How about, instead of looking at restrictions to alleviate suffering, we look at ways of supporting each other. You know, good schools, good community support programs, good health care and nutrition initiatives, combating poverty, etc. Or should we just continue to dance with concepts of fascism and totalitarianism to take care of every difficult problem?
Counter argument. More developed nations, such as countries in Europe, Japan, and The United States either have a stable or declining population growth. The only reason half those countries, such as the US, has a growing population is because of immigration. There's a direct correlation between the number of children a woman has, her job, her income, her education level, and the country she lives in. Furthermore, every decade, every year, every month, we're coming up with more and more techniques in engineering, agriculture, and medicine to take care of the people we do have. Equilibrium is possible. Hell, if it'll really help, bringing down the total global population without resorting to anything drastic or ugly is possible. We just need to focus on programs to achieve those means. You know, ones focused on what I just listed.
There's a limit, we both can definitely agree on that. I'm pretty certain though, I heard it argued back in the late 1800s early 1900s that the earth couldn't support 1 billion. I think the goalposts move with the development of technology. I think we should continue to develop technology but focus on finding a concrete place to put those goal posts, before we find out how catastrophic that limit might really be.That's double what we have now, in less than 100 years. The environment can't cope with that stress.
I agree things are complex and look grim. I really hope we're not too late here. I think we're slowly but surely starting to turn that ship around. Ask China.The challenges we face are immense, and unprecedented action is needed to tackle them. We don't have that.
I recommend watching Hans Rosling's The Overpopulation Myth for more thoughts on global population demographics. I'd also like to point out that worries about overpopulation have been going on for centuries and that it has been used as an excuse for terrible things ranging from eugenics to screwing over the poor. It's not an unimportant issue nor is it wrong to worry about it but it's definitely a problem with a history.