The World at 7 Billion: Building a Sustainable Future Population
growth “is highly concentrated in what are today the poorest and
least well-governed areas of the world,” said George Mason
University professor Jack Goldstone at the Wilson Center on
December 5. Goldstone was joined by Suzanne Ehlers, president
and CEO of Population Action International (PAI), and Matthew
Erdman, population-health-environment technical advisor at
USAID, to discuss the implications of seven billion people and
counting for the environment as part of the joint Wilson Center-
George Mason University Managing the Planet series. At a global
level, Goldstone said, population growth doesn’t look very
severe. Growth rates have declined precipitously over the last
few decades, especially in western countries. “However,” he
said, “that kind of complacency can be very, very dangerous
because there are population trends buried in those aggregate
figures that really deserve our attention.” Despite declining
fertility rates, world population i