"Tata"  wrote in message
news:b7i7hd$uib$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Asimov's startling conclusion to the question of how many people
> can our planet support at a level of dignity equivalent to that of the
> United States is fewer than currently exist on Earth at the moment.

In line with this was a recent article - though I cannot remember the
source - stating that the figure to which you allude was roughly 2 billion
(U.S./Canada numbering system, rather than U.K. number) - about 1/3 of the
current world's population.  If one looks around the world today, however,
I'm not sure if all that many people would consider this "startling";  it
seems rather high to me!  But whether an "appropriate" or
"ideal" maximum is
1, 2, 3 or more billion, I *have* to believe that it is far below 6 billion.

It seems the U.N. and other major organizations - it would be good if the
Catholic Church and similar others opposed to population control changed
their views - should be concentrating more on population trends in the long
run than now appears to be the case.  I would guess, unfortunately, that
we'll be in for some rapid and catastrophically major decreases over the
next few centuries before we (humans) start to look seriously at this issue.

Although it would be nice if I was wrong here - does anyone know of any
initiative to educate and thereby lower the population on anything even
close to a global scale - and especially in areas with a currently high
growth rate?   Best regards,  Brett.
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