In addition to global warming (bad news) and the Republican denial (worse news), I just heard yesterday on NPR that the prediction is that the world's population will reach 10 billion by 2050 (assuming we make it that far.)

I remember reading Colin Fletcher's comments about exceeding the carrying capacity of the Earth back in the first or second edition of the Complete Walker series, when there were only about 3 billion people. That was in the early 1980s. (So, it took us several thousand years to reach 3 billion, and only 70 to triple that.)

This is truly alarming, at least to me. We need to have a serious national and international conversation about this. Given the current leadership (or lack thereof) in our own country, the motives not to participate in developing countries like China, and the advanced stage of the problem, I'm not really hopeful about the future.

Do you think that we we soon will/already have exceeded the carrying capacity of the Earth, and/or its ability to recover (if we do wise up)? Assuming the capacity is around 4 billion, it raises the question: which 6 billion have to go (and how do we do it)?

Does this bother anyone else? Any ideas?