Quote Originally Posted by rory_20_uk
The West has had a population explosion, and we are now static / falling. With enough time this may happen in other areas of the world as well. Then the amount of food is important, as whether the upper limit can be buffered or not. If it can there is a chance that things could rise, level out then gradually fall. If there is not enough food then things will be far more... unpleasant.
The situations of Europe back then and Africa/Asia now are difficult to compare. Besides, I don't think the growth in Europe was ever as steep as it is now in some parts of Africa.
Food is an important factor in the equation, but not the only one. If we had unlimited food - we still might get a crash.

That it will happen seems reasonable considering biology (breed ! breed !). But when is important, if population growth in asia slows down (which seems likely) it's a long way off. According to a lot of people (economists and such) a stable, high level of population of about 10 billion can and will be achieved, and maintained for a long time (unless we bring in the WMDs, or a comet hits, or something like that).
China has employed severe measures to reduce growth, with limited effect. And I don't think a population of 10 billions will become stable all by itself. We have now 6 billion, and it's far from stable. Why should it suddenly become stable?
You can see the ecosystem as a dynamic system. The current socio-cultural situation in many parts of the world generates a high amplification. Food shortage, wars, disease and other constraints make a damping factor of the system. A stable maximum or slow turning is achieved if the damping factor is large enough relative to the amplification. If not, it happens as I said, the growth will rapidly hit a maximum and then become hugely negative.

Regardless, i don't see how we can stop it then.
There are two options: increase the damping factor or reduce the amplification. Reducing the amplification would mean to change the socio-cultural structure of many societies. At the moment, means of population control are the best help the West could offer the third world. Somehow we have to bring them to use it.