X-Message-Number: 15189
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 00:08:05 +0000
From: Phil Rhoades <>
Subject: 1/4 acre block again

>Message #15186
>Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2000 20:46:25 -0800
>From: Lee Corbin <>
>Subject: From Texas to Australia
>
>A frequently repeated error that also cropped up
>on this list is to state that there is room in
>Texas for each person on Earth to be given a 1/4
>acre plot of land. But doing the math belies this:
>
>6 billion * 1/4 acre / 640 acres/mile yields 2.3
>million square miles.
>
>Texas has an area approximately ten times too
>small.  To make the point, Australia with an
>area of 2.9 million square miles could be used.
>
>(Or if you assume 4 people per family on the
>average, then Libya suffices.)
>
>Lee Corbin

Lee,

Not only is the math of the advocates wrong but it is a silly proposition 
anyway - Australia is mostly desert with a fringe of land (mostly in the 
south-east) that is a bit wetter. When you take into account how much of 
the Earth we need left in some sort of pristine (undeveloped/unpolluted) 
state for biodiversity reasons and how much we need for agriculture etc so 
that EVERYONE can have a decent life - we need a shrinking world 
population, not an expanding one.  Maybe nanotech could change this - but 
in no time soon anyway and certainly in no time for the majority of the 
current population.

R&LL,

Phil.
-
Philip Rhoades

Pricom Pty Limited  (ACN  003 252 275)
GPO Box 3411
Sydney NSW	2001
Australia
Mobile:  +61:0411-185-652
Fax:  +61:2:8923-5363
E-mail:  

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