This October world population will hit seven billion people. That means since 1999, you’ve gained a total of 1,000,000,000 new neighbors on this earth…and maybe even right next door!  With 312 million people and counting, the US clocks in as the third most populous nation in the world, behind India and China. And we’re the fastest growing of all industrialized countries to boot; in fact, some countries, like Japan, actually have declining birth rates. But growth is good, right? Well, in the 1970s, many would have begged to differ.

Blueprint America on Need to Know time travels to 1968, a time when the threat of world famine and pollution from the “population bomb” captivated a national audience and spawned a movement, only to be diffused by beltway politics and emerging hot button issues. Within just a few short years, it seemed the population bomb had become a bust.

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