If you're 47 then the world's population has doubled during your lifetime. [View all]

[Towlie]

... and if you're 70 then the world's population has tripled during your lifetime.

Concerns about global warming, preserving our resources, and what conditions will be like in the future all seem to be based upon the assumption that the population will somehow stay fixed, but there's no reason to expect that. I'm not aware of any serious movement to reduce the rate of human population growth around the world, let alone stop it, nor is there even speculation about how either might be accomplished. We are animals, and here's something that Richard Dawkins wrote that applies to humanity just as much as it applies to other animal species:

“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored.”

That's what's happening to humanity and there's nothing we can do about it. Even some far-fetched, hypothetical, breakthrough to somehow limit births would only be seen as favoring some subset of humanity and discriminating against another, and those who resist would survive while those who submit would die out.

No, I don't see any way out. The average human being is experiencing an extremely miserable life, and because of the limited capacity of Planet Earth to support us, it can only get worse.