r/overpopulation • u/kickmuck • 14d ago

BBC David Attenborough - How many People Can Live On Planet Earth

For anyone who has not watched this.

This BBC documentary hosted by Sir David Attenborough in 2009 explores whether Earth is becoming overpopulated and what its ultimate carrying capacity might be.

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u/maestrojxg 14d ago

I seem to recall, I think it was Jared Diamond who said 2 billion if we all lived like we do in first world countries

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u/ahelper 13d ago

And note that that was the population in the 1920s when creativity and scientific and medical and engineering advances were at a very high level.

Yes, I know there was still poverty and suffering then, but think of how that might have been solved by now if not for the stresses caused by the increase in population.

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u/Syenadi 14d ago

Too many ads to watch. Just tell us what he things that number is. (If it's over 4 billion, he is incorrect and actual carrying capacity is likely 2 billion or less.)

Also note that your use of "ultimate" is a memecloud. The "ultimate" human population is one that would do zero additional damage to the ecosystem and would allow it to start healing. That is probably no more than 100 million widely disbursed hunter gatherers.

Or did you mean "maximum"?

The actual question imo should be "How many people SHOULD (not could) the Earth support?"

A classic with impeccable rationales:

https://www.ecofuture.org/pop/rpts/mccluney_maxpop.html

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u/ThirstyWolfSpider 14d ago

You might need a better adblocker. I see no ads there.

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u/-sussy-wussy- 13d ago

How are you still browsing the Internet without an adblocker in 2026? Get a uBlock Origin as a browser add-on on your desktop or laptop, use Brave on the mobile. I haven't seen any ads for over a decade.

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u/Syenadi 13d ago

Apparently my recent "update" killed it. Still waiting for someone to just tell me what number he said though.

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u/ThirstyWolfSpider 14d ago

He mentions that "today there are nearly seven billion of us", but now there are over 8.3 billion. It shows how outdated this is ... and yet it was released only 17 years ago.

Rather many humans could live on planet Earth, as long as we don't all do it at the same time.

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u/Vague-Symbolism2692 14d ago

Thanks for the link!