[ross hamilton hill]

It is not true that the Muslim world is backward, Pakistan now has zero population growth and an active government funded campaign promoting birth control. There is nothing in Islam that forbids contraception. Roman Catholicism on the other hand still maintains birth control, except abstinence, is 'against nature', but they are quietly letting it slip off the agenda but have been responsible for the population explosion in South America and Mexico and Africa where Catholicism is a powerful force.
There's an interesting Ted talk, can't remember the name off the expert, but he says the world population will climb to 12 billion before it begins to decrease, 12 billion seems nightmarish to me, waiting at Hong Kong airport recently many people were wearing face masks, it was very futuristic in a not good way, and personally I feel the world is heading for a plague of some sort, sars, then ebola, it seems inevitable one will be bred in crowded conditions like in China and India.
It seems climate change is creating all sorts of unpredictable events, mainly because the seas are being effected and major reliable currents are changing, but it's a vast subject and there are many unforeseen benefits also, barren cold areas are becoming available for farming.
I think, though there are some solutions, cleaner energy, smarter technologies, that the sheer size of the world's population and the fact that it will take years to reverse its continued rise means we are in for a wild ride, and it will happen suddenly, a tipping point will be reached.