"7 billionth" babies celebrated worldwide

(CBS/AP) 

MANILA, Philippines - Countries around the world marked the world's population reaching 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone and warnings that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources.

While demographers are unsure exactly when the world's population will reach the 7 billion mark, the U.N. is using Monday to symbolically mark the day. A string of festivities are being held worldwide, with a series of symbolic 7-billionth babies being born.

The celebrations began in the Philippines, where baby Danica May Camacho was greeted with cheers and an explosion of photographers' flashbulbs at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. She arrived two minutes before midnight Sunday, but doctors say that was close enough to count for a Monday birthday.

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The baby received a shower of gifts, from a chocolate cake marked "7B Philippines" to a gift certificate for shoes.

"She looks so lovely," the mother, Camille Galura, whispered as she cradled the 5.5-pound baby, who was born about a month premature.

The baby was the second for Galura and her partner, Florante Camacho, a struggling driver who supports the family on a tiny salary.

Dr. Eric Tayag of the Philippines' Department of Health said later that the birth came with a warning.

"Seven billion is a number we should think about deeply," he said.

"We should really focus on the question of whether there will be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life for every child," he said. "If the answer is 'no,' it would be better for people to look at easing this population explosion."

Demographer Joel Cohen of Rockefeller University echoed that concern in an interview with CBS News correspondent Russ Mitchell, warning that rapid population growth, "makes almost every other problem more difficult to solve."

"If we could slow our growth rate, we have an easier job in dealing with all the other things like education, health, employment, housing, food, the environment and so on," Cohen told CBS News.

Click on the video player below to see the full interview with Cohen:

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CBS Evening News: The most typical person

Last week, CBS Evening News reported how researchers with The National Geographic had averaged out the characteristics of the world population to come up with a "typical person."

The National Geographic researchers found nine million people who had the most in common. They overlayed the faces of 190,000 of them to create one image: Earth's everyman.

The average person is Han Chinese so his ethnicity is Han. He is 28 years old. He is Christian. He speaks Mandarin. He does not have a car. He does not have a bank account.

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So CBS News went looking for that guy. We called and emailed Chinese-American groups around the country for help. And one of them led us to Main Street, in Queens, New York, and Mu Li.

National geographic researchers averaged the world's population to come up with a composite image of the most typical person in the world. CBS News found someone who fits the bill: Mu Li, a Han Chinese immigrant living in New York City,

(Credit: CBS/National Geographic)

He arrived five months ago from Chong Qing, a southwest China mega-city of 28 million people. Li is working in New York as a reporter for the People's Daily, China's state newspaper.

Li is Han Chinese. Mandarin is his first language. And he recognizes the universality of his personal profile.

"I have a common face, a common background. Suddenly you realize, you say, 'Wow, you are the most typical person in the world,'" Li said.

Li fits other criteria. He's right-handed, works in a service industry, lives in a city, owns a cell phone, but no car.

We showed him National Geographic's composite image, and he admits he sees himself in it, chuckling at the suggestion that he may be better looking.

Li's reign as Earth's Everyman will not last long. Earth's population could reach 8 billion people in 2026. By then, the most typical human, will be from India.

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[BobinPgh]

CBS could help in this bad situation. How many times during the CBS news do we see an ad for Pampers and Huggies and minivans? Stop making having kids out to be a good thing and maybe people will think twice before having so many. To be truthful, I think disposable diapers should be banned. At least CBS is not TLC with baby story, Duggars, Jon and Kate, I didn't know I was pregnant, etc.

[elmgreen11]

As the 3,134,431,717th human [according to BBC server computation] I can see that the world is getting way too crowded. The most shocking was when I visited my college 20 years after graduation and there were huge parking lots jam-packed with cars where woods and meadows had been before. Ghandhi said that there's enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed - I wonder if that's still true?

[sociallyjust]

WITHOUT ANY CONSIDERATION FOR EGO, NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

There will be some major event or other - from pandemic disease to war to extraterrestrial 'interaction', that will reduce our human specie to a tiny, insignificant number if that, OR ZERO!

Humankind's selfishness, greed, and disregard for all life forms - particularly flora, fauna and 'other' humans - and man's constant violation and abuse of this planet's integrity, DESERVES the forgoing cataclysmic results!

[4780]

7 billion people is too much for the earth to handle. With that many people, some people are going to have to do without food or shelter. health care has helped mankind reach 7 billion. If nature doesn't take over with a human killing disease than governments will have to poison the food supply or host massive wars to wipe out some of the lower class unwanted people. Maybe that's why homosexuality is so popular-just natures way of saying "have sex but not babies."

[JohnPrewett]

Due to it's decades of opposition to modern birth control, Vatican should get a good share of the credit for enabling the human race to achieve this great triumph of having 7 billion of us on this planet. Way to go Vatican. Thanks a bunch. Can't wait for the next billion to roll around. Unless of course a major die out occurs.

[TheGrimReaper137]

The HARD FACTS for We Humans to accept is that the Animals, AKA God's Innocent Children, have been the caretakers of Beautiful Planet Earth for 300,000,000 years and doing an Excellent Job of it.
Along comes johnny come lately humans splitting off from the great apes 9 million years ago and growing a large brain, for what use is debatable, thinking we are God's chosen and eating, pooping and making more of US without consideration.
For the past 200 years "Humanity" has been a One Species Wrecking Team laying waste to our Incredibly beautiful planet and killing off her caretakers the blessed animals.
Motha' Nature is gonna make US pay with some incredible pandemic related to the spanish flu of 1918 which offed 60,000,000 humans THEN.
What we have now is the Swine flu, H1N1, very very low kill rate: 2 out of 100 people, BUT Extremely contagious. Notice how we are constantly being pushed to get our flu shots???
Then We have the current Bird Flu, H5N1, with a lethal kill rate of 70 out 100 people. When they finally Marry Up and produce a Shifted Variant Killer Strain There is gonna be a reckoning for We Peoples
and the Animals are immune to it......
They will have the last laugh when 5Billion of US are whacked.
It is time we stopped putting the onus of contraception on Women.
It is time for a mandatory shot or pill for Men rendering our sperm UNABLE to Swim.
Because if we don't stop knocking Women up and making babies all over the planet, Motha' Natcha' is gonna step in with her pandemic and CLEAN HOUSE.
There Ain't Nooo Doubt 'Bout It. Y'All can take that ti th'Bank.

[rwsmith29456]

Nature will prune back the population when necessary.

[redbeachvn]

Go forth and multiply. God will take care of needs and or any material short comings.

[Hosheen]

Another highly delusional comment by someone with no intelligence or desire for any.

[Scimajor]

You have to wonder about all the hyper over something that is nothing more than a wild guess. It's rediculous in the extreme to say with any kind of certainty that the population hit 7 billion on any particular month(over even year) much less a particular day.

[smurfula]

When the 7 billion eventually drain they planet, they will die. Excuse me, but this is logical. I a hundred million years, dear mother earth will have replenished itself, minus mankind. It has happened before on earth, it's no big thing. Remember, God said, "I give this all to you" well folks, ya'll screwed the gift up! You all USED it all up!

[retiredgustav]

The earth will survive.......with or without us.