Population Zero?
At a TED talk, Bill Gates offered this equation:
Total CO2 = World population x Services x Energy of each service x CO2 per unit of energy
And Mark Frauenfelder comments:
The neat thing about an equation that uses only multiplication is that if any of the four factors can be reduced to zero, then you don't have to worry about the other three factors. The total CO2 output will be zero. So which one can we make zero?
via Boing Boing.
Alas, the equation doesn’t quite get the global picture. Even if the damn breeders stopped breeding and human population were reduced to zero (hey, I can dream, right?), there would still be CO2 production from volcanoes and numerous other sources.
Seems as if Bill Gates’ equation is akin to the Windows operating system: a bit of wishful thinking built upon a false premise.
