End of the world Part 2...The Science

I told you in my last post that I could scientifically prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the world as we know it is going to end. And a lot sooner then you might be willing to believe. So here it comes fellow frogs, what the government won't tell you and what most people refuse to believe, I am going to show you all of it. The biggest, dirtiest, most ugly secret you can imagine is about to be revealed. So sit back relax and find out what will be the end of us all. It may not be what you might think.

Okay, so to start with, I'm sure you have already heard the plethora of potential doomsday scenarios. Asteroids and comets hitting the Earth, Supernovae generating a gamma ray burst that fry's the planet (by the way a Supernova occurs every 50 years or so in our galaxy). Polar shift or reversal that literally turns the world upside down and shakes the shit out of it.

Yeah yeah, I've heard all of that before. So what's new? What's the big secret?

Well first let me start by saying ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE CRAP! The things of sci-fi movies and cheap dime store novels. Oh, sure a big ass rock could fall from the big ass sky and kill us all. Or Bruce Willis could blow it to smithereens with a nuke. One has about as much chance as the other. Any one of the doomsday scenarios that scientists and the Discovery Channel try to tell us, "It's not a question of if, it's a question when."  are all possibilities that could happen. Notice the keyword is "Could"! What I'm talking about is a mathematical certainty not a mathematical probability.

Alright already!!!! I get it, I get it. So what is it?!

Fine, I'll tell you, but you are not going to like it. And the solution to it, is absolutely INCONCEIVABLE! 

WHAT IS IT ALREADY!!!!!!

Alright, calm down, calm down...here it is... wait for it....the thing that is guaranteed to end the world as we know it is....Exponential Function...(Cue dramatic music...DUM DUM DUUUMMM!!!)

Huh? What in the hell is Exponential Function?

I am soooooo glad you asked. Please allow me to explain. Exponential Function is calculated by dividing 70 by the percent growth rate per unit time. The 70 is derived by taking 100 or the percent needed to double and dividing it by the natural logarithm of 2.

Huh? Uummm, you lost me at Exponential.... What did you just say?

Put simply, the concept of an Exponential Function, in this case,  is the doubling of something that has a steady growth rate. For example, if the price of admission to an amusement park is raised 7% each year, then the time it takes for the price to double is 10 years. T^2=70/7%  T^2=10 years. So every 10 years, the price of a ticket to Six Flags doubles. Which, by the way, means that our grand children will have to pay $1,040.00 per person to get into Six Flags.

Now I get it, but what does that have to do with the end of the world?

Thank you for asking. Let me put it to you another way. According to the United Nations, the annual population growth rate for the United States is around 1%. Which translates to the population doubling approximately every 70 years. 70/1%=70. Now according to the 2010 Census the population of the United States was 308.7 million (Remember that is just the honest people that participated). Which means that in 70 years if the current growth rate stays the same, the population will double in 70 years to 617.4 million, then 70 years after that 1.23 Billion, then 2.46 billion, then 4.92 billion. I think you get the picture, in just over 300 years, the United States of America will have a population larger then the current population of the entire world.  The global population growth is even faster, some estimates put it as high as 1.3%. So it doubles every 53 years. Doing the math on that, gets really scary. If that rate were to continue, then in 770 years the global population would reach a density of 1 person per square meter over the total dry land surface of the earth.

HA! YOU"RE WRONG! According to the UN, the population growth is only 1.17%. 

And do you know how they come about that figure? It's a logarithmic estimated figure with an error rate of +/- .3%. You really shouldn't rely on Wikipedia. Oh and by the way, that was in 2006.

Anyway, imagine a world where there is only 1 square meter of land per person. I guess population growth would end then, no one would be able to have enough room to have sex. I suppose we could build vertically and end up with a world that looked like something out of Star Wars or The 5th Element (check them out, both good movies, but the images are scary as hell).

But there is no way it will be allowed to get that bad. 

Well, okay! Now we're talking. How can we change this? Hmmmmmm let me think...... Oh I got it! Regulate the ability to have kids. No to difficult and expensive. Oh I know...mandatory sterilization for all 3rd world countries. No, that wouldn't be fair. Besides, Americans use 4 times the resources per person then most 3rd world nations. I know...De-population! Lets nuke a few countries and reduce the population that way. Too extreme? Besides, who chooses which countries to depopulate.......Well, I'm out of ideas.

Guess what, so is everyone else. The governments of this world have known about this problem for many many years, and have tried most of those ideas. They don't work. In fact, the last time the global population was not growing was during the black plague. Too bad modern medicine is so good. We could sure use another black plague.

So are we doomed to have a population that chokes out the planet in a couple of centuries?

Oh no, we don't have to worry about that, pollution, trash build up, and an end to finite global resources such as food, clean water, and fuel sources such as oil and coal, will kill us long before than.

Let's take coal for example, a nice, cheap, and plentiful resource. In fact, it's so plentiful, in the 1970's a report was given to congress that the amount of coal in the United States was sufficient, at current rates of use and recovery, to last 500 years.

GREAT! we don't have to worry about running out for a long time!

WRONG! That estimate was accurate at a 0% rate of growth of consumption. Unfortunately, our use of coal from 1971 to 1999 had an annual growth rate of 2.86% per year. Uh oh.... That means, using some simple first year college calculus, we actually will run out of coal in....wait for it....72 years (Cue dramatic music...DUM DUM DUUUUUUM) and guess what, that report was made in the 1970's we have used up half that time already.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, from April 2010 through March 2011, 44.7% of the total energy production of the United States was from Coal fired plants. Can you imagine what will happen when almost 1/2 of the energy this nation needs just stops. Talk about the end of the world as we know it. Who do you think the half will be, who have to live without power? Why do you think there is such a push towards alternative energy resources? WAKE UP!!! It has nothing to do with the environment people. It has to do with the end of the world as we know it.  The U.S. Government is not concerned with global warming, dependence on foreign oil, or your rising electric bills. They only care about preserving our society. They won't  even tell you one simple fact...because of Exponential Function and the simple, indisputable, cold hard mathematics. 

THIS COUNTRY CANNOT SURVIVE ANOTHER 50 YEARS!

Oh and by the way, according to the same report, the U.S. is sitting on over 1/2 of the entire worlds supply of coal. Imagine how soon things will end in other countries.

Is your frog boiling yet?

p.s. Don't take my word for any of this...Google "Dr. Albert A. Bartlett's presentation on 'Arithmetic, Population, and Energy." His lecture is one of the most eye opening, and damn scariest, things I have ever seen.