Comments on: 3 x 108 Americans

By: Prowler67

Prowler67 — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 18:08:18 +0000

I’m doing my part…and not having kids. Do families really need to have 6 kids?

By: ABR

ABR — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:48:24 +0000

Thanks, Buzz Parsec. So do you think the title was MKSing fun of the “speed of heavy”? If so, I’m not sure how the unit “americans” equates to a speed unless it deals with expanding waistlines (bulging coastlines?). In any case, PK was right — Americans do have more significant figures nowadays.

By: Buzz Parsec

Buzz Parsec — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 06:42:40 +0000

Good one, ABR

But only in MKS… using cgs (which I’m partial to), we’re only 1% of c.

By: P_40ace

P_40ace — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:53:51 +0000

Actually, most fertilizers come from the air. Thats right, the air. In 1908, Fritz Haber came across a process to make ammonia from the air. The first industrial use of this process was by the Germans in WW1 to make saltpeter for gunpowder. According to Wikipedia, “The Haber process now produces 500 million tons of artificial fertilizer per year, mostly in the form of anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, and urea.” Modern fertilizers aren’t made from oil, but modern agriculture is very much dependent on oil. Without it, it would be back to the fields en masse.

By: Caledonian

Caledonian — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:23:33 +0000

We also have to face that fact that the modern farming techniques that we use to produce our excess of food aren’t sustainable. Even ignoring the nutrient depletion, monocultural population weakness, and transportation issues, those methods require a lot of fertilizers – fertilizers that are made out of oil.

By: JM

JM — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:47:35 +0000

“…I think the Earth is capable of supporting a lot more people, if weâ€™d just be smart about it instead of raping the planet like itâ€™ll heal in a day or two…”

Agree.

By: NelC

NelC — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:34:45 +0000

The Isle of Wight was used back when there were only 3 billion Homo sapiens (sapiens — Ha!) on the planet. Today the relevent island is Zanzibar, hence the title of the old SF novel set at the turn of the millennium, “Stand on Zanzibar”.