It isn't helpful to myopically discuss population and ignore other things like environmental limits, affluence, resource intensity, biodiversity, (in)equality, etc.
Similarly, it is not helpful to decree that any discussion of population is tabu.
Other societies have very different standards of what is morally normal and acceptable when it comes to population growth.
E.g. Jared Diamond's book Collapse discusses the island of Tikopia [1] -- the people living on this isolated island (~1200 people on 5km^2 of land) managed to live sustainably for hundreds of years with a stable population:
> Most readers of this book will have practiced one or more of those methods [of population regulation], such as contraception or abortion, and our decisions to do so may have been implicitly influenced by considerations of human population pressure or family resources.
> On Tikopia, however, people are explicit in saying that their motive for contraception and other regulatory behaviours is to prevent the island from becoming overpopulated, and to prevent the family from having more children than the family's land could support.
Traditional methods of regulating population included: contraception, abortion, infanticide, celibacy of younger sons and "surplus" marriageable women, suicide, "virtual suicide" (setting out on dangerous sea voyages with essentially no hope of survival), and one instance of warfare between clans (after a decrease of fish and shellfish population led to starvation and conflict over the remaining land and coastline).
> Most of these seven methods for keeping Tikopia's population constant have disappeared or declined under European influence during the 20th century. The British colonial government of the Solomons forbade sea voyaging and warfare, while Christian missions preached against abortion, infanticide, and suicide. As a result, Tikopia's population grew from its 1929 level of 1,278 people to 1,758 people by 1952, when two destructive cyclones within the span of 13 months destroyed half of Tikopia's crops and caused widespread famine.
Similarly, it is not helpful to decree that any discussion of population is tabu.
Other societies have very different standards of what is morally normal and acceptable when it comes to population growth.
E.g. Jared Diamond's book Collapse discusses the island of Tikopia [1] -- the people living on this isolated island (~1200 people on 5km^2 of land) managed to live sustainably for hundreds of years with a stable population:
> Most readers of this book will have practiced one or more of those methods [of population regulation], such as contraception or abortion, and our decisions to do so may have been implicitly influenced by considerations of human population pressure or family resources.
> On Tikopia, however, people are explicit in saying that their motive for contraception and other regulatory behaviours is to prevent the island from becoming overpopulated, and to prevent the family from having more children than the family's land could support.
Traditional methods of regulating population included: contraception, abortion, infanticide, celibacy of younger sons and "surplus" marriageable women, suicide, "virtual suicide" (setting out on dangerous sea voyages with essentially no hope of survival), and one instance of warfare between clans (after a decrease of fish and shellfish population led to starvation and conflict over the remaining land and coastline).
> Most of these seven methods for keeping Tikopia's population constant have disappeared or declined under European influence during the 20th century. The British colonial government of the Solomons forbade sea voyaging and warfare, while Christian missions preached against abortion, infanticide, and suicide. As a result, Tikopia's population grew from its 1929 level of 1,278 people to 1,758 people by 1952, when two destructive cyclones within the span of 13 months destroyed half of Tikopia's crops and caused widespread famine.