The greatest birth control is the empowerment of women. When women are educated and have equal opportunities for career advancement, birthrates are lower. Oh, and birth control should be free and available to all women, including teens! I don't think we're at the point where we need to consider government intervention to curtail population growth.

Nope...EDUCATED....the moment you provide education people have less children...

There is plenty of food and land for everyone. So money too. We need to regulate the greedy and the hoarder.

The Chinese experience shows us that there can be very serious unintended consequences when population controls are strongly enforced. They also noted that as people felt more economically secure, experienced better survival rates and were better educated, the population growth rate declined.

Low birth rates/population growth rates have been experienced by several wealthy countries, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Denmark etc.

Perhaps we should also consider being less materialistic so that our civilisations are more sustainable from a natural resources point of view. Why do we need so many cars per household and gorge ourselves unhealthily?

I do not think population control is the answer. Too many people is not the reason why thousands of children die everyday of starvation. I think it has more to do with just WHO is controlling the world and it's resources. Imperialist countries like the one we live in, especially, control and are fighting for control of oil, water, and food among every other thing. There's arrogant CEO'S like the dipshit at Nestle's who said water is not a right for people to have.

with education add rural electrification. Then people can study instead of just groping in the dark

No. Regulating who has children is called eugenics and has a truly ugly history. In terms of limiting population, female education works wonders. Not turning whole swaths of the Earth into refugee generating failed states would help too, since refugee camps typically have the highest birthrates around. In the long run, nature bats last, so if we don't get our act together, our population will be brought under control in other ways.

We'll eventually strain our civilization past the point of sustainability, so ya - it should be IMHO if there are no other alternatives..

But notice I said "civilization", and not "planet". 7 billion people crowded together only take up 300 square miles, so our inadequate resources excuse is based on geo-political logistics, not a reflection of the earth's potential.

Yes, through education and birth control and responsible procreation.

I was listening to 1A on NPR this morning about population growth. The rate of growth has declined worldwide, and most of the world is at or near flat population growth, but the growth rate in Sub-saharan Africa is where the population increase is still very high. Imposing restrictions isn't likely to help, but education about contraception and empowerment of women to plan their families is likely to be the key to bringing the population rate to a sustainable level.

I have no desire to live anywhere where the government dictates who can, and cannot, have children, or how many. There's already far too much government and societal intrusion into our personal lives as it is.

No-how would you regulate it? trump wants to end chain migration, revamp the visa system and put immigration on a merit system. Bad idea

Definitely should be regulated ,because humans never change until it’s to late,it sounds better to feed people than to sterilize them .

I think that Mother Nature has that in hand. I just hope she doesn't ever need to act

It appears so.. Most of my life, beyond fear of nuclear war, the “population explosion” was the greatest concern. Then, it appeared to have become a joke, outside of China… Now, I’d say it’s the number one reason for tension and depletion of resources on the planet.

A limit of one ‘replacement child’ for each human would be my recommendation. Instead, the least educated continue to breed like rodents ...followed closely by ‘fundamentalist religions’ (pick a flavor). I’ve the feeling we’re doomed.. but it’s been such a slow boil, most today will hardly notice...

Consensus? Never. Enforcement? Never. Rats in a box ~

i think our culture should promote birth control to everyone. The Christian tendency to promote "Just say no" is foolish to say the least. Welfare families should be required to use birth control if the wish to continue to receiving assistance. Responsible parents shouldn't foot the bill for people who mooch off the system. Third world countries should reduce their population till they are able to support their needs.

Oops and have the FUCKING CHURCH all of them stop encouraging ppl on the multiply shit...

That sounds disastrous. Educate people, and they will not procreate. Guess who will procreate? What will the world look like in 50 years!

It could never be successfully regulated. China only had limited success. The much better answer would be to try and manage it..

Yes, we are an overconsuming over polluting over populated species.

I think if sex education & birth control were free & readily available (even vasectomies!), regulation would take care of itself.

I remember a story awhile back about somebody wanting to pay drug addicts money to get sterilized. Why just drug addicts. They need to find a way to pay people money not to procreate

I predict an enormous political battle taking place over this issue a few generations down the line. Regulation of birth will probably become necessary and it's implementation will be very tricky.

Education DOES have a profound effect. If we look at the most educated and wealthy countries in the world we see a smaller birthrate than in poorer less educated countries. To be completely honest, it's sensible in most material aspects of living that we would do so. Technically we could get the population down to a rich and prosperous 4 billion in one generation by mandating that all couples on earth can only have on child, and not punishing those who have already had more than that, but not letting them have more. no exceptions rich or poor. Those who don't want or are unable to have kids will bring the population down more. and those who wish to do so could always adopt more than one of the plethora of children in shelters. Win, Win. We'll have enough food to give away to the poorer nations. We won't be as hard on the environment. There will be more space, more wealth, and due to that i believe there will be less conflict, considering our current level of technological advancement.