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Global Warming is Something to Sneeze About!
Weed season just started and I must admit I am feeling the effect. It seems to me that my allergy symptoms get worse every year. My initial thought was that this was my imagination. That was until I saw a show on CBS.
It turns out that researchers have found a connection between Global Warming and the increase of allergy suffering. As the temperature rises (even a little) weeds flourish and year after year there are more. They must be happy and horny weeds because they are certainly spreading a lot of pollen around.
Another factor is the more weeds the more weed killer that will be used. This is not a good thing for our ecological system. If just small increases in global temperature can melt ice caps and pollute the air with pollen, what can we expect in the future when temperatures rise even higher? I cringe to think about.
Anyway, all this allergy talked got me thinking about the social economic effect of this increase. I found a report called State of World Allergy Report 2008. According to the report, worldwide asthma rates have increased 50 per cent each decade for the last 40 years. Along with this increase comes death and suffering.
And listen to this. Approximately $20 billion are spent globally each year in relation to allergic rhinitis; a figure that includes the costs associated with medications, lost work productivity, and physician consultations. Imagine $20 billion just for Hay Fever.
Ummm, I wonder how many bales of hay $20 billion would buy in today’s market? I am not saying hay is the sole cause of Hay Fever because any pollen, dust or even air pollutants can cause allergic reaction . I am just saying hay seems to be more interesting then dust. After all, you can take a roll in the hay, but I never heard of taking a roll in the dust.
My research says the cost of a bale of hay is between $2 to $10 depending where you live. I think we will average it out and say $6 bucks. So, $20 billion can buy about 3.3 billion bails of hay. Now the average size of a bale of hay is about 24”X24”X36” and it weighs about 65 pounds. By the way, there does not seem to be a standard size for a bale of hay so I took an average.
The Grand Canyon is about 10 miles wide at its widest by about I mile high. We could build a wall from tip to tip; bottom to top that is 14.6 feet wide in the Grand Canyon with the hay bales we purchase with the money we spend annually on easing the symptoms of Hay Fever.
Don’t ask! I have no idea where this comparison came from. It just showed up in the deep recesses of my mind as I suffered from a hay fever headache.
Holy crap! That is a lot of poop
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The best information I can get is that the average bowel movement is about 9 ounces (two sources) and that people, on average, go once a day. Of course, bowel movement size depends on what you and how much you eat. For our purposes, we’ll use 7 ounces as an average to accommodate the various sizes of people throughout the world.
I have no idea where the idea for this post came from. I was reviewing news on the internet and looking at various political stories, so it must have been that that triggered my thoughts about POOP. J
So if the average bowel movement is 7 ounces and we figure the world population to be about 6 Billion people, that means 42 billion ounces of poop a day or 2.62 billion pounds. Times that by 365 days and we have 958 billion pounds of crap a year. That is about 159 pounds per person per year
According to Wikipedia:
The main pathogens that are commonly looked for in feces include:
Of course, other diseases have been spread by contact with feces. This being said it makes it extremely important that we process and make safe and discharge of pop in our waters.
Now what would 958 billion pounds of poop look like? Speaking of Washington the Capital building weighs about 188,500, 000 pounds. So the amount of poop created by the worlds people each year equals the weight of 5,082 Capital buildings. Since other people have their own politicians to crap on I re did my figures for the USA only. So if we times the 159 pounds of poop per person per year by the population of the USA that would be 47.7 billion pounds per year or 253 Capital buildings.
Holy crap! That is a lot of poop. |
The Fatter We Get the More Gasoline We Use
Losing weight used to be all about keeping healthy and attractive, but now we may also have a financial benefit as we drop those pounds. Sheldon H. Jacobson, professor of computer science, At UIUC and his former graduate student Laura A. McLay, now a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, have found that weight gain of U.S. drivers has increased the nation's fuel consumption.
Their conclusions are based on mathematical computations drawn from publicly available data on U.S. weight gain from 1960 to 2002, a period in which the weight of the average American has increased by more than 24 pounds, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. By 2002, 62 percent of adults were overweight with a body mass index of between 25 and 30; more than 30 percent were considered obese with a BMI exceeding 30.
They determined that this extra weight accounts for 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline a year being used. Jacobson stated”
“Although the amount of fuel consumed as a result of the rising prevalence of obesity is small compared to the increase in the amount of fuel consumed stemming from other factors such as increased car reliance and an increase in the number of drivers, it still represents a large amount of fuel, and will become even more significant as the rate of obesity increases.”
According to the USDA American’s consumption of food has increased, from 1970 to now, by over 500 calories per day and it is continuing to increase. If I remember correctly from my 300 previous diets 2500 calories equals one-pound weight gain. So, in one year it would be possible to gain 53 pounds by eating 500 calories a day over what you burn.
Anyway, by leaving the car home and walking, you save twice on gas, first by not using any and second by weighing less when you do drive.
What does 1 billion gallon of gasoline look like? One gallon of gas weighs about 6 pounds, so 1 billion gallons would be 6 billion pounds. So that would be 12 million 500 pound people. The 2000 census states that Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana population is about 12 million. Imagine the entire population of Los Angeles weighing 500 pounds each.
People, People, People, Everywhere!
Most people visiting New Your City for the first time are amazed at the density of the population. It’s the hustle bustle of humanity that generates the excitement most of us feel when in the city. It is a vibrant bastion of American culture.
According to the figures I have found, New York City’s population is 17,800,000 (Metro) and its land mass is about 150 billion square feet. So, that means that each person has an area of 90x90 feet or 8,449 Sq. Ft. So, if you were in the middle of the square you would be 45 feet away from the next person. Of course, it is never that simple and if you were in Midtown at rush hour, it would be a bit denser. Still it is a good indicator of population density.
Now to the most densely populated city in the world, which is Mumbai , India. Mumbai’s population is 14,350,000 and the land mass is 8.36 billion square feet. That’s the approximate equivalent of a square 24X24 or 583 square feet. Standing in the middle of your square you would be only 12 feet from the next person. Imagine rush hour in Mumbai!
Estimates I have seen say that the world population will reach 10 Billion by 2050 about the time my grand daughter will reach the age of 45. I am worried for her.
Honor Them Every Day!
Memorial Day, as it should, makes me think of all those military personnel who either died in battle or from accidents and disease incurred while we were warring. While I could not find a definitive number it in the neighborhood of 1.3 to 1.4 million men and women.
Worse yet, the number continues today with our conflicts coin Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some died in wars defending our freedoms and others in wars and battles that were defending the current governments, at the time of the war, point of view. We can argue whether a war was necessary or not, but in my opinion we cannot argue the price these men and women paid for their country. Moreover, we cannot argue the suffering they, their families and friends endured for us.
I do not have the figures on others who were injured in our various wars, but it is safe to say it is many times those who died. How can we measure the grief, sorry and pain of all these people?
We cannot, but just to give you an idea of the impact of the loss 1.4 million people make consider this: In 1780, the Unites States (original 13 colonies) had a population of 2.8 million. During the next 228 years, military mortality was ½ half of the population in 1780. What do you think Thomas Jefferson would have said if we told him that many people would die in US military service?
That is 17 people for every day since 1780 we need to remember always, not just Memorial Day.
Population Growth- By 2050 there will be over 9 billion people
Every year over 133 Million babies start their lives in this world. That’s 353,000 babies born every day. Only 58 million people die each year. That should give you an idea of population growth. The estimate is that by 2050 there will be over 9 billion people.
Just to put this into perspective, Japan has a population of about 127 million. So every year we create enough babies to equal Japan’s population. By the way, 35 million people live in the Tokyo metro area.
Here is an interesting fact: Those babies will be speaking one (or more) of 6912 known languages.
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