Too Many?

According to the USA Census Bureau's World Population Clock, baby seven billion arrived on March 1, 2012. That is a very large number of people. Does it concern you?

Paul Ehrlich's alarmist 1969 book, "The Population Bomb" put a fear into the world that remains to this day. He predicted that in the 1970's there would unparalleled starvation and hunger and people would start to 'die off'. There simply was not enough food to go around. Since then, the world population has doubled, and where do we stand?

The theory was that food production would not keep with the demand, however, as Time Magazine reported recently, a billion people tragically go hungry in the world today, "but it is not because the world is incapable of producing enough food for them. We already grow enough grain globally to feed 10 billion people on a full vegetarian diet." And, "world wide, humans currently throw out or waste half the food we produce."

Hence, hunger is not a production problem, but a distribution and stewardship problem.

Well, you might say, we are running out of room. Not so.

As both Time and the Guardian reported, all seven billion of us could live in the state of Texas with no more population density than we currently find in New York City.
To offer an even more vivid illustration, all seven billion of us could move to Rhode Island with each of us having 6.4 square feet to wave our arms around.

OK, but it will continue to get worse, no?
According to a new report conducted cooperatively among six universities, the average woman in the developed world only produces 1.66 children in her lifetime, well short of the 2.1 children needed for human replacement.
In fact, in more than 75 countries around the world, or 42 per cent of the world's population, fertility is below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to maintain current work levels as well as support and care for aging populations.
Countries like Japan are experiencing economic stagnation due to below-replacement fertility levels that started in the 1970s. China followed suit in the early 1990s, a development that will dramatically slow their national prosperity. If the trend is sustained, all countries with below-replacement fertility can expect similar stagnation.
Over the last decade, the United States has been just at or below replacement level, while Canada has hovered lower and closer to the 1.66 below-replacement average for the developed world.

So, don't worry, keep having babies ...... and grandbabies. Somebody is going to have to take care of the seven billion 'oldies'.