Welcome to World Population Day, a joyous celebration of new neighbours to love, share and play with …err …mmm …let me begin again.

The United Nations predicts that the human population of Earth will reach 7 billion on October 31 2011. That’s a 4 billion addition in only 52 years. Take consolation in the fact that growth is slowing. By the time my 39 year old self is unlikely retired, i’ll be just 1 part in 9 billion – amazing; scary; amazingly scary!

With Man’s joyous proclivity for loving his neighbour, this undoubtedly means more war, whether on the stock markets or an oil field.

The glue of modern society, the middle class, is rapidly vanishing. Life is simply getting tougher. We need to readjust to our new circumstances. We need to aim for what we need and not what we want. We need to start talking to our neighbours again.

I’m reminded of a quote from the sci-fi series, Firefly: “We’re all doomed! Who’s flying this thing!? Oh, that would be me.”