The carrying of humans in the earth's environment is defined as the largest population the earth can support and maintain indefinitely. Several factors for this include the amount of food to be produced, the space in which our population occupies, and vital necessities such as available water and resources in the environment.
In ideal equilibrium the capacity of the earth could hold near 15 billion people. However, the current lifestyle of living requires more energy and a larger impact altogether. The impact factor has been researched by Paul Ehrlich and he has developed a theory to calculate how a population can impact living using the IPAT. IPAT is an equation in which I=PAT, I stands for impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is a technology factor. This impact is negative to the carrying capacity, to have everyone living on a decent standard of living with today's technology the earth is currently over populated with around 7 billion people. When the current suspected carrying capacity is thought of to be around 5 billion humans.
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