How overpopulated is the planet, really?

[napoleon_in_rags]

27. I think your numbers are low, but the gist is right.

Clearly.

The question is, what do we do? You may not like the GMO companies, but they are some of the few people actively addressing it. They argue that GMO crops can support the increased population... The solution from science. The question is, how far will people be willing to go with that GMO trip, especially when the alternative is famine? I mean, will we start getting "eco-babies" (maybe branded as 'smart babies') that are GMO people, designed to need much less food, but have strong minds? (I'm picturing something looking like a human version of the popular 'grey' aliens. Little bodies, big brains). Or will we just have a point decades from now where TSHTF, the governments throw up their hands, and anarchy reigns and nature works its course?

It could also just manifest as a population slow down, which would start out with reduced life expectancy, than move on to increased infant mortality rate and so on, the markers of third world countries in the first world. But regardless, what we're talking about here is a force of nature playing out. The question is what can be done from a policy perspective to mitigate the damage from these long term scenarios?