Business as usual is a foolish strategy in a world that will triple in population during our lifetime. Several billion more people are placing an unprecedented demand on every resource and system on the planet.
As an entrepreneur, overpopulation can be seen as a crisis or an opportunity. One thing’s for sure – the current pace of exploitation of our natural resources will not create a brighter future for the next generation. Watch this video on the explosive growth of the world population over the last 200 years and consider the consequences of not taking action.
World population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death in 1350, when it was near 370 million. The highest population growth rates – global population increases above 1.8% per year – occurred briefly during the 1950s, and for longer during the 1960s and 1970s.
The global growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and has declined to 1.1% as of 2012. Total annual births were highest in the late 1980s at about 139 million, and are now expected to remain essentially constant at their 2011 level of 135 million, while deaths number 56 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040.
World population reached 7 billion on October 31, 2011 according to the United Nations Population Fund.
