Are we out-growing our natural resources?

Our species is currently faced with an obvious and ever-growing problem - a dire case of overpopulation! It is the root cause behind a suffering environment, a failing economy, and the increasing miseries of humanity. It is surprising that many people choose to ignore this main issue, or are unaware that it is one. It is simple ecology that there is a carrying capacity for every species on this Earth, and humans are no exception. When a species exceeds that carrying capacity, then the species uses resources faster than can be replaced and produces more waste than the environment can handle. Eventually the species will exhaust the resources and degrade the environment to such a degree that numbers are forced to decrease, as well as the carrying capacity. Humans think that because of their intellect this doesn't apply to them. It is true that we can delay nature's attempt to fight off our numbers, but it is a futile attempt because there is a finite amount of resources and space on this Earth. Earth currently contains over 6.5 billion people. Our population size is expected to double in just over 50 years. For many of us it will occur in our lifetime. Under what kind of conditions will we be living in then? Under what kind of conditions are we living in now? In present times we pay for the treatment of air and water when it was once provided for free by nature. Valuable resources are gone that technology does not equate with. We are also witnessing the mass extinction of plants and animals. Why? Because humans are consumers, and more humans mean more consuming which inevitably leads to the destruction and depletion of ecosystems-the system we are apart of and on which we rely. Is it surprising then that almost half of our population is dealing with water scarcity, and around 852 million lack enough food and water? Also 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation, and over one billion people are living in immense poverty. And the catch is, as population doubles, so do these numbers. There are not sustainable means to feed a population of our size. Again and again farmers destroy forests for farmland, for food to feed hungry people that will produce even more hungry people. Exhaustion of soil and the increasing population has forced farmers to use land that is not suitable for farming, which calls for more water and more distribution of poison. Farmland uses a whopping 70 percent of fresh water withdrawn. When humans began using water from Lake Mono of California in the 1940s, it began dropping about a foot per year. Not only was the lake being dried up but sandy beaches became mud, wetlands were altered, plants and shrimp disappeared, which caused birds and aquatic life to drop off. It is a chain reaction, spreading out like a disease in the web of life, only to come back and knock off the ones who ignorantly set it in motion with their relentless growing numbers. We are a part of nature's web of life. As we deplete these ecosystems, we are depleting our resources, and natural disasters become more frequent. Devastating fires, flood, and pollution overrun an environmental system that has degraded and become less resilient. And with a falling environmental system comes a falling economy, and at the rate we're growing the systems will soon collapse and the destruction of the majority of our species will follow. The population has to shrink either way, but if nature has to take drastic measures, it will not be in the least bit humane. I am not the voice of one who sees the terrible fate of too many people; rather I am an advocate of common sense with a vision to leave a healthy Earth for my descendants. You cannot escape the basic equation: there's a limited space on this planet that offers resources in limited amounts. That doesn't combine with an unlimited population growth. If the problem of overpopulation is addressed first, then many other problems will fix themselves.