[crpatino]

What do you mean by "capacity of the earth"? People per square metter of land? Consumption of oxigen? Consumption of fresh water? Per capita arable land and average agricultural output?

You could argue that we are already past the carring capacity of Earth as of today, and the reason we do not see a massive dieoff today is that we are, so to speak, burning our runaway instead of generating (enough) revenue.

With regards with your "Why the situation tragic?" comment... I also felt a great relief when I realized that we (as global society) will not wipe life on earth, and probably will not even wipe human life on earth with our colective stupidity.

However, a drastic reduction in population is due during the next 100 years or so, and most of it wont be voluntary. A lot of needless suffering is going to happen, and no, it will not matter much in the grand scheme of things. Do you really need to be so smug about it, though?