POPULATION
It took from the emergence of modern humans, about 100,000 to 150,000 years ago in Africa, to the year 1800 for us to reach a population of 1 billion. The industrial age kicked in and we added 600,000 people from 1800 to 1900. Then something extraordinary happened. Something that will likely never again occur on this planet. From the year 1900 to 1960, our population jumped from 1.6 billion people to 3 billion. In sixty years, we nearly doubled the population that it took all of evolution to produce. Then, in the next thirty-nine years we added another 3 billion to reach a population of 6 billion in 1999. In other words, in 39 years, we added as many people (3 billion) as it took for our previous entire existence to accumulate. In a hundred years, from 1900 to 2000, we quadrupled our population. It is estimated that in 2050 our population will be about 9.2 billion. We add presently about 80 million people a year to our global population.
Filed under: Earth and Life, environmental crisis, overpopulation, quality of life, sustainability
