What is the significance of 7 billion people living on our planet?
Sunday's Zaman - Turkey
Gerhard Heilig, chief of the population estimates and projections section of the UN Population Division, told The New York Times last Monday that “no one can know the exact number of people on the globe.” He stated that a margin of error of approximately 1 percent usually exists in such population calculations. This usually results in a significant difference, and thus Monday’s representation of the 7 billionth human on the planet is merely a symbolic public campaign. However, this population figure will certainly breach in the future, if the official projections are to be believed. What are the consequences of this greater number of people? There has been quite a bit of concern amongst several sectors of the media regarding the threat of over-population and its grave consequences for global food security and conflict. But is this really a threat? Population is tied to economic, political, environmental and cultural factors. It is certainly not a simple phenomenon.,…(6 November 2011)