How do we know the world is over populated?

Question

I mean is, I hear a lot of people saying that the world is over populated. But I wonder to myself, How do we know what the population was 5000 years ago or 10,00 years ago or 100,000 years ago.

People are saying the world is over populated, but how many years back does that go? 100 years 300 years?? I just wanna know.

Answer 1

the world is overpopulated because in biological terms, every environment has a carrying capacity, or a certain amount of organisms it can sustain with the proper resources. when you look at countres with horrid overpopulation like China and India, you see that people are starving to death because there's not enough agricultural products and resources available to them. people overpopulation, along with consumer overpopulation (in developed countries like the US ; using more resources than are absolutely necessary to sustain life) are causing the human population to careen closer to its carrying capacity

Answer 2

In my opinion, If there is not enough food to go around, the earth is overpopulated.

Answer 3

You could easily argue that the world has been over populated for  thousands of years. Look at all the destruction our ancestors caused in the middle east and asia. They are the main reason for many of the arid regions there, a thousand of years of unchecked agriculture and animal grazing. Think of the countless animal species we caused to become extinct before the end of the iron age. We've been pushing the limits on carrying capacity well before we developed any kind of modern technology.

Answer 4

ITS ONLY OVER POPULATED IN POPULATED AREAS, I CAN NAME ABOUT 5 STATES ONE CAN TRAVEL BY CAR THROUGH IT AND ONLY SEE ABOUT A THOUSAND PEOPLE MAYBE IN 7 HOURS. I BELIEVE THE POPULATED AREAS ARE MAIN CITIES OF MAIN COUNTRIES ONLY.

Answer 5

Scholars have ways of determining what the approx populations were hundreds of years ago. As for the world being over populated, that is a new thing. Within the last 50 years.

When you look at countries outside of North America you can really become aware of a population boom that is putting strain on governments and resources. Just look at China!