@alan fraser said:
In the end, however, it still comes back to mathematics...the number of people versus the overall standard of living. We simply can't accomodate countless billions, each one 'entitled' to a nice house with all mod cons, on a nice plot of land with a nice garden and a nice car parked on the driveway. There simply isn't the room or resources.
Mathematics is mostly hypothesis and can always be proven wrong, as my 70-year old Cambridge university educated father continues to tell me. Why can't we all be entitled to a nice house with 'all mod cons'? 'On a nice plot of land', with 'a nice garden' and a 'nice car parked in the driveway?
Here in Birmingham, Cadbury's had exactly that idea! As Quakers they gave their workers all the nice houses and mod-cons they needed! Their legacy still lives on as Bournville is one of the most highly sought after places in Birmingham to live. And it paid off too. Workers had more rights and had better education for their kids and good libraries. Note there are no pubs in Bournville though! But then the latter has probably more to do with religious intolerance than anything else. (And not wanting workers to come in 'pissed'! 
)
It's well know that educated women have fewer children (argued by several including this book "Investing in all the People" by Lawrence H. Summers. (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=s1dBsT7_pYsC&lpg=PP9&ots=CmZAeOIxj3&dq=educated%20women%20have%20less%20children&lr&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=true). In the west we tend to have less children because we have a much more comfortable lifestyle. We are now, thanks mainly to the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment thinkers, are also better educated. A British degree, despite it being not as good as it used to be, is still highly respected in many parts of the developing world. Because disease is more rife, families in developing countries tend to have more children anyway simply because they know from experience that their children are more prone to childhood diseases such as Malaria. (Concerning Malaria, scientists have made a major breakthrough in the last few weeks it was announced on the 7 O'clock news this morning- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15624363).
We may look like we are about to suffer a 'population crisis', as numbers increase exponentially, but our concerns are mainly aimed squarely at developing countries. Here in Britain not that long ago women often died during pregnancy. We learnt through developments in medicine that what was killing them was bacteria on whoever's hands who were delivering the baby. We learnt that washing hands increased the success rate of cheating death after birth. Again British families became smaller for all the same reasons highlighted above.
I'm wondering if you are more biased Alan because you come from Formby in Lancs? Formby is an area of exceptional natural beauty with many parts of it managed by the National Trust, and I imagine you are also a member of the National Trust seeing that you are also a Rotarian? The NT are currently running a campaign getting members to sign up to a petition to protect greenbelt land around London (http://www.saveourgreenbelt.org.uk/), a city which is already overpopulated mainly because that's where the remainder of fairly well paid British jobs are, and yet available and affordable housing is virtually non existent, and what does exist, only the very rich can afford.
I've noticed a trend with people who live in rural areas or small towns, with a lot of land mass surrounding them, they don't want any of it built on! My father is continually complaining that he doesn't want a 'pickle factory' built in the surrounding fields behind him, despite his opposition to the "NIMBY's" in the Thatcher era (NIMBY= "Not In My Back Yard") My Father lives in Lewes- a similar town to Formby, Lewes being home to Greenpeace's international headquarters in the 1980's, and the town I grew up in. However we have a housing crisis in the UK and the average price of a small 3-bed house is £160,000! Demand far outstrips supply- and this is the real reason why. Too many people who oppose the development of new builds and private corporate charities such as the National Trust, who have strong environmentalist agendas who oppose any building or development in Britain.
What do you think the sun will do to the planet when in several billion years it dies, becomes a supernova and engulfs the earth? As for procrastination, you are putting words into my mouth. You are obviously upset because I dare disagree with you. On the contrary I am not(note I'm not shouting using upper case lettering), "dumping difficult decisions on future generations", quite the opposite. But I oppose your notion of regressing. We should be drilling for Shale gas. We should also be pouring millions into nuclear, learning how to dissipate the waste produced through technology and looking for far more efficient alternatives to solar and wind options. We went to Iraq and killed thousands of innocent men women and children on the back of Tony Blair. We spent millions of dollars doing that in partnership with GWB. If we can spend millions on a pointless war effort, we can spend money on welcoming in the 7th Billionth baby (as well as the 14th and the 28th etc etc!)
