# Planet Earth - Max Capacity **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 6, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-earth-max-capacity/643197 "2012-12-06T16:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-earth-max-capacity/643197/21 "2012-12-12T22:58:43Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > At the time I wondered what he’d do with all that excess heat, but no doubt the same solution: with enough energy, we can cool the planet if we need to. Aha! An excellent idea. In order to exceed the limit which I mentioned (the total human metabolic energy mustn’t be greater than the quantity of incident sunlight which is not reflected in normal circumstances), we could actively cool the Earth. By linking the earth to a series of dynamic orbital rings, the effective surface area of the Earth could be extended almost indefinitely, allowing us to cram even more hundreds of trillions of humans on the planet. We would never run out of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen or nitrogen, since these elements are abundant on the planet. If we run out of some trace element it could be imported from the asteroid belt. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-earth-max-capacity/643197/22 "2012-12-14T07:05:31Z")
2 000 000 000. Yes, we are over 3x that now. We are in a REAL extinction event. ---
**Author:** ![Stoneburg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Stoneburg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoneburg)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-earth-max-capacity/643197/23 "2012-12-14T12:18:16Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > 2 000 000 000. > Yes, we are over 3x that now. > We are in a REAL extinction event. No. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/planet-earth-max-capacity/643197.md?page=1)