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Saoirse_Granger
Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Jan 2003
Posts: 198
Location: Button Moon
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 Mon Aug 18, 2003 4:14 pm World's population reaches 6 billion |
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This is from 1999, I know it's a bit, well, dated, but I thought some of it was interesting. Lock if you want, Mods!
| Quote: | BBCi Sci/Tech
World's population reaches six billion
Every day 237,000 people are born
By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse
Next Monday a most significant person will be born.
We do not know if the baby will be male or female, nor do we know where the birth will occur. It is most likely to be in a developing country, probably Africa or South-East Asia, but it could be anywhere, in your street, town or city.
There have only been five other children like him or her. They were born in 1800, 1930, 1960, 1975 and 1987. Notice their births are getting closer together.
According to one estimate, at 1833 GMT on Monday 9 August the six billionth person will enter the world.
Competing counters
There are several estimates as to when this event will occur. Some population counters on the Internet say it happened last month. The United Nations says it will not take place until October.
The seven billionth person could be born in 2012
Whoever is right, and next Monday seems as good an estimate as any, it is a significant event.
The human population reached a billion in 1800. Since then the billion marks have been coming at an ever-increasing rate. The five billionth person is 12 years old, the four billionth is 24, the three billionth is 39 and the two billionth is 69 years old.
With the exception of the billionth person, born in 1800, they may all be still alive.
Room to live
Every 24 hours on our planet some 237,000 people are born and 140,000 die. Of course they all require space and resources and a pertinent question is whether the Earth can cope with them.
It was question that occurred to an English cleric, Thomas Robert Malthus, more than 200 years ago.
Malthus believed that disease and famine would limit humanity's growth
He believed that human population growth would outstrip the Earth's carrying capacity and that disease and famines would limit humanity's growth.
Some believe that it may happen like this, other say that mankind's ingenuity will always provide the solution to the problems we face.
But as we consider the state of our species just consider what the world would be like if it its population was shrunk to a representative 100 people with all the existing human ratios remaining the same. It would look like something like this:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be people of color
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's
wealth and all 6 would be from the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer
Will it be the same when the seven billionth person is born in 2012?
Thursday, August 5, 1999 Published at 14:13 GMT 15:13 UK
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Los
Commodore
Joined: 07 Jun 2002
Posts: 1336
Location: Oklahoma fa sho!
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| Mon Aug 18, 2003 7:51 pm |
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| Quote: | | Will it be the same when the seven billionth person is born in 2012? |
worse.
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Voy_Girl
Admiral
Joined: 07 Jan 2002
Posts: 8302
Location: Fair Haven
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| Tue Aug 19, 2003 5:32 am |
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Interesting facts.
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Scapegoat Bob
Commodore
Joined: 02 Sep 2001
Posts: 1198
Location: The Barn
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| Tue Aug 19, 2003 12:12 pm |
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With so many personalities emerging, we conclude that there are far more people than was previously thought!
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Anti-crombie1
Dr. Greenthumb
Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 2561
Location: ya mums house
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| Tue Aug 19, 2003 9:08 pm |
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thats why stupid people shouldnt reproduce
if your too goddamn stupid to use a rubber than keep your *beep* legs closed
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Los
Commodore
Joined: 07 Jun 2002
Posts: 1336
Location: Oklahoma fa sho!
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| Wed Aug 20, 2003 1:06 am |
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| Scapegoat Bob wrote: | | With so many personalities emerging, we conclude that there are far more people than was previously thought! |
yeah right. Everyone striving to be like someone else? Talk about Clash of the Ids!
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[SF] Commodore Omega
Lieutenant
Joined: 23 Jul 2003
Posts: 143
Location: Starfleet HQ
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| Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:28 am |
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Wow....
Umm.....interesting thoughts...to say the least, Anti-Crombie....
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Wed Aug 20, 2003 10:04 am |
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Could have a lot of disagrement though
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