Question

There are about 6.8 billion people in the world, and about 11.4 billion usable hectares. currently, the population of the united states has an ecological footprint of about 9.0 hectares per person. if all people in the world were to live at the level of consumption found in the united states, the population of the world would have to ____ in order to support them.

Answer 1

Reduce by about 1/5 in order to support them.

6.8 billion people * 9 hectares per person = 61,200,000,000

61200000000 used /11.4 billion available = 5.38

This means we would be using 5.38 times more resources than we have, so we have to reduce by about 1/5 in order to get close to the available amount.