[PenultimateManStanding]

Radio talk show host Michael Medved says that you could put the entire human population of the Earth into the state of Texas and the population density would be 16 per acre. Some caller asked him if it wasn't reasonable to say that the world's population has to stop growing at some point and he said no, because population growth fuels the economy. The topic was the prof in Texas who wants ebola to kill 90% of us. I don't know if the numbers check out, but I doubt if Aaron or Prairiemule would be too keen on the notion. (Medved scoffs at peakoil; once a guy brought it up and said all those geologists can't be wrong. Medved said sure they can. I e-mailed him about it once but didn't get a reply)

[PenultimateManStanding]

Texas is 268,601 suare miles. At 640 acres per square mile, that's about 172,000,000 acres. If you divide 6.5 billion by that you get about 38 people per acre. What Medved actually said was that you could give each quarter acre to 4 people. Looks like he was off quite a bit as the density would a little more than twice that.

[Ludi]

So what. Texas can't support that many people per acre.

Sheesh.



Eejit.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'S')o what. Texas can't support that many people per acre.

Sheesh.



Eejit.

[TommyJefferson]

Michael Medved should take a drive through West Texas.

I was raised in the tropical swamps of Louisiana. In that area the battle to stop "nature" from enveloping your home is unending.

The idea that farmers could survive in the barren wasteland between Austin and Palm Springs, CA strikes me as fanciful, though I know they do indeed have agriculture there.

This info says Texas has:

Harvested Cropland = 18 million acres

Pastureland = 83 million acres

[lorenzo]

Is Mr Medved talking about ordinary human bodies? Let's not forget that human bodies are very inefficient and that they can be vastly improved with simple engineering. All that matters is the brain. We can shrink the body, keep the big brain, work on our metabolism, and increase the planet's population by billions of tiny bodylets with healthy brains.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', ' ')billions of tiny bodylets with healthy brains.

[emersonbiggins]

Texas doesn't have enough water for that. Period.
Or anywhere else, for that matter. If today's relative dispersal of the population worldwide still causes the local and regional water shortages we so often hear of, I can't imagine packing 6 billion people above a depleted aquifer. The guys at FEMA & Homeland Security probably could, but I can't.

[Falconoffury]

This is what I would do if I was God, just for kicks. I would create a parallel universe. Then I would take all the humans of the world, and throw them into texas. Finally, I would create an invisible force field all around the state, preventing anyone from getting out.

Then, I would just sit back on watch the show. I guarantee I'd be entertained.

After I got bored, I might just delete the parallel universe, and maybe try again with other conditions.

[Madpaddy]

Falconoffury wrote;
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his is what I would do if I was God, just for kicks. I would create a parallel universe. Then I would take all the humans of the world, and throw them into texas. Finally, I would create an invisible force field all around the state, preventing anyone from getting out.

[PenultimateManStanding]

As God, my first act would be to give lorenzo a teensy tiny body to go with his big brain. He'd be about a foot tall. Then he could jump into girls' purses at the pubs and jump out and ravish them when they get home.

[Tyler_JC]

If I was God, I would carry a giant laser gun around with me. People who piss me off would simply disappear.

Needless to say, Southern Massachusetts would see a dramatic reduction in traffic...