Monday 30 January 2012
A city of 7 billion people...
With the world population reaching 7 billion and most people living in cities, the impact of human activity on the overall surface area of the planet is widely being discussed. However, I read an interesting statistic that stated that all 7 billion people could be accommodated in a city the size of France, provided it had the same density as Paris. Obviously this does not include all the agricultural and industrial land needed to support such a city but it does make me think about how a large future world population could be managed without covering the whole Earth.
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Be careful with your information here Oliver...
ReplyDeleteThe percentage of world population living in cities has only just passed 50%, so not 'most people', 'the larger majority of', or 'with over half...'
Though, your comment is very interesting and could lead to much wider debate.
Some 'facts' about food production that I have learnt on my travels below:
On the last count, people in Britain rely for food on land use the size of six and a half football pitches, (something the green brigade like to bandy around)
36.4% of the Earth's land surface is suitable for farming as a means of food production, 14.6% is currently used for that purpose, (according to a WHO report, 2001) with the majority of that not making use of advanced fertiliser, genetically modified crops and suffering from destruction of crops due to extreme weather conditions.
According to the same report, the Western developed world consumes 150% of the world's food needs, meaning much over 50% is wasted...
Anyway, just thought I would mention that, hopefully get a bit of a debate going for once, cheers comrade!