ABSTRACT
The term “carrying capacity” originally derived from the biological sciences, where it was used to denote the optimum number of given species a specific ecosystem is able to sustain without interfering with its basic structure and stability. For global managers, it is a concept that has a particular significance because it provides a seemingly “objective” measure of how many people can survive or flourish on a particular area of land at particular levels of consumption and technology. If “carrying capacity” is exceeded, the reasoning goes, then population can be said to be “objectively” excessive relative to land, consumption and technology. If “population” and “population” density are poorly correlated with specific examples of environmental degradation, “population” increase is equally poorly correlated with rates of environmental degradation. Costa Rica and Cameroon, for example, are clearing their forests faster than Guatemala and Zaire respectively, despite having lower “population” growth rates.
