Thread: Compressed Earth Perspective

  1. #1
    Still A Registered User DISGUISED's Avatar
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    Compressed Earth Perspective

    I am beginning my graduate studies by taking a couple of classes at night (not really sure what I am working towards yet) and one of the first courses I am taking is a STS course (Science, Technology, and Society). During the introduction, we were given a handout meant to give us a bit of perspective about the world we live in. I found it to be very interesting and I just thought I would share it.

    If We Shrank the Earth's Population to 100 people....

    If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look approximately like the following

    57 Asians
    21 Europeans
    14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
    8 Africans

    52 would be female
    48 would be male

    70 would not be Caucasian
    30 would be Caucasian

    70 would be non-Christian
    30 would be Christian

    89 would be heterosexual
    11 would be homosexual

    6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States

    80 would live in substandard housing

    70 would be unable to read

    50 would suffer from malnutrition

    1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth

    1 would have a college education

    1 would own a computer

    When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for aid, acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

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    Re: Compressed Earth Perspective

    Originally posted by DISGUISED

    When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for aid, acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.
    What else did ya thought, with 52 women? lol j/k
    -Felix
    Rots Soft
    If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
    Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

  3. #3
    Registered User caroundw5h's Avatar
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    Very interesting. However only 8 Africans? Are you sure?

  4. #4
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    I actually thought that number might be high.

  5. #5
    Much older and wiser Fountain's Avatar
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    This is more interesting-a population(amongst other stuff) meter!

    Here!
    Such is life.

  6. #6
    Registered User axon's Avatar
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    sure it matters, but how much...think about it: if more than 75% of the world's population would be healthy and reached a life expectancy, of lets say 65 years, than allready our planet would not be able to sustain itself. Its a sort of paradox; if you would want to help all in need, you would end up destroying everybody in the long run.

    Nature is cruel, but it has to survive.

    take AIDS for example...lets say we develop a cheap AIDS vaccine, and distribute it all over Africa...what happens then? well one scenario is that Africans no longer fear it and start breading by the millions!!

    some entropy with that sink? entropysink.com

    there are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. - franz kafka

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    Patent Pending GSLR's Avatar
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    umm they dont fear it anyway !!

    to late she cried BOOM !!!
    And To All Those Opposed, WELL !!!
    >Deleted< " Looks like a serial no."

  8. #8
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
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    The planet has had an unsustainable population for years, and it is getting worse.

    Aid in the form of education is necessary. Simply trying to keep everyone who is already alive - alive, there attitude to procreation must be updated. People in the third world expect a large percentage of their children to die young. Therefore they have lots of children. Save all of these children, without capping the family size simply creates unsupportable demands on the alreadt fragile agricultural systems in place, thus they starve.

    Education and opportunity.
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity unto the dream.

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    Registered User H&R's Avatar
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    adrian,
    I think I've read recently about a decline in the population recently such that this could be the first century since the 1600's (Black Plague) were the population coming in is greater than that going out.(although I can't find the report now).

    Axon, quite right bloody africans breedin' an that, it's a disgrace, their not even civilised like wot we are.



    I think this is the link. njoy
    Last edited by H&R; 11-14-2003 at 07:21 AM.
    YNWA

    Justice for the 96

  10. #10
    Yes, my avatar is stolen anonytmouse's Avatar
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    To the OP, be a bit skeptical and tell your college to stop handing out utter and total crap(they should know better).

    >> 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States <<

    This line alone should tell anyone that this is crap. Anyone heard of Western Europe?

    When faced with dubious information snopes is your friend:
    http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.htm

    As to the rest of the thread, unfortunately ignorance rules, even amongst programmers.

    POP QUIZ: On which continent have half the global extinctions of mammals occurred in the last 300 years?
    Last edited by anonytmouse; 11-14-2003 at 09:45 AM.

  11. #11
    Still A Registered User DISGUISED's Avatar
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    Originally posted by anonytmouse
    To the OP, be a bit skeptical and tell your college to stop handing out utter and total crap(they should know better).

    >> 6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States <<

    This line alone should tell anyone that this is crap. Anyone heard of Western Europe?

    When faced with dubious information snopes is your friend:
    http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/populate.htm

    As to the rest of the thread, unfortunately ignorance rules, even amongst programmers.

    POP QUIZ: On which continent have half the global extinctions of mammals occurred in the last 300 years?

    Thanks for the link. We were debating a lot of the points made in the article and I knew that some of it had to be skewed one way or the other. Now I can print that out and take it back to class next week and bring the discussion up again. As far as the professor just blatantly handing out total crap, I don't think that was his intention at all and he wasn't necessarily presenting it as 100% correct factual data from recent surveys, but I will surely bring it up with him for his benefit. I imagine he's been using the article in the course introduction for years. However, this is a high level course and he should be more thorough regarding his sources. The words "shock effect" come to mind.

    I still find the corrected numbers to be disturbing. Other points made in the snopes article are more in line with what I just assumed without ever having seen the article in the first place so maybe my perception of the world isn't so far off afterall.

  12. #12
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    >>To the OP, be a bit skeptical and tell your college to stop handing out utter and total crap(they should know better).

    HAHA!! Good one. Apparently you haven't been in a college classroom anytime recently. BS abounds.

    As for that response article, that's very interesting, although not entirely unexpected.

  13. #13
    5|-|1+|-|34|) ober's Avatar
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    OH and...

    >>POP QUIZ: On which continent have half the global extinctions of mammals occurred in the last 300 years?

    I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark and guess... North America?

  14. #14
    The Earth is not flat. Clyde's Avatar
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    A brief sweep of the web seems to indicate Australia has had the greatest number of mammalian extinctions in recent history, but i haven't found support for the 50% figure.
    Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

  15. #15
    Yes, my avatar is stolen anonytmouse's Avatar
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    At least your prof didn't put it up as a sign like the massive eden project (those big domes that you may have seen in the Bond film) did:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2788091.stm

    >>A brief sweep of the web seems to indicate Australia has had the greatest number of mammalian extinctions in recent history, but i haven't found support for the 50% figure.<<

    You win. Australia, with a population density of less than three per square kilometre(7.5 per square mile) has a very large proportion of the world's mammal extinctions to be proud of. I posted this to counter the usual rubbish that all the world's environment troubles are because 'people in the developing world
    have too many babies'.

    As for the figure, this page claims the figure is now down to 25%(due to the rest of the world 'catching up'):
    http://www.wwf.org.au/tsn/TSN_about_plight.htm

    While these pages claim the figure is one third:
    http://audit.ea.gov.au/ANRA/docs/fas..._facts_35.html
    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...777255475.html

    In addition, all these creatures were entirely 'human compatible'. This compares to the somewhat harder to live with lion, elephant and rhino which are mostly still around. (Although the lion is endagered and four out of five species of rhino are critically endagered or functionally extinct).

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