Yeah, we're overpopulated, in that critical resources required to sustain the world's population increase are going into short supply.
It's kind of shortsighted to say "oh well I'm surrounded by empty land so there's plenty of room", as if we were all gophers and land is all it takes to sustain us, especially when more of us aspire to an industrialized standard of living.
I'm sure some of you have heard of Peak Oil. This isn't a scare tactic - there isn't an energy agency in the world who doesn't acknowledge that we're running out of produceable oil. The more optimistic estimates suggest we could be done in 50 years. Pessimists think we've
already peaked. That's shipping and freight, fertilizers for our crops, and our pharmaceutical industries right there.
We're running our fish stocks into the ground. If you don't believe that, go to your local fish counter at the supermarket and see how many deepwater species are on the slab. They're there because our fleets now have to deepwater troll for slow-growing species because the shallow water species are tapping out. Ask yourself why wild salmon is so expensive when compared to farmed salmon. It wasn't always that way until recently when wild salmon stocks crashed.
We're even running out of clean water.
We're running out of Helium which potentially puts an end to our fusion reactor dreams before they even start, as well as to arc welding and MRIs.
At our current rate of consumption, Cliffside will likely be empty in 10 to 25 years, and the Earth will be virtually helium-free by the end of the 21st century.
This isn't anything like a full list of resources that we're facing shortages of as the world industrializes. It's just a few. I only found out about the Helium shortage because I visited my local welding gas shop where they had fliers about it on display. These guys aren't exactly your local eco-nuts.
What do we do about it? Apparently, nothing. Hell, it's happening already. The poorest people in the world are already getting it the hardest as the price of basic commodities slip out of reach. Food aid NGOs are already reporting signs of donor fatigue, so millions will just starve to death.
Probably, we'll accelerate the process by using up critical resources even faster in a race to stockpile and/or appease elements in our societies who don't feel like they're getting their fair share.
I predict starvation and some pretty ugly wars over resources but it would be nice to be persuaded otherwise, so let's hear it.