Fun with math (Score 1)

Lets have some fun with math and put this in perspective.

At a 1% annual growth rate the population doubles every 70 years (current rate is 1.14, but lets not quibble).

The current population is approx 6Bln people and will double every 70 years at 1% growth; in 1050 years we get 1.966E+14 people (or ~1.5E+14 in 1000 years).

Curioulsy enough there is (currently) 1.5E+14 square metres (slight bigger than a square yard) of surface land area on the earth.

So in 1000 years there will be 1 person per square meter. Clearly a problem. (For those of you interested in extending your life, possibly indefinitely, this is a showstopper).

The question then becomes, do we get a grip on our current obsession with economic growth (which is entirely premised on population growth); or do we just let mother nature and/or our fellow man "bring it on"?

Whether its too late may be open to some debate, but there is definitely a problem and it will be/have-to-be addressed well before 1000 years pass.

Whether its our generation, or our children, or our childrens children, someone in the not nearly so distant future is going to pay the price for our inability to get our act together now.