Jan 2011 - Population 7 billion...

[Marts]

So 2011 hits a population milestone - 7 billion, twice as many as 1960... thus is predicted...

Any discussion of current population issues must draw reference to Thomas Malthus's 1798 treatise "An Essay on the Principle of Population" which highlighted a general 'law of population' which stated that populations grow faster than food supplies until war, diseases, and famine reduce the number of people. It also discusses an ideal population relative to food supply or maybe I should say availability. However, such a theory did not hold firm as new technologies have enabled population expansions and continued development worldwide. Reference is also drawn to Paul Ehrlich's 1968 "The Population Bomb" where he also stated that 'hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death...'

Note: Ester Boserup, is also a good read here...

But then after WWII developments in the medical arena such as penicillin and the small pox vaccine have caused major life expectancy increases (the demographic transition model is detailed on page 44). Towards the end of the article on page 63 it was mentioned that though population increase is quite a trivial issue, of a greater concern should be resource consumption...

A rather interesting read since this situation actually includes all of us, even though it may be having no immediate effects on us as individuals...

Throughout the years other articles have also highlighted issues of populations and effects of pollution, some are: October 2007 "Changing Climate" insert, September 2002 "State of the Planet", December 1988 "Endangered Earth", and November 1976 "Whats happening to our climate"....

 

Cheers all