World Population Grows by 1 Billion in Only 12 Years

At the Occupy Orange County protest the other day, I asked a guy passing by at the information booth what he thought of the movement. He kept saying "they" have a plan to control the world economy. And I asked who's "they"? He's said "it's not a conspiracy or anything, but the 1 percent really do control the whole world." And from there he somehow squeezed in some yammering about how the world's population was now at 7 billion. I didn't really make the connection, but then I saw news reports that the world's population was about to hit 7 billion. Well that was it, I thought, no doubt this gives left-wingers plenty more fear-mongering material.

See Los Angeles Times, "World population hits 7 billion on Oct. 31, or thereabouts."

It took only a dozen years for humanity to add another billion people to the planet, reaching the milestone of 7 billion Monday — give or take a few months.

Demographers at the United Nations Population Division set Oct. 31, 2011, as the "symbolic" date for hitting 7 billion, while acknowledging that it's impossible to know for sure the specific time or day. Using slightly different calculations, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the 7-billion threshold will not be reached until March.

Under any methodology, demographers agree that humanity remains on a steep growth curve, which is likely to keep climbing through the rest of this century. The U.N.'s best estimate is that population will march past 9.3 billion by 2050 and exceed 10.1 billion by the end of the century. It could be far more, if birthrates do not continue to drop as they have in the last half-century.

Nearly all the projected growth this century is expected to occur in developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, while the combined populations in Europe, North America and other wealthy industrialized nations will remain relatively flat. Some countries, such as Germany, Russia and Japan, are poised to edge downward, their loss made up mostly by ongoing growth in the United States, which is bolstered by waves of immigrants.

That's so ominous sounding, "they" had to pick Halloween for the date, or something.

Of course, not mentioned is the fact that the earth can sustain billions more without any problems. See Power Line, "POPULATION BOMB EPIC FAIL."