I Have a Question

@sludgefeast: people aren't starving right now because there isn't enough food in the world, they are starving as a political act (or series of acts) and choices by various power elites. If there was real concern for people starving to death, things like the EU's vast oversupplies of food, the USA's policies of paying farmers to NOT grow crops, would not be in force. Famine is always a political act, in the world as it stands.
For example, look at the amazing number of people starving /malnourished right here in the USA - there's a staggering abundance of food in the USA, and yet starvation, because of political choices (e.g. in Florida, where the EBT/food stamps have been reduced to a maximum of $97 a month, which is literally impossible to survive on without some other form of sustenance).

@Malingermind: I may be biased on this, I should add, being a descendant of Thomas Malthus :)
But yes, getting rid of the mindset of infinite, perpetual growth is absolutely essential as a minimum, both for economic and ecological reasons. I am probably too pessimistic, but I only see violent, revolutionary, ways of implementing any change of this order, evolutionary change seems to be too firmly blocked by entrenched interests who appear to be absolutely blind to anything beyond a 3-month time horizon. Believe me, I really hope I'm wrong about this, because anything like that will be very ugly & still with an indifferent chance of implementing the needed changes.

Now this is what I call intelligent conversation! No wrath, not acrid or snotty; just a question posed and information exchanged and weighed out. I derive from both sides that, there is a real necessity to controlling the numbers on the planet. The manner in which it can be done is the real brass ring. Cycles of "economic starvation" and "ecological motivated famine" is what we try to get a grip on. The same cycle as a "boom then bust" economy. So, to get the worlds population to see that the planet is not "infinite" and "we are not infinitely adaptable" is the ultimate challenge. I hope that Thomas Malthus is not correct that, "Misery" is the only effective check on population. Thank you for the commentary. It was instructive.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21619986-un-study-sparks-fears-population-explosion-alarm-misplaced-dont-panic

actually somewhat more than I remembered, so my apologies, but still well within carrying capacity for the planet, as it stands currently. I'm afraid however, the actual population in 2050 will be under 1 billion, as climate change renders a lot of very heavily populated land uninhabitable (India, Egypt/Sudan/Kenya, south east asia), and submerges some bits. Which I guess will solve the population pressure problem, in a hideous fashion.

@sludgefeast: at least 6 billion, I fear (allowing for 30 years worth of birth in between, it's probably more like 7 billion). We could have taken steps to stop or reduce this, but of course that would involve the plutocrats taking slightly lower incomes, so that never happened, and it's now too late to stop that. If we take action, radical action, now, we might stop the population in 2100 being under 100 million .. maybe.

Because it's not a major problem for the future - population growth is falling & peak population is estimated to be around 8.5billion, sometime around 2050 as I recall. This assumes no loss of landmass & habitability due to climate change, of course, which is something that noticably ISNT being addressed.

@sludgefeat: hardly, I prefer to avoid deliberate deceit like Fox News. I'm citing various population studies over the last 15-20 years in Scientific American, Nature, and the Economist (a rightwing rag, but moderately reliable on science & technology).

vanish seems an understatement for what will doubtless be hideous piles of death, but yes, in essence. Most of it in the 3rd world, so the 1st world will keep trying to handwave it away, or shake their heads and make ludicrous critiques about it.

They don't want to .. more people = less food and water = more opportunity to control people = more power = ultimate power

Firefall: I have not seen those numbers. They are much lower and optimistic than the predictions I have seen.

Sludgefeast: Agreed, Yet at some point, don't we have to deal with it.