Around 1804, the world's population reached 1 billion people. In 1927, it broke the 2 billion mark. After that, the world population really took off. In the following 84 years, the world's population increased by 5 billion, reaching 7 billion in 2011, and the growth continues.
As of 2021, earth has a population of approximately 7.8 billion.
With only 7.8 billion people living, the depletion of natural resources such as water and oil and the destruction of the environment have brought various obstacles to humanity at this stage. Although there are many problems, it is certain that the population will continue to increase in the future as a foregone conclusion.
Will the population eventually grow to 10 billion, 100 billion, 1 trillion people indefinitely? When this happens, what will happen to human life? How many people can live on the earth?
Today, we will talk about what will happen when the population of the earth reaches one trillion.
The overpopulation of the world is a long-term worrying problem. In 2010, many scientists signed a statement stating that population growth and environmental destruction are the greatest threats to mankind.
So, how will the population change in the future? The future population can be calculated from the current birth rate and the predicted value of the future fertility rate.
In 2019, according to United Nations estimates, the world's population will reach 11 billion around 2100, and the population will no longer increase thereafter. Since ancient times, people have repeatedly claimed that population growth will trigger the demise of mankind, but such tragedies have never actually happened. I believe there are two main reasons for this.
First, it is very difficult to predict future technological innovations.
For example, the rate of food production cannot keep up with the rate of population growth, but then it was discovered that the Hubble Bosch method can synthesize ammonia from nitrogen that accounts for 80% of the air. And the establishment of the method of using ammonia to synthesize chemical fertilizers has greatly increased food production and avoided crises. To give a modern example, as recently as 20 years ago, no one would have thought that you could watch self-media videos on your smartphone.The population will not explode within a few years, but after decades and hundreds of years of development, there is a window of opportunity for innovation.
Second, the resources we use today may be borrowed in advance from the future.
Many of us may have heard this sentence: Today's human life needs 1.5 earths to sustain. Whether this is right or wrong is debatable, but it is clear that the speed at which humans use resources exceeds the speed at which the earth recycles resources. However, the quantity of the earth's resources is also an extremely difficult area to predict. This is because there are many uncertain factors, such as the existence of undiscovered resources, the existence of resources that are difficult to extract with existing technologies but can be re-exploited through technological innovation.
In any case, there is no doubt that we use the earth's resources faster than our current speed. As population growth is slowing, reducing the amount of resources used per capita in the future is considered important.
Now, let us return to the topic, if the population reaches 1 trillion, which is far more than normal predictions, what will happen?
The population of one trillion is about 128 times the current population of 7.8 billion. You may find this number desperate, but there are a few studies that show that through social reforms and technological innovations, 1 trillion people can live on the planet. On the other hand, with the current social structure and technological level, mankind will fall into chaos.
On the current earth, if the population reaches 1 trillion, what will happen?
First, let's look at the population density. The earth’s land area is about 150 million square kilometers. If we divide the land area by the earth’s population, we can simply calculate the average population density of the entire earth.
Taking the current population of 7.8 billion as an example, there are about 52 people per square kilometer. These include many lands that are not suitable for human habitation, such as deserts, tropical rain forests, Antarctica, etc., so the population density in general is very low. In contrast, the average population density of 1 trillion people is around 6,700 per square kilometer.
Taking China as an example, its population density is equivalent to that of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. Of course, the average population density including the very center of the Sahara Desert and near the Antarctic is the same as that of Shenzhen today. Therefore, almost all human beings have to live in high-rise buildings.
In addition,We must provide food and water for a trillion people. Even in a world of 7.8 billion people, it is estimated that 800 million people still lack food and 2.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. With a population of 1 trillion, this problem will undoubtedly become more prominent, and food will also be grown in high-rise buildings. The farm we see today takes up too much space. Various types of meat are also very likely to disappear from the table. For example, to produce 1 kg of beef, 25 kg of grain and 15,000 liters of water are required. With food and water already in short supply, humans cannot afford the cost of raising meat animals.
Speaking of animals, this will be a very harsh environment for non-human life. Even now, life on the earth is extinct very fast, and it is even called " extinction ". There is a theory that the rate of biological extinction is the same or even higher than that of the mass extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. In a world with a population of 1 trillion people, due to factors such as humans destroying the environment in order to ensure a place to live, hunting indiscriminately to ensure food, and global warming, many organisms have evolved before they evolve into new organisms. Extinct.
In addition, it is also possible that the food we eat will be mainly insects. In addition, we also need to obtain energy for human life, as well as methods to dispose of the waste and carbon dioxide we emit. It is unrealistic to count on the sun or volcanoes to dispose of our waste.
Not only do we need enough energy for one trillion people to live, but we also need energy to deal with emissions, etc. The remaining surface of the earth will be filled with solar power generation systems.
Even so, we must save energy as much as possible, and human beings are forced to live in very small spaces. Only high-rise buildings and power plants are left on the earth covering the earth, and people live incomplete lives in high-rise buildings.
With current technology, you can imagine a world with a population of 1 trillion people. It has become pessimistic.
Having said that,However, this world is not only the earth. For example, on the surface of the moon, there is 1 million tons of a substance called helium 3, and its energy released per 1 gram is equivalent to the energy of 40 tons of coal. It is estimated that this is enough to supply the energy of the entire planet today for 10,000 years.
There is no doubt that, just like those who decided to go to the other side of the sea in the era of great voyages, the era of exploring this vast universe has arrived!
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