This may be unpopular, but I already feel the earth is well beyond it’s ideal human population capacity. We are straining resources because of our bad policies and practices and politics.
I don't want people to suffer unnecessarily. But the more people we add to the planet, the more we exacerbate problems with food, water, Co2 emissions, etc.
In the end, something will curtail human population growth. I really hope it's voluntary and painless.
I hope the trend stays like this. It’s not like there are 1000 people left, there are still billions extra
Philosophers have given this a lot of thought: the "repugnant conclusion" is what to Google for.
You might enjoy Peter Russell's "The Global Brain" for another perspective on human population growth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1sr9x263LM .
> We are straining resources because of our bad policies and practices and politics.
It certainly seems that our carrying capacity could be much greater with sounder policies, practices, and politics.
Article points out that it is important to slow it down so decrease is not so rapid, otherwise it will be harsh.
It's easy to slow down the birthrate if country wants it. It's much harder to raise it.
The problem of sustainably providing nutritious food people want to eat is just one of a dozen that we are not solving at acceptable levels.
Those religious minorities are quite small right now, but if they manage to sustain their current growth into the coming decades, they may end up being a much more substantial component of the population.
There is a strong correlation also with educational levels and birth rates. the more educated the person, means both they are more successful monetarily, and they are less likely to have children, or have only a single child which is less than replacement (every child has 2 parents)
So is large numbers of uneducated people having children that statically will also be uneducated as well a "good" thing for humanity? I dont know have you watched the movie Idiocracy?
Natrually then most people will say "well we just need to educate that generation, get those nations / people educated" , this however does not solve the problem of birth rates because as you educate more and more people, as you bring more and more people to success they will also stop having children. If you reach the utopia where everyone in society has equal levels of education, then it is very likely you will see population crash.
Now technology could solve for that, extended life / extended fertility span for women for example would certainly inverse the population issue.
The problem isn't the quantity of those resources, the problem is in distribution. The world is abundant enough to comfortably support twice as many humans, if human inefficiencies, waste, greed and selfishness are factored out.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-consumpt...
Enough food is already produced right now to feed every person on Earth [1]. Most estimates furthermore put the Earth's carrying capacity at around 2 billion more people than we already have [2].
The problems that people think of when they think of "overpopulation" are the result of insufficient distribution systems, corruption, unconstrained capitalism, faulty human psychology, and poor education. They are problems caused by human beings screwing over their fellow human beings. Some of these problems get easier to solve when you have more people, not fewer, and in any case, nobody's yet figured out how to make things much better in a shrinking economy.
[1]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241746569_We_Alread...