All species inhabiting planet earth reach a carrying capacity. Several factors can increase this limit, but for now our estimated carrying capacity for the human race is somewhere between 10-11 billion. As of now, we are nearing a population of the 7 billions. From this, do you guys believe our race will begin to die down once we hit this range (10-11 billion)?
Wouldn't that number be much lower if it wasn;t for our ability to influence our surroundings? I mean if we were apes on a mental level, in the body of humans, would we ever have reached this number? I don't think so. Also, our race is already dying down. Here's the proof:
Well at the moment, were growing at a much faster rate then were dying off. But, of course not. Humans have been biologically successful because of our ability to solve problems, grow, and learn. Technology can raise a carrying capacity but the problem is, will our technology advancements be able to keep up with our exponential growth?
If we ever learn how to create underwater cities lol... there's a lot of ocean waiting. Then we got some planets to terraform, if we ever get to that.
Im actually pretty sure we are way over capacity as it is. 11 billion? Not sure what idiot came up with that
My biology professor taught us about carrying capacity last semester, and he said the capacity is supposedly 11 billion. Although, he definitely wasn't the one to come up with that number.
We all need to learn how to be self-sufficient. That would allow the carrying capacity to go up much further, but hey, why give people the information they need when they can have a 56" HI DEF 3D TV!
the only reason were this greedy is because lavos influenced our evoulotion, so he could draw vast amounts of life force from us.
Most likely a plague will keep us in check those little tiny viruses replicating machines will keep us in check I think it will be fitting given our similarities to mindlessly create more copies of our genes.
That number probably means to fully colonize the planet. Of course when that happens, we will be trying to figure out how to get mars to support life since we fucked up Earth so much
I believe this, but I don't. Sure everyone can grow their own vegetables ( where water is readily available) but there definitely isn't enough wild game out there to even support 1/3 of the people living on this planet right now.
Carrying Capacity "The concept of carrying capacity was applied to human populations in the 1960's. It was noted that the consumption habits of humans are much more variable than those of other animal species, making it considerably more difficult to predict the carrying capacity of the earth for human beings. This realization gave rise to The IPAT Equation which pointed out that carrying capacity for humans was a function not only of population size, but also of differing levels of consumption, which in turn are affected by the technologies involved in production and consumption. There have been a large number of published estimates for the human carrying capacity of the earth; they range from a low of one half billion people to a staggering 800 billion. Many of these estimates are more ideologically based than determined by scientific principles2. These exercises demonstrate the complexity of developing useful estimates of the human carrying capacity of the planet, and the limitations of using the methodology which has been successful with non-human species. Various estimates of human carrying capacity also demonstrate in a general way the relationships among some of the major factors involved. Obviously, if consumptions levels per capita are higher, then a smaller population can be supported. If technologies increase or decrease overall consumption, then they also affect carrying capacity. Because the idea and methodology of carrying capacity were developed in the natural science of biology, they incorporate the notion of limits imposed by the earth's natural systems. Species can overshoot these limits (as with the r-selected species), and when they do, they collapse and risk extinction. The big question for human civilization raised by this application of carrying capacity to the human population is whether we will be a K or r-selected species; whether we will reach a stable level that can be sustained for an indefinite period; or whether we will grow to a peak and collapse. Biological studies of various species provide us with some basic lessons to apply to the human condition, but new ideas and methodologies are needed to incorporate the added complexities of human technologies and culture. But carrying capacity tells us that the biophysical limits of our environment are key in determining how many human can survive at what levels of consumption."
Ah yes in that sense you're right, in terms of numbers we're not dying off yet. I misinterpreted what you said. You know they used to teach about population control in this context in Dutch elementary schools. It was simple mathematics basically. But they didn't go into the details of how population control would work. Nowadays there seems to be a taboo on the subject. I think we need to start accepting that the Earth can't sustain an infinite amount of humans. We need to do more research and we need to find out where the critical number is.
Yea, I personally believe that 11 billion will not be our capacity. So far, we have seen little side effects to our environmentally destructive behaviors. The avg. life expectancy has gone up in general and I believe were only going to find more and more technological advances to catapult our carrying capacity. Although, particular locations have already hit their carrying capacities. (such as the picture you provided, theirs too little food/medicine per the amount of people). But, in general we're all growing.
Fucked up thing about human population capacity, we'll never really know. It's guaged by someone who is, you know, human... To one person, we shoul be living 1,000 feet apart and use what we need. To another, we can build mile high skyscrapers and jam everyone in them 2 feet apart.. Long story short, we're just going to keep finding ways to extend it.
The survival of humans is a race against our technology. If we can develop our technology enough before something drastic happens to us than we will survive. It all depends what the threat is and what technology we have.