By Laura Frykberg
Today the world’s population officially passed 7 billion.
But the historic occasion has triggered some confusion as to which can officially be called Citizen Seven Billion.
If three babies are born every second, it seems remarkable that anyone could predict which baby was the 7 billionth.
But today four families were visited by four United Nations representatives and told Citizen Seven Billion was their child.
As the confusion spread, the UN boss admitted even he couldn’t be sure.
“I’m not in a position to make a firm clarification on who is the seven billionth baby,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
A New Zealand expert says all this debate is a distraction from the real issue; the world’s population is increasing at a startling rate – up by 1 billion in just 12 years.
If we in New Zealand think it’s not our problem – think again.
“When you look at maps and graphs that show the impacts of India or china – which have huge populations – actually their carbon footprint is much smaller than that of a New Zealander,” says Victoria University Professor Cath Wallace.
She says as the population grows, how the world’s resources are shared will become more and more important.
“There’s already large parts of the planet where people don’t have access to clean water, where they don’t have access to enough food – so the big issue is distribution of income and opportunities,” says Professor Wallace.
While it’s unclear which baby was the seven billionth, what is clear is the world is only going to get more and more crowded.
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