How many people can the world support without creating the situation like it is today? People need food and water to live. However with the population growing expotentially forever, both are becomming more scarce. Those who hold that life is sacred, don't seem to see beyond their noses and that as population grows, there is a direct effect on the environment which in turn has an effect on fresh food and water. To feed more people we fertilize fields which drains into our rivers, polluting them. We build factories which make things we WANT to make life easier and pollute our air. Or in the case of big corporations, to become more wealthy. We clear land to build these factories, businesses and homes. We squander resources like a drunken sailor. We expect our country and others to be able to sustain more life year after year. We make pitiful efforts to clean up our water and produce more food. At the same time, population continues to grow, paticularly in countries that have very little to begin with, and where fighting amongst themselves is rampant. In many cases we send these countries aid to help the innocent, but in many (most?) cases it goes to those who are causing the strife. But even with wars, famine, and disease, the earth's population continues to grow putting a demand on the resources needed to survive.

This comment may be a little scattered in thought, but the reader may get the idea. Every living thing is affected by all other living things and on what the earth provides. The earth will provide only so much, and sustain only a certain population. In the current situation, are we nearing the limit? Maybe not, but I wonder what will come first, rationing of fresh water, rationing of food, strict birth control, or a plague that will wipe out billions of humans and/or animals in a short period of time.