Shelby Johnson

Staff Writer

   The world’s population hit the milestone of seven billion on October 31st when the seven billionth baby was born. Because of the impossibility of discerning exactly which birth was the 7,000,000,000, multiple newborns from around the globe are sharing the title. Dancia from the Philippines, Peter from England, Pyotr from Russia, and other babies born on October 31, 2011 will be the symbolic 7 billionth baby. Dancia’s doctor, Dr. Eric Tayag said, "We should really focus on the question of whether there will be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life for every child. If the answer is 'no,' it would be better for people to look at easing this population explosion."

    In 2011, about 135 million people will be born, about 78 million people will die, and Earth’s population will grow by about 78 million people, as a total estimate for the year, according to Wikipedia’s article on population growth.

     Way back in 1677, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek predicted this 7 billionth baby. He figured that the planet was 13,385 times as large as Holland, where he lived, and that the world could not hold more than 13.385 billion people.  He also calculated, correctly, that the world’s population would expand to 7 billion by the new millennium.  Joel Cohen, the author of How Many People Can the Earth Support? and demographer at Rockefeller University, says, “[Population growth] makes almost every other problem more difficult.”  One of these problems is that approximately one billion people go hungry every day.   

    The population is growing exponentially and quickly, and there is no fair way of preventing continued growth. The world’s population will continue to grow.  The question is: what will be Earth’s breaking point? According to Leeuwenhoek, the population is already more than half way there.