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The US Census Bureau (2017) publishes online a continuous, second-by-second update of the world’s population on its website (https://www.census.gov/popclock/). According to the Bureau, the total world population, at 05:07 GMT on 28 October 2017, was 7,430, 555, 770. That figure was increasing at a rate of 2.4 extra people every second. By 2025 there will be 8 billion people on Earth.

Dividing the globe into regions, the most populous region is China. With 1.379 billion people in 2017, China contains 19% of all people on Earth. The second most populous country is India, with 1.282 billion in 2017. It is expected that India’s population will surpass China’s, with around 1.5 billion by 2040. Fertility is falling in most of the developing world but there is a huge variation between countries.

One intervention for population growth, birth control, is practised in many countries. However, religious edicts influence sexual and reproductive practices, leading to population growth. This issue is difficult to ignore. Consider the position of the Roman Catholic Church as one example. The human failure to practise abstinence as the only acceptable method for birth control in South America and Africa is adding to population growth, poverty and the spread of HIV infection. Fertility is highest in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world where the prevalence of AIDS is maximal. Birth control is also cheaper than other methods of reducing carbon emissions (Wire, 2009). Failing to prevent unwanted births increases the population and causes poverty and malnutrition, and the physical climate becomes more unstable.