And Canada
Apr. 17th, 2005 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicollCanada is in a somewhat different situation. Most Canadian are urban and a few moments thought will show why this must be so.
Unprotected humans will die soon after encountering the harsh conditions in Canada, as demonstrated by the terrible fates of the Franklin Expedition. Knowledge of the hardships involved in living in Canada led one 19th century German newspaper to denounce as a crime against humanity the idea of encouraging people to try to live there and if anyone knows what a crime against humanity would look like, it's the Germans. Even in the 20th century, hundreds of people failed to survive the inclement conditions in Canada as soon as they were exposed to them: the fate of the Swissair Flight 111 is but one example. As a result, if Canadians are to survive at all, it must be within cities. Like the industrious termites these pale, grublike people so resemble [1], only by constructing complex and crowded societies and by building artificial habitats can these people hope to live in Canada.
Happily for Canadians, they have only begun to explore the carrying limit of their land. They have mastered atomic energy and since every ton of granite contains enough fissionable material to liberate as much energy as seven tons of coal, this should provide them with enough energy to run their societies for millions of years.
Even more happily, Canadians are an unusually social lot. Scarcely a year goes by without one group or another discussing how it fits into Confederation. National unity has been a central issue for decades. How these people must love each other to discuss this subject so much!
Not only that but Canadians are a trading people. Even if their resources were not enough to support themselves, they could buy what they need by selling goods and services abroad.
How many Canadians should there be? Canada is about 10 million km^2. Grant that most of it is unsuitable for cities. Say that only 5% can be turned into cities for these people. A typical city like Singapore has something like 5000 people per km^2, so it seems reasonable that there could be about 2.5 billion Canadians, even though most of their land was still untouched forests and deserts.
1: Actually, not all of them are pale. Some have adapted to harsh levels of UV. Imagine how terrible the light itself must be to require a special adaption to it. Parts of Canada are as cold as parts of Mars, a planet known for its excess of ultraviolet light.
Unprotected humans will die soon after encountering the harsh conditions in Canada, as demonstrated by the terrible fates of the Franklin Expedition. Knowledge of the hardships involved in living in Canada led one 19th century German newspaper to denounce as a crime against humanity the idea of encouraging people to try to live there and if anyone knows what a crime against humanity would look like, it's the Germans. Even in the 20th century, hundreds of people failed to survive the inclement conditions in Canada as soon as they were exposed to them: the fate of the Swissair Flight 111 is but one example. As a result, if Canadians are to survive at all, it must be within cities. Like the industrious termites these pale, grublike people so resemble [1], only by constructing complex and crowded societies and by building artificial habitats can these people hope to live in Canada.
Happily for Canadians, they have only begun to explore the carrying limit of their land. They have mastered atomic energy and since every ton of granite contains enough fissionable material to liberate as much energy as seven tons of coal, this should provide them with enough energy to run their societies for millions of years.
Even more happily, Canadians are an unusually social lot. Scarcely a year goes by without one group or another discussing how it fits into Confederation. National unity has been a central issue for decades. How these people must love each other to discuss this subject so much!
Not only that but Canadians are a trading people. Even if their resources were not enough to support themselves, they could buy what they need by selling goods and services abroad.
How many Canadians should there be? Canada is about 10 million km^2. Grant that most of it is unsuitable for cities. Say that only 5% can be turned into cities for these people. A typical city like Singapore has something like 5000 people per km^2, so it seems reasonable that there could be about 2.5 billion Canadians, even though most of their land was still untouched forests and deserts.
1: Actually, not all of them are pale. Some have adapted to harsh levels of UV. Imagine how terrible the light itself must be to require a special adaption to it. Parts of Canada are as cold as parts of Mars, a planet known for its excess of ultraviolet light.
