The estimates of the "Optimum Population Trust"
(Published in GralsWelt 53/2009)
In the GrailWelt we have addressed a taboo topic on various occasions that is rarely addressed in public discussion: The carrying capacity of the earth.
She recently also dealt with the "Optimum Population Trust" (OPT), in which world-famous ecologists work, with this question.
According to projections of the "UN Word Population Prospects 2006" the world population is expected to increase from currently approx. 6.8 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050. The OPT is of the opinion that the earth cannot sustainably support much more than half of its current population. Compared to other assumptions, these 3 - 4 billion people are still very generously estimated as the upper limit.
Ecological carrying capacity of different countries according to OPT:
Country: Inhabitants: At current At medium
Prosperity: Prosperity:
Germany: 82 million 24 million 40 million
Austria 8 4 7
Switzerland 7 3 4
China 1,272 490 327
India 993 768 253
USA 280 91 241
World 5,962 643 3,055
http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.af.lpr02.tab2e.xls.
These figures are amply generous. The "medium prosperity" assumed here is probably more like Bangladesh than Romania, the poorest country in the EU.
Much more information under http://www.optimumpopulation.org
Read about it too "How many people can the earth take?"
