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Carrying Capacity refers to an ecosystem's capacity to support a certain population size. It can hardly be said that their earth's ecosystems are sustainably su
by underbluewaters 10y ago
Carrying Capacity refers to an ecosystem's capacity to support a certain population size. It can hardly be said that their earth's ecosystems are sustainably supporting the current human population. We've had to essentially destroy and replace working ecosystems with a regime that now relies on petroleum-based technology (fertilizer, herbicide, mechanization, transport) to raise productivity. We are on borrowed time and now have to rely on new technology to save us before we either run out of fossil fuels or cook the planet.
- noobiemcfoob 10y agoWe've been relying on technology for our salvation since the advent of agriculture, every day trying to fight back our inevitable doom at the hands of one out of a million causes. We may have remodeled our ecosystem(s), but it is still an ecosystem. The term Carrying Capacity wholly applies.
- underbluewaters 10y agoI guess I glossed over the most important bit, which is that it implies a sustainable system. Ingenuity may keep disaster at bay or it may not. Natural resources that took millions of years to develop like fossil fuels, aquifers, and healthy soils are being strained or drawn down by human population growth.