See those families with 7-8 kids - where are they ?
In the developed world ? Not really
(que a photo of a US ginger family of 19 kids).
In fact in the "developed" world the population is getting older - fewer kids born and more people living longer.
Those people with 7-8 kids are in the "other world", the one we don't want to have the things we all have because it might hurt Mother Gaia in some way which is kind of not proven, but might be a risk - maybe, kind of.
But at the same time we don't want to give anything up, like our cars, our TV, our internet, or indeed our houses.
Not one of us chooses to give these things up. Actually when someone suggests taxing these things to make them less popular or restricting access to them in some other way, we bleat about free markets and big government.
They - the ones in the other world - don't have these things.
They don't have reliable water supplies which are clean.
They don't have reliable food supplies which are affordable.
They don't have reliable medicine and healthcare.
And they don't have reliable power so that if they got the above, they could preserve the produce for when they need it.
You know like your local hospital stores drugs or your local store keeps food so you can buy it when its cheap and put it in the freezer.
They live one day at a time, every day.
So they have a life expectancy of 50-60, infant mortality is 20-30% (its 75-90 and 2-4% where you are).
So they have loads of kids because few survive, and those that do grow into adults, well they don't live long.
Above all they don't have the rule of law which protects them and what they own.
You want to pursuade them to have fewer kids ?
Simple - make them more wealthy
People confuse wealthy with being "rich" in western society - no. I mean basically wealthy. Wealthy enough so that their countries are stable, and have the rule of law, so their kids go to school, so they can afford and have access to food, so they have access to clean water. And they have access to reliable power.
Just the basics.
The stats ?
Wealthier societies have fewer kids, they have those kids later and those kids tend to be healthier (at birth) and live longer.
Populations stabilise, population boom ends.
The key is surely how to acheive this, but it should be a priority if we really cared.
OR
We can try and advise (i.e. force) people in the 3rd world who have no money for food, and little or no education to put on a condom and learn the morals of controlling population growth and resource usage whilst they continue to live in a society without the basic resources we have and no chance of getting them.
And when they don't like it, someone else can pursuade them that we hate them and we are their enemies, we want their resources for nothing, and they will hate us.
And in some cases will try and kill us.
Genius plan.
How much are Lockheed shares just now ?