About CCN   Publications   Support CCN   Gift Memberships   Archive    ACTION ALERT!  

CCN's 5 Point Program


National Revitalization

Population Stabilization

Immigration Reduction

Economic Sustainability

Resource Conservation

 

WHAT IS CARRYING CAPACITY?

A common fallacy is to equate existing and seemingly open or "unused" spaces with the kind of resources and ecologically productive land needed to support human life under modern conditions. In fact, the criterion for determining whether a region is overpopulated is not land area, but carrying capacity.

Carrying capacity refers to the number of individuals who can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations. The carrying capacity for any given area is not fixed. It can be altered by improved technology, but mostly it is changed for the worse by pressures which accompany a population increase. As the environment is degraded, carrying capacity actually shrinks, leaving the environment no longer able to support even the number of people who could formerly have lived in the area on a sustainable basis. No population can live beyond the environment's carrying capacity for very long.

The average American's "ecological footprint" (the demands an individual endowed with average amounts of resources, ie, land, water, food, fiber, waste assimilation and disposal, etc. puts on the environment) is about 12 acres, an area far greater than that taken up by one's residence and place of school or work and other places where he or she is.

We must think in terms of "carrying capacity" not land area. The effects of unfettered population growth drastically reduce the carrying capacity in the United States.


Carrying Capacity Network Publications


CCN has published a remarkable group of books and documents ...

With these publications, CCN dove head first into areas where the politically correct and politically timid fear to tread; we have used scientific approaches in areas where science is taboo; very simply, CCN has told the truth about crucial things that the others should have told you about but didn't.

We encourage you to order any of these documents today. It's easy, just call 1-800-466-4866 during Eastern Standard Time business hours! Then again, we're easy to reach by mail or e-mail.

CCN CLASSICS SPECIAL

Network Bulletins:

$3.00 Each, Minimum Order $10.00 (while supplies last)

Beyond Oil (future energy supply options)--Vol.1, No. 1

Has U.S. Already Exceeded its Optimum Pop. Size?--Vol. 1, No. 5

Why We Can't Go West--Vol. 1, No. 6

Is Immigration an Environmental Issue?--Vol. 1, No. 8

Population: Bigger is Less Free--Vol. 1, No. 9

Dreaming Big Wilderness and the Constitution--Vol. 1, No. 10

Farmland Loss and Urban Sprawl/The Population Connection--
    Vol. 2, No. 6

The Most Overpopulated Nation--Vol. 2, No. 8

Is Immigration Good for U.S. Labor?--Vol. 2, No. 9

500 Million Americans by 2050?--Vol. 3, No. 2

Resource Scarcity and Conflict--Vol. 3, No. 3

California: A Microcosm of Amerca's Future--Vol. 3, No. 4

Oil (using less and still running out)--Vol. 3, No. 5

High-Density Living--Salvation or Delusion?--Vol. 3, No. 9

Jobs, Politics, and Immigration--Vol. 3, No. 10

More African Famines in the Future?--Vol. 5, No. 2

CCN Advocacy Stance--Vol. 5, No. 3

Purported "Reduction" Prepetual Immigration Crisis--Vol. 5, No. 5

State of the Union Unmasked--Vol. 7, No. 1

Sierra Club Vote on Immigration Reduction--Vol. 8, No. 1

Classic Policy Studies:

New: "How to Work Effectively to Stop Mass Immigration"
    Part 1 of 2. $5

New: "How to Work Effectively to Stop Mass Immigration"
    Part 2 of 2. $5

New: "The Economic Costs of Mass Immigration" $5

"Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy," by Drs. Pimentel
    and Giampietro. $15

"U.S. Food Production Threatened by Rapid Population Growth"
     by Dr. Pimentel. $12

Beyond Sprawl: The Cost of Population Growth $10.00

Is Immigration an Environmental Issue? $5.00

CCN Bookstore:

New: Elephants in the Volkswagon: Facing Tough
    Questions About our Overcrowded Country, by Lindsey
    Grant. $20

Beyond Oil Summary Report $8.00

Population Politics, by Dr. Virginia Abernethy $18.00 - OUT OF
    STOCK

U.S. Carrying Capacity: An Introduction, by CCN $12.00

Immigration and the End of Self-Government,
    by Louis T. March $10.00

Bumper Stickers

Spread the word while you drive. Eight designs!

  

Total amount of purchases:

Name:

Address:

City: State:

Zip Code:

You may print this form and mail it with a check made out to Carrying Capacity Network, P.O. Box 18221, Washington, D.C. 20036-5915, or you may send your credit card information via e-mail, by filling out and submitting this form.

Please debit my Visa MasterCard

Account number

Expiration date

Signature

 

Carrying Capacity Network Needs You to Join!

 

 

 

 


The content of this website--graphics, text and other elements--is ©2001 by Carrying Capacity Network, and may not be reprinted or retransmitted in whole or in part without the expressed written consent of the publisher.

 

 

New ! Use FirstGov to find your representatives in Congress, contact them, and track their records on issues vital to national sustainability:

Use FirstGov to search for current news on pertinent legislation: