The Problem of the Human Population Peak Oil Barrel. Javier holds a Ph. D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and has been a scientist for 3. He wrote a blog on macroeconomy and investments from a cyclic point of view for over two years and currently writes a blog in Spanish about the economic crisis, energy crisis and climate change at http www. Javier goes by the name of Knownuthing on his blog. Opinions expressed in this post are those of Javier and not necessarily those of the blog owner Ron Patterson. This post was translated from the Spanish by computer and may therefore contain some grammatical errors. The question of whether or not overpopulation in the world is clearly debatable. For starters there is no agreement on what should be the worlds population and is also clear that currently the world is able to withstand the seven billion people who live and there is little doubt that it can support more, as the number increases constantly. However, there is concern for decades that in a finite world at some point should be the limits of the worlds population, and that may not be very smart to reach those limits. Although efforts to limit population growth in some countries like India or China, today these efforts have been abandoned or are abandoning were made in the second half of the twentieth century, mainly due to the pace of population growth is declining alone globally. As in all matters based on the laws of nature, we can use science to analyze the problem of the human population. The science that helps us in this case is ecology, which has a specific branch of human ecology. Anyone who thinks that we do not apply the laws of biology, is that it has lost touch with the reality of human nature. For very rational to presume to be, we are still animals and not very rational forget. Mozilla Firefox Setup File For Windows Xp. How many and how fast we grow The worlds population at the time of this writing is 7,3. Earth. You can see the current figure on pagehttp www. Seven 1. 30. 0 million and growing at a rate of 1. Spains completely filled each year. Fig 1 Growth of world population and growth rate estimates up to 2. Source World Population Data. Search metadata Search full text of books Search TV captions Search archived web sites Advanced Search. However, there is concern for decades that in a finite world at some point should be the limits of the worlds population, and that may not be very smart to reach. C480' alt='Tellus Save The Earth Setup Outlook' title='Tellus Save The Earth Setup Outlook' />Since the growth rate is declining naturally, if not intervene any new factor human population on Earth would peak slightly above the 1. United Nations. This is the problem size. The odds that this issue is addressed in political form before 2. Political campaigns to reduce the growth of the human population are decreasing, not increasing. The most effective of all, Chinas policy of one child per couple is relaxing and and only a third of the population is subject to this limitation Source The Australian. Fig. 2. The population of Earth is very unevenly distributed. Population density in 2. Source Wikipedia. The question therefore is not to analyze whether the Earth is able to support 1. And heres where ecology can help us. The capacity of an environment to support a species is called carrying capacity. The carrying capacity. In the context of ecology, the carrying capacity K is a theoretical concept, which represents the maximum number of individuals of a species that is capable of supporting ecosystem. This concept demonstrates its practical usefulness when observed that populations with capacity growth tend to occur in many species, a sigmoidal growth asymptotically approaches a value that was defined as capacity Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology, 1. Another more modern working definition is that the capacity of a population is the size of the population N when its growth rate r becomes zero and stops growing Molles, Ecology Concepts and Applications, 2. Fig. 3. The growth of a population d. N dt limited by its capacity K follows a sigmoid curve, which is proportional to its maximum growth rate r by the population size N and a factor is less the closer N to K. The carrying capacity is not a static value as shown in Fig. Natural areas managers measure key indicators of species and habitat to determine which populations are responsible below the carrying capacity. Experiments in natural areas under management by government agencies show that populations are limited by the medium. Essentially the availability of food, but also to a lesser extent by other factors such as water, shelter and space see for example Carrying Capacity How many deer can we Have Populations living therefore tend to fluctuate naturally around a certain level which is defined as its charge capacity. An animal population may be below its carrying capacity in the spring after a hard winter, or temporarily above it during the winter, a situation that usually lasts a short time and that inevitably leads to a decline in population due to multiple natural limiting factors eg mortality, disease, migration and decrease the rate of reproduction. The concept of carrying capacity also applies to human ecology. The study of human populations shows the recent evolution of their capacity. If we analyze the population of England and Japan over the last few centuries Fig. England and 3. 5 million in the case of Japan K1. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid eighteenth century and Japan in the second half of the nineteenth century, substantially increased the capacity K2 to current levels, causing a rapid increase in population in both cases, to the new level Meyer Ausubel 1. Carrying Capacity A Model with Varying Logistically Limits. Note that the shorter duration of the industrial revolution in Japan 7. Fig. 4. Evolution of the population of England and Japan in recent centuries. We can see how the lifting capacity K, inferred results in the increase of population P million according to a sigmoidal curve to stabilize at the new value. Source   Meyer Asubel 1. Numerous studies can relate the increase in capacity in human populations with increased food availability. See for example Hopfenberg 2. Human Carrying Capacity Is Determined by Food Availability. The factors leading to an increase in human carrying capacity are essentially Expansion. Increased cultivated by two processes, increased land area exploited by man and change in land use forest grass culture surface towards higher productivity. Increased energy expenditure. Extensive farming mechanization, irrigation, use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. Increased knowledge. Selection of seeds and species, use of improved agricultural techniques, improved fishing technologies. Positive climatic factors. Increase in temperature and humidity. Increased rainfall Increased CO2. Factors leading to a decrease in human carrying capacity are essentially Declining resources. Aquifer depletion, rising and declining fuel and energy, collapse of fish populations. Environmental degradation. Pollution, soil loss, nutrient loss, desertification, deforestation, loss of pollinators, pest favoritism. Ballance 2 Game more. Adverse climatic factors. Droughts, floods, weather extremes El Nio and La Nia, reduction of temperature and humidity. Alla Ricerca Del Tempo Perduto Proust Pdf. Historically the global carrying capacity of humanity has experienced a gradual increase, although there have been local collapses because the positive factors have predominated over the negative. Especially with the industrial revolution energy costs soared and a strong increase of knowledge which subsequently led to the green revolution began, all of which produced an exponential growth of the human population.