Web traffic and population growth
Posted Sunday, May 01, 2005 5/01/2005 07:16:00 PM
Yesterday, my blog saw a 2.3x increase in visitors due mostly to a post on MSDN's MapPoint website ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/mappoint/ ). If my web traffic continues to increase by 2.3x everyday the number of visitors on May 23rd will exceed the current world population. Of course by May 23rd the world population will increase by over 5 million so my dream of world wide readership will be delayed by approximately 1 and a half minutes.
The above conclusion is obviously ridiculous but all the facts are true.. that will happen if my traffic continuous to increase by 2.3x every day; but it won't. But it goes to show you that facts can be manipulated and distorted to provide for false conclusions. Sometimes you need to watch people carefully because we all make faulty assumptions sometimes and sometimes they are not so easy to catch. But the preceding statements brings up one things I'd like to discuss. The worlds population is predicted to increase by 5 million in the next month, nearly 75 million over the next year and by 2 billion by the time I'm 60.
It is obvious that the world cannot sustain this growth. As the population grows will will be running out of supplies needed to maintain our population. Famine, war, and disease are all in our future. The future may also include dramatic climate changes due to population growth. It is estimated that maximum population the earth can support is between 4 billion and 16 billion people (see reference) (we already exceed the lower limit). What can be done?
I wrote an essay in my first year college English class arguing that the solution to population growth was space exploration and eventual colonization of other planets. That by moving out into space we will offload some of the Burdon on earth. In the middle of my research I realized that I was wrong. If we wanted to keep the current population constant we would have to ship out 5 million people a month. I can't image that it will be possible to ship off that many people at that rate unless there are major technological advances. In addition, the resources needed for transportation will most likely make for additional burden on our already limited resource. Until we invent transporters (Star Trek like), cold fusion or other major inovations, space exploration is not the answer.
Population control can come about through restrictive reproduction laws. Laws that restrict who can have children and how, many could work, if enforced, and most likely be a good thing in the long run. However, this type of control over individuals' personal lives goes against my political ideology. Do the ends justify the means? That is never an easy question but I tend to lean towards no in this case. Instead, I think what needs to change is the culture. I feel we need changes in our reproductive health education. Make people aware of the problem and let people choose to have less children... not force them. Educate people on how they can control their reproduction and empower people to make their own choice about if and how many children they want. I really hope that our social changes in the future can come trough education and not through laws.
References
The above conclusion is obviously ridiculous but all the facts are true.. that will happen if my traffic continuous to increase by 2.3x every day; but it won't. But it goes to show you that facts can be manipulated and distorted to provide for false conclusions. Sometimes you need to watch people carefully because we all make faulty assumptions sometimes and sometimes they are not so easy to catch. But the preceding statements brings up one things I'd like to discuss. The worlds population is predicted to increase by 5 million in the next month, nearly 75 million over the next year and by 2 billion by the time I'm 60.
It is obvious that the world cannot sustain this growth. As the population grows will will be running out of supplies needed to maintain our population. Famine, war, and disease are all in our future. The future may also include dramatic climate changes due to population growth. It is estimated that maximum population the earth can support is between 4 billion and 16 billion people (see reference) (we already exceed the lower limit). What can be done?
I wrote an essay in my first year college English class arguing that the solution to population growth was space exploration and eventual colonization of other planets. That by moving out into space we will offload some of the Burdon on earth. In the middle of my research I realized that I was wrong. If we wanted to keep the current population constant we would have to ship out 5 million people a month. I can't image that it will be possible to ship off that many people at that rate unless there are major technological advances. In addition, the resources needed for transportation will most likely make for additional burden on our already limited resource. Until we invent transporters (Star Trek like), cold fusion or other major inovations, space exploration is not the answer.
Population control can come about through restrictive reproduction laws. Laws that restrict who can have children and how, many could work, if enforced, and most likely be a good thing in the long run. However, this type of control over individuals' personal lives goes against my political ideology. Do the ends justify the means? That is never an easy question but I tend to lean towards no in this case. Instead, I think what needs to change is the culture. I feel we need changes in our reproductive health education. Make people aware of the problem and let people choose to have less children... not force them. Educate people on how they can control their reproduction and empower people to make their own choice about if and how many children they want. I really hope that our social changes in the future can come trough education and not through laws.
References
by harshblogger at 5/01/2005 07:16:00 PM
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