CHAPTER ONE

POPULATION/CONTINENTS

As of January 18, 2006 the world population was 6,492,233,251, .an increase of 100,000,000 since July 1, 2005. The land surface per continent as seen below, must house these billions, as well as future generations. In addition to housing, space must be provided for supporting facilities such as, schools, work places, agriculture, hospitals, trade centers, and a myriad of services.

Fig.1 POPULATION AND AREA OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS

Location----------2005/pop. ------- 2000/Pop.-------1950/Pop.-----------% of World

Asia ------------3,913,842,171 ------3,686,061.632 -------1,436,893,576 ------60.7
Africa ----------891,437,541 --------803,234,623 ---------227,332,997 --------13.8
Europe ---------729,341,014 --------72,934,730 -----------546,415,793 --------11.3
N. America -----512,422,558 -------487,223.694 ----------220,857,588 --------7.9
S. America -----371,271,037 --------348,336,602 ----------111,384,890 --------5.8
Australia -------32,744.469 ---------30,744,658 -----------12,476,128 ---------0.5
Antarctica -----------Scientific research - no permanent population-----------------
World population -6,451,058,790 ----6,085,527,778 ---------2,555,360.972

Location-------------Area (sq.mi.) ---------------Area (Km) -----------% of World

Asia ---------------32,027,230 ------------------11,979,676 --------------21.4
Africa --------------29,805,045 -----------------11,507,789 ---------------20.6
Europe ------------22,825,905 -----------------8,813,128 ----------------15.7
N. America ---------21,393,762 ------------------8,260,174 ---------------14.8
S. America ---------17,522,371 -------------------6,765,422 ---------------12.1
Australia & Oceania- 8,428,702 -----------------3,254,338 -----------------5.8
Antarctica ---------14,000,000
World ------------145,003,018 ----------------55,985,956

A cursory analysis of Fig.1 provides a valuable comparison of populations per continent and the disparity in available space. For example, Asia’s population of 60.7 percent lives on 21.4 percent of the land. Africa with 13.8 percent of the population has more space per capita at 20.6 percent of the land. Therefore, if we hope to save the planet, we would need to motivate people who are living on over-populated continents to seek opportunities on a continent with more space. This is not a new idea that would cause monumental problems. It has been going on for centuries, as people moved across the sea when economic conditions were thought to be better, which continues to this day.

Fig. 2. THE UNITED NATIONS POPULATION DIVISION ESTIMATED THE FOLLOWING:

1 A.D. 300 million
1804 1 billion
1927 2 billion
1950 3 billion
1964 4 billion
1973 5 billion
1999 6 billion

Population grew from 50 million in 1000 BC to 300 million in 1 A.D., to 700,000,000 by 1804. The most rapid growth occurred in the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries. Currently 40 percent of the land mass is used for crops and livestock, compared to 25 percent a century ago. Continued growth will require brilliant engineering and innovative construction for residential and commercial use.
Perhaps it was a Divine Plan for the creation of 28 oceans and thousands of lakes and rivers on the planet as a natural resource for equitable use by all its inhabitants. The Atlantic, Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Bering Sea, Labrador Sea, Beaufort Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic, Aegean Sea, Red Sea, Amundsen Sea, Sea of Ohotsk, Sea of Japan, Timor Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea, Andaman Sea, Arafura Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Ross Sea, Davis Sea, Weddell Sea, Caribbean Sea, Hudson Bay, Persian Gulf, Gulf of California and nearby islands might be sites for developments to re-populate the poorest of each continent’s inhabitants.
The planet’s water supply is diminishing as this new housing is built without protection for the environment. Global warming, largely due to consumption of fossil fuel is no longer speculation, but scientific fact. The Pacific Northwest can no longer depend on melting snow-caps for its water supply, as less snow falls in the Cascade Mountains. Weather conditions are changing due to higher temperatures so that droughts occur where there has been plenty of water. Coastal floods are inevitable as ocean ice sheets melt.
Rain forests are also disappearing and air quality has been deteriorating for decades, which U.S. President George W. Bush, along with other national leaders choose to ignore. Former U.S. Vice President, Al Gore, produced a documentary released in 2006, "An Inconvenient Truth" providing a most profound report of global-warming which citizens of the planet must not allow world leaders to ignore.
What have global leaders been doing to prepare for such disasters? They have learned nothing from the terrible lack of preparation and mobilization of so-called Home Security Agencies and FEMA in the Katrina hurricane of 2005. U.S. President George W. Bush along with other national leaders choose to ignore attempts by responsible nations to acknowledge the danger to the planet. A method of removal of these governments for the survival of the planet is detailed in the following chapters.
. In this age of new technology, it should be possible to turn man-made islands, (i.e. off-shore oil rigs) and thousands of large and small lakes and major rivers into habitable space.
China has been introducing a new existence to its population. Construction of high-rises in all major cities is providing housing for people moving from ancient sections now being demolished in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. In Beijing which will be the major venue, architecturally imaginative new stadiums and other facilities will remain to serve the population for many years. This will be instrumental in launching a continental re-birth in Asia.
At the same time, China has constructed the world’s largest and costliest dam across the Yangtze River to control devastating floods that have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and erosion of land. Even before the western world protested that farmers along the river would lose their land, space was left between buildings to cultivate crops as they have done for centuries. Now they have modern living accommodations, with indoor plumbing, heating, and amenities that rural farmers had never experienced. Moreover, construction of the dam will provide electricity for a population the size of New York, Washington, D.C and much of the U.S. eastern seaboard.
How is it financially possible for such a massive building boom for a country under communism? One of the most likely answers is that since they have not been at war for more than thirty years, they can fund universities to graduate over 350,000 engineers each year, and instead of losing a generation to war, have an unending labor force to manufacture goods sold all over the world. China has embraced capitalism so that there are countless new millionaires.
However, China is facing problems that have relatively simple solutions if they act with alacrity. In the courageous event in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1985, which has been erased from Chinese historic studies, students in China were protesting corruption in the communist party and demanding a voice in the government. Corruption remains and is likely to affect the skyrocketing economy.
Peasants in rural China have almost no part in the new wealth and no educational opportunities. To avoid unrest, the government must increase the low peasant wage for a more equitable share of the new wealth, and provide education for rural children. Farmers have come into the cities and with self-funding programs not actually approved by the government, have grown and function throughout China. The government has held tight rein over its people, but as long as their businesses do not employ more than five people, they do not interfere. They realistically reason that peasants must come into the economy to prevent protests, but even more important to continue growth of the economy.
As they continue to prosper the new wealth will enable the people to purchase their own output now sold throughout the world, but which is now too expensive locally. They will then become the largest market in the world. If this nation with over a billion people can change, there is hope that a new planetary system can be a reality.
Dialogue with Taiwan is imminent to prevent dissent from slowing the progress of their new economy. Another problem is China’s near fifty year occupation of Tibet which is damaging China’s world image. The exiled Dalai Lama now residing in India, has captured the affection of the western world by his nonviolent approach to freeing the Tibetan people. His efforts on behalf of human rights and world peace resulted in the Nobel Peace Prize.
Civilization has yet to experience a good life with peace and prosperity. Philosopher Bertrand Russell defined a good life as "one inspired by love and guided by knowledge," and, "the good life must be lived in a good society and is not fully possible otherwise." We will need to know with whom it will be shared, where it will take place and what goals and time schedules must be planned and met.
How is it possible with such enormous global wealth, much of the world population still does not have adequate food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education? For years we have seen atrocious pictures on television of starving and malnourished babies in Africa. Hospitals, as the western world knows them are not imagined in the poorest areas. Those who are barely able, must walk for days to reach medical care. Even if they make the journey, equipment and medicine are so woefully inadequate, with almost no resources to train staffs, that few survive.
Victims of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases suffer before our eyes yet there have been no extensive programs to build clinics and train local people to provide care. Few programs are in place to clear land, dig wells to grow crops and raise livestock. This shameful lack of global effort to erase such devastating poverty should weigh heavily on the consciences of all planetary inhabitants.
Formerly healthy African tribes lived in successful, smaller agricultural societies in higher, drier regions away from mosquito infested rivers. Under colonial rule they were forced into building the railroad, mining and other slave-labor in extremely crowded conditions, so that they, too, perished. Today, at least 500 children under the age of five die from malaria.
Even while the people of Africa starve, the cost of war in Sudan is somehow funded. Sporadic hostilities occur, subside and break out in neighboring nations. Where do warring parties find funds to obtain weapons and supplies to support troops?
Currently, Uganda's children sleep in shelters fearful of a cult-like insurgency who murder, rape and enslave them. Two-thousand people have died by violence and disease since 2000. Ninety-nine percent are afraid to leave crowded camps to return to their homes and land. This is three times deadlier than the situation in Darfur in Sudan. However, U.S. aid to Darfur is $150 million and in Uganda, $7 million.
The imbalance emanates from a flawed system of humanitarian aid which has no logical plan. Apparently, as in other disastrous undertakings, the U.S. does not have a system ready to act in accordance with events and emergency needs. Nor is there word from the United Nations as to how this body is solving another human disaster.
The modern world is on the brink of nuclear war; terrorism caused by religious fanatics is unimaginably brutal and violent, and world leaders continue to seek the same solutions that have neither resolved nor changed man’s inhumanity to man. The solution lies in a planetary mission for universal humanitarian aid to all people, administered by planetary and continental panels, not governments or elected officials who repeatedly prove that they are abysmally unfit to be in control.
Compassionate activists through the centuries have had to pull the majority of the affluent population into recognizing the basic needs of many. Were it not for not-for-profit local and international charities, conditions would be even more catastrophic. Unbelievably, a basic standard of living is still not met in under-developed countries. Even the powerful United States of America and the second, third and fourth wealthiest nations in Asia have pockets of poverty in many of their regions.
Nationalist, imperialist and totalitarian governments have utterly failed their people, and have brought death, destruction and misery to civilization. Republics and democracies have failed to adhere to their pledge of equality under the law, are depriving citizens of inalienable rights to free speech, practice of religion, non-discrimination of race or gender and protection of property rights, and instead condone fraudulent election processes, taking no action to reform the electoral process.
Over 70 percent of the population of the Republic of the United States are against the policies of the president and his party which is in control of Congress. They are more loyal to their party than to the country and their constituents. There is no way to remove them before their terms expire for they control the impeachment process, which is the only method for removal. Investigations of bribery and corruption, indictments, trials and sentencing of government officials are underway throughout the country, not only in Congress.
We can begin the process of change by thinking of ourselves as citizens of the planet, residing on the continents of our choice, with permanent or temporary exchanges of residences with other continental citizens. Hundreds of thousands are leaving the U.S. to return to Asia because economies are improving, while U.S. financial growth stagnates (but not for the wealthy).
Top priority should be given to the U.S. current chaos over the 11-13 million illegal immigrants who crossed the border from Mexico. They have come to find work to support their families and the work they find is menial labor that U.S. citizens refuse to do. The median wage in Mexico in 2004 was $1.86, compared to $9 per hour in the U.S. The Mexican government would rather receive the dollars sent back to their impoverished families than develop their own economy.
There are no true victims, but sanctimonious lawmakers many of whom place themselves above the law are dismayed that the border was crossed without permission and are labeling these hard workers as "criminals." At risk are their children who are not documented. Through no fault of their own, now as productive adults they have questionable status. Bills, amendments to bills to "protect" the border are currently being debated in Congress, as each party seeks favor with voters in the November 2006 election, desperate to keep their jobs in the Senate and the House.
The proposal is to build a 2,000-mile fence costing millions of dollars. Note that these are the people who decried Israel's attempt to build a fence to keep out suicide bombers. There can be no assurance that this will be an effective way to stop illegal immigration. Another plan is to fine those who are in the U.S. illegally $2,000, and then give them guest worker status, or send them back to wait their turn for permission to emigrate. Another plan is to punish the people who employ them, which puts small businessmen in the position of enforcing the law, which is not their right, duty or inclination.
While the president and congress are in a mad race to keep hard working Mexicans out, they have completely failed homeland security. Their plan to prevent another terrorist attack is to spy on communications of millions of U.S. Citizens, while those who entered from the mid-east are nowhere to be found or identified. Apparently U.S. embassies in foreign lands have failed in their duty to control visas granted to visitors.
The first nation that required immigrants to seek permission to cross its border, should have been a warning as to how far the lust for power would encroach on the freedom of movement anywhere on the planet.

NEW DEMOGRAPHICS
As seen at the beginning of this chapter, world population grew from 1000 BCE's 50 million to 1999's six billion. World population has not grown as much as it has shifted. That is why the change to self-government in a planetary system is more timely now, and as other manifest destinies, is almost a coincidence that a change could well save the planet in crisis. Where western Europe's birth rate is decreasing, new populations of immigrant Muslims are emerging. This is already causing problems in the capitals of France, Spain and Germany. Japan's population is shrinking, too. With their high cost of living, immigration would be much slower. (U.S. News and World Report (October 2, 2006).
China is having a problem they should have anticipated when they limited couples to one child. Sons were preferred, so that girls were given up for adoption. I returned from a trip to China in 2003 in a planeload of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen, accompanied by their adoptive American families. They were from one year to 18 months old, healthy and delightfully smiling and reaching out for attention. According to the pediatrician who supervised the trip, this was an immense improvement over their condition only a few months before.
Since the edict of one child per family, the boy-children have grown into teens and young adults, but there are few girlfriends, or girls of marriageable age. China is looking to their own provinces to bring potential brides to the cities, before they start to look to other countries. ((U.S. News & World Report). The mingling of cultures could start the process of change and would be a good omen for peaceful co-existence.
From the first census in 1790 the population of the U.S. was 4 million, by 1930 it gained 100 million, another 100 million by 1967, and by the first of October, 2006 will reach 300,000,000.* The phenomenal growth was 20 million added since 2000. What is interesting is that the U.S. has become a true melting pot, which for almost 200 years was made up of descendants of European immigrants.
The trends are new migration and immigration. Immigration to the U.S. has more than doubled since 1980. Illegal entry has more than tripled and they are 30 percent of the foreign-born population.*
It is common practice to move from state-to-state in the U.S. depending upon opportunities for new jobs, retirement choices, cost of living, education and family requirements. If an area loses population, it is forced to lower its cost of living and can be replaced with new immigrants and people from across the country, who might be experiencing financial instability, or escaping disasters such as hurricane Katrina, in 2005.
Migration from the mid-west and northeast to the south and west, has seen a significant shift in the population. Boise, Idaho has grown seventy-nine percent since 1990. Hewlett Packard, computer equipment and Micron, a manufacturer of superconductors, provide employment. Boise enjoys an affordable cost of living, and unemployment is a low three percent.
Immigrants from Mexico and Latin America are changing the ethnic composition throughout the country. Fort Wayne, Indiana is now thirteen percent Hispanic, about 16,500, along with immigrants from Rwanda, Portugal and Honduras. The current problem concerning some 12 million illegals from Mexico has been brewing for months, with debates between Democrats and Republicans as to how to absorb or deport them and build costly fences to keep them out.
There has been no word from incumbent members of Congress who when they awaken, will be made very uncomfortable as they recognize the need to expect redistricting. A new president, other than a white-Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) is also possible in the near future, perhaps 2008.
The shifting population includes 12.4 percent of the elderly, and a whole new generation of baby-boomers (77 million) who prefer warmer climates. The median age is 36.5 and could be 39 by 2030. Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Idaho are the fastest growing states. Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas were the fastest growing between 2004-2005.
With this aging comes increased funding for Medicare and Social Security which will become even larger entitlement programs. Republicans can't wait to be reelected so that they can cut these entitlements. However, if nation-states are abolished and there are no longer wars, the United States would have $450 billion dollars this year alone. Total world savings for weapons, along with income from natural resources, would guarantee everyone on the planet a truly financially secure lifestyle and old-age existence.
The logical solution to relentless violence is in the recognition of the seven continents as” our land.” We should begin by removing all national borders on each continent so that we become accustomed to THINKing not as nationals, but as continental and planetary citizens. This should not be a monumental problem because it is already a reality on several continents. For example, North America with its individual states, need only remove the border between Mexico, Canada and Central America to be continental citizens. To begin, these governments could come together to coordinate programs to ease global warming, or initiate equitable trade opportunities.
Europe has already united in its common market and currency, and the former Soviet Union changed to individual nations and only need to remove their national borders to become one continent with Europe.
Population increases are not new to the U.S. The flow of Europeans from colonial times, some 50 million after Napoleonic Wars, post-wars I and II, continues in the current largest wave of immigration in history. Each nation’s system of granting citizenship to immigrants can be vastly different. In the U.S. it is easier, compared to Europe's more stringent requirements. As Europe's population continues to decline due to aging and lower birth rates, they will need to review their immigration policies.
THINK how we could advance civilization if there were only six languages, one for each continent, except Antartica, with one global language for the purpose of official communication. In a new system of global education, primary grades would include mandatory language courses so that we will be able to understand each other without translators. Children in Africa now can speak at least four different languages of nearby tribes. There would be continental agreements to retain and celebrate cultural differences as we travel throughout the planet, the same as we do today.
The cost of duplication of national governments and bureaucracies can be greatly reduced under the administration of high level employees guided by separate contracts with each continent. Funding for this new concept can be even more simple than all of the bureaucratic tax agencies, regulatory departments in all of the nations, principalities, states, provinces, cities, counties, townships, suburbs, and villages.
THINK, if 6.5 billion people had a per capita income of $10,000 annually, the total would be $650 trillion. This is realistic in the current vast revenue of a global economy.
The implementation of the new concept will be seen in the Chapter Plan for Planetary and Continental Self Government, which will describe development of an overall concept of global changes.
The mission would be to establish on each continent, equal opportunities and facilities to live with dignity in peace and nonviolence in a new world.
We have already seen these types of panels in action, in social and cultural organizations. Primarily they are the fund-raisers for not-for-profit corporations who have enriched our lives with museums, orchestras, hospitals, medical research, services for the elderly, as well as organizers of children's sports and entertainment, and those working for PEACE in the world, among them volunteers of the Peace Corps. We should honor them above all elected officials.