It seems someone over at The Age concurs with my sentiments that the world is ever so slightly overpopulated. While humans cull species that overpopulate the world (kangaroos, rabbits, foxes, etc), the author of Memo humans: stop breeding like bunnies suggests more humane ways to reduce the population of the human species.
“…cut our population here and overseas and blind Freddy could see that we’d consume far fewer natural resources, reduce waste and pollution, and improve everybody’s quality of life…”
The article also draws attention to political issues with population, which I’ve tried not to dwell on previously, but links in to a recent change to Australia’s superannuation rules that mean people get more, and more are eligible for pensions. This news, after scare stories that the baby boomers will create an economic crisis when they start drawing their pension, seems a little backward, but makes perfect sense when you realise that the current generation retires later and saves more than the previous generation did. On a related note, I heard an economists describe once how spending money to deal with the environmental issues the world is facing would not affect the economy as politicians would have you believe - it would not reduce the economy - it would simply reduce the rate of growth of the economy.