Morning Briefing

As the world's population approaches seven billion -- which it is expected to hit sometime in March, according to Census Bureau estimates -- Joel Cohen, a mathematical biologist and the head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University and Columbia University, examines the implications of "the enormous increases in households, cities, material consumption and waste" on health, agriculture, water security, the environment and poverty in this New York Times opinion piece. He writes, "For some in the West, the greatest challenge -- because it is the least visible -- is to shake off, at last, the view that large and growing numbers of people represent power and prosperity."