ABSTRACT
As the world population increases (Silver and DeFries, 1990; Meadows et al., 1992; Brown, 1997), the effects of human activities on ecosystems escalate (Burger et al., 2012). We constantly hear about issues of climate change, acidifying pollutants (acid rain and anthropogenic nitrogen deposition), atmospheric carbon dioxide increase, stratospheric ozone depletion, and the threat of nuclear fallout. Major national and international discussions have taken place to decide the level of threat that these environmental changes may impose to human populations, their economies, and to the environment. Much of the debate has been political or driven by economic factors, but the magnitude and effects of the actual threat is still very much in debate (Lomborg, 2001), although the modified Lotka–Volterra models of Berck et al. (2012) suggest we are on track to a stable equilibrium where the increasing population will cause environmental collapse enough to drive humans to extinction.
