# Human population vs. rising ocean levels

Because the Earth is a (effectively) closed system and matter can neither be created nor destroyed, only moved or transformed, a wild theory was proposed that increasing the human population could be used to combat the threat of rising ocean levels, since the human body is two-thirds water. In a fit of breeze, every government around world has, rightly or wrongly, chosen to implement a birth promotion initiative, encouraging all citizens to have as many children as possible in the hopes of staving off the dangers of the rising sea level.

Two questions stem from this proposition:

1. In order to at least equal the current rate of sea level rise of 0.13 inches (3.2 mm) per year, what would the growth rate of the human population need to be?
2. What initiatives can governments undertake to encourage/facilitate this level of procreation?

1)The ocean area of the earth is ~3.6 $\times$ 108 km2 so the volume which needs to be compensated for is $$V = 3.6 \times 10^{14}\text{ m}^3\times3.2 \times 10^{-3}\text{ m} = 1.12 \times 10^{12}\text{ m}^3$$Since water weighs 1000 kg/m3, this represents 1.12 $\times$ 1015 kg. Assuming a very generous 100 kg/person, this amounts to about 1013 people/year. That's 10 trillion, or about 1000 times more people than are alive today. Each year. Of course, the new people are infants, and if we assume something like 10 kg/infant, that means 100 trillion, at least for the first year or two.