Classic Rant #607 (October 31, 2011): Lucky Seven (Billion)

First off, happy Halloween.

Second, congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals for winning the World Series.

Now, we can get to the meatier stuff on the menu.

Today, our world is supposed to welcome its seven billionth member. The United Nations is calculating that today is the day.

I don't know how this is calculated, but supposedly, 51 babies are born every minute in the world.

I don't have statistics about how many people die each minute--and thus, are replaced by the newbies--but through some mathematical calculation, we are supposed to reach the seven billion mark today.

And if you thought that most of those people were protesting at events like Occupy Wall Street, that isn't true.

The continent of Asia supplies us with more than half of our world population, with 4.2 billion people living there.

That is so even with our Octomom, who has contributed, what, 14 kids to the equation.

Just who will be the seven millionth citizen of this planet?

I guess it is hard to calculate. Every kid born today will have a chance to be permanently impaled with that achievement.

How would you like the burden of being the seven billionth person on the planet?

Seven is normally a lucky number, but seven billion ... I just don't know.

More babies are born per year than people die, so I don't think the seven billion mark will last that long. So somewhere down the line, we will hit eight billion, then nine billion, and then 10 billion.

It will happen.

Where we are going to put all these people is beyond me. Maybe if we get the space program going again, some of them can populate the moon.

But wherever we put them, it's inevitable. The population is growing and there is little or nothing we can do about it.

Remember the idea of Zero Population Growth? Basically, a man and woman simply replacing themselves down the line with two children, and that's it.

Well, that appears to be a pipe dream. People will have as many kids as they want, and then some.

So move over, make room. Number eight billion is probably just around the corner.