Thursday, March 25, 2010

Population and it's affects on global climate change


How many people can comfortably live on our Earth without damaging it irreparably? The estimates range from 2 billion all the way up to 147 billion. The reason the variation is so large is because it all depends on how we use the products on our Earth. Say we use all petroleum and coal and try to have a population of 8 billion people, theres no way it’ll work. Now if we change that by switching our energy sources to renewables such as solar, wind and hydro we could have a population of 147 billion. However, I believe that a population of that size would be quite uncomfortable.

Not only is there the fact of global warming but also the space we have in which these people can comfortably live. Taking all the land in the world with a population of 147 billion, the amount of land each person would have is 1742.2 feet. That is not taking into account apartment buildings. In cities like New York and Boston they have apartments buildings the size of sky scrapers with thousands of people living in them. The other aspect that does not take into account is that not all land on Earth is usuable. Some land is too dry or to wet to be habitable for humans, unless we took drastic measures which would contribute to global climate change.

Population needs to be kept under control which would help keep global climate change under control as well. Earth has limited room and limited resources and we are pushing those limits, to continue will result in horrible consequences for its inhabitants. We must think about our actions now and stop reproducing at such alarming rates, yes, that means you, Duggar Family and Octo-mom.


World Population Counter