Final answer:
The global human population has experienced exponential growth over the past 10,000 years, accelerating rapidly since the Industrial Revolution. It rose from 1 billion in 1800 CE to over 7 billion by 2012, with a current pace of growth indicating a doubling of population in subsequent decades unless trends change.
Step-by-step explanation:
Over the last 10,000 years, the global human population has undergone significant changes. Starting from a modest base when agriculture was introduced, the number of humans was relatively steady for a long period. The population began to increase more noticeably with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and continued to grow at an accelerated rate into the modern era. As we transitioned from pre-industrial societies with high mortality rates and high fertility to industrial and post-industrial societies with lower mortality and variable fertility, the growth pattern of human population shifted dramatically.
By the time the global population reached 1 billion around 1800 CE, it signalled the onset of exponential population growth. Scientific and medical advancements, improved agricultural practices, and better sanitation played crucial roles in this surge by reducing mortality rates and enabling more sustained population increases. In less than 200 years, we leapfrogged from 1 billion to 7 billion by 2012, with the most recent billion added over the course of just 12 years, showcasing a sharp decline in the time required to add each successive billion. Today, we are approaching the 8 billion mark, with a current growth rate suggesting the possibility of population doubling in the coming decades if the same rate persists.
Major factors contributing to this rapid increase include the demographic transition, which brought declines in death rates across the globe due to advancements in health and medicine, coupled with persistently high birth rates in developing regions. It is important to note that while the global population has seen an exponential increase, this trajectory raises questions about the sustainability of resources and the environment's capacity to support such growth in the long term.