Sustain What: How Many Billions Can a Heating, Pandemic-Wrapped Planet Support?

Original air date: October 7, 2020

In the midst of the pandemic, with human-driven climate change and climate losses piling up, I revisited a keystone question: How many people can the Earth support?

As the human population surpasses 8 billion around November 15th, by the UN’s calculation, this question deserves fresh scrutiny.

My guests were:

• Joel E. Cohen, the demographer and global systems scientist from Columbia and Rockefeller Universities who literally wrote the book on this question - “How Many People can Earth Support?” His answer, unlike those of Malthusians or their opposite, was, it depends.

• Katindi Sivi, a futurist and development consultant based in Nairobi

• Christopher Tucker, author of “A Planet of 3 Billion” and chair of the American Geographical Society

Please read this related Sustain What post on why the “P” word still is mentioned far too rarely in climate policy discussions.

Where is the P Word (Population) in Addressing the Climate Crisis?