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16 People Per Acre

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General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.

16 People Per Acre

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Mon 03 Apr 2006, 17:06:05

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. 8) (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)
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Mon 03 Apr 2006, 19:19:46

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.
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby Ludi » Mon 03 Apr 2006, 20:01:18

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

Sheesh.

:roll:

Eejit.
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Mon 03 Apr 2006, 20:33:22

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

Sheesh.

:roll:

Eejit.
I know. Besides, the dictator Bush would probably stick them here in California. :)
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby TommyJefferson » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 07:36:00

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
Conform . Consume . Obey .
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby lorenzo » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 10:15:18

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.
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 10:38:26

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lorenzo', ' ')billions of tiny bodylets with healthy brains.
In that case we could put them all in Belgium!
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby emersonbiggins » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 11:19:01

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.
"It's called the American Dream because you'd have to be asleep to believe it."

George Carlin
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby Falconoffury » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 13:15:48

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.
"If humans don't control their numbers, nature will." -Pimentel
"There is not enough trash to go around for everyone," said Banrel, one of the participants in the cattle massacre.
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby Madpaddy » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 16:59:22

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.


If I was God, I would create the parallel universe and then put all the members of the Bush administration into the Saturday market in Sadr city Baghdad. I reckon that would be good for a laugh. I might also transfer all Germans and Japanese to Africa to see if they would be able to sort the mess out. After dinner I would give the entire population of the UK 1 inch mickeys including the girls. (only joking).
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Tue 04 Apr 2006, 17:13:57

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.
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Re: 16 People Per Acre

Unread postby Tyler_JC » Wed 05 Apr 2006, 17:24:38

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...:roll:
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