The earth could hold FAR more than 9 billion, you can times that figure by ten and have room left,
The earth can hold only 9 billion persons at the most
by cultswatter 22 Replies latest watchtower bible
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PrimateDave
Mariusuk said: "The earth could hold FAR more than 9 billion, you can times that figure by ten and have room left"
Sure, standing room, but who would want to live there...
The ecosystem necessarily needs to remain intact to avoid dissolving into smaller and smaller chunks and pieces. Islandification is the process by which humans first crack, then break apart, then shatter to pieces intact ecosystems. Ecosystems once divided into islands undergo a process of dissolution and decay of biodiversity which is identical in predictability to radioactive decay or to the loss of thermokinetic energy of particulate matter as it cools. As far as observation has gone, the law of biodiversity decay is applicable to all fragmented islands without exception. In the science of ecology this has been one immutable law, all sudden global change leads to the extinction of species. The human changes of the last hundred years have been both very profound and very sudden in an evolutionary time frame.
"These fragments are islands in the same sense that Hyde Park and Central park are islands. They are pieces of biosphere surrounded by people. As the tide of human beings rises in the next century, and we push towards a controlling interest of 80% (of NTPP), the biosphere can only become more and more fragmented. Although human beings cluster more and more in cities, and although we try to grow more and more food per acre, we shatter the biosphere into a Milky Way of islands.
This trend alone, this single global change, puts the projections of the demographers on a collision course with the projections of ecologists. It is such a bad business that it shadows the whole human project with doubt. It is one of the key reasons why, as Ehrlich writes, a world of ten billion people is, 'a preposterous notion to ecologists who already see the deadly impacts of today's level of human activities.'" Jonathan Weiner, The Next One Hundred Years, 1990
Another quote:
"To put this in context, you must remember that estimates of the long-term carrying capacity of Earth with relatively optimistic assumptions about consumption, technologies, and equity (A x T), are in the vicinity of two billion people. Today's population cannot be sustained on the 'interest' generated by natural ecosystems, but is consuming its vast supply of natural capital -- especially deep, rich agricultural soils, 'fossil' groundwater, and biodiversity -- accumulated over centuries to eons. In some places soils, which are generated on a time scale of centimeters per century are disappearing at rates of centimeters per year. Some aquifers are being depleted at dozens of times their recharge rates, and we have embarked on the greatest extinction episode in 65 million years." -- Paul Ehrlich (Sept. 25, 1998)
Dave -
Qcmbr
Do resurrected people need to eat much?