When I was researching my Earth Hour blog for March 28. 2026, I was startled to discover that the human population of Earth had just reached 8.3 billion, give or take a few million. For the last few years in speaking engagements, I had been using the 2011 milestone of 7 billion. It was catchy to say that the world’s population had tripled since I was born in 1946. Time for an upgrade.
From historical estimations, the relatively small human population of a few million in Africa, East Asia, and Europe was kept in check by high mortality rates. From there it took over 200,000 years to reach a global population of 1 billion in 1804. But it took only 200 years to reach 8 billion by 2022. Gotta love that Industrial Revolution.
When we moved into our little home in North York, Ontario in the 1950’s it was heated by a coal furnace. I remember driving down with my Dad to an industrial warehouse on Mount Pleasant Avenue in Toronto to pick up bags of coal and charcoal. That ended when Hurricane Hazel flooded our basement and our coal furnace blew up.. A new oil furnace replaced it with a storage tank at the side of the house.
But we still had an icebox refrigerator. My serious job was to empty the water tray under the fridge every day. The fun time was chasing the ice wagon down the street to steal ice chips.
Then one day we got the first electric refrigerator on the street. A Westinghouse with a butter keeper. All the neighbours lined up to see it. Entertainment was all piano, harmonica, singsong, and radio … until the first black and white TV arrived. I was allowed to watch three shows on the weekends: Lawrence Welk, Ed Sullivan, and the Wonderful World of Disney. Then we added The Dick Clark Show – rock & roll, and wild dancing!
How times have changed. I remember getting my first “smart” phone, taking a picture on a hike, sending it to my daughter overseas, and my shock in realizing she had received it instantaneously. No more long distance letters that took weeks and months to arrive from “the colonies” to relatives in Europe.
You see, it’s not just the population and the temperature that are on the hockey stick curve. It’s also the amount of stuff that has pushed us faster into the future, as one mentor described it: ” driving at high speed towards the edge of a cliff looking in the rear view mirror.”
When I look back, my favourite times were going through our neighbour’s backyard to explore the Don Valley ravine. They were making up radio shows with my Dad on his new tape recorder, where we created all of our own sound effects. They were watching my uncles and aunts sing around the piano. They were canoe trips with my students when we moved with the rhythm of the wind and the water.
Perhaps time seemed to move more slowly then, and we were allowed to enjoy the moment. 8.3 billion of us, moving fast, consuming more, does not seem to be bringing us community happiness in the North American world of my childhood. Certainly not in the global community. Perhaps it is time to slow down and listen to the grand liturgy of the universe, as Thomas Berry would implore.
Time to get humble again. The way I see it.
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Historical footnote:
1 billion at the start of the Industrial Revolution to 2.5 billion in 1946 to 8.3 billion in 2026
CE 1: million
1804: 1 billion
1927: 2 billion
1946: 2.5 billion
1960: 3 billion
2016: 7 billion
March 28, 2026 : 8.3 billion
You draw the chart.