The problem is poverty and inequality rather than technology, and distribution and politics more than production. But the population explosion is a developing world phenomenon, with 2bn people going hungry every day due to a combination of inequitable land distribution, soil erosion, lack of infrastructure, grinding poverty in cities, and people unable to buy food from the world market. Food also depends on water, widely expected to be the most serious issue in the next century. Lack of it is already limiting farming and industrial growth in large areas of three of the most populous countries, China, India, and Indonesia. With population growth inevitable, if present consumption and climatic pat terns continue, says the United Nations, two of every three people will have limited access to fresh water by 2025, with up to 2bn in acute shortage.
More people means more pressure on resources and rising tensions within and between countries.
While the resources are not expected to run out, the inequality between those who extract them and those who want a share in the wealth they represent is expected to grow. Environmental concerns are growing. Global warming exacerbated by human activity is accepted by the consensus of world scientists as having started, and unpredictable and deleterious effects are expected. Deserts are growing, marine resources are at their limit, and air pollution has reached crisis situation in many African and developing country cities. Unless there is a big change, the growth in population will exacerbate all these trends.