As humans start a new millennium, we have close to 4 billion more than we had at the beginning of the last millennium. In the next 50 years we are looking at adding another 3 billion people. Such a rapid increase has placed great strains on the Earth and leads us to ask how many people can the earth support? The answer is rather obscure, however it seems like we are approaching our limit rather soon. With decreasing aquifers, shortages in food, and increasing pollution, the Earth has reached its limit.Carrying capacity is defined as the maximum population that can be supported by the available resources while still leaving resources for future generations. All living organisms have this concept behind them. The main factors of food and water and space give a ballpark figure as to how many of one species can live in a certain area. Humans also have a carrying capacity however; unlike our lesser-developed counterparts in the animal kingdom our certain area encompasses the whole world. On top of that, our carrying capacity seems to change from time to time. Technological advances in agriculture and in health services have vastly increased life expectancy and other factors of carrying capacity. The first major, change of carrying capacity probably came around the Industrial Revolution, safe water was becoming available, refrigeration was being used, and the advent of the automobile and ship travel allowed humans to spread out and sustain themselves. Even today our carrying capacity is changing, with medical and agricultural breakthroughs being heard of everyday, life expectancy in developed countries is increasing all the time.As the Industrial Revolution came and went it spawned a rapid population growth. Between 1927 and 2000 the population jumped from 2 billion people to 6 billion people. Many countries have seen this rapid growth and see that it is quite detrimental. Most countries that are considered industrialized have cu...
