Would you be part of the 500 Million? If so, why?500 million sounds about right. Getting rid of the surplus will be a challenge though.
500 million sounds about right. Getting rid of the surplus will be a challenge though.
The "We're pushing our limits now" response reflects the current population. I guess I could've added a 6 Billion+, but figured the "I'm just happy to be here" allows for accepting any amount of people that are brought into the world.Poll is fail. Highest population option is less than half of current world population.
The "We're pushing our limits now" response reflects the current population. I guess I could've added a 6 Billion+, but figured the "I'm just happy to be here" allows for accepting any amount of people that are brought into the world.
When I was in school (college) the scientific community estimated that the carrying capacity of the earth for humas was around 1.75 billion people. So my answer is two billion.
Exactly how they came up with this number I do not remember
Its whatever we can have on a sustained yield basis.
but if you really want to know, you would have to ask "mother" nature.
Would you be part of the 500 Million? If so, why?
Machetes are cheap.
Poll is fail. Highest population option is less than half of current world population while population is continuing to grow and is projected to plateau anyway at ten billion-- more than three times the highest poll option, and a number that our planet is more than capable of supporting comfortably. I'm more worried about the economic effects of stagnant population growth than any kind of serious worry about overpopulation.
What's an acceptable world population?
my guess is we're pushing the limits of current technology. projections I heard being toted at my last R&D gig were that food for a population growing past where we are at now would be 70 percent filled through food tech and reduction in waste in the supply chain. granted, there is a source bias there, but they definitely have skin in the game, and I don't have any reason to believe that the figure is grossly skewed.
my own personal observation is that there is a lot of unoccupied land out there, but much of it is being used to grow crops and trees that help filter the waste. I routinely grow bacterial cultures, and they eventually hit stationary phase as nutrients get used up and waste increases. if we're not there now, we're getting close.
Your poll does not include options such as 10 billion, or 15 billion, or 40 billion.
With sufficiently advanced technology we could support that many, especially since most people live in cities these days anyway.
Personally I don't think we'll ever get much above 10 billion. Trends show population stablizing if not going into decline in most advanced nations.
As other nations reach a certain level of development their pop growth will go into decline also.
The alleged "population problem" will almost certainly fix itself.
It's all tied to fossil fuels. We'll fade away as they do.
Gm crops are being developed to reduce the amount of fertilizer needed, plus bacterial oil is being developed on fallow, generally unused land spaces. We're not gonna run out anytime soon.
GM crops won't save us, much less support 8, 9, 10+ billion people, if we don't have oil. There's just no caloric equation that works out. You can't get something from nothing.
I'm sorry, but the primary reason that Malthusian predictions fail, is that they never factor in scientific innovation.
How long ago, were we supposed to experience the first catastrophe that never happened?
GM crops are saving us, they've been saving us. That's why farmers can get more product, per acre than before and that's why they'll get even more later.
It probably would have if we hadn't harnessed oil. Malthus didn't know about oil, and oil was there in the ground waiting for us to use it. We didn't scientifically innovate oil. The resource existed on its own. If there's another such resource, then we may have a lot more time ahead of us, but as it stands though there is no such other resource that returns such a great deal more energy than we have to invest to access it.
That's thanks to fossil fuels. Take away their fuel and their yields will drop by 95%. Modern agriculture is utterly fossil fuel-dependent.
And we don't need oil reserves to make oil.
That start up Bill Gates invested in, the creates oil from GM bacteria, well they've expanded their operation to the next phase.
They're producing oil.
By 2017, they plan to be producing approximately 10k barrels a day.
Which doesn't seem like much, but this is just one facility.