"Having Children is Selfish"?

[piper17 1]

Can you tell me what the "carrying capacity" of the planet Earth is and explain your methodology in determining this number?

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

[billvon 3,114]

> Can you tell me what the "carrying capacity" of the planet Earth is . . .

Depends on a great many things, and how you want to live. Want to live like a typical american? Carrying capacity is around 2 billion. Want to live like an african villager in Niger? Carrying capacity is around 12 billion.

To see a real world example of this, 29 reindeer were introduced to St. Matthew Island in the 1940's, which was a fertile, isolated island off Alaska. The population quickly grew to 6000 and destroyed their resource base. A few years later they had declined to about 50.

The original "carrying capacity" of that island was about 1000 reindeer. After they had damaged the environment (i.e. eaten everything, killed all the grass, tore the bark off the trees and killed _them_) the carrying capacity declined to about 50.

>explain your methodology in determining this number?

The easiest way to do it is to look at four basic things: land required per person, water required per person, energy required per person and biological resources required per person. Land translates to food and raw materials (wood, cardboard, paper, iron.) Water and energy are self explanatory. Biological resources include oxygen, room/energy for recycling waste, biological 'buffer' space to attenuate disease, ecosystems robust enough to do things like pollinate crops and break down waste etc.

Take all that, figure out what you need, divide by what's available, and you have the carrying capacity.

[PLFXpert 0]

That reminds me of a song I learned when I was just a girl.

Divide. Multiply. Subtract. Bring down.

Good times.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.