The entire world population can fit into the state of Texas?

[dav...@agent.com]

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=51292

snopes.com > Urban Legends > Trivia
The entire world population can fit into the state of Texas?

#1, 23 Sept 2009, 07:53 PM
ElectricBarbarella:
Yes, I just heard this one. Specifically, we were talking about
people with large families (think the Duggars) & over-population,
& the person said this:

"I'd have the presence of mind to explain that the entire population
of the world could fit into the state of Texas with ~1000 sq ft per
person, leaving the entire rest of the world empty."

The entire population of the world is what, almost 7 billion? And
the square footage of Texas is what? It is 268,581 sq mi(land &
water), so if we each had exactly 1,000 sq ft (the size of my home,
just for comparison--it's actually 1800 sq ft, so I'd be missing a
room), would we really be able to fit that many homes in Texas?
Alaska is bigger--over 600,000 sq mi. Why Texas & not Alaska?

Oh, then she follows up with "I don't understand why no one
believes this fact".
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#2, 23 Sept 2009, 07:57 PM
lyra_silvertongue:
I remember hearing this brought up in re over-population but I
think it was an even smaller state used, maybe Delaware?
Even if true it's irrelevant to discussions of overpopulation
because it does nothing to address resources or the distribution
of them. Great, everyone can have some sq ft! What about food?
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#3, 23 Sept 2009, 08:01 PM
Chloe:
The overpopulation problem isnt a problem of not having enough
physical space to accommodate people, but about having enough of
the world's resources to keep them fed, watered, housed, healthy.
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#4, 23 Sept 2009, 08:02 PM
Dr. Dave:
ElectricBarbarella wrote: The entire population of the world is
what, almost 7 billion? And the square footage of Texas [...]"

I don't know anything about the claim, but I'll do the math for
you. Using the sq mi you gave for TX: 1 sq mi = 5280 x 5280 sq ft
= 27,878,400 sq ft. So 268,581 sq mi = 7,487,608,550,400. For
simplicity say 7.5 x 10^12. That divided by 7 x 10^9 is indeed
over 1000 sq ft/person. So if we made one giant one-story compound
over Texas, land, water, and all, we would each get a 1,000 sq ft
unit. OK. And?
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#5, 23 Sept 2009, 08:06 PM
Chloe:
D'oh! And? And this proves there is no overpopulation problem.
Obviously.
================
#6, 23 Sept 2009, 08:06 PM
ElectricBarbarella:
Dr. Dave wrote: "I don't know anything about the claim, but I'll
do the math for you. [...]"

Oh good, I did do my math correctly (I came up w/7.5 as well)...

And "Okay, and?" was my question to her as well. 1--I wanted to
make sure the math was correct, but 2--as others have pointed out,
the point isn't about numbers, but about resources.

And that is a valid point that at the time, I just didnt think of.
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#7, 23 Sept 2009, 08:10 PM
A Turtle Named Mack:
Dr. Dave wrote: "I don't know anything about the claim, but I'll
do the math for you. [...]"

And then we're all stuck in Texas ... Oh, the humanity!
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#8, 23 Sept 2009, 08:28 PM
Jahungo:
One important but possibly obvious point is that even though it
may sound like a lot, 1,000 sq ft isnt all that big of an area.
It's a little less than 32 feet by 32 feet.
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#9, 23 Sept 2009, 08:35 PM
Mama Duck:
A Turtle Named Mack wrote: "And then we're all stuck in Texas.."

Like we'd want all of y'all anyway. There's a reason we're so
spread out here. We can't along with each other, much less the
rest of the world. It's a worse idea than anything any Big Brother
producer ever came up with.
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#10, 23 Sept 2009, 08:36 PM
Steve:
Jahungo wrote: "One important but possibly obvious point is that
even though it may sound like a lot, 1,000 square feet is not all
that big of an area. It's a little less than 32 feet by 32 feet."

Well, the initial calc was done by Thomas Sowell in 1984, when the
world's population was 4.4 bil.
http://www.carlopelanda.com/econaut/...n%20Growth.htm
Quote:
In 1984, it was proven by the economist Thomas Sowell that ..."
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#14, 23 Sept 2009, 09:12 PM
jimmy101_again:
Steve wrote: "Well, the initial calc was done by Thomas Sowell..."

Boy that site is a load of excrement!
Proven? Hardly. It was "proven" that everyone would fit, it was
certainly not proven that they "could live comfortably".

Where is the space needed for roads/rails so that food can be
delivered? Where is the space to deal with all the excrement that
a couple billion people will generate? Where are all the other
support services required (e.g., hospitals, stores, transport,
jobs ...)?

That site would be almost funny if it wasn't so serious.

Water isn't a problem because someone will come up with a cheap
way to purify salt water (not likely, the thermodynamics make it
impossible). And, that still leaves huge parts of the world that
don't have fresh or salt water.

Some other gems;
"I don't foresee a lack of clean oxygen as a problem for future
generations. I think rapidly advancing tech will continually make
our means of producing energy cleaner, & mile high skyscrapers
will reduce the need for travel which will mean less pollution.
So the quality of air will probably get better instead of worse."

Lack of clean oxygen is already a significant problem, acid rain,
increased incidence of respiratory diseases, pollution caused
decreases in life span etc. The air has been getting cleaner in
some places over the last couple decades, but in other places air
quality has decreased tremendously.

"Food could be a problem for such a large population, but currently
the U.S. produces enough food to feed the entire world."

Perhaps, but how do you get food transported (let alone paid for)?
Does the world population really want to live on nothing but feed
corn & soy beans? Which constitutes what, ~80%?, of the crops raised
in the US.

"100,000 people living comfortably in one building."

Apparently the author has a different definition of "comfortable"
than I do. Besides, piling people up vertically really doesn't
accomplish all that much since people aren't what takes up the
space. It's the infrastructure that keeps those people alive that
takes up space (and resources).
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