Tags
civilization, dependent, depleteing resources, Diana Schwenk, humanity, Hump Day Chronicles, interdependent, living in the moment, population growth, small world, technology, world issues
MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE YOU ARE!
I watched a documentary last night that addressed the history of human population growth. For most of human history the earth’s population was pretty much static. People were hunters/gatherers and lived in small family groups.
Eleven or Twelve thousand years ago when people started farming, it allowed them to stay in one place. Larger groups of people began to form and were able to share ideas and become more innovative.
Human population stayed around 10 million until, and only exploded around, 250 years ago. The documentary went on to say that very specific moments in time were the beginnings of what society is today and allowed us to live in larger and larger towns and cities.
Things such as the perfection of the steam engine that birthed the industrial age, and the invention of metal letters from wooden ones that spurred huge numbers of people to learn to read and write, the first electrical grid that powered fifty-odd houses, the invention of shipping containers that led to cheaper world-wide trade allowing more people to enjoy foods from different lands and so on.
Did you know that the first telegraph from the Queen of England to the President of the United States was 99 words and took 17 1/2 hours to send?
And now with texts, emails and tweeting, the narrator said one would have to start reading them when Christ was born and we’d still be talking.
I was amazed to learn that NYC is the world’s biggest and most culturally diverse city. Did you know that over 800 languages are spoken there?
Did you know that 80% of electricity is still powered by coal? That Canada uses 2% of the world’s electricity? The USA uses 19%? Europe use 14.5%?
Did you know that 93 million barrels of oil are produced each day?
Did you know that over 350,000 babies are born, and 150,000 souls leave every day?
Did you know that 2006 was the first time in human history that more people lived in cities than on the land?
Did you know that at any given time 500 million people are on an airplane going somewhere?
The world is more interdependent and dependent upon technology than it has ever been. A sudden power loss can literally shut everything down.
It now takes roughly one acre of land to feed one American. By 2050 with a projected world population of 9 billion people, four will need to live off that acre.
With growing populations, increased mining of finite resources causing more pollution and affecting our water and air, shrinking amounts of land for agriculture, what new innovations will need to happen for the human race to survive?
I found the whole thing very amazing and very terrifying.
If you’re feeling a little more cramped lately, maybe it’s because you are.
~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~
* I’ve written this today from what I can remember. It’s entirely possible that I have a few of the facts a bit wrong, but I don’t think it takes away from fact that the human population used to take thousands of years to grow by the same percentages that only take decades now.
Jim McKeever said:
Diana, I just heard that India is soon to become the most populous nation due in part to China’s restrictions on family size. Sustaining all of us — what, 6 billion and counting? — is going to be a major problem a couple of generations from now.
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dianasschwenk said:
We’re at 7 billion+ now Jim – it’s mind boggling! ❤
Diana xo
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Minuscule Moments said:
Fascinating stuff! Glad I have no neighbours Diana, well lets just say i appreciate the lack of humans around me. Not feeling crowded at all but do remember life in a big city.
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dianasschwenk said:
I like connecting with people Kath, but I could live on an acreage, no problem! ❤
Diana xo
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Minuscule Moments said:
Well I have done both and enjoyed both too Diana. But the quiet life for me, is something I did not know I needed until my husband got the job on the dairy and at first I have to admit I was nervous of having no people around. Nature grows on you.
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markbialczak said:
I think I saw everybody in the three airports flying home to Syracuse last night, Diana. 😮 Departing from Denver and the layover in Atlanta, those two were seriously full of travelers. Holy schmoley.
Brain power must go into feeding (and providing clean water for) all the people in our world. Flying over so much of my country, I also spied the great, empty expanses between our population centers. Thinking parochially, I saw there’s land out there. Now find ways to grow healthy food, distribute it equitably and present the blueprint to any nation that needs a similar plan … And can’t the model provide jobs and be good financially at the same time? While we’re dreaming, anyway?
If we’re going to be terrified, we might as well do something about it. But I’m just one little guy with my dear wife Karen and daughter Elisabeth and her boyfriend George Three bumping into all those bustling bodies at the airport!
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dianasschwenk said:
I agree, Mark. Taking action takes a great deal of the fear out of the unknown. Did you see the comment from one of my readers who said that we could put every human being in the USA, give them 1000 sq. feet and the whole rest of the world would be people-free? not that we would want to do that, but… ❤
Diana xo
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rachelcarrera said:
WOW! Those facts are stunning!
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dianasschwenk said:
I know – in a frightful sort of way Rachel! ❤
Diana xo
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utesmile said:
Amazing facts. I thought population is going down, apparently it is in Germany.
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the worm keeper said:
This is really interesting. Thank you for writing it! NYC is not the word’s biggest city. However, I would not be surprised if it is the most diverse. Here are a couple of links regarding population. Personally, I find urban or metro area statistics to be the most relevant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_urban_areas_by_population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population
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dianasschwenk said:
I’m only on my phone right now. What is the biggest city?
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earthriderjudyberman said:
Some heavily-populated areas are now reducing the footprint of homes. The size of houses today are so much bigger when compared to those from decades ago. Something does have to give.
Amazing facts, Diana. Particularly the one about the first telegraph from the Queen of England to the President of the United States that took 17 1/2 hours. Now we’re on communication overload. 😉
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dianasschwenk said:
No kidding eh? I actually don’t need a lot of space for just little Ole me! ❤
Diana xo
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Alan A. Malizia: Contagious Optimism! Co-Author said:
Diana,
Very informative. But, one statistic is missing. The math shows that the entire population of the world could fit in the state of Texas; with each person of the 7 Billion in a 1,000 square foot space. Leaving the rest of the world empty. Talk about being cramped.
And if the USA does not resolve its border issues soon, it may well contain the world’s pop.
-Alan
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dianasschwenk said:
Wow, that is amazing and very hard to wrap my head around Alan! ❤
Diana xo
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Val Boyko said:
That woke me up a bit more. Thank you Diana!! Rather than conserving I’m afraid it encourages companies like Monsanto to produce more with less … while making a profit from it … rather than doing the right thing for the planet and humanity.
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dianasschwenk said:
I read this quote today Val that speaks to that very thought! Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations. – Thomas Jefferson ❤
Diana xo
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Maria F. said:
I love this essay Diana. Thanks!
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dianasschwenk said:
Thank you Maria. ❤
Diana xo
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Tracy Lee Karner said:
I took an environmental science course in 2007, and was blown away by allowing the facts. Tried to make really radical changes, (got rid of my car and used public transportation; refuse to fly, recycle clothing, eat locally….) and came to the sad conclusion that my huge lifestyle changes will have little effect until society changes. Meanwhile, I’m simply going to do my best, and refuse to worry about all the things I can’t control.
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dianasschwenk said:
I get that Tracy. Learning that almost everything I use is a byproduct of oil is very disconcerting to me! ❤
Diana xo
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BeckyDue said:
Sounds interesting. What was the name of the documentary?
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dianasschwenk said:
I don’t remember Becky. Sorry. ❤
Diana xo
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Jennifer's Journal said:
Those are some interesting but staggering facts, Diana. And yes, frightening. Experts say at the rate the population is growing, our meat-eating ways will no longer be sustainable in the near future, due to the water that is needed to keep cattle and produce beef. I guess we’ll all have to become vegetarians. 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
I love meat Jennifer! Another stat I forgot to include is that only 2% of earth’s water is drinkable. 1% is inaccessible to us (frozen in glaciers or deep underground). ❤
Diana xo
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Jennifer's Journal said:
I love meat too! But it takes so much water to keep those factory farms going. And the price of beef has skyrocketed here, even at Costco. It doesn’t look good, my friend.
Jennifer xo
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dianasschwenk said:
sigh…
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Don said:
Amazing facts Diana.
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dianasschwenk said:
Thanks Don! It was both amazing and terrifying to watch! ❤
Diana xo
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vanbytheriver said:
Great info there, Diana, and I can testify to the multi-lingual NYC…it is one of my favorite things to do…listen and pick up on the different dialects/languages. Fascinating !! ☺
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dianasschwenk said:
I bet it would be Van – now I have another reason to want to visit NYC one day! ❤
Diana xo
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April said:
I love a good documentary. With population growth happening faster and faster, I feel a need to do my part for the coming generations to enjoy what I enjoy today. I hope my little impact will make a difference one day.
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dianasschwenk said:
I’m sure it will April! ❤
Diana xo
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Jean said:
Crowding seems to be….in certain areas of the world where the weather is slightly better, more arable land plus close to major transportation routes.
So at least for Canada, our population density is highly concentrated in the southern part of Canada, less than 300 km. north of the Canada-U.S. border. Meanwhile Canada has a land mass that goes further north over 1,000 km.
I’m not suggesting we should move to isolated Arctic hamlets where there are no roads… but at least for smaller cities and towns, plan them so that they have usable community services and amenities.
On the opposite end, I think it’s great there has been such interest (at least in North America), on the concept of community gardens or making gardening the “in” chic thing to raise your own food, some flowers, etc. And even the yarn-bombing which revitalized knitting, etc. and camping/hiking….all this do-it-yourself activities transformed for the current and next generations. Make it enjoyable, sustainable and absorb less natural resources. Make these human activities, not just a chore.
I have hope. I really do…long time cyclists do have a lot of hope. 🙂 I do have certain opinions on over-reliance on computers, etc.
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dianasschwenk said:
Nothing like garden-fresh produce Jean! I have hope too. ❤
Diana xo
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Healing Grief said:
Amazing facts Diana. There is certainly a lot to think about. I have a big house down here, so you can always stay with me when you are feeling too cramped.!! 🙂
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dianasschwenk said:
How very sweet of you Karen! ❤
Diana xo
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Wyrd Smythe said:
Indeed. If you look at a chart of world population you see a “hocky stick” with a long, long flat “stick” and a sharp upturn around 1800. We’re currently at 7.3 billion and growing. Interestingly, though, the vast growth is starting to level off a bit (see the linked chart).
Some of your numbers raised my eyebrows. Birth rates are about 350,000 new souls per day with around 150,000 taking their final exit, so the overall growth rate is about 200,000 per day.
And 500 million people on an airplane at any given time? There are only 350 million people in the USA, so I’m not sure that one can be right. 🙂
Quite a while ago I did a post that calculated every person gets about 200,000 square feet, although a lot of that is mountain or deep jungle. XD
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dianasschwenk said:
The airplane Stat is worldwide not just USA Smitty. I’m on my phone right now but will check out your link later! ❤
Diana xo
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Wyrd Smythe said:
I understand. What I’m saying is that 500 million is much more than the entire population of the USA, AND the idea that much more than the entire population of the USA is “at any given time […] on an airplane going somewhere” should definitely raise your eyebrows.
http://www.transtats.bts.gov/Data_Elements.aspx?Data=1
In 2014, there were (during the year) 662,821,638 USA passengers and 187,713,846 international passengers, for an annual total of 850,535,484 passengers. Total monthly travel seems to vary from 60+ million to 80 million (which would put daily travel around the 2.3 million mark).
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dianasschwenk said:
check this out Smitty: http://www.quora.com/How-many-people-are-in-the-air-flying-at-any-given-time
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Wyrd Smythe said:
That blog post estimates from 500-700 thousand people are in the air at any one minute. That’s three orders of magnitude less than 500 million. As that post points out, that’s about the size of a large city, so it’s still an impressive number of people with their heads “in the clouds” (so to speak). XD
(That blog post also mentions that 2.8 billion flew in 2011 and another source said we broke 3.1 billion in 2014. That’s many times more than the BTS link I provided above says, and I’m not sure why the BTS data indicates so much less… multiple sources confirm the ~3 billion figure, so I’m pretty sure that’s right.)
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dianasschwenk said:
oh it says thousand? I looked quickly from work. Oh well, the documentary may have said on the move and not in the air, come to think of it; and that would include air, cars, trains, ships, etc… 😀
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Wyrd Smythe said:
That would mean that, for every person in the air, there were a thousand people traveling by other means… I suppose that’s possible.
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dianasschwenk said:
It was a great documentary Smitty. I actually thought of you while watching it, thinking you’d have enjoyed it!
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Wyrd Smythe said:
So that’s why my ears were burning! I thought it was something I ate! XD
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dianasschwenk said:
That would be why!
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