Although it is widely held that infections and eating difficulties are hallmarks of advanced dementia,25 there are few prospective data on the incidence of these complications. Over the course of 18 months, more than half of the residents in our study had infectious episodes, and 86% had eating problems.
So 10 billion people is the uppermost population limit where food is concerned. Because it's extremely unlikely that everyone will agree to stop eating meat, Wilson thinks the maximum carrying capacity of the Earth based on food resources will most likely fall short of 10 billion.
The Rockefeller University's Joel Cohen noted at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that the question of Earth's human-carrying capacity depends on how we're being carried. Steve Mirsky reports. âIt took until about 1800 or 1825 to put the first billion people on the planet. We added the most recent billion in 12 or 13 years. Thatâs Joel Cohen, head of the Laboratory of Populations at Rockefeller University in New York. He spoke February 20th at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. So how many people can the Earth hold? âIn the last half century, people have estimated human-carrying capacities for the Earth that have ranged from less than one billion to more than a trillion. They canât all be right.