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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (30328)	3/28/2003 5:16:56 PM
From: Gary H	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 74559

<The population of the US is predicted to increase to 500 million within 15-20 years.> The US population will never reach 500 million. There will not be enough fresh water to support that many people or the food growth to feed them. This is part of a letter I sent to UNESCO/Division of Water Sciences, and the letter in full will be displayed at an Expo in Paris as part of the International Year of Freshwater World Water Assessment Programme <<The following figures may not be accurate but will show the intent. Consider the current population of the US at 287,000,000 and Canada at 30,000,000 for a total of 317,000,000 people in North America not counting Mexico. Next consider that the average person weighs 150 lbs and that 91% of each person is water we have 136.5 lbs of water per person. At 8.333 lbs per gallon (US) this 136.5 lbs of water translates into 16.38 gallons per person. So in essence we have 5,192,480,770 gallons of fresh water walking around these 2 countries in human form. Another way of looking at it is how many cubic feet does that equal. One cubic foot of water weighs 7.5 lbs. giving us 5,769400,000 cubic feet of water. Next consider the cattle population in these two counties. I only have rough figures for cattle in the US. and there were approx. 106 million as of July 2001. It could be mentioned that there are less export and more imports of cattle but for this discussion we'll talk about what is currently on the hoof. The average weight of a head of cattle is approx. 1000 lbs. giving a total weight of 106 million head times 1000 lbs for a total of 106 billion lbs of beef . The water content of cattle I would think would be lower then humans, I'm guessing about 85%. In any case, the fresh water on hoof would be approx. 850 lbs of water per head which equals 90 billion lbs. of water in the US alone. This in turn gives us a approx. 10,812,043,248 gallons of water or, 1,441,605,766 Cubic feet of water. The human content in the US and Canada plus US cattle is 15,857,083,248 Gallons of water, and a total volume for the above is 2,114,277,766 cubic feet of water. This is not taking in to account for other livestock such as horses, pigs, goats etc. Then there is wildlife to consider, which could push the total gallonage above 25 billion. Talk about water retention, yikes! What is the solution? Restrict immigration? Reduced birth rate? The former would aid in the later, but in addition I think it would be necessary to introduce birth control through out the world. That is certainly a tall order and may not be possible. But it may be the only answer, as an example the rate of immigration the US population is expected to be 339,630,000 by 2020. By 2050 expectations are a population of 414,100,000. If we are having water shortage problems now, I can't imagine the population ever reaching that level simple because there won't be enough water to support food growth of any kind, be it cattle or crops, for that many people.>> I have recently heard that the next world war will be about fresh water.