AHC: Highest World Population possible

How can you achieve the highest world population possible with a POD in 0 AD or later? (to prevent messing around with the agricultural revolution). What would the effects of a higher world population be, and would humans face serious problems with overpopulation?
 

Deleted member 97083

  1. No Mongol invasion of the Middle East or Russia, but the Black Death still happens. Alternatively, the Mongol invasion happens, but the Black Death doesn't.
  2. Spanish follow the Bartolomé de las Casas plan for colonization, sending mass numbers of peasants starting in the 1500s and 1600s, and organizing Native American tribes into self-governing townships which can start recuperating their population.
  3. The French start colonizing New France in the late 16th century, eventually reaching Thirteen Colonies numbers by the 1700s.
  4. Thirteen Colonies are colonized as OTL, except with fewer restrictions on German and Catholic immigration, and also some more attempt to assimilate natives to provide a boost against the French.
  5. Alternate Chinese dynasty industrializes first, rather than Europe. (although Britain still industrializes at around the same time). Outward-looking China forms puppet states in Africa, India, and Australasia.
  6. The European colonial powers industrialize in a similar fashion to Meiji Japan. The rest of Europe, India, the Americas, North Africa, West Africa, and East Africa industrialize soon afterward. Parts of Africa play off European and Chinese colonial forces against each other to industrialize.
  7. China never has the cultural revolution or one-child policy.
  8. What would have been the Soviet Union has no collectivization, instead colonizing Siberia and innovating on agricultural development.
  9. No WWI or WWII or similar wars.
  10. Entire world has gone through the demographic transition and reaches their peak population at about the same time. The world population peaks at about 17 billion in 2017 before accelerated global warming, massive worldwide revolutions, world wars, and civil wars lead to a terrible time for everybody.
 
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There is a hard limit, or carrying capacity, of how large a human population the Earth can support, without damaging the environment to the point where no humans can exist.

And the scientific consensus is that humans are close to it without getting into things like space colonies. So we are pretty already there, at max human population.
 
There is a hard limit, or carrying capacity, of how large a human population the Earth can support, without damaging the environment to the point where no humans can exist.

And the scientific consensus is that humans are close to it without getting into things like space colonies. So we are pretty already there, at max human population.
In the United States at least, the population could be much, much higher than it is and still be supported. Theoretically, we should have about the same population as China if you compare arable land. This can be seen in just how little of the food we use we actually need, with most being exported.
 

Vuru

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We're roughly at max pop without resorting to outlandish shit just yet

What you need is to redistribute the population
 
In the United States at least, the population could be much, much higher than it is and still be supported. Theoretically, we should have about the same population as China if you compare arable land. This can be seen in just how little of the food we use we actually need, with most being exported.

Yeah, look at North Dakota's population history to see how true that is. Those counties in Montana and North Dakota didn't empty out because they couldn't support the farming, they emptied out because the farmers couldn't make a profit off of things. That is, the government could have pursued a different agricultural policy to keep people there.

Not even getting into Northern Canada (south of 60N), which can support a bigger population given economic reason. From what I know, the Abitibi region in Quebec is an example of what can be done with colonisation of what was later called "Mid-Canada". Go look at the proposals for settling Mid-Canada as well, some of which are outlandish and although intended to counter the Soviet Union, actually would only have been possible with a Soviet-style totalitarian government

We're roughly at max pop without resorting to outlandish shit just yet

What you need is to redistribute the population

Nope, we have enough food and can make even more if needed. We have enough resources if we choose to produce/mine them to keep costs down. The issue is people wanting to live like Westerners and the associated environmental cost of producing the resources and food needed for that.

If everyone lived as serfs or whatever to a small class of global elites, then you could have easily have 15-20 billion people and environmental issues no worse than OTL in 2017. That might be a bit ASB, given how this global elite might rise, which somehow eliminates the middle class--like the scientists/engineers inventing shit and geologists finding these new resource deposits-- in the process.
 
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