January 24, 2006 - I did more reading about the carrying capacity of the planet today. There are so many differing opinions about just how many people this planet can hold and if there is even a limit. I've come to the conclusion that things are going to get scary in my lifetime, likely near the end of my life, and any kids I have are going to have some major problems to deal with. It seems to come down to agriculture, oil, and water. Of course agriculture is the ability to grow enough food for everyone to eat. We keep becoming more efficient with farm land, but at some point if we run out of the materials to make fertilizer, land will become much less efficient. Also, if we run out of the materials to make fertilizer, we've also run out of the same materials to make gasoline, which means it will become expensive and difficult to transport that food around the world. Then there is the water factor. If we need more fresh water than is available, there is the option of desalination, a process that is used on the cruise ship I live on. They bring water in from the ocean, boil off the water, separate it from the rest of the stuff that was in the sea water, and then it is perfectly good/usable water. Well, that process takes energy, which currently comes from the same stuff used to make fertilizer and gas for transportation. On top of all of those problems, there are some that think the toxic waste we produce will end up killing us all off before these problems of scarcity hit. What a huge topic...I'm just at the tip of it.