RE: Are there too many people on this planet?
Not enough people understand the severity. We've been living so comfortably (Speaking of the USA in particular here) that older generations cannot fathom what it means to run out of resources. Previous generations have taken everything for granted. If everyone in the world lived how a typical American lives, we would need at least 3 or 4 planets to sustain us. It's incredible. We need to start moving to smaller communities again. Local farming. Local stores. Using local resources. Our resources are so precious... and just because they're renewable doesn't mean they're going to sprout right back up! These things need time to restock which we do not have. First World countries are depleting everyone else's stocks with little regard to the people its harming. Dumping their waste materials wherever they please, as long as it's away from harming themselves. Then they waste so much unrenewable resources just to fly what they can carry back over seas. It's ridiculous. I'm an Environmental Studies major currently in school and I just hope there is still time left by the time I'm able to aid this poor planet. Remember people....Mother Earth doesn't need us, but we most definitely need Her.
Smaller communities sounds great, but what of the multimillion person cities, to spread all those people out would require a significant amount of deforestation. Waste management does need to be addressed, how much is produced and how it is disposed of is not in the social consciousness. You are at the beginning of your learning, many have been learning, teaching, informing about the same subject areas for many decades, has anything g really changed? I think our time to make a significant change passed us by some years back.
You are right. We should have been making significant changes 30 years ago. I understand your realism and that does frighten me especially with our population due to double in probably 50 years. We need some kind of innovative technology....I'm hoping that the efforts in Quantum Mechanics and the Quantum Computer will get us there. Having more time to think and learn, I see a world where we need large cities running off energy-efficient, green tech. Cities that can support large amounts of people without large impacts to the environment or our health. Instead of having so many scattered towns, cities, etc, we have major cities. The rest is left for Nature to recover. To breathe. There are highways that are only meant to connect cities to cities. Those allowed to live outside of the cities have to live off the land. These are fantastical thoughts, but it's the imagination that leads to the future.