The Miniature Earth

If there are only 100 people on Earth, how might we describe our world? 

Here is a thought experiment and slideshow based on the work of the late Donella Meadows that places global issues in the context of a world populated by only 100 people. The Miniature Earth website describes the project: 

"The idea of reducing the world’s population to a community of only 100 people is very useful and important. It makes us easily understand the differences in the world. There are many types of reports that use the Earth’s population reduced to 100 people, especially in the Internet. Ideas like this should be more often shared, especially nowadays when the world seems to be in need of dialogue and understanding among different cultures, in a way that it has never been before."

If there are only 100 people on the planet:

* 43 live without basic sanitation

* 18 live without an improved water source

* 6 people own 59% of the entire wealth of the community

* 13 are malnourished or hungry

* 14 can't read

* only 7 are educated at a secondary level

* only 12 have a computer

* only 3 have an internet connection

* the village spends more than US$1.12 trillion on military expenditures and only US$100 billion on development aid

* if you keep your food in a refrigerator, your clothes in a closet, if you have a bed to sleep in, and a roof over your head you are richer than 75% of the entire world population

* if you have a bank account you're one of the 30 wealthiest people in the world

* 18 struggle to live on US$1.00 per day or less

* 53 struggle to live on US$2.00 per day or less