in the 60’s & 70’s there was a contrived movement to limit the population of humanity. Zero Population Growth was the call from the left. Some corners of the planet such as China took very seriously and with their totalitarian authority forced families to limit offspring to 1 per couple. China is now in trouble because as populations age there are not enough workers to support the population of the nation. In the rest of the world social pressure on civilized countries successfully accomplished similar results. With the current demographics and the average lifespan it is mathematically impossible for humans to exceed 11 billion for hundreds of years. The math is clear. As emerging nations embrace a modern lifestyle additional limitations on human population are put into motion.
As with all planetary crisis, it was all a lie. The earth has plenty of resources to support the population of the world. But…..
Humans are not smart enough to manage the complexity of the systems needed to support 11 billion people. As populations bloom, bureaucracies are unable to serve. There is a Goldilocks zone for populations size. In addition to size, each Goldilocks population has geographic limits and a balance of needed skills. It sounds a little like Hunger Games but those “zones” were established and controlled by a yet higher totalitarian authority. It was a dystopian version of what I am describing. “The Village” is a more likely model.
We need a modern version of small “sustainability zones”; self sufficient cities. Big enough to support themselves completely but not so big that bureaucrat momentum overtakes productivity.