Something to think about on the future

The current doom and gloom silliness (personal opinion) over global warming (cyclical climate change), plus the experts telling us the increase in human population bringing an end to our present way of life, got me thinking. There are, the experts say, currently 6 billion-plus of us hanging around. The intuitive knee-jerk reaction is that we're overrunning the planet.

I can't get my mind around a number like 6 billion. I have to frame it differently. So, I allow each person on the planet four square feet of Bonner County to stand on… that's a 2-foot by 2-foot square. Do the math. (Perhaps I got a decimal in the wrong place). All 6 billion of us could be standing here with more than half the county remaining empty! Every person alive in the world standing on his/her 4 square feet of Bonner County, and the county isn't even half full? Go on. Doesn't seem possible, does it?

Now I'm really curious, so I go a step further. Experts project Earth's population for the year 2050 at 9.5 billion. Give each of them four square feet of Bonner County and there will still be 637 square miles left empty. Can't be … can it? Makes one rethink the definition of the word "crowded," doesn't it? Maybe we're not as crowded as we think. Wouldn't the bureaucrats go crazy with a tax base like that?

STEVE BRIXEN

Sandpoint