The History Book

336

O

n October 31, 2011, a baby

girl born in Manila, the

capital of the Philippines,

was chosen by the United Nations

(UN) to symbolically represent

the 7 billionth person on earth.

To mark this global-population

milestone, October 31st was named

Seven Billion Day, but with a billion

people reported to be going hungry

at that time, debates were rekindled

about whether the Earth could

support so many people.

Before the 17th century, the

world’s population increased very

slowly, but it began to expand

rapidly after 1850. This was in part

due to a reduction in the number

of children dying in infancy, but

death rates fell overall, too, as new

farming technology expanded the

food supply and lowered the risk

of famine. The marked increase

of industrialization and advances

in medicine improved public health

and living standards.

By 1927, the world-population

figure had reached 2 billion. In the

early 20th century, population

growth was highest in the rich

industrialized West, but this

pattern began to change. Mid-

century saw many European

countries experience falling birth

rates, while population growth

increased sharply in the relatively

underdeveloped areas of Asia,

Africa, and South America due to a

much higher birth rate. In 1987, the

5 billionth person was born; and by

1999, the 6 billionth. It took 123

years for the world’s population to

go from 1 billion to 2 billion but had

taken only 12 years to make the

leap from 6 billion to 7 billion.

The Green Revolution

During the early 20th century,

many countries imported large

quantities of food that they were

unable to grow themselves, to

enable them to meet the demands

of a growing population. Britain,

for example, imported 55 million

tons of food each year.

In the early 1940s, Mexico

imported half of its wheat, and its

population was rapidly expanding.

The country requested technical

expertise from the United States on

ways to increase wheat production.

By 1944, with the financial support

of the American Rockefeller

Foundation, a group of US scientists,

including American biochemist

Norman Borlaug, had begun

GLOBAL POPULATION EXCEEDS 7 BILLION

Dr. Norman Borlaug shows off his

wheat, which he bred specifically for its

hardiness against disease and ability

to produce high yields. It revolutionized

wheat production in Mexico.

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Population explosion

BEFORE

1804 The world’s population

reaches 1 billion. Population

growth is the fastest in Europe.

1927 World population reaches

2 billion as death rates fall and

birth rates stay high.

1959 The approximately

3 billionth baby is born.

1989 Annual World Population

Day is established by the UN

on July 11, inspired by the

interest in the symbolic

5 billionth baby.

AFTER

2050 Global population is set

to hit 9.7 billion, a slowdown in

growth, with fewer babies

born per household.

2100 Estimates suggest that

the world population will be

over 11 billion, posing grave

challenges for food supplies.

Living longer

During the 20th century, life

expectancy rose dramatically. In

2013, the average life expectancy

worldwide, from birth, was 71.0

years. Health education, which

focused on diet and basic

hygiene, led to a reduction in

infant mortality, and better

sanitation and clean drinking

water have reduced the risks of

spreading infectious diseases,

including cholera and typhoid.

One of the biggest

contributory factors to longer

life expectancy has been the

eradication of some killer

diseases. The antibiotic drug

penicillin, which helps fight

bacterial infection, became

widely used to treat diseases

such as tuberculosis and

syphilis. Later, mass vaccination

programs by governments and

the United Nations’ World

Health Organization (WHO)

helped eradicate smallpox and

work toward the elimination of

polio. Advances in medicine and

diagnostics have revolutionized

healthcare. Some scientists

predict that by 2050, the average

life expectancy will be 100.

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337

researching methods of developing

a high-yielding strain of wheat that

could resist disease and was short

in height, so as to reduce wind

damage. The work in Mexico was

incredibly successful: by 1956, the

country was totally self-sufficient

and no longer imported wheat and

maize. This success launched

what became known as the Green

Revolution—the spread of new

modern agricultural technologies in

the 1960s and 70s that dramatically

increased food production around

the world. The Green Revolution

benefited countries that included

the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri

Lanka, China, Indonesia, Kenya,

Iran, Thailand, and Turkey.

Indian scientists in particular

had followed the work of Borlaug

and his colleagues. In the mid-

1960s, India had been struck by two

back-to-back droughts, which led to

the need for large food imports from

the United States. In 1964, both

India and Pakistan began importing

and testing semi-dwarf varieties of

wheat from Mexico, and the results

were promising: in the spring of

1966, the harvest was larger than

any ever produced in South Asia,

despite it being a dry year.

Miracle rice

In 1960, a new so-called miracle

rice known as IR-8 was developed

at the International Rice Research

Institute in the Philippines. With

its much reduced growing cycle,

this new product brought about a

dramatic transformation in farmers’

lives. In countries such as Vietnam,

two complete crops of the new

rice could now be produced each

year, whereas the traditional rice

it replaced would only produce one

crop. Stunning innovations such as

this in agricultural science allowed

chronically poor countries, in Asia

in particular, to feed themselves

and meet the demands of their

growing populations.

The Green Revolution did not

come without controversy, not

least because it involved a move

toward chemical pesticides. During

the 1940s, the insecticide DDT

(dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane)

was introduced as a way of

controlling a variety of diseases,

including mosquito-borne malaria,

with a single treatment. However in

1962, American biologist Rachel

Carson highlighted the dangers of

DDT in her groundbreaking book

Silent Spring, claiming that it may

cause cancer and also be bad for

the environment. Silent Spring led

to a nationwide ban on DDT in the

US and raised enough concern

to trigger the establishment of the

Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA), an independent body to

safeguard the environment. The

Green Revolution also faced huge

challenges in many countries in

Africa, where there was a lack of

irrigation facilities, unreliable

rainfall, high fertilizer prices, and

no credit to buy new seed varieties.

GM crops

Genetically modified (GM) crops

were greeted with excitement in the

1990s and regarded as part of the ❯❯

See also: The outbreak of the Black Death in Europe 118–19 ■ The Columbian Exchange 158–59 ■ Stevenson’s Rocket

enters service 220–25 ■ The opening of Ellis Island 250–51 ■ The opening of the Eiffel Tower 256–57

THE MODERN WORLD

Death rates decline

and birth rates rise.

Better living conditions and

medical advances help

increase life expectancy.

Concern about how to feed the growing population

kick-starts the Green Revolution.

The global population continues to increase,

particularly in developing countries.

The world’s population exceeds 7 billion.

Increasing strains on the environment such as food shortages,

water scarcity, and climate change threaten millions of lives.

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