On a forum I frequent, Christian Pipe Smokers, there is an ongoing discussion of the concept of "overpopulation", spurred by the posting of a graph which shows the rapid growth of the last century as a dramatic spike, which it is.
The thing is, population growth is not a matter of mathematics. Children do not arise from the sacred union of Mathematics and Statistics. They are each the result of the free actions of human beings.
Population growth does not drive itself, but is influenced by many factors, just like immigration does not happen as the result of people accidentally drifting over the border in greater and greater numbers. Each comes here as the result of a specifically chosen and purposeful action, or series of actions.
Tracking statistical trends will always result in absurdity if not checked by common sense. It's a bit like me worrying that, since I'm painting twenty hours a week now, where last year I only managed ten, in a few years I'll be painting 320 hours a week... almost twice the number of hours there are in a week. Or worrying that in another decade my daughter will have to cope with the challenges of being 11 feet tall.
Where are all these starving people supposed to come from? How will the Earth manage to produce such an abundance of organisms it cannot support? This seems illogical, to me. Widespread, catastrophic famine could only be caused by a sudden dramatic decrease in the available food supply.
We are aware that the population of the entire planet could fit into the state of Texas with 1000 square feet for each individual?