how much Earth would we have? A thought experiment on humanity & hope

I want to invite you into a thought experiment...

not a political argument,

not a policy proposal,

not a fantasy meant to ignore reality.

Simply.... a lens shift. One that asks us to step back far enough to see the planet the way it actually is, not the way we’ve been taught to slice it up.

What if the land beneath our feet wasn’t something to grab, hoard, flip, or fear others taking? What if it was simply… shared?

So I was thinkinggggg........

If the Earth’s habitable land were divided equally among all humans, how much land would each of us actually have?

Not hypothetically infinite land. Not including oceans or ice sheets. Just the land humans can realistically live on. 

The answer shocked the shiet out of me. lol, but also... wtf.... 

Let’s talk numbers

When scientists remove land that is permanently ice-covered or essentially uninhabitable, Earth has roughly 109 million square kilometers of habitable land.

But instead of imagining billions of isolated individuals standing alone on tiny plots, let’s imagine something more realistic and more human:

Households.

Across the world, people live in many different ways. Some live alone. Some live as couples. Some share homes with friends. Many live in larger or multi-generational families. When all of that beautiful variation is averaged together, about four people per household is a reasonable midpoint for a big-picture equation like this.

Some households would steward land alone.
Some would share with one other person.
Some would live in larger groups.

The math balances out.

Using that shared-household lens, the result is surprisingly simple:

About 13 acres of habitable land per household of four people

(That averages to about 3.25 acres per person, but the meaningful unit here is the shared household land and cared for together, not owned alone.)

That’s the number.

No tricks.
No utopia math.
Just land, divided evenly.

What does 13 acres actually look like?

Numbers are one thing.
Pictures are another.

Thirteen acres is roughly:

7–8 soccer fields

10 football fields

About 50 typical suburban house lots

Around 6 dense city blocks

If that land were shaped into a square, each side would be about 750 feet long (a little over one-tenth of a mile ) from edge to edge.

Big enough for a home.
Room for food and gardens.
Space for trees to grow to their full potential.
Quiet corners where birds nest and pollinators pass through.

Not excessive.
Not cramped.
Just… enough.

Here’s the part that really matters

Humans already take up far less land than most of us have been led to believe.

All cities, towns, roads, and buildings combined occupy only a tiny fraction of Earth’s land. The majority of land humans use is for agriculture, and much of that agricultural land is dedicated not to feeding people directly, but to feeding livestock.

Which leads to a powerful realization:

Human presence itself isn’t the problem.

The problem is how we organize land, food, and value.

When land is treated as a commodity to maximize instead of a living system to care for, both people and ecosystems suffer.

Could we coexist with other species in this scenario?

Yes.

And not just barely, either.. --> BEAUTIFULLYYYY  <--

If each household stewarded their share of land with intention:

leaving portions wild

growing food in ways that rebuild soil

allowing space for animals, water, and pollinators to move freely

…the planet wouldn’t collapse.

It would heal.

Nature rebounds with breathtaking speed when given even a little room. Forests regenerate. Birds return. Pollinators multiply. Streams repair themselves.

So why does it feel like there’s “not enough”?

Because scarcity isn’t natural.

It’s designed.

Borders.
Speculation.
Hoarding.
Systems that reward accumulation instead of care.

We’re taught to believe land is something to own before someone else takes it.

But land doesn’t belong to us.

We belong to it.

A final thought

This thought experiment doesn’t pretend laws, economics, or history don’t exist.

It simply asks one gentle question:

What becomes possible when we stop pretending the planet is smaller than it is?

Because when you actually look at the math... like, REEAAALLLYYY look at it ... some thingssss becomes clear:

There is room.
There is enough.
There is possibility.

What’s missing isn’t land.

It’s imagination, courage, and cooperation.

And once you truly see the Earth as abundant…

you can’t unsee it.