7 Billion Humans | National Geographic Magazine: Mendicants Travel With Fertility Prayers | Indus Valley, Pakistan

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Fertility Mendicants | Near Lahore, Pakistan

With rising per capita consumption, by 2100 we’ll need to produce an amount of food that is 2.5 times what all societies have produced in the last 8,000 years.

We currently use 33 percent of the Earth’s surface for food. As 25 percent isn’t usable (deserts, cities, roads) and 12 percent is set aside for national parks and the like, we continue to expand the food production frontier each year. At the current rate of habitat loss, after 40 years, we will have “eaten” nearly all the remaining natural habitat on the planet. Whatever is sustainable with 7 billion people will not be with 10 billion.

 —Jason Clay, senior vice president at the World Wildlife Fund