How much is enough ?

[Bruder Cuzzen]

I 've had this question in my head  for the last 30 years .
How many humans can the Earth support ?

I recall bits of an article I read as a teen , it voiced concern about over- population .

The author wrote that the general consensus among the scientists ( or was that mathematicians ?) when asked , " how many humans can the Earth sustain ? 
Given the consumption of resources remain constant , they estimated it would be about 10 billion , some suggested 20 billion .

I thought it would be more like 5B  or maybe even lower !???
I thought that the ever increasing population of the world will just further compound global mayhem , that more people meant more consumption , more consumption equals more destruction of habitats and ecosystems and more waste and pollution .

Now I'm thinking 4 Billion......(I'm off to think about it some more)....

What do you folks think the Earth's population should be ?

[Griffin NoName]

At the rate you are lowering your estimation BC you'll be lucky if any of us are still around to answer you in a few days time.

How many humans can the Earth support is probably different to how many anyone would think there should be. So it's easiest for me to answer neither.

I think populations wipe each other off the face of the earth quite effectively and nature does the rest. Plagues, droughts, storms, earthquakes, et al.

Of course there's also the russian roulette over climate. But for all we know evolution may take care of that.

I assume world population will bulge and deflate over several billion years if the species were to survive. I wouldn't put figures on it because it depends how resources are used which depends on whether we go on being stupid.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

We're still young enough that I suspect nature is still trying to figure out what to do with us (and our added complexity and the stuff we throw at her sure doesn't help).
As Griff pointed out, species bulge and deflate, bulge and deflate, and that's how it goes.
I suspect it also depends on how much people use--Westerners use waaaaaay more than let's say a subsistence farmer in Africa (20% of the population uses 80% of the resources, you know).

I read something last year that says we have a while yet. Another two or three billion people. Not sure what the current doubling time is, so I can't even suggest how long it will be.
http://www.worldometers.info/

[Griffin NoName]

I read something last year that says we have a while yet. Another two or three billion people. Not sure what the current doubling time is, so I can't even suggest how long it will be.

At least cloning is beginning to go out of fashion

That worldinfo page is incredible and very scary 

US spending on perfume

From the small print on worldinfo

It took all of human history until 1800 for the world's population to reach its first billion. Now we add a new billion nearly every dozen years. As the global total swells to nearly 9 billion by 2050, the social and environmental strains will be enormous.

[Bruder Cuzzen]

That was terrifying  to watch Kanaloa .

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Ok, didn't see the small print. So doubling time is arithmetically every 36 years.

Oh I know. I spent about twenty minutes watching one in my AP environ class last year.