Are there too many people on this planet?

How many people do you think there are on this planet? It's a big old place, well, it is to us tiny humans. It's utterly massive to ants but undetectable to the galaxy.

But how many humans live on this little blue dot? Current estimates sit at about 7.5 or 7.6 billion. With the expectation of there being 8 billion by 2025ish. The 6 billion mark was passed in 2000, that's 1.5/6 billion people in nearly 18 years.

Is that sustainable? Probably not. We are moving into uncharted realms. Towards a planet that is rapidly decreasing in resources. It is estimated that due to commercial fishing, there will be no fish in the sea by 2030. With the acidification on oceans, the plankton that are at the bottom of the food chain are slowly dissolving.

Crops are being affected by it being either to wet, to hot or to cold. Yet 7.5 billion people still need feeding. It's not to bad at the moment, reserves are in place and stockpiles are sufficient, if you live in a place that has them.

But what about in five years time? Ten years time? What then? More people and less food. The answer to such a simple equation is not difficult to figure out.

Some say population reduction would be the answer. But if you take all the deaths from the first and second world wars and added them together, it would only reach about 100 million. Even if your estimate is conservative, and you made it 200 million. The equivalent number of deaths today would barely scratch the surface of population numbers.

If a billion and a half people died, it would only reset the clock back to the year 2000. For population control to be effective, a reduction of at least five billion would be required. Imagine that, something that would cause a population reduction of five billion people. Not a pretty thought.

What if things progressed as normal. More people, less food, continual social stability. Food prices would skyrocket, more people would be reduced to third world standards, those with money would live isolated and protected lives in luxury. Everyone in the middle would struggle to get ahead, whilst avoiding being sucked under. Nothing new there then.

But the population is unsustainable, so what will be the crunch point? A war, probably. It's been very effective in the past. Couple that with famine and disease. Reduced crop yields and antibiotic resistant bacteria.

It's not the first time in history such things have happened. When the west first went to South America, it is estimated that populations were reduced by 90% due to disease, mainly small pox. War, starvation and disease killed off the vast majority of native North Americans. The rich lived is isolated protected luxury, and Everyone else struggled to get ahead, whilst avoiding being sucked under.

We live in a time of unprecedented change, unlike anything for many many years. It is a time of fascinating history, where everything is recorded digitally and therefore won't be there to help, teach or be of any use to future generations.

Agree with, dismiss or deny what I'm saying. Either way, the future is just around the corner, and we're all going to experience it.