So....7 Billion

The UN designated 12th October 1999 as The Day of 6 Billion, and on 31st October 2011 our global population officially reached 7 Billion.

That's just over 12 years to add 1 billion people to our global population. Should we be worried?

That depends upon whether you see our ability to add an additional billion members to our running population total as a "good thing"...a testament to our survival...as the fittest species on Earth. Maybe.

But if we continue to be so successful at such speed our species will continue to wipe out other species...at an ever increasing rate.

Don't worry about global warming, the financial crisis, the war on terror, or any of the other popular news topics. Worry about overpopulation.

The UN predicts that the global population growth will slow, so maybe we don't need to worry? But we are an inventive species and if there is ANYTHING to the possibility of the technological singularity then I predict that through our technological prowess we will extend the predicted growth window for our species not by decades but by centuries.

At a 2% growth rate our population will double every 35 years, so in just 10 population doubling there will be around 7 trillion humans on Earth.

So sometime in October 2361 the UN will no doubt proclaim the Day of 7 Trillion...

I hasten to add that I am NOT in favour of the human global population reaching anything like 7 trillion. I hope that we learn to live sustainably here on Earth as we also expand beyond the Earth.