Rural regions account for 43 percent of the world’s population – estimated to be just over 8 billion, at the last count – and if the calculations in this new study are correct then the number of unaccounted-for people could potentially stretch into the billions.(…)
“We were surprised to find that the actual population living in rural areas is much higher than the global population data indicates – depending on the dataset, rural populations have been underestimated by between 53 percent to 84 percent over the period studied.”(…)
ad: “Not everyone is convinced. Scientists who weren’t involved in the study told Chris Stokel-Walker at New Scientist that improvements in satellite imagery and the quality of data collecting in some countries would make these discrepancies smaller.”(…)
Sorry, but I’ve seen some comically bad reporting coming from this site in the past. Pretty sure clickbait is a significant part of their business model.
every time someone, including myself quotes the population of China, (officially 1.4 billion), I think about the huge towns in the middle of nowhere that I’ve been to and think “or maybe 2 billion”
TBH China’s population is likely less than the official figure, but they could easily accommodate more. There are tons of empty apartment buildings everywhere, and most of the country is still empty. Most people don’t intuitively grasp population density at scale but it’s shocking how little space we all take up with good urbanism.
If people were to stand shoulder to shoulder, the entire population of the world could fit into half of Prince Edward Island. If the world’s population was in a single city with the density of Paris, it would be the size of Iraq. To put that in perspective, Paris is the 35th most dense city in the world. If you matched the density of the densest city in the world, it would be about the size of Uruguay.
Of course, each person needs much more land to survive, and more still if they’re to live the lifestyle we in the developed world enjoy.
I don’t like living in a dense urban area, but undoubtedly it is the way to keep the planet healthy and us alive.
Vertical farming and efficiencies of providing services to denser areas, along with re-wilding areas for carbon capture all seem like part of the puzzle.
In the real world though, how do you get the entire population of the US to move to a handful of cities?
How would we even pay for the infrastructure development with our current model of building it and then ignoring it until we have to put a bandaid on it
Yeah, I don’t see us all moving into cities, although many people already have. I also don’t think we need to have one giant city - those numbers were given to show how little actual living space people need, keeping in mind that Paris doesn’t seem to be viewed as somewhere undesirable to live, and still has room for beauty and not just urban utilitarianism.
On the flip side, many people who move to the city do so for work. I hope we see less of that, where things can be more decentralized so people who like a less urban environment can still effectively contribute to society and the economy without having to stifle their personal living preferences. I’d also like to see less cost-efficient but more space-efficient growing conditions for agriculture so more land can be returned to a natural state while still supporting the populations we have. Both vertical farming and vertical living can contribute to that. And I absolutely realize that livestock tend to be both less cost- and space-efficient, especially if it’s humane.
Yeah, the only way I see reducing livestock is if the cost gets unacceptable for the working class. Nobody wants to hear “you need to eat plants”. Would require a culture shift in the US at least
Chickens are surprisingly effective as far as meat animals go.
I’m super interested in insects too. Im growing spirulina right now to experiment if it can be a protein source
and this here is the only advantage of single family zoning, preventing the scourge of urbanism from taking root by cutting it off at the housing.
Single family home zoning was designed for racism and really shouldn’t exist anymore
Exactly. Nobody has actually counted them all, so nobody knows for sure. Let alone in the more remote areas of the world.
I’ll tell you, I backpack between cities regular, and a lot of those agricultural towns don’t even have police stations.
Even if we can have more people, we probably shouldn’t tbh
Arr you suggesting some action should be tsken? Or…?
The biggest scam we’ve been sold is that birth rates are down and we’ll be running low on people!
Yet zoomers is the largest population EVER.
You have UK “needing immigration to sustain population decline” while it wasn’t declining. They used them to drive the labour costs down and rents up.
It is though. UK birth rate is well below replacement level and immigration is not enough to make up for it.
The math may not be obvious because that is a decrease in births now, that will become apparent in about 30 years when they would have children and previous large generations pass. You can either try to compensate now when it’s easy or wait 30 years until it’s a crisis with no way out and even if there was, it would take 30+ years
They talk about discovering more people when they have to move them to new homes because of dam construction. Are they entirely sure all the people in the new homes were originally in the area that will be affected by the dam? Seems like a ripe opportunity for fraud and/or bribery.
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That moment when you unlock a new reference and put it everywhere regardless of if it fits because it’s new and exciting to you
I don’t remember making this comment and that’s scary to me.
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