Population growth has a mischievous habit of not living up to predictions, Bill. It is not a runaway law unto itself. We are still biological beings believe it or not, subject to environmental pressures we may not even be beginning to understand, many of which may work to limit population growth. Since you and I were born, Bill, population has quadrupled. But the rate of growth is slowing. Energy consumption must be the focus, not population, which, on the whole, is expanding fastest (though slowing down fast) in countries which exploit energy far less than we do, often double-figures times less. We've had the bar chart already in this thread. Blame burgeoning population in developing countries if you like, but what you're actually doing is shifting blame away from the far, far more dangerous west, which consumes energy like there's no tomorrow. And, when you shift the blame away, you're also shifting away the motivation to do something about it, because you're making the problem someone else's fault and shrugging your shoulders. Can't be right when five percent of the world consumes almost twenty percent of the energy, and far more than that of natural resources.