The human population first reached 1 billion around the year 1800AD, 2 Billion around 1930AD, 4 billion around 1975AD, 6 billion around 2000AD and in 2016AD it’s around 8 billion or more. It took us a few million years to reach a billion but, with simple exponential math (basic addition), it doubled from 4 to 8 billion in only the last 40 years. The future is not as cloudy as some would have you believe. Look for yourself and, more importantly, think for yourself. What happens next if we do not take matters of controlling ourselves in hand, globally? Can a finite system such as the earth accommodate infinite demand? Of course not – not any more than a 2 liter bottle can accept 9 liters of liquid.
Here’s a question for you – If you were given a choice to receive one million dollars in one month or a penny doubled every day for 30 days which one would you choose? This is called exponential growth and requires only simple addition.
Day 1: $.01
Day 2: $.02
Day 3: $.04
Day 4: $.08
Day 5: $.16
Day 6: $.32
Day 7: $.64
Day 8: $1.28
Day 9: $2.56
Day 10: $5.12
Day 11: $10.24
Day 12: $20.48
Day 13: $40.96
Day 14: $81.92
Day 15: $163.84
Day 16: $327.68
Day 17: $655.36
Day 18: $1,310.72
Day 19: $2,621.44
Day 20: $5,242.88
Day 21: $10,485.76
Day 22: $20,971.52
Day 23: $41,943.04
Day 24: $83,886.08
Day 25: $167,772.16
Day 26: $335,544.32
Day 27: $671,088.64
Day 28: $1,342,177.28
Day 29: $2,684,354.56
Day 30: $5,368,709.12
We see the same graph as that of our own population. Our population is clearly growing exponentially and has been for a long time. If you want to see the future without our collective agreement to control ourselves then simply carry out this penny example for another few days. Then consider how much good your efforts to recycle, minimize your carbon footprint or feed the hungry actually amounted to 100 years after if we continued to grow our population during that time.
Every twenty minutes, the human population grows by over 3000. That’s the same amount of time that it takes for another plant or animal species to become entirely extinct (the rate of species extinction today is roughly 27,000 per year).