And another hundred people
The next time someone says something to you along the lines of "Hey babe. You're one in a million," you would be justified to feel just a little short-changed. That's because, as of about a week ago, you are not one in a million. You are one of eight BILLION worldwide, according to the United Nations. Eight billion people in the world, and still, it's hard to find anyone who wants to work!
Way back in 1960, the year of my birth, the world population was sitting at just over three billion. Even that number seemed like a bunch of people. Back then, the world's population was growing at a rate of about 2% per year. Since then, the annual growth rate has slowed significantly. We are now growing at a rate of about 1% per year, about half the 1960 rate.
Of the world's population, according to the interweb, about 2.5 billion people identify as Christians. As for Muslims, the number is 1.7 billion people. And of those among us who are counted as "unaffiliated," the number is estimated to be 1.1 billion.
Given these population numbers, it appears the Sherman Brothers and Disney were wrong. It's not a small world after all. According to what I've read, an average person will meet around 10,000 people during their lifetime, which is an extremely small percentage of the overall population. You may think you know everybody, but you really don't.
Looking at this new population milestone from a humanitarian perspective, one may be concerned about how the world will be able to feed all these eight billion people. Thankfully, McDonald's is doing their part. McDonald's sells about 2.3 billion burgers every year. When you add to that number the annual sales from Pizza Hut, Burger King, and the newly opened Chicken Express, we should just about have the world’s food problem covered.
Coincidentally, eight billion is also the approximate number of cars driving daily along Highway 105 East near Navasota since TxDOT opened the new S.H. 249 extension here in Grimes County. It seems many of the travelers who would normally have used the Highway 290 route to get to Highway 6 have opted to take the new road, presumably just as was intended. But now we are experiencing miles-long backups where Highway 105 East intersects with Highway 6. The backup, which is becoming more and more frequent, is particularly bad on weekends.
Given this traffic situation, someone really needs to consider changing the new highway's unofficial name from the "Aggie Expressway" to the "Aggie Slow-Way" or the "Aggie Crawl-Way." I don't know what the Guinness folks have listed as the record for "Longest Right Turn Lane," but surely that intersection must be in the running to break the record. Note to TxDOT: The sooner you address the Aggie Logjam at Highway 6 in Navasota, the better.
Interesting, I never thought I would be writing about population statistics. But then I came to my census.
The column represents the thoughts and opinions of Johnny McNally. Opinion columns are NOT the opinion of the Navasota Examiner.
Johnny McNally is Grimes County’s Best Dressed Businessman advocating for Grimes County and writes a bi-weekly column for the Navasota Examiner.