How much space does the world population require?

4th December, 2010 - Posted by L. John Mason -

I took my little brother, Mr. Ethan, out to eat today. In conversation, he said to me that if the world got too populated we should consider moving to the planet Mars. As I was considering how best to respond, a fellow sitting behind us popped up, came over, and started talking to us. Kinda inappropriate but… He said he was an “educator” though he looked like a whacky, teaparty person. He said that all of the people in the world could fit neatly into the amount of land that King County, Washington occupies. If everyone in the world was given a 3×3 foot space, they could all stand in King County and he said that “the world is NOT overcrowded.” He was suggesting that my friend, Mr. Ethan, had said that the world was overcrowded, rather than what he actually said, “when it gets overcrowded.” I went to the library, got the calculator out and did the math. 7,066,500,000 people times 9 square feet. King County’s 2,307 square miles or 27,87,400 square feet per square mile times 2,307 square miles and he is correct. Very crazy, but correct. I was amazed at how strangers can walk up to you while you are eating, say crazy things based on absurd facts, and then force me to go to the library to check the information out. I wish he had just listened better to my young friend Mr. Ethan and just gone back to Mars…

Facts can create disceptions and lies…. Who can live in 9 square feet of space? Where would they go to deposit their human waste? How bad would Seattle smell get if all the people in the world lived there? How many of these people would want to own guns, drive SUV’s, and demand large flat screen TV’s?