Pop. 300,000,000
At some time earlier this month the 300-millionth American was born (just 7 seconds before baby # 300,000,001 arrived). The Earth Observatory looks at how the figure plays out in terms of population density, an understanding of which can be "crucial in answering questions about the relationship between people and the environment." For a global perspective on population density, go here.
3 Comments:
I think that there is an error. Citizen number 300,000,001 was born just seconds after citizen 300,000,000.
ah, good catch. yes, #300,000,001, NOT 301,000,000. I'll fix it. thanks.
So we've hit a population milestone that makes the news, and draws focus and awareness to an issue that may be at the root of many of the problems we face today, and certainly will be increasingly in the future. Increasingly rapid population growth, particularly in the developed and developing parts of the world are pushing us to, or perhaps beyond, the carrying capacity of our planet. 2 very good articles today on the new studyspeak of how our increasing consumption of resources are increasing our ecological debt and that we are now at a point in history where we are living off of our "ecological credit card":
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15398149/from/RS.2/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6077798.stm
I think that this is a more scientific assessment of the human population and its effects on earth in comparison with the first warning bells sounded in the 1960's, a-la Soilent Green and Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Time Bomb". We will most likely not notice an explosion in population by suddenly being crammed shoulder to shoulder with our fellow citizens, and although food and clean water may become locally scarce in an increasing number of placeseven these by themselves will likely not be the most noticeable signs of overpopulation. This is perhaps the key reason why many of the naysayers to this problem have been successful in relegating it to "Chicken Little" status until now. It's easy to look around and point out that we have enough food, water, and clothing, that there is not large scale mass starvation in the world, and that in fact things seem fairly prosperous in the U.S. and in the developed, and even much of the developing world. What the '60's predictors may have missed besides the danger of reliance on statistics is that there are likely to be stressors on mankind and our planet that will come into play long before the most obvious. For example it is now almost impossible to deny the increasing evidence for global warming and its impacts, a direct result of our increasing use of fossil fuels (also increasingly difficult to deny, although many still try). Increases in disease in the animal kingdom, such as those that have wiped out many frog species in tropical America have been linked to global warming, and therefore human resource consumption and population expansion. It seems likely that many emerging human diseases are occuring, and will occur that are related to increasing population. It seems common sense, and has been shown in animal studies, that crowding and competition for resources lead to stress and conflict among individuals, so is it not possible that the growing conflicts we see throughout the world are not ultimately related to increasing population and resource consumption and competition? We are a nation now more than ever used to living with large amounts of credit debt and not thinking twice about it, however ecological debt is different. It is a type of debt we cannot ignore forever. We have only one planet, and sooner or later, one way or another we must, we will be forced to come to terms with that.
http://ecovoice.blogspot.com/
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