Letters for March 28
Earth cannot sustain global human population
Estimates for a sustainable global population based on resource needs for a comfortable modern lifestyle come in at about 2.5 billion, beyond which our resource base begins to deteriorate due to over-exploitation. We exceeded this after about 1950 and are now 7.8 billion. The consequences are evident in the form of shortages, biodiversity loss, excess migration, global warming, etc. Yet, discussing this topic has been a virtual taboo since the 1970s, as politicians and economists willfully ignore it despite a rapidly rising chaos that is leading to the same kind of social disorder and collapse that occurs in a rat colony allowed to breed freely in a limited enclosure.