India offers free vasectomies in train stations. China has only recently relaxed its' One-child policy. We had abortion clinics, several birth control options, sex education, even a morning-after pill, all being eroded by evangelical zealots.

they are dodging this elephant in the room

See, times like this I get confused over leftist ideaology. On one hand you are upset that medical services are not available to everyone (which isn't true and modern medicine is what's keeping people alive longer), and yet at the same time complain the world is over populated. Given how big this planet is and the billions of animals insects and fish that also share this world with us, I find it hard to believe that a little over 7 billion human beings is over population. If that much truly concerns you, then perhaps it's time to let the sickly and diseased die off (aka let nature take care of things) so as to ease the burden of over population? I know that may sound ghoulish to some, but something has to give, there needs to be a compromise somewhere. Limited resources and energy alternatives are topics for another post. Upon thinking it over more, I truly believe alot of the ado over the population concern is fearmongering, but alas most of what I have say almost always falls on deaf ears...

Futurists were spreading gloom and doom on this topic in the 1970s and yet here we still are.

Population growth is a self-limiting problem. Education, wealth, lifespan increases and resource constraints tend to tamp down reproduction in humans, and so extrapolating from where we are to some dystopian future, does not follow. The models used have to be more complex than that.

That said, I think people should be way more mindful about reproducing and a whole lot of other things.

Too many? Based upon what metric? Please cite the sources behind your statements.

They institute one child policies. Ask China how that worked out for them.

It's called war and famine.

unless/until there is some kind of mass epidemic or catastrophic event(s), mass extinction etc...we will continue to multiply.

As we (hopefully) continue to trend toward green energy, this question changes. There are vast, vast swathes of inhabitable land that sit uninhabited all over the world. We could give away a couple acres to every man, woman and and we'd still have room. We are not remotely close to what the planet can support, assuming we figure out green energy.

Agriculture isn't a problem, we already produce enough food for well over 10 billion people. Famines don't occur naturally, they're a result of politics. Agricultural practices, too, continue to gain efficiency. I don't mean like, barely enough to get by on. The World Education Service believes we produce enough food for everyone to have almost 3,000 calories a friggin' day.

We're not running out of fresh water, either, it's just something that isn't easy to transport. Again, technology is the savior. Build dams for water, not vaginas!

And most importantly, it's not like the population is exploding anymore. Most of the world, sans Africa, sees the average woman produce somewhere between 1 and 2 children over her lifetime. That's negligible population growth.

As long as the majority of people believe in religion I believe that the human race will face extinction by shear numbers.There is only so much water,food and land available and these are already under stress by the population of the world. Governments will by necessity need to do something to control population growth. This means limiting the number of births per family,increased use of birth control and abortions all of which are opposed by religions. The latter will need to change to permit the civilization to survive.