What Is The Maximum Human Population The Earth Could Sustain

What is the sustainable human population on Earth?

Impossible to answer. The limiting factors are dependent on future changes in how people live, which are unpredictable. Today’s limiting factors are arable land on which to grow food, and availability of clean water. Possibly growing food hydroponically could allow more people to live with less arable land.A more fundamental limitation may be energy. Growing food, storing, transporting, and distributing food require energy as does finding , storing , and transporting clean water. Hydroponic food production lowers the amount of land needed, but increases the need for water.Improved technology can definitely increase how many people can live on the earth, but such improved technology may result in increased fragility of the necessary means of providing the necessities of life. Five hundred years ago life was quite difficult to sustain for almost everyone, but there was less exposure to unpredictable events. Except for unusual weather events or war, there was not much that was required to sustain to avoid disaster. As we have grown more prosperous and as population has increased, the complexity of systems required to maintain life has grown. Compare automobiles from a century ago and now.Today’s automobiles are much more reliable. But when something does go wrong, diagnosis and repair are much, much more difficult than it was for the cars of a century ago which broke down much more frequently, but could be repaired much more easily with fewer tools required and less skill and much less time and expense needed.

What is the optimum human population to live on Earth?

Probably somewhere between 2-3 Billion as a lower limit and about 10-11 Billion as an upper limit.Now people are going to ask, why so many ?Current UN middle estimate (orange line) showing about 10 Billion by 2080.Because under 2 or 3  Billion, we will NOT be able to:- explore outer space and colonize other planets.  There will not enough much surplus production- have enough medical and biological research to eliminate genetic diseases, cure cancer, possibly postpone aging- develop the more exotic energy technologies like fusion, which will enable higher standards of living AND extra-planetary exploration- understand the human brain enough to improve creativity and intelligence, and control mental illness.  This is critical.   Even now, much of human progress happens by waiting for a Carnot, Watt, Gauss, Ramanujan, Einstein, Elon Musk, etc. to come along move everything forward.  The world can't even develop better vacuum cleaners without someone like James Dyson.    Effectively, a large part of the business plan for the human race is "Wait until we get lucky and some very smart person comes along and creates progress"That is more hope than strategy. Right now, it helps that there are 7.3 Billion people on our team.That really cool science fiction future that has long life spans, space exploration, clean energy sources, and flying cars can't happen if don't have enough people.  So we need at least 2-3 Billion.Upper limit -As people become more prosperous, their per person environmental impact tends to decrease.  People move from slash and burn agriculture, to fixed farms, to higher yields per acre and per farmer. Energy production moves from burning wood and coal to oil, then natural gas, and then nuclear, wind and solar.Feeding 10-11 Billion people can be done -Short, popular article, based on an article in Nature...http://grist.org/population/2011...Article in Nature...Solutions for a cultivated planetA very large improvement could come from improving farming practices in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Can planet Earth sustain a human population of 100 billion?

Whats interesting to think about is the time, how long it will take humans to theoretically even reach 100 billion as a population number?Assuming that everything stays the same and global population growth numbers remain increasing at the same rate as they are now.Population growth is an upwards spiral, the more people there are, the faster it increases.In the year 1900 the global population was 1.6 billion. 100 years later, in 2000, it was 6 billion.Alot of this huge increase has to do with oil, technology and major advances in medicine.Now in 2016 we are at 7.4 billion people. And we are at a pretty steady 1.13% per year increase.According to a new United nations DESA report in 2015, “World Population Prospects”, global populations will reach:8.5 billion by 20309.7 billion by 2050And..11.2 billion in 2100.Of course certain advances in technology and medicine can rapidly increase the population rates.And certain pandemics or natural disasters can rapidly decrease the population rates. But we wont include these things.So by these rates and these pretty accurate estimates, we should reach the 100 billion number sometime in the early 2900s?We can only imagine, only imagine what the conditions of the earth may be at that time. What the technological state of our race will be.What possible genetic alterations or noticeable finite evolutionary changes might have even occurred in that amount of time.Maybe the earth will not be our only home, perhaps we will have terraformed Mars, Europa, or even Gliese 581 g.Time is the most miraculous wonder.

What is the maximum global population that Earth can support at current level of technology?

The number is somewhere in the range of 15 billion individuals; although that takes into consideration that humans utilize 100% of the natural resources available. In 2000, the net primary productivity(NPP) was at around 34%,; today its around 40%.Scientists are concerned about and have pondered about how large the figure can actually reach before human overpopulation and monopolization results in the break down of biodiversity, water, energy and flow of carbon; all services that are essential for the survival of other species.We’ve actually already exceeded that limit. Every species has what’s known as an optimal population; the value at which a population’s size will end up producing the best results in accordance with a specific end target.After a certain point, when that value gets exceeded it results in a deficit of the aforementioned ecological resources. An estimated value of what an ideal human population should be ranges anywhere from 250 million to 1.25 Billion individuals, depending on varied opinions.