Seven billion and then some

The world population is set to reach seven billion people on October 31 this year. The increase in human population of this planet has accelerated greatly over the past 100 years.

This is directly in line with the industrial revolution and the pace of advance in technological developments, food production, resource extraction and medical developments.

Now more than ever as a collective species on this planet we should be looking at consuming less, of everything, all the time.

But that’s not what we’re led to believe in general if we take stock of the messages coming out of the majority of markets within developed nations.

We hit six billion people around 1999, three billion in 1960 and one billion in 1804. Have a look at the worldometer which contains much fascinating data about energy usage, forest destruction and much more.

They, whoever they are, estimate we will reach eight billion sometime around 2025 and be at 10 billion by 2083!

As you may have guessed by now this post isn’t specifically about how seven billion people on the planet will affect your start-up, it is more of a reflection on the ever growing amount of markets (people) that are available to all start-ups and the associated issues affecting all of us as individuals, families and communities that arise from having more people with the same amount of natural resources to sustain us.

It also provides further evidence that there will be an increasing amount of conflict for said resources and expanding opportunities arising for doing more with less.

There will be in the future increases in government assistance and regulated market mechanisms that provide more opportunity to create new businesses.

With a price looming on carbon and businesses looking for efficiency, now is a great time to get into the business of doing more with less.