Llorin
iDraconequus
We've long-since established that our current number of people is having a patently negative effect on the environment on nearly every scale. Whatever our carrying capacity is, we've surpassed it; between the current number of people currently alive, how much they consume on a daily basis, and how much they'll consume over their entire lifetimes, the Earth cannot sustain us. It will for a time, but unless we prepare for a fundamental shift in our consumption habits, we're in for a very rude awakening.
Our little mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam is a lot smaller than people give it credit for.
when did you surpass our carrying capacity?
Was it when homo sapiens did begin to existence or it was much latter?
The short answer to your question is: we don't really know. It could have already happened, it might not have happened yet, it could be occurring as we speak. We do not know for sure.
It depends on the total amount of consumption of every human being on Earth. There are two kinds of ecological overshoot: population, and consumption. If everybody on Earth consumed less than they do, we could sustain a higher population. If the population of Earth were lower, we could all consume more without having an immediate negative effect on the environment.
If everyone in the world lived as the average American does, we would need more than one planet Earth to sustain our consumption for any appreciable human timescale. In fact, we would need somewhere on the order of five planet Earths to sustain a population our size with a consumption level equivalent to the average modern US citizen.
Current estimates of our population and its total consumption say that today, humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planet Earths to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.
Obviously, this paradigm is unsustainable. If humanity does not change its course, the Earth will ultimately turn on us. Soil will fail, taking crops with it. Transportation will grind to a halt and power grids will go offline as fossile fuels run dry. The general quality of air and water around the globe will decrease due to deforestation and carbon emissions. Weather would become more violent, and seasons more varied. Ecosystems will collapse. The extinction rate would skyrocket as whole sections of the continents became desolate and devoid of macroscopic life. And don't even get me started on all the geological activity we're going to cause if we keep emptying whole caverns of oil beneath the crust.
It's not a question of if, but a question of when. If the whole of humankind does not change its thinking, if we do not change the fundamental way we live and what we strive for, nature will rid herself of us and rebuild in our absence. If you've ever seen TV series such as "Life After People", that should give you an idea of what could be.
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