Human population growth - fun fact

[Esceptico]

With big numbers it is sometimes hard to get to grips with them. In trying to put human population growth into context I thought I would compare with the global population of a random, large, wild mammal.

Apparently there may only be 3,200 wild tigers in the world. Every minute we add (net of deaths) another 160 people to the planet. Therefore in just 20 minutes there are more new people than the entire population of tigers.

No wonder the environment is fked.

[Esceptico]

I’m not sure why anyone thinks that population growth stopping at “just” 10.8 billion is not a problem. That is almost 50% more people than today. Currently out global footprint is about 1.7 planet earth’s ie we are using natural resources far faster than the plant can renew them. 50% more people and rising living standards with fixed resources is not a good mix.

[Esceptico]

Vanden Saab said:

Wilmslowboy said:

Its not just about the number of humans, it also about how much they consume.


The typical American consumes over 300 litres of water a day, the typical African around 20 litres a day.

I know there a lot of whales in the USA but 300 litres a day?

That would be a lot of soda but of course it means consumes, not drinks. That figure would probably include the water required to irrigate fields for food, washing, water losses in pumping due to poor infrastructure etc.

[Esceptico]

Vanden Saab said:

trackdemon said:

Vanden Saab said:

Nickgnome said:

Vanden Saab said:

In the UK there are 274 people per kilometre squared. based on 66.44m people and 242,495km2 of area.
In the world there are 52 people per kilometre squared based on 7,700,000,000 people and 148,940,000 km2 of area
Assuming my sums are correct...

Thank you. They look pretty good to me.

So if the UK is circa 6% developed then globally it would be about 1%. Give or take.

Assuming again that my sums are correct each UK person gets just over 4,000 m2 to themselves.
In the world it is 19,230 m2 each.
To bring the rest of the world up to UK density would mean another 35 billion people 5x the present level. It seems 11 billion is no problem if that is where it levels out. It isn't like we are all squashed together...

But that's oversimplistic. How much of that 19,230m² is inhabitable? There's vast swathes of deep forest, acrid desert, and enormous mountains. Folks don't live in the outback, up the Himalayas or in the jungle for good reason. How much is left? How much has services provided to it - roads, power, water etc?....

Less than 6% of the UK is built on...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41901294

Therefore around 1% of the world is built on.... How much of the other 99% do you think is uninhabitable?

Land that is not built upon is mainly used indirectly for agricultural purposes so your comment is a bit silly. How much of the UK is not used for habitation or agriculture? Or that land how much could be used for habitation or agriculture? The first number will be high the second number low.