On Monday, according to the UN, the Earth saw the birth of its seven billionth inhabitant. The news is a cause for concern, as the international body has said, but not a cause for despair.
After decades of breakneck expansion, global population growth is finally slowing, with average birthrates dropping from six children per woman 60 years ago to 2.5 today.
Health, sanitation, education and access to reproductive services have all improved, contributing to the deceleration.
If we continue on this course, it's likely growth will slow to a halt some time this century - a very good thing for a planet with finite resources.
That doesn't mean we're out of the woods, however. Expansion is projected to continue for some time, and the strain our species is placing on the global ecosystem is already unsustainable.
As a wealthy country with a low birth rate, Canada isn't adding many mouths to the horde, but there's nonetheless a great deal our country can do to take the steam out of global growth and to lift some of the burden our billions place on the planet.
International aid directed at health and education in the developing world would go a long way to applying the brakes further, as healthy, educated people have fewer children.
And policy changes here - targeting everything from packaging to transit to the consumption of meat - could help curb our disproportionate use of resources.
Seven billion people have a lot of potential for harm, but working in the right direction, we have even more potential for good.
