How many people can the earth support

To do this, the onus of responsibility for single-use items needs to be put back onto producers. For instance, if a soft-drink company wants to sell their drink in a plastic container, they need to recoup that bottle after it's been used and ensure it is reused or recycled. When it comes to population, the highest rates of growth tend to be in developing nations. Research shows that birth rates tend to decrease as women have more financial security.

Improving living standards in developing countries can also improve resilience to climate change, she added. On current trend we are on track for a population of more than 11 billion people by the end of the century.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. If he did the same thing today, his thumb would eclipse 7. A billion hectares of new trees could pause the climate-change clock.

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Prime Minister says he does not believe he has told a lie in public life. Live: Victorians on alert for severe weather as heavy rain and high winds forecast to batter the state. Tasmania's electricity connector to mainland, Basslink, goes into administration. The Anthrome map shows croplands, rangelands, urban areas and other human settlements.

Human population, now nearing 8 billion, cannot continue to grow indefinitely. There are limits to the life-sustaining resources earth can provide us. In other words, there is a carrying capacity for human life on our planet.

Carrying capacity is the maximum number of a species an environment can support indefinitely. Every species has a carrying capacity, even humans. However, it is very difficult for ecologists to calculate human carrying capacity. Considering our population will continue to rise for some time, how do we accommodate everyone? The answer comes back to resource consumption.

People around the world consume resources differently and unevenly. An average middle-class American consumes 3. So if everyone on Earth lived like a middle class American, then the planet might have a carrying capacity of around 2 billion. Three-quarters of a billion people, more or less, were hungry yesterday, are hungry today, and will be hungry tomorrow.

Humans leave their mark on the land, sea, air, and other species with which we share the planet. Yes, life is better for many people today than in the past. But yes, for many people life is more miserable than nature requires. United Nations Population Division, World population prospects: the revision , key findings and advance tables.

Working Paper No. Van Den Bergh, J. Reconsidering the limits to world population: meta-analysis and meta-prediction. BioScience 54 3 An open access, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journal exploring all aspects of the relationship between human numbers and environmental issues.

Article How many people can the Earth support? Download pdf. References Cohen, J. How many people can the earth support? New York: W. Norton United Nations Population Division, Search for:. Recent Issues Vol. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.