‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Just a century ago, the world population was around 1.65 billion. Today, it stands at… ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Just a century ago, the world population was around 1.65 billion. Today, it stands at 6.74 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In India, millions crowd into the slums of Mumbai and Calcutta, some of the most densely populated areas on the globe. Looking at states like Idaho, which house a few farmers and their Russet potatoes, it’s hard to imagine all that open space will be densely populated someday. ‘ ‘ ‘ Even if it’s not, all that land is still owned by someone, whether they’re actually doing something productive with it or just holding onto it for speculation’s sake. Free land hasn’t been around since the U.S. western frontier was still free for the taking. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ So with a growing population, what will the future of property rights ‘mdash; specifically land rights ‘mdash; look like? According to Harold Kyriazi, Pittsburgh author of ‘Libertarian Party at Sea on Land,’ the current situation favors landowners who control a limited but necessary commodity: land. ‘ ‘ ‘ You need it to move about, settle or even exist. As time goes by, with a larger population and a smaller proportion of people controlling all of it, the situation gets worse. Without land, you are subject to a landowner’s whims and rent prices, in essence ‘free only to pick your master.’ ‘ ‘ By invoking the likes of Thomas Paine, Henry George and Thomas Jefferson, Kyriazi argues that with a finite supply and an ever-increasing demand, landowners will eventually become the equivalent of humanity’s slave-owners. While the situation hasn’t reached a ‘Grapes of Wrath’ level with hordes of hungry peasants watching on as acres of fertile land sit idle, it’s never too early to look toward solving the problem. Kyriazi offers a compelling approach about changing to a ‘land value tax’ system, but there are alternatives that deserve exploring. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ First step is defining the variables. To get more land per person ‘mdash; assuming it magically distributes itself evenly ‘mdash; we either need to reduce the number of people or increase the amount of habitable land. As many people as there are currently cohabitating the planet, that number is expected to increase another 2.8 billion in four decades. Barring a biblically proportioned loss of life through disease or war, neither of which is desirable, the population will continue to increase. ‘ ‘ ‘ At this point, most investigators would assume that increasing the amount of habitable land is out of the question and give up, but what if there was a way? I’m not talking about creating new Sealands or more of those man-made floating barges that pass for islands these days. I’m talking about adding some serious square-footage. ‘ ‘ ‘ Enter Globus Cassus, the concept of Swiss architect Christian Waldvogel. Globus Cassus is a transformation of the Earth on a massive scale, the new product being a hollowed-out planet with its inner mass redistributed to create almost 10 times as much land area as we currently enjoy. ‘ ‘ ‘ Waldvogel starts the construction process, which is slated for several million years, by setting up four space elevators at equally spread-out locations around Earth’s orbit. To set up the outer framework of the new planet, Earth’s crust, mantle and core are excavated and transformed into high-strength, low-density building material, then shot through the elevators and formed into the skeleton, onto which the rest of the project is constructed. ‘ ‘ ‘ As the Earth we know shrinks from the excavation, gravity will no longer be able to hold the atmosphere in place, but this is nothing to fret over. As the water and atmosphere of our planet drifts away, it finds itself funneled onto the new equators of Globus Cassus. During this period of ‘Great Rains,’ humans must seek shelter in the towers, eventually emerging to find themselves living on one of two habitable regions facing the other through an enormous empty space in the center. ‘ ‘ ‘ There might be a few problems with this project, both logistical and theoretical, but Waldvogel’s work is so detail-oriented it’s hard not to get excited about a new and improved home the size of Saturn. ‘ ‘ ‘ By increasing the total amount of habitable land, we’ve thereby solved our problem and increased everyone’s share of space without resorting to painful decreases in our total population. ‘ ‘ ‘ Then again, there’s an issue of gravity. With no core below us anymore, we’ll have to figure out a way to adapt to two percent of the gravity we usually deal with. There’s also the multi-million-year construction period. It might not get done in time to relieve the pressure valve of overpopulation, which is the reason I signed onto this scheme in the first place. ‘ ‘ ‘ I guess there’s always birth control. ‘ ‘ ‘ E-mail Brandon your blueprints and schematics at [email protected].