Somewhere in the world--perhaps India, as the Associated Press suggests--a baby was born today that was designated by the United Nations Population Fund as the person that pushed us over the 7 billion mark in terms of humans alive at the same time. Keep in mind, of course, that population growth at the global level is the balance of births and deaths, so the only reason that this birth mattered was because someone else on the globe didn't die. Indeed, the only reason we have reached 7 billion is because we have brought the death rate under control, so we really should be celebrating survival, not so much the birth of a child per se.
And, remember that according to the US Census Bureau's world population clock, we won't reach 7 billion until next March, so we will have plenty of time to continue thinking about how many of us there are. Actually, we will have the rest of our lives to figure that out...
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