6, 999, 999,999……….7 billion!
Holy Crap, that’s a lot of people. And no, despite the preponderance of evidence, they’re not all ahead of you in line at the supermarket while the muzak serves up versions of oldies close enough to the original to make you line-boogie and bad enough to make you terrified someone you know will see you.
Not that most of us spend as much time thinking about this very big number as we do about the fact that next week will contain 11.11.11 – a date that’s the same on both sides of the Atlantic. woohoo. partay. yaawwnnn.
But what the hell, you’re here eh? So why not give it a minute or two. 7 billion people. Evened out around the world – and of course nothing ever is – that would be less than a tenth of a square mile per person, or nearly a Chicago city block. That may sound roomy enough, but that block has to accommodate your housing, recreation, land to grow all the food you eat, roads, business, and whatever else you’re up to these days.
And as we said, it actually never is evened out. Some places are really crowded (Manila has 4800+ in that same city block) while others do well to scratch up 2 caribou and a Palin.
The food is never really evened out, either. While many of us are ridiculously overfed, others are starving. Literally. Here and abroad. And it’s more likely to get worse than better in the near future.
What can you do? Not a lot for the really big picture, frankly. But you can do something. Give what you can to local food banks and international food security charities. Keep an eye out for that friend/neighbor who is out of work and may be hurting more than you know. Vote to throw/keep the I Got Mine so Screw You crowd out of office. And have some spaghetti marinara for dinner. It’s Meatless Monday and in a world where so many get by on so little, it’s unseemly to take 2400 gallons of water and 7 lbs of grains and turn them into one pound of beef that’s no good for your heart anyway.
