Ed Ring at EcoWorld goes around a few numbers.
There are going to eventually be not quite 10.0 billion people living on earth.
Currently in the U.S., each person consumes about 350 million BTUs of energy per year. In the European Union each person consumes about 250 million BTUs of energy per year. If there were 10 billion people on earth, each consuming on average only 100 million BTUs of energy per year, we would still have to double energy production on the planet, from 500 quadrillion BTUs per year to 1,000 quadrillion BTUs per year.
The point remains inescapable – energy production worldwide is going to need to increase significantly.
He continues:
Our position is we should use those trillions to build roads, hospitals, power plants, reforestation, aquifer replenishment, and medical (and other scientific) research.
We should nurture free trade, free markets, and entrepreneurship.
We should deliver to humanity the universal prosperity that is the destiny of our generation.
Then by sometime between 2025 and 2050, we will have created economic abundance, we will have advanced technology, and we will be well positioned to handle whatever the climate may throw at us.
In other words, ecologically speaking, what’s the market for a 1,000 quadrillion divided by 10 billion by 2025?