Global Warming Deniers Put Everyone In Jeopardy.

And climate scientists are not addressing the entire situation. I see one or two on Rachel Maddow, and they talk about how we can make steps to reduce carbon emissions. But the real issue is bigger than that. And by only addressing carbon emissions, they are missing the mark. Caffeine in our coastal waters, fisheries depleted, heavy nitrogen pollution in our rivers and oceans, global dimming, deforestation... Oh, and global warming.

When do we start talking about global population? Never? If never, then all of the rest isn't worth even talking about. We might as well just continue the fossil fuel party. Otherwise it's time to start making the difficult decision to discuss the unmentionable.

We passed that mark a long time ago, and it's been going downhill like a rocket-sled on rails ever since.

57,506,000 square miles of land / 1,000,000,000 people = 17.38 people per square mile.

How does one arrive at the number of people the planet can sustain?

The answer is what the planet can sustain, and keep it's natural equilibrium. It can absorb CO2. It can take nitrogen into the water.

One thing we know is that we're way way over that mark. I have never commented on just how many people can be sustained. I do know that we were already over the limit at half of our present population.

All I want is dialogue. It's such a touchy subject. And it's so important, we cannot afford to avoid discussing it.

and that comes down to solar energy per area of land and fertilizing of said land to optimize output.
Energy reserves allow a large amount of kCalories to be produced per unit of land area to sustain the large population of the Earth.
When the energy reserves give out there will be major problems.
but in the end all will work out for the Earth. Humans may not like the transition, but that's nature.

The species is winding down to an end?
It happens.

... I think it was last night (but sometimes I forget when I'm catching a rerun). He wrote a book of the numerous ways we are causing our own extinction. "The Fate of the Species".

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Pretty interesting take. Personally, I have always believed it will be a superbug/flu that is unleashed from melting snow packs, is stoked by warming coastal waters, or is accidentally released from a research facility - wake up one day and, damn - its 28 days later.

but this feels to me as though we've already passed the point of no return. As the deniers' voices fade because they have been so deadly wrong, the pessimist in me believes that we are already too late.

that's depressing. I think no one here disagrees with the pessimist in me.

Maybe you'll be one of the people left when world population shrinks to under 1 billion.

How the survivors of hurricane Katrina were treated?

That could be happening all over America.

Only thing one can do now is get prepared.