OverPopulation Myth??

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I enjoyed Matt Abbott’s opinion on the OverPopulation Myth illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=26092 .

The next time someone trys to tell you there is an OverPopulation Problem; let them know this.

Did you know this…

I checked at http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop where I found the world population to be approximately 6,276,000,000. I then checked http://www.netstate.com/states/geog…x_geography.htm and found the area of Texas as 268,601 square miles. One square mile is 640 acres and hence the area of Texas is 268,601x640=171,904,640 acres. Thus if you fit the entire population of the world into Texas each person would have

171,904,640/6,276,000,000 = 0.027 acres
 
And for those of us who do not really know how big an acre is.

0.027 arces is the same as 1176.12 square feet.

A quick search on a web site that lists homes for sale and I see that the average 3 bedroom home, so I take it that this would be for 3 to 4 people (that is a couple sharing one bedroom) is just over 2000 square feet. So 1176.12 square feet for one person is a big area.
 
THis however doesn’t take into account the amount of space neede to suport life. Add in farms for food, plants for waste reclamation and I would guess you have about 1/2 that number. Still a drop in the bucket when you think about the world vs texas but there are also other things that have not been taken into account such as the areas where houseing would be impossible (dederts and such).
 
I heard of this statistic as well and didn’t believe it. I also went to the Internet and did my own calculations. I actually came up with a worse number. However, if you think 1100 square feet is small, consider Tokyo density is barely 800 square feet per person presumably including all the streets, garbage dumps, stores, etc).

As for not accounting for space needed to support life, that’s the point. We have the rest of the world available for that!
 
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Rascal:
I heard of this statistic as well and didn’t believe it. I also went to the Internet and did my own calculations. I actually came up with a worse number. However, if you think 1100 square feet is small, consider Tokyo density is barely 800 square feet per person presumably including all the streets, garbage dumps, stores, etc).

As for not accounting for space needed to support life, that’s the point. We have the rest of the world available for that!
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Yes, I should have been more descriptive on my opening post. Basically, the entire world could fit in side by side dwellings throughout the State of Texas. This example was just to prove a point and did not include roads, schools, farmland, businesses, etc.

However, you have the entire rest of the world outside of Texas to build roads, schools, farmland, businesses and etc. Therefore do not let anyone from Planned Parenthood, NOW, NARAL or whoever ever tell you the lie the world is overpopulated ever again!!
 
Incidentally, this past Memorial weekend, I drove my family from Colorado through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to Austin. eighteen hours of driving and barely seeing a soul. If anyone thinks the world is over populated, I recommend driving this and still believing the world is over populated.

If anything, there are barely enough gas stations to fill up with my gas card along the way. 🙂
 
You didn’t find Kansas to be overpopulated, and teeming with people?

I guess that’s right. Most small towns, as well as middle sized towns–would be grateful for some population growth. Population growth grows the economy. Not to mention, it helps the social security system to become more solvent.
 
I had an economic’s professor who often made the point that the only resource it the world is man. For instance, oil is just a pollutant without man making it usable. He also said if you really wanted a cure for disease, you would pay couples to have as many kids as possible. He would rather have 1000 doctors looking for a cure than 10 doctors.
 
My religion teacher told me this…it didn’t surprise me at all. Yes there is world hunger, yes there are cities which may be overpopulated…but the world is not overpopulated, and starvation is not a result of overpopulation. Starvation is a result of a mixture of things, be it poor government practices, bad climate, what not. There is an over abundance of food in my case and its the structure in which we divy up food that causes starvation, not over population.
 
One more point. In general, cities with the greatest population density are the places where people want to live.

Cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York City, are big because people go there to live.

On the contrary, you will find many small towns which are dying because their young people are moving to larger cities.

From the point of view of a Kansan, one of the better things about life in Manhattan (NY) (aka the Big Apple) rather than Manhattan, KS, (aka the Little Apple is that in NYC you can live without a car.
 
Hey people, I get the impression that as long as the population density is low enough there is no reason to be concerned. Looking at places like NYCity, Tokyo, etc. it is pretty obvious that people really don’t need a vast amount of square feet to be happy. The problem comes in when the population level is combind with the 1st world expectations of two cars in every garage, beef or fish on the table in plenty. etc. If 2nd and 3rd world nations have the same expectations we are in trouble. In fact because of our vast consumption in America the world is already sick. Our little planet is indeed spaceship earth and is already in trouble. Our waste has no where to go. Flourocarbons, hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is already changing our climate. Mercury and other heavy metals from the coal we burn in our powerplants have already contaminated the fish in our inland lakes and rivers as well as in the vast oceans. In addition the sulfur in coal and oil burns to form sulfur oxides which leads to acid rain. Plants and fish do not do well when the acid level of our waters get too high. Already our forests are not able to keep up with our demand for decent lumber. Haiti is an example of a country that lives in great poverty because they basically have deforested their land and their soil has eroded into their rivers and streams into the surrounding ocean killing off their fisheries. So folks we have plenty of square feet available to park our bodies. The question is how do we and our fellow travelers on this spaceship live a life appropriate to the dignity of a human being created by God. Snicker all you want at these prophets of doom. Its your grandchildren and their children who will pay for our sins of over consumption. In this country we are starting to try to do something, but China, even with its abortion after one child policy, has become a polluted dumping ground from the wastes produced in manufacturing goods for sale to us round eyes. The Chinese would like to live a western life style just like you and I have. Countries like Italy, France, Germany, and England have voluntarily limited their bearing of children to the point of being underpopulated, however the underpoulation of native creates a vacuum that is pulling in immigrants from the middle and far East. Lots of Muslims. The time will come when their will be enough muslim population to start demanding that Sharia be enforced. In our country we have Latinos flooding in , who you should thank God, are mostly Catholic. Maybe they can teach us to live frugally. Beans and rice or beans and corn anyone?
 
I saw that world population thing before. i think it was in algebra during my high school years. i thought it was pretty darn nifty.
 
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PLAL:
Thus if you fit the entire population of the world into Texas each person would have

171,904,640/6,276,000,000 = 0.027 acres
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I found this unrealistic and impractical. Not everyone wants to live in Texas. Most people in the world do, but not everyone.
 
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pnewton:
I found this unrealistic and impractical. Not everyone wants to live in Texas. Most people in the world do, but not everyone.
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Technically, Texas is just Baja Oklahoma.
 
Check out the Oct/Nov 2004 issue of “First Things” online. Father John Richard Neuhaus gives a long paragraph of facts refuting the myth of global overpopulation.
 
I truly dislike useless facts like that. Those types of facts only weaken the pro-life argument.

Overpopulation is a myth, not because we can cram people elbow to elbow, but because, it’s a moral truth that you can’t have too many people.

But environmental degradation is also a reality. And there’s also a reality called carrying capacity. That is, a given acre of land in a given section of the globe will only be capable of supporting so many human beings. It may take 1,000s of acres of desert land to support one person, whereas it might take a fraction of an acre of Iowa farmland. And a really scary truth is that carrying capacity can be damaged. Poor farming practices can lead to soil erosion, thereby reducing the carrying capacity of that piece of Iowa real estate.

Quite often, in the wild, an animal species can overpopulate and cause damage to the land’s carrying capacity. The result is a severe crash in the animal population, and a slow rebound.

This has happened with human populations before. It’s not like the world population has grown perfectly steadily.

We may be in for a crash, but I don’t fear it. To give in to that fear would be like Anakin giving into his fear of losing his wife.

A closer look would reveal that environmental degradation is caused by gluttony, and sloth, not overpopulation.
 
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marszale:
Check out the Oct/Nov 2004 issue of “First Things” online. Father John Richard Neuhaus gives a long paragraph of facts refuting the myth of global overpopulation.
Click to expand...
Can you give us the link to this??
 
6,479,551,784 world population

census.gov/ipc/www/world.html

given 4 sqaure feet each

6,479,551,784 x 4 = 25,918,207,136 square feet.

google.com/search?hl=en&q=6479551784*4

25 918 207 136 (square feet) = 2.40788023 × 109 m2

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=+25%2C918%2C207%2C136+square+feet

1 square feet = 3.58700643 × 10^-8 square miles

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=convert+square+feet+to+square+miles

onlineconversion.com/area.htm

what is the difference between square foot survey or just square foot?

25918207136 square foot = 929.687756 square mile

for ease of use, round up to 930 square miles.

States Of The United States By Size: Square Miles
laughtergenealogy.com/bin/histprof/states/states_sz.html

Rhode Island has 1,045 square miles, so the whole world population in a 2 by 2 foot square
each will fit in RI with no problem.

factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?-geo_id=04000US26&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1_ST7&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22930+square+miles%22

do you all see any errors in my math?
 
What I would really like to know is this: If no one on earth had ever used contraception or had an abortion, what would the world population be now? Of course this would have to be based on approximates. How much space would each person get in this scenario. Any math wizards out there?
 
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