Last week, the United Nations announced that the planet’s population has tipped past 7 billion—double the number of people inhabiting the globe in the 1970s. Led by voracious growth in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the surge has led demographers to warn that the earth’s scarce resources are being strained by the rapid proliferation of our species in modern times. On a positive note, more children are living to adulthood in developing nations thanks to advances in pediatric medicine and sanitation.
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