U.N. estimates that the human population passed 8 billion

I told my readers "Stay tuned as I return to this blog's regular programming, whatever that is." The regular, but not frequent, subjects of this blog include population, which passed a milestone yesterday as BBC News reported World’s population hits 8 billion, UN says.

The world's population has hit eight billion, just 11 years after passing the seven-billion milestone, the United Nations has said.

After a big surge in the middle of the 20th Century, population growth is already slowing down.

It could take 15 years to reach nine billion and the UN doesn't expect to reach 10 billion until 2080.

It's hard to calculate the number of people in the world accurately, and the UN admits its sums could be out by a year or two.

This is very much the message I tell my students about the history and likely future of population growth and its effects on people and the planet. I might just replace the National Geographic video I embedded in both A video gift from a student and Student sustainability video festival 5: previous years' winners I currently have in my lectures with this one, although it lacks the infographics introducing the topics of health, water, and energy (even though the energy stat it cites for energy use was already out of date when the video was produced) that set up the rest of the course. Still, welcome to blogging as professional development.

The BBC video mentioned India's population passing China's, lower fertility rates, an aging population, and strains on infrastructure. All of those are the subjects of Cities under strain as world population hits 8 billion from Reuters.

As the world population touches the 8 billion mark this week, countries like India, the second-most populous country in the world, are faced with the challenges - from creating suitable infrastructure to creating a skilled workforce from the country's youth.

I tell my students that the world is becoming increasingly urbanized at the same time that population is increasing, so population problems will show up as urban problems. India's situation is a perfect example of this. I might add this video to my lectures on population as well. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.

By the way, the population milestone has already inspired a song, Kiran + Nivi - 8 billion people (Official Lyric Video).



Lyric video by Kiran + Nivi performing 8 billion people.
More people doesn't mean one can't be lonely in a crowd, it just means one can be lonelier in a bigger crowd.

I have another milestone to observe as Snow Bear passed 10,000 miles yesterday, so stay tuned for a driving update.