What do you think of global overpopulation?

Question

It is said that in 10 or 20 years there will be millions more people on the earth than there are now. We are already struggling with resources; the fish have been depleted; the hole in the ozone is letting in radiation,etc.
Are you thinking about the future, as something quite bad with all the overpopulation? What do you think of this?
We are so focused on immediate problems, such as how to get out of Iraq, that we are not looking at the big picture. This whole planet seems to be going down the tubes.

Answer 1

I do have to differ with kdanley's answer where he said that you could build a house for everyone on earth in the state of Texas.

The population of the earth is 6.6 billion people.
The State of Texas contains 104,765,440 acres, so each person on earth would only get 0.0159 acres which = 693 sq. ft. per person.

Well, maybe that wouldn't be so bad. If the families were large enough, and you could get 5 people to a house , each house would be 3465 sq. ft. which is plenty of room for 5 people.

Of course the state of Texas would be 1 big apartment house, with no roads, lawns, or parks, but who needs those things?

Answer 2

It's a huge problem - Even the least of the environmentally concerned should be able to see that. It's fairly obvious, even to the biggest imbecile that the Earth can only hold so many people, and with the strain that the current world population has on the world and It's resources that we are quickly harming our chances at comfortable survival. There are only a handful of solutions I can think of.

Reduce the population - I'm not talking about genocide or something like that - A strategy similar to China's one child per family law (the law is being effective in reducing China's population - of course it raises the problem of infanticide and parental rights - I can only imagine the latter of the problems - parental rights issues becoming a huge problem in the institution of such a law in the US.
Reduce resources used per person - It'd be possible only in countries such as the US and UK when the people are willing to let it happen which quite frankly, I don't see happening anytime soon. Simple environmental conservation is something anyone could do to aid the problem, unfortunately this alone (along with anything else really) is just a temporary solution and doesn't fix the ultimate problem -- Too many people.
More livable space - Colonising harsh areas (the arctic and the desert for example -- or even space one day). I honestly don't see this happening - because these areas produce few resources, thus residents would have to import, worsening the problem in the long run, and colonising the arctic/antarctic could only have negative impacts in the long run - ultimately anything in this idea short of leaving Earth (which still requires import for at least awhile) would be ineffective.

I don't know if the estimation of 10 or 20 years is accurate, Possibly more or less years, I'm tempted to say more. But that is no excuse for inaction, overpopulation will most likely be the biggest issue facing my (possibly our) generation in the coming years.
This is not to say immediate problems (Iraq, etc) are not important, they do need to be handled effectively and immediately - but there is no excuse for our lack of multitasking.

Answer 3

Don't be scared and do not fall for that over-population propaganda that permeates the media. If the entire population of the earth were put inside Texas, each person would have enough room to build a house. There is plenty of food, as well. The reason some people are starving is because food is not being distributed well.
There are people who are actively trying to reduce the world's population. They are the ones who are telling us the earth is overcrowded. If you are worried about resources and such, then contribute to society instead of being another hungry stomach. Make your world a better place.