She arrived a tad early, but
Danica May Camacho, born in Manila just before midnight on Sunday, is the United Nations-designated baby number 7,000,000,000. And so today, October 31, is
Seven Billion Day, a UN initiative that highlights the world’s ever growing population and the challenges that come with such a number.
Meanwhile children number 5,000,000,000 and 6,000,000,000 have moved on. Both were born in what is now the former Yugoslavia.
Matej Gaspar, #5bn, was born in
Croatia in 1987. And in Visoko (
pictured), outside of
Sarajevo,
Adnan Nevic of
Bosnia was held up by then-UN General Secretary Kofi Annan and presented to the world in 1999. Both have moved on, and have become friends on Facebook. The young men have also complained that the UN has ignored them, moving on after surrounding the family in adulation and press after their birth.
Those who always warn us about overpopulation are having a field day and predicting gloom and doom. Scheduling this day on Halloween, I suppose, is appropriate since we should be spooked over all these people crowding the planet. The questions over overpopulation, however, are complicated. Children in the west use far more resources than those on the other side of the globe. Fears over the pollution and environmental degradation in countries like India and China forget that those emissions are largely the result from manufacturing goods that they export to us. And the problem with food supply, albeit now complicated with drought and climate volatility, is largely one of
distribution, not
supply.
What is a pressing issue is that many countries have high birth rates because women do not have access to birth control. American foreign policy could change that, but turned away from a focus on population in the past decade. Countries like the Philippines, which is home to 95 million people, could be more proactive--The Guardian’s
Jasmine Coleman points out that in the Philippines, 10 percent of girls 15 to 19 have been pregnant. Better policy starts at home.
Meanwhile Adnan Nevic and Matej Gaspar are living their lives like any young men of their generation. It is up to the UN to decide whether Seven Billion Day will just generate more platitudes or real policy.
About The Author
Leon Kaye
Leon Kaye is the founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com and its advisory division,
GGP Media.
Contact him to discuss how he can work with your organization or event.
His focus is making the business case for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
He writes for San Francisco-based
Triple Pundit,
Inhabitat and now
The Guardian, for which he writes about corporate responsibility, water, and green building. He has also written for AIA's
Architect Magazine.
Leon works out of Fresno and Silicon Valley, California, and when he has free time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, and planning his next trip to one of the 60 countries he has visited. He has an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and is also a proud graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) and Cal State-Fresno.
She arrived a tad early, but Danica May Camacho, born in Manila just before midnight on Sunday, is the United Nations-designated baby number 7,000,000,000. And so today, October 31, is Seven Billion Day, a UN initiative that highlights the world’s ever growing population and the challenges that come with such a number.
Meanwhile children number 5,000,000,000 and 6,000,000,000 have moved on. Both were born in what is now the former Yugoslavia. Matej Gaspar, #5bn, was born in Croatia in 1987. And in Visoko (pictured), outside of Sarajevo, Adnan Nevic of Bosnia was held up by then-UN General Secretary Kofi Annan and presented to the world in 1999. Both have moved on, and have become friends on Facebook. The young men have also complained that the UN has ignored them, moving on after surrounding the family in adulation and press after their birth.
Those who always warn us about overpopulation are having a field day and predicting gloom and doom. Scheduling this day on Halloween, I suppose, is appropriate since we should be spooked over all these people crowding the planet. The questions over overpopulation, however, are complicated. Children in the west use far more resources than those on the other side of the globe. Fears over the pollution and environmental degradation in countries like India and China forget that those emissions are largely the result from manufacturing goods that they export to us. And the problem with food supply, albeit now complicated with drought and climate volatility, is largely one of distribution, not supply.
What is a pressing issue is that many countries have high birth rates because women do not have access to birth control. American foreign policy could change that, but turned away from a focus on population in the past decade. Countries like the Philippines, which is home to 95 million people, could be more proactive--The Guardian’s Jasmine Coleman points out that in the Philippines, 10 percent of girls 15 to 19 have been pregnant. Better policy starts at home.
Meanwhile Adnan Nevic and Matej Gaspar are living their lives like any young men of their generation. It is up to the UN to decide whether Seven Billion Day will just generate more platitudes or real policy.
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