Population growth – and the end of the world as we know it.

The human population. The key to making the Earth and it's ecosystem and resources sustainable in addition to maintaining and improving the quality of life. From around 1 billion humans to 7 billion in 2011 and over 11 billion by 2100, there is a issue - a problem. 

The population problem must be addressed if humans are to have any hope of tackling the pollution, the climate, food and water resources, disease, over-harvesting of plants and animals, and a myriad of other topics. Assuming the doubling of the sum of human consumption (which doesn't even account for hundreds of millions, or even billions, of people attaining more a Western lifestyle and consumption) of fish, trees, iron ore, oil, deforested acreage, water as well as the release of twice as much pollution, CO2, sewage, chemical waste, fracking water, and a host of other substances and behaviors that damage the environment, it presents a stark problem. This is especially true if this happens for not just one year, but year after year, and decade after decade and, if humans are so 'lucky', century after century and millennium after millennium.

Imagine the clearcut forests, empty fisheries, extinct species, rivers that never reach the ocean, dust bowls, and not a glacier to be seen. Imagine vast new deserts with extreme heat and withered crops making marginal parts of the world inhospitable and forcing the relocation of tens of millions of people. Efficiency, technology, and even lifestyle choices can go a long way, but a population that grows without end will certainly create problems that no amount of science nor austerity can solve.

There is hope however. With development, education, women's rights and stable societies birth rates are going down in much of the world. By looking at map of birthrates, it's easy to see the clusters of high birthrates are around areas that lack many of the basic advances enjoyed by many of the Northern nations.

With concentrated efforts it does seem feasible that all nations could perhaps get their birthrates in a state of balance and from there the other problems will seem more ... solvable.