What is the ideal population for planet earth?

62 Comments

The present world population is 7.6 billion, with 9 billion predicted by 2050, and 11 billion by 2100. Clearly, this is way too many people. Carbon emissions cannot be sequestered, food production may be able to keep up if we consume wheat, sugar, rice and corn. But, meat and garden vegetables will be available to very few people. Fresh water, and sewage treatment will be issues too.

Reduction of the future population may occur from disease (the red death), nuclear war, famine, etc. Assuming that will happen, what is best size population for a stable and affluent Planet Earth in the future, say in the year 2800?

5 Billion	14
4B	8
3B	9
2B	8
1B	7
500 Million	6
300 M	2
100 M	4
Zero	15

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Comments ( 62 )

cinderfloof

5 years ago

I think where we are now is possible. We currently have enough resources for everyone to survive off of, we just need to distribute it properly and stop using so many damn fossil fuels.

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TerriAngel

5 years ago

How many people CAN the world support.
Or, how many SHOULD the world support.
With modern technology there is a whole lot of food capacity.
That said, people are bad.
Not one by one, but as a whole.
Including me.
The world is better off without any.

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TheBlindInquisitor

5 years ago

Dose it really Matter?

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lordofopinions

5 years ago

I remember in high school in the 60's the population was 3 billion. Now its well over 7 billion. The 3rd world needs birth control in the worse way.

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Tealights

5 years ago

I don't know, I'll be dead by 2800.

If we want to have a safe population, we need to start by educating the next generations properly. That includes actual sex education and not some gym teacher handing out ditto sheets or some half-ass pedo teacher who is riding on that tenure.

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- raisinbran
  
  5 years ago
  
  A lot will happen in those 782 years.
  
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  - cipro
    
    5 years ago
    
    lol
    
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Boojum

5 years ago

God designed it for two people, didn't He?

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  5 years ago
  
  Yes, but the two people fucked without birth control. Now things are ugly.
  
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- Bazinga
  
  5 years ago
  
  What the fuck does God know? "Be fruitful and multiply" is what's gotten us into this global mess. Shake your fist into the air and tell God to fuck off if you really think he designed all of this.
  
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cipro

5 years ago

Zero

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[Old Memory]

5 years ago

1B. I shaved my armpits and pubes in comfort and privacy the other day. I type this from my own bedroom.

Let all living enjoy plentiful resources and privacy!

Humans are the smartest species. We should use our intelligence wisely, and stick to maintaining a balance and respect for nature.

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[Old Memory]

5 years ago

I know where you live now... you little selfish.

How many lakes would I have to paddle across to catch you sucking down water while California burns?!

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[Old Memory]

5 years ago

You are exactly right. This surprises me, because I hold you in somewhat low regard.

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Anonymous Post Author

5 years ago

Agreed.

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Anonymous Post Author

5 years ago

Thanks for sharing your viewpoint.

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Anonymous Post Author

5 years ago

There are ways that Ebola could be spread very quickly. I can neither confirm nor deny any detailed information pertaining to this. I do agree that given random events, flu has a higher likelihood of hitting global pandemic levels.

Anyway, back to the post. What population level do you think would be ideal in the year 2800?

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[Old Memory]

5 years ago

Presently, the problem is not the population, but our lifestyles. 11 billion could have a pretty good life if we get rid of all our political boundaries and our vehicles.

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- [Old Memory]
  
  5 years ago
  
  Get rid of vehicles just to cram in more annoying and useless humans? No thanks.
  
  Why sacrifice the freedom and the fun in life just for more bullshit?
  
  Quality of life > population.
  
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Meowypowers

5 years ago

You brown, black, and yellow men will miss us beautiful pure blonde and blue angels when we are gone.

We'll stick around for a bit because none of you are desireable.

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- [Old Memory]
  
  5 years ago
  
  Well, there's the beautiful ones, and then there's the hicks and idiots whose blue eyes do nothing for them.
  
  At least Vikings will be finished before you all die out.
  
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Meowypowers

5 years ago

Are we talking round...?

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LornaMae

5 years ago

All these comments only make me think of Idiocracy and Herbert Camacho/Trump as president.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  5 years ago
  
  I'm so sorry you're having trouble thinking on a higher plane of effectiveness.
  
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  - LornaMae
    
    5 years ago
    
    Oh? Then I apologize, it's all I could think of because it seems to portray exactly what those comments were about. :/
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      5 years ago
      
      No problem. Don't hesitate to be rude and crude.
      
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Fetiza000

5 years ago

This is why teen pregnancy causes world hunger.

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xxLucifer

5 years ago

Most scientists actually think the earth has a maximum carrying capacity of 9 - 10 billion with some thinking it can support up to 16 billion and some think we are already overpopulated saying the earth could only support 4 billion. I believe that the earth is doing fine right now and can still hold a couple more billion people.

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  5 years ago
  
  Africa is already a trash pit. India is getting there fast. The oceans are overheated. The world is fucked.
  
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  - Susancream
    
    5 years ago
    
    Africa is not a trash pit, we have so much unused land that we could probably fit 2 billion people in just delta state( a state in nigeria) which is currently where I am and all aroud I see land and Trees just beautiful vast green land as far as the eye can see and we have 30 more states just like this in nigeria alone minus the city states Nigga we blessed.
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      5 years ago
      
      Yes, but people are so poor they wash dishes with sand which clogs sewers. When people can't even afford dish soap, how can you stop disease and pandemics with your clogged sewers?
      
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      - Susancream
        
        5 years ago
        
        You Ignorant fuck.
        
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        Anonymous Post Author
        
        5 years ago
        
        People piss in the street, do recreational rape. A mosquito infested trash pit, with cannibal mentality. No public health system except for voodoo witch doctors.
        
        Africa should be quarantined from the rest of the world. It is a disgusting, puke your guts kind of place.
        
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  - xxLucifer
    
    5 years ago
    
    Africa is bad because a lot of the land there isn't suitable to grow crops because 25% of the land of Africa is desert that combined with the fact that most of the countries in Africa doesn't have the same technology as the rest of the world makes it harder to live there. India is bad because of how densely populated the country is. They have almost 1.5 billion people living in a country that is only 2% of the earth's land mass, of course they are gonna have trouble providing for themselves.
    
    You question though asked what would be a stable population size in 2800. By then it is my belief that the human race will become much more advanced and with those advancements be able to better support themselves without harming the environment. We are always making advancements and are always looking for ways to limit pollution by limiting the amount of green house gasses that gets into our atmosphere and by finding new ways to reuse waste products.
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      5 years ago
      
      My question was IDEAL population. A stable and affluent population will be smaller than a population that is stable yet impoverished. I'm thinking by 2800, 500 million would be a good critical mass to have enough geniuses born to find solutions to difficult problems. A higher population than that would be more dead weight than is required, hence a drag on the standard of living.
      
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      - xxLucifer
        
        5 years ago
        
        That's not how things work though. Limiting the amount of people would not make people smarter especially if the cause of which was something outside of human control. If the population was 500 million most of those people wouldn't have the time to spend on innovation and as a result things would take a lot more time to get better. Part of the reason humans are so advanced is because we have so many people in the world. The more people you have the greater the chances of someone coming up with a new idea.
        
        Think of humans as one big artificial neural network. In a neural network the more nodes the better the chance of solving whatever problem is given in a shorter amount of time. You have to also think that almost all of the innovations done are done by specialists in their respective fields. If you lessen the population that lessens the amount of people who are gonna be able to devote there time to a specialized field.
        
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        Anonymous Post Author
        
        5 years ago
        
        Except in the year 2800, production and service jobs will be almost all automated. This will enable far better leveraging of intellectual talent. For example, say 2 million researchers are doing biomedical research right now. With no production or service jobs in the future, 2 million biomedical researchers can easily be supported in a population of 500 million.
        
        Your neural network analogy does have some merit, tho. In the next 80 years, dumb people will continue to multiply. Smart educated people, drowning in student debt will opt to not have kids they can't afford. The drop in intelligence means that humanity's neural network will flicker, and perform poorly.
        
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McBean

5 years ago

Is the Red Death known as Ebola?

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- Anonymous Post Author
  
  5 years ago
  
  Yes. It will eventually overwhelm the health care system killing everyone in high density urban areas. People that live in deserts will be spared.
  
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  - xxLucifer
    
    5 years ago
    
    only a little over 11 thousand people have been reported to have been killed by the Ebola virus from 2014 - 2016. Pretty much all of which has been confined in Africa. Only 11 people have been in the US with Ebola, 7 of which evacuated from another country. Of the total 11 people infected only 2 of died. Ebola isn't really a threat to people outside of Africa and in December of 2016 there was a study done that showed that VSV-EBOV was 95% - 100% effective against the virus making it the first Ebola vaccine proven to work.
    
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    - Anonymous Post Author
      
      5 years ago
      
      I can neither confirm nor deny the means by which this disease could spread so quickly.
      
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Anonymous Post Author

5 years ago

Ebola is a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus and multiplies particularly rapidly in its host creating a high pathogen dose. Yes, a mutated flu virus could also put a dent in the population. Both types of viruses mutate. Ebola already has four different infectious strains.

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Anonymous Post Author

5 years ago

I meant Ebola. See reply to McBean's comment below.

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Servian

5 years ago

Populatation is already stabilizing.No-one in this generation wants children so most of them will just die off.

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- raisinbran
  
  5 years ago | pl
  
  This only applies to educated people. The dumb ones will keep multiplying.
  
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  - [Old Memory]
    
    5 years ago
    
    Not true. I want children and I am a top student with higher education.
    
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    - Bazinga
      
      5 years ago
      
      You'll have too much student debt to afford to have kids.
      
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  - sillygirl77
    
    5 years ago
    
    So true on the whole raisinbran!
    
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    - McBean
      
      5 years ago
      
      Super true.
      
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- [Old Memory]
  
  5 years ago
  
  Not true. I want children.
  
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  - [Old Memory]
    
    5 years ago
    
    You're a racist, so how smart could you possibly be?
    
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    - [Old Memory]
      
      5 years ago
      
      Smart enough to understand the racial IQ distribution by studying statistics and accurately interpreting stereotypes.
      
      How smart can you possibly be for having a leftist vision that people are shaped only by individualism and completely ignoring their genotype, which obviously has an impact on them? It's just as bad as following only the race/appearance, ignoring their individual characteristics. An unnecessary conflict bewteen extremes which make no sense and which will establish no true winner.
      
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      - [Old Memory]
        
        5 years ago
        
        It's more about cultural upbringing and education. Those things would effect how you perform on IQ tests.
        
        There's no evidence to show that a certain race's brains are actually better, and more evidence against that.
        
        Nigerians who are sent over the America or other Western countries do very well in school-
        
        https://www.chron.com/news/article/Data-show-Nigerians-the-most-educated-in-the-U-S-1600808.php
        
        Asians are similar, and you know what they have in common? Their parents drill and drive them to succeed in school.
        
        Meanwhile, ghetto, hood, gang-banging blacks do the worst. Education, honest work, and success are not encouraged.
        
        I'm done here now. I'm supposed to be trolling on this account, not schooling bigots.
        
        You wouldn't infer this from my comment, and unfortunate use of the overused and incorrectly used word "bigot", but I'm not a leftist or some liberal dumbass.
        
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        [Old Memory]
        
        5 years ago
        
        Lol, you called me a bigot while you admit being a troll. Leftist hypocrisy at its best.
        
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What is the ideal population for planet earth?