Tuesday, October 25, 2011 On October 31, Halloween to some of
us, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) predicts that
world population will hit 7 billion. As Lester Brown wrote in
2006 when the population of the United States hit 300 million,
this is not a cause for celebration. According to a team of
scientists led by Mathis Wackernagel, as of 2007, it takes 1.5
Earths to sustain humanity’s current level of consumption. If
all 7 billion on Earth lived like an average American, we would
require five planets. Clearly our collective demands far exceed
the ability of our planet’s natural support systems to sustain
us. A few other facts: - There will be 219,000 people at the
dinner table tonight who were not there last night—many of them
with empty plates. - Over the course of a year, we are adding 78
million new people, or an entire Ethiopia. - Virtually all of
the top 20 countries considered to be “failing states” are
depleting their natural assets—forests, grasslands, soils, and
aquifers—to sustain their