6 billion of your closest friends...

International News Story

          It really is becoming a small world after all. At 1:24 a.m. on July 19, 1999, the global population reached six billion people for the first time. The world can thank industrialization, availability of natural resources, and widespread health care for the increase in over three billion inhabitants in the last fifty years. The world population after the first ice age is estimated at about ten thousand people, and by 1800, it had risen to one billion. With the escalation of the birth to death rate, the world adds nearly 78 million humans each year. Projections put the population at 8.9 billion in 2050 and 11 billion by 2200, with a leveling off contributed to contraception and social attitudes.The question arises however. How will spaceship Earth continue to support its growing number of travelers?