
If the world’s population lived like... (infographic) - thibaut_barrere
http://persquaremile.com/2012/08/08/if-the-worlds-population-lived-like/
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OoTheNigerian
I did not know paris was so dense!

I wish people could input their own cites and of course other type of dynamic
data. e.g water consumption. I guess that kind of dynamic infographic is what
Erick Schonfeld was talking about. [1]

[1] <http://erickschonfeld.com/2012/06/28/infographics-broken/>

~~~
ovi256
It's surprisingly dense given it has had a prohibition on tall buildings since
forever. Of course, some buildings are more equal than others and their
project went through: tour Montparnasse, some residential projects. If this
restriction was removed, I'm pretty sure new developments would resemble dense
asian cities and real estate prices would drop. But hey, falling housing
prices are bad in political economics, 'mkay ?

~~~
leyfa
Many European cities have height restrictions for buildings within the old
city center to preserve the traditional architecture. The financial district
just outside the center has no height limit:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_D%C3%A9fense>

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antidoh
When you look at the last few lived-like countries in the list, including the
US, keep in mind that we use resources like drunken sailors _because we can_.
We have much more land and resources than we need, so we trade long term waste
for short term cost.

I think it's reasonable to assume that we could, if we decided, be much better
at using, reusing and conserving our resources. And if we did that, it would
be possible for the rest of the world to bring their standard of living up to
the US or better, and still not use multiples of the world's available
resources.

If that's what we decided.

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SudarshanP
<http://what-if.xkcd.com/8/>

~~~
zanny
Why didn't I know about this. My evening has been forfeited for my
Randallicious overlord.

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ginko
I would love to see this infographic with the Kowloon Walled City at its
heyday.

~~~
masklinn
With the density of Kwoloon Walled City (~1,255,000/km^2 in 1987 according to
wikipedia), the earth's population would _comfortably_ fit in Delaware[0]: 6.9
billion people would fit into 5498km^2, DE is 6447km^2

Worldwide, the best match would be Olt in Romania (<http://goo.gl/maps/i8I02>)
which is precisely 5498km^2

For full-fledged countries, Brunei[1] at 5765km^2

[0] US map for scale:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delaware_in_United_States_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Delaware_in_United_States_\(zoom\)_\(US48\).svg)

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei>

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cultureulterior
The world is not a zero-sum game.

~~~
yen223
We only have resources of one planet to share among the entire population, so
I think it's safe to say that it _is_ a zero-sum game.

Assuming of course, we don't end up going into space.

~~~
Evbn
The earth's not a closed system, it's powered by the Sun.

\--MC Hawking.

~~~
dredmorbius
The solar flux is reasonably constant and finite.

Various cycles (CO2, nitrogen, water, soil) are also relatively finite. We've
been perturbing several of these for quite some time, with ultimate effects we
can't really know.

Not to mention any natural variability within the system.

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rheide
Scary thought.

It would be interesting to see this compared to how much of the world's
resources we were using x years ago.

~~~
njharman
You can compare US (or other post industrial, consumer based countries) with
India and other countries heading towards post industrial consumerism. They
being example of resource usage X years ago

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mchahn
Conterminous? I learn something new on HN every day, but new words are
unusual.

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michaelochurch
Animal meat, which has an enormous ecological footprint, is on its way out.
I'm not a vegetarian, so I'm not saying this on top of some moral high horse,
but it's inefficient and the way animals are raised and slaughtered now is
insanely cruel. We'll have credible plant-based meats in 20 years, easily. In
150 years, eating actual animals will be this nostalgic and slightly goofy
thing that rich people do, like fox hunting in England, because cow steaks
will cost hundreds of dollars (rarity) while plant steaks that taste exactly
like the real thing (or better) will be effectively free.

No one knows when Peak Oil will hit or how it will play out, and I'm concerned
about it, but I think the long-term outcome is that (a) we'll be fine
(although we may get hurt bad by it in the short-term) and (b) objections to
nuclear power will vanish. In 50 years, we'll probably be using very cheap,
environmentally safe nuclear power, and able to produce food in vertical
greenhouses.

The world's population will likely peak around 9.5-10 billion and then begin
declining because people are having fewer children.

So I don't think we're in danger of a Malthusian catastrophe, aside from the
fact that the developing world is already in one. We're actually _coming out_
of the Malthusian era. Malthus was wrong about the mathematics (economic
growth is exponential; it was just so slow-- below 1%-- before the Industrial
Revolution that it looked linear) but he was right about the population
dynamics of pretty much every pre-industrial society.

~~~
alexchamberlain
Thanks for a good laugh. FYI fox hunting is banned and your horse is high
enough to use for hunting.

> credible plant-based meats in 20 years

What is a plant-based meat? I don't know of any plants with muscles.

~~~
4ad
I downvoted you because you made zero effort in researching what the OP said
before acting so dismissive. Depending on where you live, it's possible you
never eaten nor seen meat substitutes made of soy, but before refuting a claim
you should check some facts, not make a claim based on your own lack of
knowledge about the subject. _"I've never seen something therefore it must not
exist"_.

~~~
malandrew
Soy meat products are absolutely awful. They fail to compete with everything
but the most processed cheap meats. Soy hamburgers aren't even as good as the
cheapest crappiest frozen bulk-store beef patties. They are a far far cry from
being able to compete with a fresh patty made with fresh chuck.

One of the biggest follies of the soy meat industry is trying to make their
products healthy by default. Until they may a soy-based animal fat
alternative, they don't have a fighting chance of competing. People who truly
enjoy meat realize the importance of fatty tissue and how it contributes to
flavor.

Go eat a slice of nicely prepared picanha, fat rind and all, and then show me
a soy-based product that is even in the same ballpark.

~~~
potatolicious
Actually, soy "meat" doesn't even get that far - if you look at the nutrition
information on a soy burger patty you'll find that it's _full_ of fat. Like,
ludicrous portions of fat that would compete with the fattiest ground beef you
can buy.

And it still tastes awful.

In fact, if you look at a lot of soy meat substitutes out there, a lot of them
are _not at all_ good for you. The whole "soy meat healthier than real meat"
thing is pure perception.

~~~
malandrew
Interesting. I'm going to have to check out the product packaging next time
I'm in the supermarket.

