By the time we reach the next quarter century World Population will reach 8 BILLION people.
This is a troubling number as each one of us will need food and shelter and health care and should have the opportunity to lead a productive and happy life.
But will we all have that opportunity?
It’s up to YOU!
What are you doing to prepare the world for 8 BILLION? What are you doing to help each man, woman, and child to be fed and sheltered and cared for? What are you doing to help each individual have a life in which they have the opportunity to help their community and to feel the joy of knowing they are contributing to the benefit of others.
During the Renaissance, during the Age of Discovery, during the Reformation, when the French Revolution was taking place, there were less than 1 Billion people on Earth.
But with the industrial revolution and the concurrent increases in the knowledge of science and healthy living conditions more people were being born – and living to be older than in the generations before them. 200 years ago the world population was only 1 Billion. The world passed the 2 Billion mark only about 100 years ago. But by the turn of the century in the year 2000 we nearly TRIPLED that number and we soon passed the 6 Billion mark. Population growth has slowed. But we are still increasing, and by the year 2025 we will reach a world population of 8 BILLION people! And the population will continue to grow from there. Projections of population growth are that by mid-century, in the year 2050, world population will increase by another Billion and we will surpass 9 Billion people on our world.
The increase from 1 Billion to 2 Billion, a doubling, took 100 years. To get from 2 Billion to 9 Billion, more than four times the number, will take less than 200 years. The projections for population increase over the 25 years between 2025 and 2050 are that we will add more than 1 Billion people by mid-century. The 1 Billion increase that took over 100 years to achieve after 1800 will take less than 25 years.
Ask the internet. Ask your neighbors. Ask people where you work. Ask your Government. Ask your church. What can we do – what can I do – so we will be ready?
This is a question for all of us – for you and for me. How am I preparing to help the world at 8 BILLION? And then 9 Billion!
Each of us should rejoice in the Earth. Each of us should go out and experience the world, nature, wild life, birds, crawling things, all of it, including our fellow human-beings.
When we stand in a park or in the woods or next to a flowing stream or pause beside a field of wheat or a bed of sun flowers, we should marvel at it and we should also ask ourselves, “What can I do to preserve and prepare the Earth for all my new neighbors?”
And then act!
The picture of the child is based on a photograph at wallpaperbetter.com.