Well, Bill, "we" are not dealing with 6 billion people, in actual terms. To analyze the problem in those terms you kinda have to step back from being a person and count bodies as they were molecules in a pressure vs temperature vs volume calculation, which of course leaves out the one element that has saved our asses so many times -- human ability. The raw flux of life force working on a planet surface has some very unpredictable curves in it. I am not promoting blind optimism, but as the birth rate changes mentioned above show, the complexity of the system including the subtle levels of perception and invention and adjustment into which we have very little visibility, tends to adjust. We can do that intelligently and compassionately, or we could get really shortsighted and do it by dreaming up new justifications for large-scale slaughter.

But I don't think we are anywhere near pushing ourselves off the edge of the planet. And I do not think we have begun to tap the reserves of which we are capable.

Regards,

A