Reading about Zimbabwe a country ruled by idiots from its foundation, seems they do not even have safe drinking water
And not enough capital to buy the chemicals needed to clean what they have
Parts of the African continent are always in famine, what then of population
We know how many cows we can run on how many hectares and how good the grass is, will we ever learn that about human population?
Is over population driving refugee flows? if so it will get far far worse as we ignore population growth in some parts of the world

Belly,
religious zealots insist that it is better to have millions suffer a miserable existence than have birth control !

If we look no only at the African continent but the sub continent too, focus on such as Bangladesh
Quality of life is deplorable,and even if you oppose aid, think about future refugee flows
Some parts of this world are over populated
And this time individual is in part right, religions stall change encourage more births stall true reform
Some say in every thread near this subject the world is not over populated
Think then of our country, the bush, our outback
We can not provide infrastructure to deliver water to towns almost out, rail road air transport too suffers
What if ten million of us lived in such towns

Dear Belly,

Poverty demands that families are large, as not every
child born is going to sustain his or her life for
long.

Each child is another pair of hands to be put to work
drawing water from distant wells, weeding minuscule
vegetable plots and, if adulthood is reached, to be sent
to the city to find work where the bulk of subsistence wage
can be sent home.

If very lucky, this son or daughter will find work in a
distant foreign land (where he or she will not necessarily
be welcomed) and larger sums of money will be repatriated.

Poverty is one of the problems we face in the 21 century.
Over population is another. Humans have the intelligence,
the tools and the natural resources to provide for a
good, sustainable life as long as there are not so many humans
that we exceed the globe's carrying capacity.

All the evidence suggests that we must turn around
population growth and aim for a much smaller
population than we have today.

How we do this - especially in the poorer regions of the
world is something that needs to be discussed and action
taken.

It is not that parts of the world are overpopulated.
New York London Melbourne and Sydney are overpopulated.
The problem with Africa is that the farmers do not plant crops as their government and/or terrorists will steal the crops as soon as they are grown.
Sub Sahara Africa is fast becoming a desert as the farmers see no future in staying and the young people are moving to Europe to overpopulate the Cities of Europe.
India and China have massive populations yet with strong governments they are able to feed themselves.
South Africa once the richest country in Africa is fast becoming a basket case as the African mafia take over the country.
It is interesting that European Colonial Empires were able to turn waste lands into productive properties.
The great con in the world today is that so called independent countries in Africa have become slave nations with their government officials forcing the population to work for little or no pay.

Very true Foxy, however look here in our developed country
We are about to spend less on dams for farmers than we will helping America go back in space
Constant growth is insanity but constant improved lifestyle may be the best way
I see nothing to justify over population