The rigorous coursework in the Advanced Placement (AP) program has proven to build a good foundation for high school students, who plan to attend college after graduation. Most college and universities give course credit for AP exam scores of three or higher — students score from one to five on the exam. Even students who score one or two on the exam have proven to be better prepared for college-level work, than students who do not participate in the program.

A report by the national College Board, which oversees the AP program across the nation, was recently released. It showed the number of students taking the exams and the diversity representation, though it concentrates only on Hispanic, African American, and Native American student groups.

For the schools in Texas, participation in the AP exams has increased by 61 percent since the year 2001. Hispanics and African American students, however, were underrepresented in the AP exams.

African Americans students within schools in Texas had the biggest gap between total student population in the state and the percentage taking the AP exams. The African American students make up 13.5 percent of the total population, but only 6.8 percent took the exams — a disparity of almost half of the African American students opting not to participate in the AP program.

The Hispanic gap is closing in the Texas schools with 35 percent Hispanic students in the total population and 32.2 percent taking the exams.

The Texas schools have totally eliminated any gap for its Native American students with 0.3 percent of the population and 0.5 percent taking the AP exams.

Texas schools’ Commissioner of Education Shirley J. Neeley stated that they need to do a better job encouraging its minority students in middle school, so that they elect to take the AP classes and exams in high school.

The Texas schools students taking AP exams last year were 54,706 Caucasians, 34,976 Hispanics, 10,007 Asian Americans, 6,826 African Americans, 514 Native Americans, and 5,234 who marked “other” or gave no response for ethnicity. Minorities and “other” made up about 49 percent of the Texas schools testing population, as compared to the national average of 33.5 percent.

There were 204,403 AP exams taken by Texas schools students last year, many taking multiple exams. They scored three or higher on 99,428 of them. The Texas schools designated:

o 8,861 students as AP Scholars for scoring three or higher on three or more exams;

o 3,152 as AP Scholars with Honors for:

An average score of at least 3.25 on all exams, and

Scores of three or higher on four or more exams; o 4,447 as AP Scholars with Distinction for:

An average score of at least 3.5 on all exams, and

Scores of three or higher on five or more exams;

The national College Board named 752 Texas schools students as National Scholars for earning an average score of at least four on all exams, with scores of four or higher on eight or more AP exams.

Though these results are impressive, the Texas schools know they must continue to expand the overall enrollment, as well as increase the diversity levels in the AP program. State incentives make the AP program more accessible to students by lowering the per exam fee by $30, so that no student pays more than $52 for an AP exam. Further, combined funding from federal, state and local subsidies reduces the per exam fee to only $5 for low-income students.

Additionally, the Texas schools have expanded its course offerings to entice more students to participate and used state incentives to train more teachers for the AP program.

With post-graduation success depending so much on a college degree, the AP coursework and exams are essential for all students to succeed in college. Minorities must be equally represented in Advanced Placement classes. The Texas schools still have work to do.

Around the middle of 2011 the world population clocks tell us that there will be 7 billion people on earth; that is 7,000,000,000 chemical engines requiring a minimum of 2,000 calories a day in food to stave off hunger.

The calorific value to our digestive systems of rice and wheat, the staple starches for most of us, is around 340 per 100g. If we only ate cereals to supply our daily calorific needs the gents would get through 290 kg and the ladies 214 kg in a year.

So we need 1.76 million every day if we were all vegetarians. Of course many of us enjoy meat. The efficiency of the energy transfer from plant to livestock to us means we need roughly three times the plant calories to provide animal protein.

Round off some numbers and ratios for the meat eaters and each and every day the agricultural land must produce the equivalent of 3 million metric tons of usable grain; over a billion tons every year.

Suppose that 7 billion was the peak and the population was stable for a while. Maintaining food production would get harder each year because nutrient depletion, soil degradation, desertification and shortages of irrigation water are spreading across much of our productive land. Demographers suggest global population growth will slow but not until the total number has reached somewhere between 9 and 12 billion souls. Then the numbers may drop back over time to perhaps 6 billion by the end of the millennium.

The challenge for this generation is the planning to get through this population hump without starving.

Imagine the squabbles we will have if food supplies run out. Our history is one of war and conquest whose proximate cause might be the desires of egotistic empire builders but ultimately is about land, natural resources and growing enough food.

It would also be sensible to get through the hump without stripping the land of its ability to support life.

This challenge is real. Finding enough food is a daily truth to many in the developing world but food production requires solutions from everyone, even those of us who are well fed.

So what can be done?

One solution is to continue to throw technology at the problem. For some time now farmers have used artificial fertilizers, genetics and irrigation methods developed by scientists to prevent yield declines. These agronomic efforts have produced spectacular results in the short term, notably the green revolution of the 1970’s.

In recent times more hi-tech has been added to the mix. Today we can see crops grown on laser levelled fields with irrigation managed by computer to synchronise with plant water demand and fertilizers applied with precision from hoppers triggered by onboard GPS systems linked to yield maps. This is the ultimate high input system and it can work extremely well where the soil is suited to the precise management of nutrient input and offtake. The Dutch have been especially good at perfecting these systems.

This intensive approach to farming sits well with us. We are very fond of the technology fix that decreases the direct human effort and increases both the amount and reliability of returns even though initial investment is prohibitive for subsistence systems.

Hi-tech agribusiness also sits well in our economies. It generates profitable product and uses many suppliers and service providers to spread the economic returns through the market.

Given all these benefits option one looks attractive and we must implement it, especially where the soils, climate and management capacity are suitable.

But technology is not a universal solution.

Most agriculture is low input relying on nature to deliver production mostly unaided. It will be hard to supply technology solutions to agricultural land managed with little or no external input because the farmers that rely on the natural regeneration of soil have no alternative. They lack the resources to do it any other way. Yet these lands must also produce consistently to support the growing human population.

The solution on these lands is to assist nature achieve natural regeneration and efficient nutrient recycling. This means helping soil regenerate the natural fertility.

Maintaining production in low input farming has been the holy grail of agricultural development work for many decades. Under the guise of ‘sustainable land management’ organisations from the FAO and the World Bank to local organic co-operatives have searched for ways to achieve sustainability.

What has been missed in many of the grander schemes is the simplicity of the sustainable solution. All it requires are practices that retain carbon in the soil.

So how will we grow enough food?

We will need to apply technology where we can. The science will help and we cannot be too picky on issues such as genetic modification.

However, smart application of technology is essential. It cannot work everywhere and it is unwise to create vast tracts of monoculture crops even if they are managed with computers. Nature has a nasty habit of replacing similarity with diversity. And in this case for diversity read pests and disease.

The big solution though will be to both put carbon back into the soil where it has been depleted and also enhance soil carbon levels wherever we can.

Soil maintained for optimum carbon levels retains and exchanges nutrients efficiently, has good structure that supports plants and allows roots to develop, and retains moisture but also drains. In short, soil carbon promotes plant growth.

The initial solution to growing enough food on low-input lands is to use the carbon markets to reward farmers who store carbon in soil. Paying farmers to farm carbon will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and even sequesters some CO2 from the atmosphere into the soil. Emitters of greenhouses gases can buy the greenhouse credit created by the low-input farmers.

In the end though a greenhouse benefit is not the real value of the investment; the real return is growing enough food.

If you’ve never found yourself in a heated debate over whether it’s better to learn Chinese or Spanish, you’re unfashionably late to the party. It’s hard to read a book on parenting these days without breaching the subject, yet so many adults still haven’t taken a leap of faith in either direction.

Why not, though? It’s hard to deny in this age of the Internet that the global marketplace is more accessible than ever, and that a second (or third) language is a necessity to thrive. So what’s keeping so many of us in perpetual hesitation? Maybe we think we’re too old, too busy, or maybe we’re just plain lazy. But maybe we’re just stuck wondering: Chinese, or Spanish?

The answer doesn’t seem easy, and those of us living in the United States have had far too many years of selfish comfort in knowing that English is the most widely spoken language in the world. While that may not change in this lifetime or the next, if you don’t think you’re already living in a country where Spanish should be a mandatory language, you’re kidding yourself.

The base statistics are easy to cover. Spanish is far and away the second most spoken language in our country, with over twelve percent of the people living here speaking it as their first language. Their first language. Chinese speaking people, by comparison, make up less than 1% of the population. Let’s put this into perspective. If the Spanish speaking population stopped growing altogether, it would take the Chinese speaking population around sixty years to catch up at its current growth rate. By then, many of us would already be dearly departed from this world, second language or not.

You may be thinking, “But China has a population of over one billion, the largest in the world.” True, the Spanish speaking world population of only four-hundred-some million pales in magnitude when considered against the behemoth citizenship of China. But Spanish is the official spoken language of twenty countries, whereas Mandarin Chinese – the most widely spoken Chinese dialect – is only an official language of three. Even when leaving the comfort of our largely Spanish speaking homeland, chances are much higher we’ll wind up in a country where Spanish is important than in one where Chinese is.

You may then say, “But China has an incredibly bullish economy and is home to the largest bank in the world.” It’d be difficult to argue with that, but it may help to know that Santander Bank of Spain has over seven hundred branches in the United States, whereas the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has around one hundred branches worldwide outside of China. Only thirteen of those are in the U.S., and only two states – New York and California – have coverage.

While business in China is inarguably growing at a more impressive rate than any Spanish speaking country, here in the U.S., Hispanic owned businesses account for the largest number of minority owned firms. And though Spanish speaking countries may not boast the biggest business returns in the world, that doesn’t stop them from helping millions of Americans enjoy some of our favorite pastimes. In fact, the next time you’re enjoying an Entenmann’s cookie or tossing around a Rawlings baseball, you may want to say, “Gracias.”

Today, Spanish is the most widely studied language in the U.S., with more than fifteen times the amount of people studying Spanish over Chinese. You may be out of high school, but it’s not too late to join the popular crowd. Save the debate for your children, put down this article, and go take some spanish classes. It’d be un-American not to.

Lythrum salicaria or Purple loosestrife is a tough perennial that is characterized by its spiky pink-purple flowers. The plant was brought to the north-eastern United States in the 18th century by early settlers for their flower garden. Since then, it has spread aggressively across the United States and Canada.

The real problem

Wetlands are a biologically diverse component of the ecosystem with hundreds of varieties of fish, amphibians, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects relying on healthy riparian for their survival. Purple loosestrife grows rapidly in wetlands and the native species that thrive and reproduce there gets quickly covered under a swarm of purple flowers. Thousands of hectares of fertile wetlands that yield wild rice and support fish population are degraded in North America every year, with economic losses running into millions of dollars.

It can invade parched sites too. The plant has encroached agricultural as well as pasture land making it difficult for beneficial crops and animals to survive.

Why is it such a menace?

Purple loosestrife can produce countless seeds which disperse easily through wind and water. Thick stretches cover thousands of acres that eliminate open aquatic territory for species such as rare amphibians and butterflies. When it was brought from its native continent to New England, its natural predators were left behind. The predators prevented population explosion of Purple loosestrife in the native continent. However, due to lack of its natural enemies such as a beetle in the U.S.; purple loosestrife population has grown considerably.

How can you control Purple Loosestrife?

It is important to control for protecting native wildlife. Implementing proper control methods can inhibit the spread of the plant. The simple guidelines mentioned below can help in controlling the spread of purple loosestrife:

• The most appropriate time to manage is its flowering season that is in between late June, July and early August.

• Physical removal and registered herbicides can control small population of purple loosestrife.

• Once the area gets too heavily infested, it might become extremely difficult to physically remove the plant. In that case, control techniques can be used to control growth that may occur due to seeds dispersal.

• Watch drains or streams running from infested sections, as new colonies can easily sprout there. Cutting or digging out plants in the areas with manageable infestations will control the spread beyond the area.

• Biological control is another effective method to control invasive population. This method involved reuniting the plant with its natural predators. There are several species of insects that can feed and reduce purple loosestrife invasion.

Are there any alternative plants that can be sown?

There is an abundant variety of garden perennials that despite sharing similarities with purple loosestrife do not pose any threat to the natural surroundings. Some of the eco-friendly alternatives such as Blazing Star, Gay Feather, Delphinium, False Spirea, Foxglove, etc. are easily available at local nurseries.

Several agencies in the North America have initiated efforts to raise awareness about controlling the spread of this plant. Federal wildlife services, environment agencies, and conservation communities have come together to prevent the spread of this invasive plant.

There are two types of problems that occurs within a process: problems with variation and problems with centering. The goal is to have a process which is centered on a target with minimum variation. Continuous decision tools are used to describe the nature and extent of these two types of problems when studying a continuous CT characteristic.This With variation problems, we make inferences about the standard deviation or the variance of the population based upon sample data. With centering problems, we make inferences about the mean or the median of the population based upon sample data.

Confidence Intervals allow us to estimate population parameters (mean, standard deviation, etc.) within a range of values set at a pre-assigned probability called “confidence level”.

The One Sample t-Test and Z-Test are used to compare the population mean with a value such as the target. The t-Test is normally used for small sample size ( 30). However, as the sample size increases, the results of the t-Test approach the Z -Test.

When we want to determine the influence of factors such as procedures, material type, assembly sequence, temperature, etc. on our process, we can use the Two- Sample t-Test to determine if the mean of a CT characteristic significantly changes under two different conditions. For 2 or more conditions, we can use the One-Way ANOVA Test (analysis of variance).

The homogeneity of variance tests is used to determine if the variances of a CT characteristic significantly changess under two or more different conditions introduced by one factor.

The Two-Way ANOVA allows us to analyse the effect of two factors on a CT characteristic. An interaction effect between the two factors means that they have a combined effect on the CT characteristic.

The correlation coefficient is used to calculate the strength of the linear relationship between a continuous dependent variable (Y) and a continuous independent variable (X). When the relationship is strong, an equation that describes this relationship can be obtained through linear regression analysis. A fitted line plot allows us to visualize the equation with prediction bands. Most of the continuous decision tools assume that the data comes from a normal population. When it is impossible to characterize the population distribution, or when the distribution is not normal, nonparametric tests can be used. With these tests, instead of studying the mean, the median is used because it is a more appropriate measure of central tendency for data coming from non-symmetrical distributions.

Washington D.C.’s Language Access Act

In 2004, the Washington D.C. enacted the Language Access Act. The Act was created in order to grant greater access to and participation in public schools and other public services for those residents that have limited or no English proficiency. The Act is designed to address four crucial areas of language use and access to public services. These four areas are: the need for and the offering of oral language services; providing of written translation of key documents into other languages that have populations constitutes 3% or 500 individuals, whichever is less, of the population served or encountered, or likely to be served or encountered; establishment of language access plans that best services these populations; and finally creating language access coordination. The District of Columbia is focusing at this time on these five languages; Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Amharic. As a public service the Washington D.C. School District has also made steps to provide adjustments in its language and cultural education programs.

Washington D.C. School’s Diverse Population

Washington D.C. Schools are composed of one hundred sixty-seven schools and special learning centers. The breakdown of Washington D.C. Schools includes: one hundred one elementary schools, eleven middle schools, nine junior high schools, twenty high schools, six educational centers and twenty specialty schools. These schools educate nearly sixty-six thousand students with the majority made up of 39,161 elementary school students. Washington D.C. Schools have a rich diverse student population with more than one hundred twelve different foreign languages that represent one hundred thirty-eight different nationalities.

Out of these students almost 13% can be said to belong to a language minority group and another 8% can be classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP) or Non English Proficient (LEP/NEP) learners. The ethnic breakdown of the Washington D.C. School District includes nearly 85% African Americans, 10% Hispanics, 4% Whites, around 1% Asian Americans. In an effort to address the needs of this student population Washington D.C. Schools center their attention on the younger learners. Washington D.C. Schools operates sixty-nine Head Start programs aimed at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. It also runs six Montessori programs. It is now aiming at improving its language programs. Presently, Washington D.C. Schools operate eight two-way full immersion Spanish/English.

Implementing New Two-Way Language Immersion Programs

The Shepherd Elementary School, one Washington D.C. School, is working to develop new two-way language immersion programs for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten. The school is seeking to enroll pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students who speak French, Spanish or other languages in an effort to create new immersion programs. The programs will begin in late August, so Washington D.C. Schools are asking for immediate responses for those parents interested in the program. Right now the plan is for students to receive either Spanish-English or French-English content taught by fluent English and target language teachers. The dual language program is connected to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program that begins in all grades in late August, 2006.

As part of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Program students also receive education in culture and cultural diversity which includes: Children develop an understanding of self within a community. Begin to identify similarities and differences among people (e.g., gender, race, culture, language, abilities); demonstrate an emerging respect for culture and ethnicity. (Will learn some words of another language. Tastes a snack that a classmate from another culture brings to school.); and demonstrate emerging awareness and respect for abilities. (Listens to a story about a child with a disability. Includes children with disabilities in play.)

For 2050, the predictions are that robots will be doing all the work; even they will drive cars as well. And if this forecast stands true then many of those robot controlled cars would stop and park at masjids and churches.

It is estimated that Islam and Christianity would be the two religions which would have the highest population. Islam will become the fastest growing faith with the population of 2.76 billion by 2050. This would be the one-third of world’s total projected population from almost nine billion people.

Christianity would also grow but not at the same rate as of Islam. Therefore, Muslims are projected to nearly match Christians in both number and share of the global population. Christians would comprise of only thirty-one percent of the world’s population. In the past decade the population has increased to one hundred and thirty-seven percent and out of that Christianity has increased with just forty-six percent, while Islam has increased with two-hundred and thirty-five percent. According to sources it has been found that 100,000 people per year in America only, have converted to Islam.

This means that six out of every ten people will be Muslims or Christians by 2050 and this would happen first time in history that these both religions will grow at an equal number.

These projections are based on the age of populations, migration, fertility, conversion patterns and mortality rates. One can simply put it this way that Muslims are having bigger families with more members while transformations are prohibited in some Muslim countries and they are younger than believers of other religions. More than 1 in 3 Muslims is younger than 15. This aspect connects with Muslim women having an average of three children, the highest figure of any religious group. In the future, if education and employment proportions grow, then those numbers could change.

Some of the related forecasts for 2050 are that Muslims will exceed Jews and would become the largest non-Christian religion in the U.S. India will be having the largest Muslim population in the world, passing Indonesia, but Hindus will hold the supremacy. More than ten percent of Europeans will be Muslim, while the figures of Christians in Europe will descent by hundred million. In the upcoming years it is projected that one hundred and six million people would leave Christianity. The total countries with Christian majorities will drop to one hundred and fifty-one, from countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Macedonia, Benin, the Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nigeria, New Zealand, France and the Netherlands. Muslims are likely to make up more than fifty percent of the population in fifty-one countries.

Introduction

English language learners (ELLs) are the fastest growing subpopulation in the country with the highest dropout rate and the lowest graduation rate of all subgroups. Though you can find specific statistics on the ELL population by going into individual districts and department of education sites, it is very difficult to find up-to-date real statistics as a nation on the total English language learner population. These students must meet the same graduation requirements and standards as the English speaking population. Therefore, schools need to provide an environment which embraces their culture and reaches ELLs specifically according to their needs. Teachers are encouraged to learn how to use teaching strategies that will engage learners at their level and ability. For these reasons, helping children feel they will be successful begins with the orientation process. So, here are some questions regarding your school culture as it relates to your ELL population.

• How much does your school personnel know about the culture of your new students?
• How can your school personnel learn more to reach your ELL population? How can your school personnel promote a sense of community among students, parents, faculty and staff?
• Does your school have a plan of action that will encourage students testing out of the ELL program? If so, what is that plan and do all personnel know what it is?
• Does your school offer regular ELL training on topics such as placement, parental involvement, culture?
• Does your school have student ambassadors or student mentors paired with new ELL students to better support their transition to a new school?
• How does the school provide orientation for your ELL parents and students?
• How can school personnel make the first day for ELLs successful?
• How can school personnel assess your ELL’s learning ability in order to determine the level of instruction needed?
• Do you give incoming students a diagnostic test for a more accurate placement in classes?

How did you respond to the questions above? Did you answer positively? Does your school provide a welcoming environment to your immigrant students and their families?

Immigrant children face many challenges. English language learners come to school with a wide range of life and educational experiences due to their diverse backgrounds. They may have come to the United States under false pretenses or may have been separated from family members to have a better life in search of the ‘American dream’. Fraught with the stress of moving from one country to another, they also struggle with not knowing the language. Communication is the number one difficulty almost all ELL students and parents struggle with; culture shock then follows.

Culture shock is dealing with the stress of something new and unfamiliar. Students learning English as a second language may have come from a country where the goal of education is to teach and learn mechanically. These students will therefore not be used to learning by discovery and the thought of thinking critically and sharing out loud is unheard of. ELLs might shy away from enjoyable class activities, group discussions, or team work because they may feel threatened by the language barrier, the unknown expectations of the activity, or simply losing face because they may not know the right answer. They may also perceive a wrong answer as causing the teacher to lose face which might cause them to not respond. Teachers who do not understand a child’s culture, might then perceive these behaviors as disrespectful or might accuse the student of not participating, when in fact it is simply the case of feeling ‘culture shock’. Many ELLs are also not used to praise and may feel uncomfortable when asked to share an opinion or belief. They may feel it is a private thought and won’t feel safe sharing with others. On the far end of the spectrum, you might find your ELL may have never had any formal education in their country and is so lost educationally and socially that he/she may need ongoing long-term orientation to each and every lesson and activity. This would require serious patience of the part of the teacher and true differentiated instructional strategies for learning to be successful for ELLs in this situation.

Rather than cause your ELLs more stress then what comes naturally with culture shock, be creative and be patience. Show your support for learning and growth at all levels. Celebrate all cultures in your classroom and school. Learn about different countries, give opportunities for your ELLs to share out about their country, their language and their purpose for coming to the United States. Talk with them individually. Have your ELLs teach you a new word in their home language as you teach them a new word in English. Doing this builds great relationships and it opens up the lines of communication creating a sense of safety and comfort. Students want to feel safe in a classroom environment. Provide your ELL students a class mentor (a classmate) to answer questions, help navigate around the classroom, provide peer tutoring if necessary, or whatever it might take until he/she is comfortable with the class routines, expectations and lesson activities. The mentor can also rotate each week allowing other students to participate in your mentoring program. Give your ELLs translated documents, homework sheets, class activities, etc. This can be done by translating documents on Google translator, Yahoo translator or other online translators for free. Just as important as translated documents is encouraging students to use a bilingual dictionary for everything including tests and quizzes. Word for word translations provide support and are additional resources for success.

We know culture may affect classroom behaviors, but it also may influence comprehension of content. The role of the school and the teacher is critical in creating a safe and welcoming atmosphere, one that supports the development of these students as bilingual learners. Teachers have a unique opportunity to utilize the culture and experiences ELLs bring to school to expand the learning of all students in the classroom. Reinforcing the effort helps students see a clear relationship between what they do and what they achieve. Through careful planning and open communication, your school will not only make the first day of orientation for new ELLs an extremely pleasant experience, but you will also create an atmosphere of inclusion and belonging that will result in a student’s desire to be in school, as well as increase his/her academic, social and personal achievements.

We have about 6.8 billion people on a tiny orb only 8,000 miles wide and 24,000 miles in circumference that we call Earth. We add about a million and half people to our world population every week! How have we reached the point that many describe as global overpopulation? What is our Planet’s carrying capacity? Is zero population growth desirable, or attainable? What are the causes and effects of human overpopulation?

The family of humans, known as the hominids, has populated Earth, according to the fossil record, for 5 to 6 million years. The hominids transitioned from one genus to another before our genus, homo, appeared about a million and half to two million years ago. We transitioned through a number of homo species before our species, homo sapiens (“sensible humans”) emerged about 150,000 years ago.

For the 5 to 6 million years we hominids have been here (Earth has been here for 4.56 billion years in a universe that has been here 13.7 billion years), we have mostly been Stone Age hunters and gatherers. For the 150,000 years we modern humans have been here, we too have mostly been hunters and gatherers. About 12,000 years ago, with the domestication of plants and animals, our Agrarian Age began. Since then, we’ve mostly been agrarians. A little more than 200 years ago, in the late 1700s, the Industrial Age began in England. By 1850, it spread to Belgium, Germany, France and the United States. Over time, it spread to other industrial countries. About sixty years ago, we transitioned from the Industrial Age to the post-Industrial High Tech Information Age we live in today. It is an age that allows us to disseminate information almost anywhere instantly.

Over time, we accumulated people. Two-thousand years ago, our population was at 250 million. In the year 500 A.D., it remained the same. By 1000 A.D., we climbed to 500 million people. We reached 750 million people around 1500 A.D. We hit our first billion mark in 1800 at which time the Industrial Revolution kicked in. We added people more rapidly and began to move quickly in the direction of human overpopulation. Between 1800 and 1900 we added 600 million people. At 1900, we were at 1.6 billion. By 1960, in 60 short years, we nearly doubled that as we reached 3 billion.

In 1960, we humans had been here about 150,000 years. It took us that long to accumulate 3 billion people. How long did it take for us to double that number? Thirty-nine years! In 1999, we reached 6 billion people. It is estimated that we will be at 9.2 billion by 2050. This is an exponential increase in birth rate, leading to questions concerning Earth’s carrying capacity.

The effects of human overpopulation are multiple and ominous. As birth rates climb, natural resources get used up faster than they can be replaced, creating enormous economic pressures at home while the standard of living plummets throughout the rest of the world. As the result of having so many people who do not understand our reality and its behavioral demands, we have created an interrelated web of global environmental problems. We are depleting our natural resources: our forests, fisheries, range lands, croplands, and plant and animal species. We are destroying the biological diversity on which evolution thrives (this is being called the sixth great wave of extinction in the history of life on earth, different from the others in that it is caused not by external events, but by us).

With powerful new electrical and diesel pumping techniques, we are draining our aquifers and lowering our water tables. We are systemically polluting our air, water, and soil, and consequently our food chain. We are depleting the stratospheric ozone that shields us from harmful ultraviolet radiation. And, we are experiencing symptoms of global warming: heat waves, devastating droughts, dying forests, accelerated species extinction, dying coral reefs, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, more frequent and intense storms, and a more rapid spread of diseases.

What is the solution for global overpopulation? What must we do to ensure that population growth is not out of control? The answer lies in education. We humans are a very young species. We have been here for only a short time. We are like a child just learning to walk. We face grave challenges that demand a rapid shift in our behavior. Our teacher is our parent. Our parent is the natural world from which we emerged. In every way, in every facet of our existence, we must learn to align ourselves with that which supports life. There is no alternative if we are going to avoid catastrophic consequences.

With so many of us on a very small planet, and with the addition of so many more every week, we can no longer continue to relate to each other, our environment, ecological systems and biosphere as we have or we will succumb to the effects of human overpopulation. Nature, which could not care less, will eliminate us. We humans must grow up and learn to walk…hand in hand with each other and with our natural world. There is no alternative if we wish to sustain humanity and advance our civilization.