[goku]

Only in recent history has humankind discovered the means with which to increase the average human lifespan and reduce infant mortality rate: sanitation practices and modern medicines. With these discoveries, we have multiplied our numbers faster than ever before, going from 1 billion to 2 billion in only 123 years, such a brief moment in human history. As is the nature of unchecked growth, the momentum accelerated and the world went from 5 billion people to 6 billion in only 12 short years. The balance of nature has been drastically upset and the environment is already paying the price.

"It's not because people started breeding like rabbits.
It's that they stopped dying like flies."
... Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the American Enterprise Institute
The world is growing by more than 76 million people a year. At the current rate of growth, even accounting for a continual decrease in the growth rate, the world population is headed for double digits within 50 years. Every 20 minutes, the world adds another 3,500 human lives but loses one or more entire species of animal or plant life - at least 27,000 species per year. The world population has doubled in the last 40 years. It took just 12 years to leap from 5 billion to 6 billion. It took about 18 centuries for the earth to reach its first one billion inhabitants. The world is adding a city the size of Los Angeles every two weeks.

Birth rates are falling worldwide but death rates are declining even faster. A tiny fraction - only 7 percent - of the world's people live in countries where population is not growing.

If fertility remained at current levels, the population would reach the absurd figure of 296 billion in just 150 years. Even if it dropped to 2.5 children per woman and then stopped falling, the population would still reach 28 billion.

1.2 billion people worldwide are living on $1.00 a day or less.


Reasons Why Population Matters

Worsening water scarcity stems in large part from increases in human demand. Water tables are dropping world wide.

Pollution in cities is the number one killer of young children because of respiratory diseases. Cities are growing at an alarming rate.

Worldwide, 800 million people are malnourished, and the number could grow significantly. Farming lands are suffering from soil erosion and desertification.

The poor are getting poorer due to competition for resources while governments are strained to keep up with them and economies fail.

The world's oceans are overfished and the coral reefs are dying

Humanity is rapidly changing the earth's atmosphere and thus its climate

Wild habitats that shelter endangered plants and animals are giving way to human activities and needs

Disease knows no borders, and crowding helps spread disease, and lack of education in reproductive health is a factor in the recent upsurge of infectious disease

Migration pressures are aggravated by rapid population growth

Civil conflict often emerges in societies where rapid population growth combines with environmental scarcity to undermine governments.

At 1% Population Growth Rate, Only 1300 Years Before We Exceed One Person per Square Foot of Land.

http://www.overpopulation.org/

My thoughts are not far-fetched...