[piytar]

The estimates are all over the place. Don't remember the exact sources but found this.

At what standard of living would they be supported

Probably not a great one esp. at the one trillion level.

[Eagle Forgotten]

Thanks for the link! But you don’t have to get to an absurd one-trillion population to have a “not great” standard of living.

The money quote from the article you link (emphasis added):

“An average middle-class American consumes 3.3 times the subsistence level of food and almost 250 times the subsistence level of clean water. So if everyone on Earth lived like a middle class American, then the planet might have a carrying capacity of around 2 billion. However, if people only consumed what they actually needed, then the Earth could potentially support a much higher figure.”

We couldn’t just pull up the drawbridge and tell everyone else to go to hell. Our current standard of living depends on importing resources from around the world. We’re already seeing China make major inroads into sources of raw materials in Africa, and even somewhat in South America. As world population grows, the competition for resources will only increase.