permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

On May 6, 2010, at 11:54 AM, <fdnokes@hotmail.com> <fdnokes@hotmail.com> 
wrote:

> 
> Do you think we have overstepped the bounds of what is habitable space on 
> earth?
> Are we trying to live in too many places that are not supportive enough of 
> life?

No. But the question doesn't get to the real issue. 10,000 years ago there 
were humans in nearly all of the places that we inhabit now (Antarctica being 
the main exception). Some of the most fragile places on the planet--the Oz 
bush, the Kalahari--have had humans in them for 40,000 years or more. 

The problem is not where we are, it's how many. There are just far, far too 
many of us in all of those places. Following William Catton in the 1980s 
classic "Overshoot," I'd say the human carrying capacity of the planet is 500 
million people living carelessly (so to speak) or 1-2 billion living very 
carefully. Since I don't think we are capable of living carefully, at some 
point we'll reach the lower number. 

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com