National Geographic's new issue that by the end of 2011 we will have 7 billion people on the planet. This brings up lots of interesting issues to do with education, energy, housing, sanitation, and food.

Venezuela
Sharing a hillside with high-rise apartment dwellers, children dance at a shop in one of the squatter communities that ring Caracas, a city of three million. One in seven people on Earth lives in slums today. Providing them with better housing and education will be one of the great challenges facing a world of seven billion people and counting.

United States
A new house went up every 20 minutes during the 2004 building boom that seized Las Vegas and its sprawling suburbs, like Henderson. The American lifestyle—characterized by gas-thirsty cars and big houses using lots of electricity—contributes to the country's energy appetite; its carbon emissions are four times higher than the global average.

The article and National Geographic website focus on the importance of balance in our world. Watch the great video below: