7 Billion People and Counting

A five-step global plan could double food production by 2050 while greatly reducing environmental damage

A mere 12 years after surmounting six billion, the world's population will reach seven billion, according to the U.N. But that rate seems to be slowing

There's no way that anyone could pinpoint which baby became the seven billionth person living on Earth. The uncertainties in measurement are simply too huge

Five steps, reflected in the maps below, could be taken to help feed the large population predicted for 2050 as well as reduce the sizeable harm agriculture imposes

A technology originally developed for maritime navigation and detection has become the dominant method for sex selection

The Rockefeller University's Joel Cohen noted at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that the question of Earth's human-carrying capacity depends on how we're being carried. Steve Mirsky reports

The nine billion people expected by 2050 will stress the planet, but cost-effective means can prevent overpopulation

The population bomb is being defused. It is being done without draconian measures by big government, without crackdowns on our liberties--by women making their own choices

Solving climate change, the Sixth Great Extinction and population growth... at the same time

Scientists propose a list of planetary boundaries for human impacts ranging from biodiversity loss to the global nitrogen cycle

Slowing the rise in human numbers is essential for the planet--but it doesn't require population control

Human activity is responsible for a sixth extinction of thousands of species, so Paul Ehrlich and a colleague call for educating women to slow population growth

Booming population growth among the living, according to one rumor, outpaces the dead

As we swell toward nine billion in the next half a century, humanity will undergo historic changes in the balance between young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural. Our choices now and in the years ahead will determine how well we cope with our coming of age