1 week to 7 billion

(AP Photo/Pavel Rahman): Bangladesh
7 billion people. Seven billion. Unimaginable. The UN Population Fund estimates by October 31, 2011, the world's population will be 7 billion. Only 200 years ago, there were 1 billion people on the planet and it took 150 years to get to 3 billion. The UN projects that it could grow to 15 billion by the year 2100.  I wonder if it will even be possible to control the emergence of resistant pathogens like NDM-1 if we don't first address the population crisis.

Atlantic Monthly has a wonderful series of photographs that highlight the population explosion and the secondary environmental impact.

My favorite comment below the photo series is "7 bil peeps can fit in an area 34x34 miles. Shoulder to shoulder back to front."  I don't know if this is true, but perhaps they can test it out on MythBusters.


h/t JJ Furuno

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