The Population Bomb

Paul and Ann Ehrlich wrote the "Population Bomb" in 1968.  It forecast that agricultural production would not be able to keep up with a rapidly growing worldwide explosion in population.  As part of the "baby boom" and starting college in 1969 this was one of the issues that for better or worse colored my view of things locally and on a global scale.  It was required reading for an ecology class I took at the University of Miami in 1971.

Fifty years later the effects of population growth are everywhere while the prediction of world wide famine has been wrong.  Famine exists, but it is more the result of political breakdowns rather than a shortage of food. Yemen being a good example.

Africa is still growing rapidly compared to the rest of the world.  Europe isn't growing and in some countries natural birth rate does not reach replacement levels. North America isn't growing as fast as Asia, Latin America, or world wide growth rate of 1.2%.

I remember the term carrying capacity.  The number of people that the world can support without environmental degradation is a reasonable definition for carrying capacity.  You might not like the term climate change but there does seem to be some serious degradation going on.