What do you think the earth's carrying capacity is?

Question

Look at these numbers and don’t simply think in terms of space, think in terms of each person’s ecological footprint. That includes all resources, energy, waste, space, etc that each of us use.

Year-------------Human Population
0 A.D.----------300 MILLION
1500------------500 Million
1776------------750 Million
1830------------1 BILLION (That's just 176 years ago!!!)
1930------------2 Billion
1960------------3 Billion
1974------------4 Billion
1987------------5 Billion
1999------------6 Billion
Today----------6.5 Billion
2013------------7 Billion
2030------------8 Billion
2050----------- 9 Billion (that’s just 44 years from now and 3 Billion more people)
2100------------11+ Billion

Three most populous countries –
1)—China
2)—India
3)—United States

Solutions —
1)—Have no more than 2 children; 1 is better; zero is best. Large families over 2 children is socially irresponsible and morally wrong.
2)—Have children later in life to spread out the time between generations. This will slow growth.
3)—Educate others. Most people don’t even recognize the overpopulation problem, much less understand its impact on everything.

Answer 1

I read somewhere that in the United States alone (which has a big population) only 5% of all land is used. That is, 95% of the US land is not used, not populated, empty. I think the earth can carry so much more. The problem in my opinion is that people tend to clutter some areas making them dense and overly crowded but the earth can carry so many more people. Hey, the earth is carry MOUNTAINS, you know how heavy those are?

Answer 2

People have tried to prognosticate about this for years. In the early 1800s, everyone was concerned about overpopulation because Thomas Malthus had theorized that the exponentially-growing population would outstrip the linerally-growing agricultural productivity by the mid-1800s.

Obviously that didn't pan out. Because we're still here, and growing. Agricultural and food production has generally been able to keep pace with demand. There have been famine-stricken areas, but that has been attributable to resource maldistribution and not to resource unavailability.

I have the deepest faith in human ingenuity and technological development that disaster will not befall the planet merely because the numbers of us keep growing.

Answer 3

If all the worlds goverments make a law who command: 2 children per family, then it will be the best thing who can happen. Both for us and the future people. Already now we cannot take care our earth. Its a pity, that the presidents around the worl who have the power to change it, only thinks about economic growth.
Maybe we through this yahoo answers can do something to unite us so we can make a better world.

Answer 4

You said most people don't even understand the "overpopulation" problem. Maybe I'm one of those people. Maybe you're talking about overpopulated cities and maybe even countries. The world as a whole is vastly unpopulated. And since when was having more than two children morally wrong?
If you have such a problem with "overpopulation", move to some remote location in Antartica or the middle of a jungle in Africa and sterilize yourself, problem solved.

Answer 5

Too late, we've already past it. Ever see the movie Logan's run? Could be a good alternative. Oh and to the one who said the US only uses 5% of the land mass and therefore could support 95% more, what about the trees, animals, farm land that is feeding you? You cant have greedy belching polluters all over the planet and have renewable resources continue to support it.

Answer 6

Right. Except that the United States is not the third largest country. I don't know which one is but is it on the US.

Answer 7

it's about 20 billion, if i remeber correctly from class

Answer 8

i think we have already pushed earth too far

Answer 9

i am not sure
but there will be a limit