Yesterday was a momentous day.  According to the State of World Population 2011, published by the United Nations Population Fund, it was the day world population topped 7 billion people.  We find this to be momentous not just for the sheer size of the population, but, more importantly, for the rate at which it is increasing.

For example, at the time of Christ’s death the world’s population was around 300 million. Slowly, over the next 1800 years, the planet added 700 million more people…hitting 1 billion when John Adams was President of the United States…and causing quite a shock to the intellectuals of the day.

The world’s burgeoning population produced visions of apocalypse for English economist, Robert Thomas Malthus.  Between 1798 and 1826, he scribbled six editions of his famous treatise, An Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he predicted a massive collapse brought about by population increasing faster than the supply of food.

Of course, Malthus was dead wrong.  Just 127 years later, in 1927, world population hit 2 billion.  Then, 32 years later, in 1959, the 3 billion mark was reached.  Fifteen years later, in 1974, the population topped four billion.  Thirteen years after that, in 1987, five billion was surpassed Continue reading →