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How Many People Can the Earth Support? (Paperback)

~ (Author) "SHORTLY BEFORE 1600 B.C., a junior scribe in what is now Iraq transcribed on three clay tablets a Babylonian history of humankind..." (more)
Key Phrases: potential gross cropped area, maximum supportable population, gross carbohydrate, United States, United Nations, World War (more...)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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How Many People Can the Earth Support? + Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues + A Concise History of World Population
Price For All Three: $162.22

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  • This item: How Many People Can the Earth Support? by Joel E. Cohen

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  • Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues by John Robert Weeks

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  • A Concise History of World Population by Massimo Livi Bacci

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The best thing about this book is that it doesn't answer the question asked in its title. At least not directly. Joel Cohen understands that nobody really knows how many people can fit on our planet, thanks to constant technological advances in areas like crop yield. He is rightly skeptical of the Malthusian doomsayers who constantly predict catastrophe, but also shows that current rates of population growth cannot continue forever. A more extended discussion of politics might have helped--China's horrific one-child rule barely comes up--but for an honest treatment of human population dynamics, this is a very good source.


From Publishers Weekly

Biologist Cohen investigates the Earth's human carrying capacity.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co. (September 17, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0393314952
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393314953
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #511,091 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Joel E. Cohen
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
SHORTLY BEFORE 1600 B.C., a junior scribe in what is now Iraq transcribed on three clay tablets a Babylonian history of humankind. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
potential gross cropped area, maximum supportable population, gross carbohydrate, highest conceivable number, global population growth rate, doomsday equation, fertility evolution, public health evolution, average nutritional requirement, potential population density, initial carrying capacity, fewer forks, human carrying capacity, population supportable, next ten millennia, potential population supporting capacity, primary food supply, million kilocalories, annual water supplies, potential population supporting capacities, agricultural evolution, renewable fresh water, global population size, inputs high inputs, next time unit
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, United Nations, World War, World Bank, New York, North America, Latin America, New Zealand, World Resources Institute, Central America, New World, Old World, Bureau of the Census, Easter Island, Social Security Administration, Southwest Asia, Law of Prediction, Middle East, University of California, World Dynamics, Census Bureau, Hong Kong, Population Council, Black Death, Catholic Church
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What we know about constraints on population growth, November 21, 2004
By Jill Malter (jillmalter@aol.com) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
Obviously, the population of the world has been growing dramatically for the past few centuries. How high can it go? At how high a level can it be maintained? What restrictions are placed by the available resources, such as food and water?

This book asks many of the right questions. And it admits that we don't have all the answers. But it does give some clues about where we may be headed.

Cohen shows that basically, if we want to support people indefinitely on 3500 kilocalories per day from wheat energy, with 9000 cubic kilometers of annual fresh water supply, well, we can support only 5 billion people. We're already beyond that. Right now, we're using up resources at an incredible rate. And while the Earth could support 10 billion people in theory, it is hard to see how it could do that for long in practice.

The author thinks that we'll never get to the absolute maximum that the Earth can support. Most people would all be right on the edge of starvation, and we'd simply be unable and unwilling to stay in that state indefinitely. But I did realize after reading this book that we could stay at about 5 billion people for a very long time if we put our minds to it. Standards of living would not be high, but they would be tolerable for the majority, and the ones who found such a life acceptable would keep having children who found it acceptable.

Those of us who have political views ought to wonder if time is on our side or not. And that is why I think it makes sense to try to imagine what options are available for our mutual future. That's why I think this book is worth reading.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best book ever written on population., April 17, 1999
Definitive, yet almost breezy. Should be required reading for anyone thinking seriously about the future, be they science fiction writers, futurologists, policy analysts, strategic planners, portfolio managers or concerned citizens.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, April 24, 1999
By A Customer
I thought that this book was a very refreshing change from the many other books I have read on the subject of overpopulation. Joel Cohen is very fair and writes without a political agenda. He helped me understand the issues and variables much better than any other author on the subject. However, I sometimes got lost in the statistics and mathematics and found some parts hard to wade through.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too technical and theoretical.
This is a highly technical and theoretical treatment with a heavy emphasis on quantitative analysis rather than social science or policy. Read more
Published 2 months ago by James Bruner

3.0 out of 5 stars Typically naive
Using the Rule Of 70, a population which grows at 1% per annum doubles in 70 years. A population which grows at 2 % doubles in 35 years. Read more
Published on February 20, 2003 by Mr. David A. Coutts

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an honest book
This is a book that should be used to bludgeon every Julian Simon fan and every Zero Population Growth fanatic to depth. (You hear that Brian Cornell at overpopulation.com? Read more
Published on May 13, 2000

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