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CrowdScience

How Many People Can Earth Support?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science

4.81K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2017

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our planet is getting rather cosy. In just over 200 years, the global population has grown from 1 billion to almost 7.5 billion – and the best estimates suggest it’s going to keep on increasing. But just how far can it go? When will we reach ‘peak human’? That’s what CrowdScience listeners Alan Donaldson and Francoise Brindle want to know: what’s the latest estimate for how many people the Earth can support?

It’s a question that’s been bothering some of the world’s greatest thinkers for hundreds of years, and now presenter Marnie Chesterton goes on her own quest for answers. Her journey takes her through the technology and innovation that keeps our growing population alive, and she looks to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to find out what a more densely populated world might feel like. But are there signs that things are already levelling off? And could improving photosynthesis allow populations to grow without destroying the environment?

Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk

Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Anna Lacey

(Image: People on busy street. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and maybe it's when I had a hand in.

0:04.0

I'm Tammy Walker and I produce podcasts for the BBC.

0:08.0

My role is to give new and diverse creators a voice with the opportunity to build a career.

0:12.0

That's the thing I love about podcasts.

0:14.4

You start with just a good idea, but then you have the space to see where it goes.

0:18.4

And doing that at the BBC means we can really run with the best stories

0:21.9

while developing the most unique audio talent.

0:24.8

So if you like what you hear, why not check out the huge range of podcast we've got on BBC

0:29.1

Sounds?

0:31.8

Where is a Zincan? I mean if Etna is a mountain, a volcano.

0:37.0

Do you even know how that group?

0:40.0

Yes, I mean... Is it a riddle? Is it a crossword clue? No, you're listening to crowd science

0:46.8

on the BBC World Service with me, Marnie Chasterton.

0:50.6

It's great looking at the connections between the places so they've got things that rhyme

0:56.0

producer Anna and I are standing in the plaza outside BBC Broadcasting House looking at

1:01.9

Wait for it, paving slabs.

1:03.2

Dungyness, gaitness, invines, lockness.

1:06.0

Oh, you know what, I'd never even realise this.

1:08.8

But then you come over here and they've got Bo-Powell and Aberfan.

1:13.0

Each one has the name of a place on it,

1:16.0

and most are grouped to remember major events in modern human history.

1:20.0

Fire, Dunkirk, Somme.

...

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