Written by Melanie Kozlan, Four Green Steps

The United Nations Population Fund has announced that the world population is expected to reach 7 billion people on Halloween of this year. Naturally such a population increase can place a strain on the Earth's resources as well as leading to greater societal issues. The Huffington Post has an interesting perspective on the matter:

From the Huffington Post Green:

Reaching such a large global population would have fascinated 19th century theorist Thomas Malthus. According to the Financial Times, Malthus argued -- at a time when the world's population was under 1 billion -- the birth rate had to be lowered to prevent the famine and violence that would come with overpopulation.

Human ingenuity and technology have played a big part in defying Malthus, but there's no doubt the population explosion has taken a toll on the earth's resources. As Treehugger reported, the population spike since the 18th century has contributed a whole slew of environmental issues, including soil erosion and dwindling wild fish populations.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

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