by AlmostAtheist 64 Replies latest jw friends
Vitality magazine ( if I remember correctly ) can be obtained for free from my local health food store. If I also remember correctly it was full of "stories" about miracle products that just happened to be written by the people who manufactured them. Also present was the ad promoting vitamin therapy for cancer in Mexico to be taken without chemo and radiation.
Dams
His source:
***
g01 9/8 p. 28 Watching the World ***‘Overpopulation’
a Myth?""Amazing as it may seem, the entire population of the world can be housed in the U.S. state of Texas," reports Vitality magazine. According to the article, the current United Nations estimate of the world’s population is about six billion people, and Texas has a land area of some 262,000 square miles [680,000 sq km]. The amount of living space per person would therefore be more than 1,217 square feet [113 sq m]. "A family of 5 would thus occupy more than 6,085 square feet [565 sq m] of living space. Even in Texas, that’s a mansion," says Vitality. "Meanwhile, the rest of the world would be completely empty, available for all of mankind’s agricultural, manufacturing, educational, and recreational activities!"
Texas = 268,581 square miles (262,000)
1 square mile = 640 acres
640 * 268,581 = 171,891,840 acres
6 billion people / family of 5 = 1,200,000,000
171,891,840 / 1,200,000,000 = 0.14 acres per family of 5
Of course the logistics of conveying away the waste of 6 billion people in such a small area and providing clean water and the ability to travel is not addressed. I bet he thought the WTS came up with these figures.
Awake/Golden Age has also published estimates for the number of people to be resurrected148 billion
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/106252/1.ashx
LOOK OUT TEXAS
errrr, hold on people... not only are the witnesses not including everyone who's ever lived (the reserrection)
but our space requirements are a little more than simply where we live...
An average amount of resources is necessary to sustain one human being. The average ecological footprint in the western world with modern agricultural methods is about 12 acres. In other parts of the world it is a lot more...
and if the witnesses plan on dropping factory farming methods, I bet you could double that to 24 acres required to sustain a person in food and clothing, waste disposal and so on.
I can't find a link to worldwide figures, but here is one for the US figures...
Hello, Thank you for your fine magazine. It has come to my attention that you were quoted in a magazine by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (more commonly known as Jehovah's Witnesses). According to my source, the September 8, 2001 issue of Awake magazine makes reference to your magazine by paraphrasing : *** g01 9/8 p. 28 Watching the World *** ‘Overpopulation’ a Myth?" "Amazing as it may seem, the entire population of the world can be housed in the U.S. state of Texas," reports Vitality magazine. According to the article, the current United Nations estimate of the world’s population is about six billion people, and Texas has a land area of some 262,000 square miles [680,000 sq km]. The amount of living space per person would therefore be more than 1,217 square feet [113 sq m]. "A family of 5 would thus occupy more than 6,085 square feet [565 sq m] of living space. Even in Texas, that’s a mansion," says Vitality. "Meanwhile, the rest of the world would be completely empty, available for all of mankind’s agricultural, manufacturing, educational, and recreational activities!" Knowing this organization as I do, I have found in my independent research that sources are not credited properly for their work. This is a copyright violation. I have also found that the original articles are frequently taken out of context from what the original writer had in mind. Would you be kind enough to email me the article that this speaks of? I prefer to verify sources for credibility.
Here is the email I sent to [email protected] -- you may wish to write something similar.
i think maybe this vitality magazine is an Awake affiliate, so when it means the entire population of the world, it means the entire population of the NEW world..... so the 6 million, they will inhabit all of texas and the rest of the world would be empty!!! WOOHOO, texas is PARADISE!!!!!! hells yes baby, we're all excited about that one.... livin in texas, wearing cowboy hats and toting guns.... what will jehovah think???
the infamous one
ever notice how they have an answer for everything?
Yes, I have and it's very annoying. Mostly because every single person I have ever talked to who was able to just throw 'facts and figures' about to 'prove' their points, and have an answer for everything normally turn out to be full of bullshit.
Sad thing about witness bullshit is that it's bullshit that kills and maims; kids, blood loss victims, teen suicide, suicide of df'ed members, poverty in your old age... etc,....etc...
J
This topic inspired me to do some digging of my own, but my research took me a little farther afield than Vitality magazine. I wondered, since anyone who died before Armageddon also is secure in Jehovah's memory and also has a hope of resurrection in the revitalized paradise earth, we are looking at this world supporting a potential population of 82 billion. That's assuming, of course, that people stop propogating in the New Earth. No deaths combined with perfect birth rates would produce explosive, unsustainable population growth. In fact, population growth in the past few years is due to mankind's greater ability to preserve and sustain life.
If we took 82 billion people and tried to jam them in to Texas, they would get ten square feet each, or five feet by two feet. About the size of a coffin. Coincidence?
| Current World Population | 6,587,371,681 | people |
| Texas square miles | 268,581 | square miles |
| Texas square kilometres | 695,356 | square kilometres |
| Average sustainable land, people per kilometre | 201 | people |
| Top population support, on average land, Texas | 139,766,598 | people |
| Square kilometres of average sustainable land needed for current world pop. | 32,772,993 | square km |
| Current available sustainable land | 70,000,000 | square km |
| The problems we have is uneven distribution. | ||
| Rwanda, Yemen, Afghanistan, Haiti, Burundi, Somalia, Comoros, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria. Sadly, for some of these countries the projections proved to be true. This shows that countries, in isolation, which are exclusively or mostly dependant on agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture, are very vulnerable to the imbalance between population and development. Thereupon, the Malthusian trap can function ruthlessly. The projections also show that it is possible to escape this predicament if proper investments are made in agricultural development or if a country can import food through wealth generated in industry, services or other sources such as oil. | ||
| http://www.un.org/popin/fao/lisbon/lisbon.htm | ||
| http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/~spgp/2004_03_16/reconsidering%20world%20pop%20growth.pdf | ||
| http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/human_pop/human_pop.html | ||
BUT of course, we're not just talking the CURRENT population. How about all the people born since the beginning of recorded history? | ||
| 82 billion people ever born. | ||
| 82 billion people divided by… | 82,000,000,000 | people ever born |
| Texas acres | 171,891,840 | acres |
| Equals | 477 | people per acre |
| How many feet in an acre? | 43,560 | square feet |
| Texas feet | 7.48761E+12 | |
| People per square foot | 0.01 | |
| One person every ten square feet. That's five feet wide by two feet. About the size of a coffin. | ||
*eyes begin to glaze over*
"Well, I'm sure Jehovah will work it all out. After all, it's his arrangement! And his word doesn't return to him without results."
*eyes returning to normal, odd smile begins to return*
"Wasn't that a wonderful Watchtower study Sunday?"
Dave
If you went to college your math is probably better than any of the witnesses. I'll go with your figure.
