7 Billion Actions: A Global Movement For All Humanity

On 31 October 2011, the world’s population reached 7 billion. The ever increasing population is expected to overwhelm the earth's carrying capacity. A movement titled, '7 Billion Actions,' is rallying people and organizations around the world to address the challenges of overpopulation.

Population is Compounding Climate Change

A recent episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews asks the question, what is the relationship between ongoing heat waves and global population? As revealed in daily news reports we are continually breaking climatic records as we change weather patterns on earth. Even though the people who are having the greatest number of children are emitting the smallest per capita amount of greenhouse gases, it is obvious that the more people there are, the more GHGs are emitted. Population is a sensitive issue but the provision of family planning services is intimately connected to managing climate change. The more people there are on the earth the more the climate will change. With the world population expected to be 7 billion on October 31, 2011, there is an urgent need to address the issue of overpopulation.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Growth in World Population Threatens Environment

The world population has grown tremendously over the past two thousand years. In 1999, the world population passed the six billion mark. This growth is due to the agricultural and industrial revolutions that decreased childhood mortality rates and increased life expectancies.

Current projections show a steady decline in the population growth rate, with the population expected to peak at around 9 billion between the year 2040 and 2050. The growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963 and annual births peaked at 163 million in the late 1990s.

Current estimates by the United States Census Bureau put the global population at 6,854,901,988. The CIA Factbook estimates that as of 2009, 220,980 people where being born every day.

The rapid increase in human population over the course of the 20th century has raised concerns about overpopulation. The scientific consensus is that the current population expansion and accompanying increase in usage of resources are linked to threats to the ecosystem, including rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution.

Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population with almost 3.8 billion people. China and India together have about 40 percent of the world's population. Africa follows with 840 million people, 12% of the world's population. Europe's 710 million people make up 11% of the world's population. North America is home to 514 million (8%), South America to 371 million (5.3%), and Australia to 21 million (0.3%).

The list below shows past world population data back to the year one and future world population projections through the year 2050.

World Population Growth

Year 1: Population 200 million
Year 1000: Population 275 million
Year 1500: Population 450 million
Year 1650: Population 500 million
Year 1750: Population 700 million
Year 1804: Population 1 billion
Year 1850: Population 1.2 billion
Year 1900: Population 1.6 billion
Year 1927: Population 2 billion
Year 1950: Population 2.55 billion
Year 1955: Population 2.8 billion
Year 1960: Population 3 billion
Year 1965: Population 3.3 billion
Year 1970: Population Year 3.7 billion
Year 1975: Population 4 billion
Year 1980: Population 4.5 billion
Year 1985: Population 4.85 billion
Year 1990: Population 5.3 billion
Year 1995: Population 5.7 billion
Year 1999: Population 6 billion
Year 2006: Population 6.5 billion
Year 2009: Population 6.8 billion
Year 2011: Population 7 billion
Year 2025: Population 8 billion
Year 2050: Population 9.4 billion
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