Dear Humans,

When I was a kid I read the almanac all the time. Nothing made me happier than a list of the longest rivers in the world. And while many of those facts are the same–like the longest rivers–a lot of them are very different.

There are probably many adults like me walking around who would be shocked that the global population is almost 8 billion people. Because when I was in school, I learned that it was about 6 billion. When my parents were in school, they probably learned that it was about 3 or 4 billion. When my grandparents were in school, they learned that the world population was 2 billion.

We teach you the facts whenever we can. But the truth is that the facts change all the time. So we also have to teach you to think about the forces that drive that change and how to think and live in a world that doesn’t stay the same for very long.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck