8 Billion

[Gilly Goodness]

As of today. 8 billion people. All good people.

Demographers are goin' nuts.

Interestin' stats. Next year India will pass China as most populous country. Nigeria is also set to challenge in 20 odd years.





Earth, use it wisely.

[alex peters]

As of today. 8 billion people. All good people.

Demographers are goin' nuts.

Interestin' stats. Next year India will pass China as most populous country. Nigeria is also set to challenge in 20 odd years.





Earth, use it wisely.

Not sure this is cause for celebration

[kkleinschmidt]

I find looking through this data to be fascinating! Here's one place to do it: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/.

One of the first things that jumped out to me is China and India each have approximately as many people as the whole of Africa, but the median age of an African (19 plus change) is half of someone in China (38) and about 10 years less than someone from India (28 plus change). Contrast all of that with the median age in Japan which is over 48 years old (Japan has a big problem)! And of course Europe and North America also have older populations.

Then there's the world population graph over time which is nicely summarized here: https://www.worldometers.info/world-...ation-by-year/. This snip from that page says it all...

"At the dawn of agriculture, about 8000 B.C., the population of the world was approximately 5 million. Over the 8,000-year period up to 1 A.D. it grew to 200 million (some estimate 300 million or even 600, suggesting how imprecise population estimates of early historical periods can be), with a growth rate of under 0.05% per year.

A tremendous change occurred with the industrial revolution: whereas it had taken all of human history until around 1800 for world population to reach one billion, the second billion was achieved in only 130 years (1930), the third billion in 30 years (1960), the fourth billion in 15 years (1974), and the fifth billion in only 13 years (1987).

• During the 20th century alone, the population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion.
• In 1970, there were roughly half as many people in the world as there are now.
• Because of declining growth rates, it will now take over 200 years to double again."

Of course we've been hearing about this phenomena all of our lives but there's nothing like this sort of milestone to illustrate what's going on. The good news is population growth is slowing down rather dramatically, but clearly there are demographic troubles lurking in places like Japan, China, parts of Europe, and the USA with populations that are ageing quickly for various reasons when compared to other nations or their past history.

[Gilly Goodness]

Not sure this is cause for celebration

Well. How about this? Global sperm counts are down!!!





Sperm, use them wisely.

[alex peters]

Well. How about this? Global sperm counts are down!!!





Sperm, use them wisely.

Lol

[kkleinschmidt]

One of my favorite Monty Python scenes ever!

[kkleinschmidt]

Another thing that I find totally fascinating is the fact that a woman is literally born with every egg she will ever have in her entire life, and her eggs are the largest cells in the human body. On the other hand men are constantly creating sperm (millions of them over a lifetime) which are the smallest cells in a human body yet they are also the most mobile by far of any cell produced.

Go figure...

[pianozach]

As of today. 8 billion people. All good people.

Demographers are goin' nuts.

Interestin' stats. Next year India will pass China as most populous country. Nigeria is also set to challenge in 20 odd years.

Nigeria? I find that difficult to imagine. Nigeria is an incredibly poor country, for many reasons, including a lack of natural resources. Unless the world-at-large chooses to bail them out with food, medicine, and shelter, I'll bet their projected population growth will instead stall.

[Gilly Goodness]

Nigeria? I find that difficult to imagine. Nigeria is an incredibly poor country, for many reasons, including a lack of natural resources. Unless the world-at-large chooses to bail them out with food, medicine, and shelter, I'll bet their projected population growth will instead stall.

Look up docos on youtube on the subject. The whole coastline of Southern Nigeria is one strip of megapolises. One after another. Like LA. followed by another LA. And another. Government has spent all its money on superhighway to link them all. With help from Chinese belt+road initiative.

Plus as K-shmitty said. Young population. Also the fertility rate is 5.2 children for every woman.

I was quite stunned as well. But Africa is much more than starvin' countries on western media.

[pianozach]

Look up docos on youtube on the subject. The whole coastline of Southern Nigeria is one strip of megapolises. One after another. Like LA. followed by another LA. And another. Government has spent all its money on superhighway to link them all. With help from Chinese belt+road initiative.

Plus as K-shmitty said. Young population. Also the fertility rate is 5.2 children for every woman.

I was quite stunned as well. But Africa is much more than starvin' countries on western media.

Ah. OK. You said the magic word.

China.

Somehow it is worth it to China to "help", although I doubt they'd be helping if it wasn't somehow lucrative.

Yes, the continent of Africa is "much more than starvin' countries on western media".

So, yes; "stunning".

[Gilly Goodness]

What I find interestin' to consider this strip of Nigerian* mega cities along a coastal strip. This linear mass of humanity. This idea will reach it's zenith if those crazy hepcats in Saudi Arabia build their linear city 170 kilometers long. A chain of building with it's own fast train line. Energy hubs. Infrastructure comin' first over geography or historic infrastructure.

As the climate crisis bites wonder if more of these corridors of humanity will emerge. Gated and linear. Self powered by solar and green hydrogen. Connected by fast trains as in China where domestic air transport is declinin' as more centres are linked by high speed electric rail. Interestin'.

Even in Australia most of the population lies between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne down the East coast. Expect fast trains in comin' decades. Also new urban areas as we accept much more Indian and Chinese immigrants. But I've said too much. 😉




The Line. Set for construction in 7 years. In Saudi Arabia.


* Not forgettin' Nigeria has the 3rd largest film industry in the world behind Hollywood and Bollywood. Guess what it is called? Nollywood. Heeheeehee

[alex peters]

What I find interestin' to consider this strip of Nigerian* mega cities along a coastal strip. This linear mass of humanity. This idea will reach it's zenith if those crazy hepcats in Saudi Arabia build their linear city 170 kilometers long. A chain of building with it's own fast train line. Energy hubs. Infrastructure comin' first over geography or historic infrastructure.

As the climate crisis bites wonder if more of these corridors of humanity will emerge. Gated and linear. Self powered by solar and green hydrogen. Connected by fast trains as in China where domestic air transport is declinin' as more centres are linked by high speed electric rail. Interestin'.

Even in Australia most of the population lies between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne down the East coast. Expect fast trains in comin' decades. Also new urban areas as we accept much more Indian and Chinese immigrants. But I've said too much. 😉




The Line. Set for construction in 7 years. In Saudi Arabia.


* Not forgettin' Nigeria has the 3rd largest film industry in the world behind Hollywood and Bollywood. Guess what it is called? Nollywood. Heeheeehee

I always find your interpretation of various subjects quite informative and interesting as well as educational Mr. Gilly.

[Ash Armstrong]

So, cracking one off every now and then is actually good for the planet, in the long term? Good thing I have an extra box of tissues to hand, I'm going to be doing my bit over the weekend.

[patrickq]

8 billion…. and yet the worldwide birthrate is declining

[hammerhead]

I just wonder how long we can keep growing more food. Things could be very different in a few decades if sea levels rise as predicted and there is a mass migration away from coastal cities.