World population 7 billion – where will the next billion come from?

Just one more day till the world population reaches 7 billion.
Just 14 more years till the world population reaches 8 billion.

We’ve seen how the latest one billion extra people are spread over the different continents. Now we’re wondering where the next billion people will come from.

world population 8 billion people
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World population 7 billion: where did that last billion come from?

According to the latest World Population Prospects tomorrow the world’s 7 billionth human inhabitant will be born. That means if you were born in 1968 you placed your first steps on a planet with half as many people as there are now.

No matter your own day of birth, you’ll probably remember the world having 6 billion inhabitants. After all, we reached that population milestone only in 1999. If somehow you lost track of global demographic developments from there – you may be wondering where yet another billion people came from in just 12 years time. Well, the image below says it all…

world population 7 billion Asia Africa
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Biofuel production from forests increases CO2 emissions

Annual carbon uptakeBiofuels are gaining more and more ground as a replacement for fossil fuels. Especially because they are carbon-neutral or even reduce atmospheric CO2, but also because of the need for energy security and oil price spikes.

In their search for a non-food source for biofuel, the industry has been looking at forests. As an added bonus removing biomass from forests is also a way to prevent wildfires. But if cutting carbon emissions is the main goal, forest based wood is not the way to go, as a new study in Nature Climate Change shows.

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Job accomplished – last Vietnamese rhino poached – annamiticus subspecies extinct

When we speak of biodiversity decline we usually prefer to zoom out to get the big picture. Sometimes however reality forces you to stand still and take time to commemorate an individual case.

Once Rhinoceros sondaicus or the Javan rhinoceros was the most wide-spread of Asian rhinoceroses, ranging all the way from Indonesia to India and China.

Today WWF announced the last of the Asian mainland subspecies (annamiticus) has been poached. That’s one more icon down en route to the Holocene Mass Extinction.

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What’s up with geoengineering? Most people don’t know.

Distribution of incorrect definitions of geoengineeringGeoengineering can be compared to taking a pill for being overweight. Instead of trying to tackle the root of the problem, it tries to cure the symptoms.

But like medicine for reducing obesity we will probably need it in the future because it seems impossible to reach a worldwide consensus on addressing the true cause of global warming.

But while scientist are undertaking experiments ranging from crop albedo geoengineering to marine cloud seeding and ocean iron fertilisation most people don’t even know what geoengineering is according to a report by Environmental Research Letters.

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Holocene climatic changes were local phenomena – except current warming

Holocene climate changeOf course you know these people that by now feel a bit cornered and say ‘okay, perhaps temperatures are going up. But that’s what it does, the global climate changes all the time.’

Well, to keep things simple: no, it doesn’t.

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World average land temperatures have risen by almost 1 degree since 1955 – says 4th consecutive study

Whom would you rather believe? The world’s three best-established atmospheric research institutes – or a Berkeley dream team with the current Physics Nobel Prize laureate, backed up by the largest collection of land temperature measurements ever?

So sorry to confuse you – it doesn’t matter; they say exactly the same thing:

Temperature record world
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2011 Antarctic ozone hole reached 16.17 million square kilometers

In April the WMO announced the Arctic ozone hole had reached record proportions – perhaps even doubling the previous depletion record of 2005, a Nature publication recently added. On the southern hemisphere the story seems much the same.

2011 ozone hole Antarctica New data released by NASA and NOAA show in September the ozone hole over Antarctica was the 9th largest on record – stretching over 16.17 million square kilometers (10.05 mln sq miles).

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