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0 pointsTTPrograms10y ago0 comments

Uh, the current growth rate is around 1% per year, and it's decreasing as countries enter the first world. That's a doubling every 70 years. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth

We've got a lot of efficiency left in terms of agriculture as well, so there isn't much reason to think reaching the carrying capacity of the planet is a particularly pressing issue. The amount of food that we already grow that we don't eat roughly 1/3 already, and the vast majority of land doesn't contribute to agriculture.

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Retric10y ago· 2 in thread

I don't disagree with what your saying.

The counter argument goes something like this. Let's double every 1,000 years for the next 1,000,000 years that sounds easy.

Let's see that's only 7billion * 2^1,000 or err ~7 * 10 ^ 310 people. Hmm, there are only ~10^83 atoms in the observable universe. I guess they must be really tiny people.

So, yea it's not a problem in right now and probably not for a long time yet. But, as soon as you start doubling something has to give.

lotharbot10y ago

population doesn't keep doubling over and over again. It follows a logistic curve (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function ). Human population probably reached the midpoint of the curve around 1980 (http://www.growth-dynamics.com/articles/Kurzweil_files/image... ) and is expected to become fairly level between 9 and 13 billion (http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Graphs/ select Population -> Total Population -> WORLD)

superuser210y ago

Yes, it follows a logistic curve because it hits carrying capacity. The top of that curve is not a pleasant place.

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