Islamabad, Nov 1 (IANS) As the world’s population reached the seven billion figure with a baby girl being born in India, an apocalypse ‘is discernible on a far horizon’, said a Pakistani daily.
Nargis, a girl born Monday in a village in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is the world’s seven billionth baby. A boy in Russia and a girl in the Philippines too are said to be the seven billionth babies.
The News International editorially said that ‘there are one billion more of us than there were in 1999, a short 12 years ago’.
‘It took humankind until the early 19th century to reach its first billion, then a century and a half to add another 1.5 billion and then just 60 years to add another 4.5 billion,’ it said.
Observing that Pakistan’s population is about 180 million, it said that ‘our population continues to grow at an unsustainable rate’.
‘We are running out of space and resources – and perhaps time as well. There is no Plan B for mankind. No option but planet Earth other than in the minds of science fiction writers. We have to make the best of what we have got,’ it added.
The editorial said it was greed that was driving Earth to the limits of its sustainability.
‘The apocalypse is not around the corner, but it is discernible on a far horizon.
‘…The doubling of the world population since 1961 means that each of us has half as much land to produce the food we eat. Mankind will have to be a better custodian of the only home it has got,’ it added.
