A welcome to the 8 billionth

This week we bid a warm welcome to the 8 billionth human being. We look forward eagerly to their intellectual and artistic contributions and to their role in enhancing the common lot of humankind.

Some people regard humans as a kind of pollution to the planet. Indeed, some treat humanity as the greatest threat posed to the Earth. We do not. We share the view of the late Julian Simon that human beings constitute “The Ultimate Resource.”

Although some have suggested that the world’s population will rise to 50 billion or more, the rate of increase is slowing, and projections suggest that it might reach 10 billion, and then start to decline. A major reason is that as nations become richer, their birthrate declines, and the world as a whole has been growing richer. Coupled with this is the fact that as education, particularly that of women, is extended, birthrate goes down. The world is not going to drown in people.

Others have claimed that Earth’s resources are being used up, and there will be precious little left for future generations. This is incorrect. Human ingenuity has developed ways of satisfying our needs with fewer resources than it previously took, and has also enabled us to tap new sources of them. “Water wars” will be no more likely than “peak oil” was. We are clever enough to find new ways of doing things.

We are also clever enough to mitigate the effects our presence has on the environment by inventing technological means of diminishing it. It will be human creativity, the infinite resource, that will enable us to live, not more simply, but more cleverly and more cleanly.

This week saw us lay another place at life’s table, and we look forward to the contribution the 8 billionth person will make to humanity’s achievements, inventions and adventures.