Interesting news this week. According to the population clock at the United Nations, there are now six-billion of us on this whirling planet.(1) Someone decided that a baby boy born to refugee parents in Sarajevo, a region returning to life after a decade of death and destruction and war, would be the perfect symbol for the push toward our next billion or so. According to UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, the birth of little Adnan Nevic "should light a path of tolerance and understanding for all people." We can certainly hope.

UN demographers had determined that the population would hit the six-billion number this past Tuesday, which means that we have had a doubling of the Earth's inhabitants in less than 40 years. The population clock in the visitors' lobby at UN headquarters was racing s…