of a growing human population in a world of limited resources with informative videos, interactive maps, in-depth articles, and photography.
