The Uncertain Future of Global Population Numbers

An anonymous reader writes "The question of global population is a pretty crucial one; how many people will there be in ten years? In forty? The New York Times notes research done by a group called the Worldwatch Institute, research that concludes world population figures are too fluid to make any sort of educated guesses. Childbearing populations combined with severe resource shortages in some parts of the world make pinning down a global headcount unfeasible for ten years from now, let alone out to 2050. The article continues beyond its original borders, as well, with commenters in the field of population studies noting we don't even have a good grasp on how many people were alive in 2007."

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Re:Easy question, easy answer

[timmarhy]

if you really think there are too many people in the world, then why not shoot yourself right now and stop contributing to the problem?

Re:Easy question, easy answer

[Ambitwistor]

if you really think there are too many people in the world, then why not shoot yourself right now and stop contributing to the problem?

That would only get rid of one person. It would be far more effective to shoot many other people.

The solution is obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

For once, porn really is the answer!

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The solution

[underpants_gnome]

I heard that a dude called Xenu knows the solution to the population prob...

Oh wait, someone's knocking on my door. BRB.

holy shit this is so easy!

[Anonymous Coward]

just count everyone's fingers and divide by ten!

Re:Carrying capacity overshoot

[STrinity]

Whilst it makes intuitive sense that there must be some limit, it also makes sense that this limit would itself be fluid -

Actually, no. The ultimate bottleneck for human population growth is the amount of available phosphorous. There are theoretical work-arounds for every other limiting factor, but the phosphorous limit would require mass-scale transmutation of matter to get past. Assuming we strip mine the entire solar system for phosphorous, the upper bounds for the human population on Earth is 10e22.