"Doubling the size of a city," West concluded, "systematically increasess income, wealth, number of patents, number of colleges, creatives, police, crime, AIDS and flue and waste all by 15%. Regardless of the city. This data suggests that these are not independent phenomena."
West said that unlike average animals, we in our society today have a consumption/metabolic rate that corresponds with what you would expect to find in a 30,000 kg gorilla.
"We need a new paradigm," he urged, "a new integrated quantitative predictive paradigm. We are in deep doo-doo if we don't come up with a theory integrating all these things in a sustainable way."
30,000kg gorilla seems a little high.
So we consume that much or metabolize that much. Can I please burn calories like King Kong?
Posted by: Mark Essel | August 06, 2010 at 02:20 PM
Mark, I think he meant it literally. Remember how many gallons of water are required to produce a single pound of beef these days, for example.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | August 06, 2010 at 02:23 PM
I would pay to see a real 30-ton gorilla ! I suspect that the figure was really 300kg.
Posted by: TahoeBlue | August 06, 2010 at 03:22 PM
A theory integrating all these things in a "sustainable" way?
It's Called ""negative population growth"".
In around 780 years, at the current rate the population of the earth is growing. Each person will have one square meter. We will have standing room only folks...
Check this guys math, prove him wrong....
Prof. Albert Bartlett- http://www.albartlett.org
one-hour lecture, "Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101"
The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6A1FD147A45EF50D
Posted by: Steve Shoop | August 09, 2010 at 05:41 PM