Have you heard of the milestone we pass on Oct. 31 2011?

[kristopher]

http://7billionactions.org/

You will have 6,999,999,999 human neighbors on the planet Earth.

[Ian David]

1. And most of them will never be my neighbor in Farmville. Sigh. n/t

[arcane1]

2. Wow, it's basically DOUBLED in my lifetime

after taking thousands of years to get to the half-way point.

The mind boggles.

[kristopher]

3. That doesn't make you very old, either...

1804: World population reached 1 billion
1927: 2 billion (123 years later)
1959: 3 billion (32 years later)
1974: 4 billion (15 years later)
1987: 5 billion (13 years later)
1998: 6 billion (11 years later)
2011: 7 billion (13 years later)
2025: 8 billion (14 years later)
2043: 9 billion (18 years later)
2083: 10 billion? (40 years later)

The rate of increase appears to be slowing. But the large number of people now in their reproductive years, 3.7 billion,iii means world population will keep growing for several more decades.

The date we reach the next billion–and the ones after that–depends on policy and funding decisions made now about maternal and child health care, access to family planning, girls’ education, and expanded opportunities for women.

The Trends
• Average life expectancy worldwide has increased by 20 years since 1950, from 48 to 69 years today. Meanwhile, the death rate has steadily declined, as medical breakthroughs and access to sanitation and health care have saved millions of lives.
• The world total fertility rate has declined by nearly half in 50 years (from 5 children per woman in 1950 to 2.5 in 2010-15, with wide country variations). If current trends continue, humankind will number just over 9 billion by 2050 and more than 10 billion by the end of the century....

Download the United Nations' fact sheet with this link: http://7billionactions.org/uploads/resources/files/1315126578-7b-fact-sheets-v5.pdf

http://7billionactions.org/uploads/resources/files/1315126578-7b-fact-sheets-v5.pdf

[GliderGuider]

7. The numbers for the outlying years are just curve fitting.

If we can't do that legitimately for energy supplies (at least according to some people here), it sure as hell isn't legitimate for population.

My guess, based not on curve fitting but my estimate of all the things that can impact childbearing decisions and life expectancy, is more along these lines:

2011: 7 billion
2030: 8 billion
2050: 7 billion
2070: 5 billion
2100: 3 billion

[progressoid]

4. And most of them are the wrong color and the wrong religion!

White Christians need to start making more babies!!

[The Doctor.]

5. Yep, we're in deep shit.

There's no sign that the mega-corporations are going to let us start intelligently managing the planet. They'll just keep going until there's nothing left but rocks and humans.

Sure, there will be some small innovations to stave off the big crash for a little bit, but not long.

Soon enough, the corporate media will cover for the corporate-created collapse of the US and sic their wingnuts on all the evil 'liberals, socialists, and Muslims' (but really they're going for anyone who understood what had actually happened and might pose the threat of justice). Then they'll clamp down with a brutal Christo-fascist regime and have their annual 'liberal' hunts to make sure no one with original thoughts can spread. This might go for a hundred years or so while everything is used up and and havoc is wrought on the environment.

That's the current path we're on.

[GliderGuider]

6. Not to worry. There's a good chance we won't get much past 8 billion.

And instead of just leveling off and sticking there, population could well be declining by 2040. It all depends on what happens with energy, climate change and the global economy.