Commentary: The world population hit 8 billion — but with a peak in sight. What lessons does that have for climate change?
In the 1960s and ‘70s, global population growth was a huge concern. Scientists and the popular press spoke of a population explosion that threatened to cause famine, poverty and depletion of the Earth’s natural resources. The world’s population had grown at an accelerating rate from just under 1 billion in 1800 to 2 billion in 1928 and 3 billion in 1960, with growth peaking at 2.1% per year in 1968.
It seemed then that slowing the population growth rate would be an insurmountable challenge. And yet in the past six decades, we have been able to
