The Day of Six Billion

          On October 12th, 1999, the proclaimed six billionth living human in the world was born. The first world population milestone was reached in 1804 with 1 billion people and now, in 2012, the United States Census Bureau estimates our current population to be 7.045 billion. It took a total of 208 years for us to attain such a momentous population and current projections predict that by 2024-2030, we will exceed 8 billion.
          Who's to say if this was good or bad? Arguments for either view could be made based on this huge surge of the public numbers. Yet, one can't seem to ignore how the negative aspects outweigh the positive. Although this event provided for an expansion of our population and unity and diversified culture, its negative impacts were much more overwhelming. This swelling only served to push even more of the public into poverty and provided new economic worries of how to sustain such a large and populous world that at the time was not prepared to bolster it. China can be looked to as a vivid example of the negative impacts of such drastic overpopulation rates where laws have been passed that restrict families to a certain amount of offspring in an effort to minimize the unfavorable effects. Furthermore, overpopulation only serves to increase probability of resource scarcity and possibility of impending global warming crisis.
          This event, taken either in a good or bad light, was inevitable. As rapidly as we are growing, not just by nation but worldly as a whole, in all aspects of society such an upsurge was always in our future and by continuing in the way we are now with increased commerce, manufacturing, and business, we will forever keep heading in that direction. Such an event spares no one as it affects all the inhabitants of the world, some just in more drastic ways than others. Some may not even feel the full effects of the blast but they are nonetheless there, even if it is as small as a limit on the number of produce one may buy at their local grocery. ALthough it has nothing in comparison to the homeless left on the streets to whither away from starvation, no one can deny the effect is present to both parties. I certainly view this event, and all the ones that will ultimately precede and continue its "progress", from a more negative standpoint. Yet, I do not find myself speaking up actively about it, knowing that the action would only bring more harm than good in the grand scheme of the situation. All one can do is hope for the best as the world in which we live in continues to breed at its ever-rapid rate.