The Trillion Pound Gorilla
So I was on the bus the other day, and it was pretty crowded and I got to thinking:
'I wonder just how much the entire human race weighs?'
It turned out to be harder to answer than I thought, but it seems that the world population is around 6.4 billion, with an average weight of a human being around 130 pounds or so (a rough estimate based on this site and this site).
So the total mass of humanity is in the neighbourhood of 832 billion pounds. But with both average weight and total population rising, it looks like most of us will live to see the day when the total weight of humanity crosses one trillion pounds (pop. of 7 billion with an average weight of 143 pounds would do it), as that day should occur in about 10 years or so based on current trends.
If today is 'Buy Nothing Day' then I recommend in advance that the day we cross the one trillion pound mark should be 'Eat Nothing Day'.
'I wonder just how much the entire human race weighs?'
It turned out to be harder to answer than I thought, but it seems that the world population is around 6.4 billion, with an average weight of a human being around 130 pounds or so (a rough estimate based on this site and this site).
So the total mass of humanity is in the neighbourhood of 832 billion pounds. But with both average weight and total population rising, it looks like most of us will live to see the day when the total weight of humanity crosses one trillion pounds (pop. of 7 billion with an average weight of 143 pounds would do it), as that day should occur in about 10 years or so based on current trends.
If today is 'Buy Nothing Day' then I recommend in advance that the day we cross the one trillion pound mark should be 'Eat Nothing Day'.
Labels: daily life, humour, overpopulation
posted by Declan at
Saturday, November 27, 2004
3 Comments:
Hmm, that was before my time, had to look it up but it seems like it could be appropriate, if unappetizing.
I see that it is based on a book by Harry Harrison - and I loved his "Deathworld" (a true sci-fi classic) so maybe I'll have to check it out sometime.
By
Declan, at 6:58 PM
And if you gave them each one square metre, they could all fit into Prince Edward Island.
(Okay, 0.9 m^2.)
Hard to believe, eh?
By
Andrew Spicer, at 8:06 PM
If it helps provide some context, in the course of trying to track down the total weight of humanity, I came across a site which claimed that the total weight of humans on earth is similar to the total weight of ants. Imagine P.E.I. overrun by the (estimated) 4 quadrillion ants in the world!
By
Declan, at 5:38 PM
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