Do 7 Billion People Have to be a Problem?

Today, Oct. 31st, is the predicted date the earth becomes home to seven billion humans. The United Nations came up with this number, admitting, it could “actually be 56 million higher or lower.” Regardless of accuracy, the reason the U.N. chose a specific date was more of way to “draw attention to the speed of population growth, with less than 13 years having passed between the six-billion and seven-billion milestones.

“It can focus attention of people all around the world on global population challenges,” says Mr Heilig, the U.N.’s population estimates chief. (BBC: Are There Really 7 Billion of Us?)

What’s the Big Deal?

When hen I hear the earth’s population has more than doubled in fifty years (growing from just 3 billion in 1960) I think think space. Though the population is growing, the world definitely isn’t. But space is not the problem. We actually have plenty of it! Standing shoulder to shoulder, all seven billion of us would only fill the city of Los Angeles. Then our minds go to resources–running out of food or water. Again, somewhat surprisingly, running out of resources isn’t the problem either. “World agriculture produces 17 percent more calories per person today than it did 30 years ago, despite [the] 70 percent population increase” (worldhunger.org).

The principal “problems” of seven billion people is solving the problems our planet has dealt with for centuries: there is an uneven distribution of wealth, resources, and food. People are dying of starvation, malnutrition, and treatable disease. Children are orphaned, widows left with no source of income. Women and children are exploited, and the list goes on. This earth is well-equipped to care for seven billion.

But are we?

Population Growth Doesn’t Have to Be a Problem.

Population growth doesn’t have to be a problem. Volunteering our time, money, and resources, are all steps towards the goal of a globe that has evenly distributed wealth, and the opportunity for every human being to live a dignified life. It starts in our minds. Prioritizing our personal goals to join in a global endeavor to solve these problems and then going out and doing it. It’s going to take work, time, commitment. It’s going to take unity — “7 billion strong.”

“Some say our planet is too crowded. I say we are seven billion strong,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In our increasingly interconnected world, we all have something to give and something to gain by working together. Let us unite, seven billion strong, in the name of the global common good. To read more from this article, click here. Also check out www.7billionactions.org