This woman is NOT qualified to speak on the subject of overpopulation.
So Michelle Duggar, thinks that there is no concern for overpopulation of the earth... because the entire world population of the earth can "fit" within the geographic boundaries of Jacksonville, FL. While there are many issues with this, lets start with where she gets that... I just have to check facts, cause that sounds like one of those "I just made up this statistic" sort of things.
So...
- Jacksonville, FL (she doesn't say FL, but I am giving her the benefit of the doubt) - According to the US Census bureau*, it happens to be the largest city by land area in the United States (at 874.3 sq. miles). That is a whopping 24 billion (and change) sq. feet!
- It made news that the 7 billionth person was born on October 31, 2011. So there is more than that now, but I will use that number.
- The split is roughly 51/49 female/male.
- The average male has shoulder width of 18.5" and female 15" with an average thickness at chest of 8" (I will be kind and assume no fat people). If you put all these people together as she suggests... they will take up 6.7 billion sq. feet (with some rounding) - assuming you cram them in shoulder to shoulder and chest to back.
Alright, I concede that you *could* fit everyone into that area.
But, is that really a means of determining overpopulation? Because, I thought it had to do with FEEDING all of those people. For that you need Arable land or Agricultural land.
- the average person needs 2000 calories a day to live, which means we will need a little more than 5.1 Quadrillion calories per year.
- there is roughly 18.8 million sq. miles of agricultural land in the world.
- there are about 670 calories in a lbs of rice and 1,430 calories in a lbs of wheat (I will assume we will use wheat - it requires too much land to get calories from any other source)
- A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 lbs.
- an Acre of land produces about 70 bushels.
That means we can produce only 50 trillion calories a year. Which is about 5 quadrillion shy of feeding us. So maybe there is an issue with world population?
I realize that this is a fairly simplified example of a very complex issue - but even this shows that Mrs. Duggar doesn't understand even the simplest of part of the issue.
... or maybe I just have too much time on my hands?
*"Largest U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1990-2010," US Census Bureau, in World Almanac and Book of Facts 2012, p. 612.
