Having 83 million more people appearing every year on the planet, rising population is putting pressure on the land. The UN’s estimates that there are 7.6 billion people jostling for space on Earth at present moment and that number will be 9.8 billion by 2050. The study added that 11.5 billion people or in the worst case scenario 17 billion people would be living on our planet, by the end of the century (source).
At first, it can be easy to ignore our fears that mankind may actually run out of space. It even sounds ridiculous! The land can accommodate about 11 billion people – there are around 13.4 billion hectares of ice-free land. However, a large part remains uninhabitable due to the climate or remoteness (Siberia or Sahara Desert for example).
Countries cannot keep growing indefinitely. They are bound by the natural landscape and borders. The inhabitable part of the land is facing challenges, like crowded cities and growing populations. As populations grow, many fear that more land will be used to grow more food and expand living areas (source).
Moreover, the researchers predicted that increasing demand for food, electricity, industrial forestry and the spread of urbanization will result in this reserve of land being completely used by 2050 (source).
Oceans cover about 71% of the Planet’s surface and it is wise to start developing technologies that could utilize the ocean space in an optimal and safe way now, before crisis starts or we completely run out of land space in 2050. We make use of the oceans for building floating power plants, houses, farms to provide additional resources and prevent land scarcity in the future.
We do not have another plant for living!