• Are you happy that the world is getting more crowded each year to the tune of 75 million people? What purpose is this growth serving in a world already struggling with major resource issues?
• We already have economies of scale and there seems to be a growing shortage of high-paying jobs. Should we welcome population growth merely because it creates jobs that wouldn't be needed in the first place without said growth? This is a classic chicken and egg question that economists never really answer. How is a growing population improving the quality of life for humanity in general?
• Why do we accept continuous inflation, and how can constant increases in the cost of living coincide with a sustainable economy? We pretend things aren't intrinsically more expensive by correcting for these factors, but does this make sense in light of huge government and personal debts? Is it radical to suggest that things are becoming more costly simply because they are getting scarcer or harder to procure?
• Why is there increasing concern about water shortages in drought prone areas? Why is it getting especially difficult to secure building permits in desert regions?
• Why does the Colorado River disappear in the desert many miles from the Gulf of California? It wasn't this way 50 years ago.
• Why are farmers draining aquifers (like the Ogallala in the Midwest) much faster than they can be replenished?
• Does the air really seem cleaner overall? Some cities have less smog than they did decades ago, but we are now seeing pollution in areas that used to have none. This invariably coincides with population growth in these areas. Improvements in auto emissions have been negated in many areas by the growing number of cars and other pollution sources. The air in many major cities is getting dirtier again, despite the fact that individual cars are producing less pollution.
• Speaking of cars, isn't it clear that "road rage" is tied to congestion on formerly uncrowded roads? Frustration can boil over when there's a lack of elbow room (on and off the road). It's getting to the point where you can't escape from traffic unless you're deep in the desert
• Why are there almost 20 million fewer acres of forested land in the U.S. compared to 30 years ago? What about the situation in the Amazon Basin? (See data on this site regarding Rush Limbaugh's fallacies).
• Why are timber companies trying to cut on virgin acreage if tree farms are able to keep pace with increasing demand, as some claim? If you think government control of the land has led to this, you are confusing cause with effect.
• Why is the endangered species list growing and animal habitat shrinking?
• If you're a hunter or fisherman, have you noticed that there are fewer and fewer places open to these activities as houses, roads and factories consume habitat?
• Why is it necessary to stock lakes with hatchery fish and manage animal populations with elaborate surveys to keep them viable? Long ago, with fewer people making demands on fish and game, there was no need for this safety net. But today, nature is almost completely at the mercy of human activity, and most wilderness is being overseen like a giant zoo. Who can honestly say that there's a "balance" between Man and nature?
• If you find that you're too busy earning a buck to be concerned about aesthetics and other species, what does that tell you about the current state of the world, and your outlook on life? Does the phrase, "stop and smell the roses" have any meaning, or is the purpose of life merely to see how fast we can scramble to accommodate growth?
• How will the U.S. be able to feed more and more people when we're building more homes and roads on thousands of acres of farmland each year?
• If America grows so much surplus food, why (during the 1988 drought) did we consume a third more grain than we grew? Reserves bailed us out that year, but what if global-warming scenarios are accurate and every year brings a poor harvest with millions more mouths to feed?
• Have we conquered world hunger? Is it getting easier to feed 75 million additional people each year?
• Why are ocean harvests dwindling and national fishing boundaries being hotly contested? What happened to the fish that Cape Cod is named after? Is it possible that there aren't enough fish in the sea to satisfy the appetites of 75 million more people annually?
• Why are 35,000+ people dying each day from hunger-related illnesses? (See UNICEF statistics).
• When a herd of elk starves, we immediately see the correlation between population size and available food. Why do some people search for any explanation except overpopulation when humans are starving?
• Why are our national parks more congested than they used to be? Visit Yosemite during the summer and try to pretend this isn't a real problem.
• There are more and more aircraft sharing finite airspace each year. Is this making flying safer and more convenient?
• Why is it getting more difficult to secure reservations at popular hotels and restaurants?
• Why are beaches becoming more crowded? Why are pollution-related beach closures happening with greater frequency?
• Why is there a growing need for two-income families? We're supposed to be better off than our parents because of growth, right?
• Is it easier (in general) to make a living nowadays?
• Why are there more homeless people than there used to be? Could this possibly be due to overpopulation and decreasing per capita wealth?
• Do you think banks and government institutions are paying less attention to you and treating you more like a number? How can institutions become more friendly to individuals when there are so many more to deal with?
• Do you spend more time in line or on hold than you used to?
• Are you content with the hectic pace of life these days, and is the quality of life (aside from the growing number of convenience gadgets) increasing universally? Advertisements tell us it's hip to have a "busy lifestyle" with mimimal leisure time, but what's the point of all this rushing-around in the first place?
• Do you think crime is more of a problem today than in years past? Do you see any correlation between crime and population density in America?
• We are being forced to increase the number of students per classroom and to hold school year-round in many parts of the United States. How are these growth-induced changes helping our kids?
• Prison overcrowding is caused by population growth, not just rising crime rates and drug convictions. A larger population requires more jail cells, and it's no trivial matter to pay for these additional cells. Is this just another price we must pay for "progress?"
• Welfare is allowing people to have kids when they really can't afford to, and it's perpetuating the idea that childbirth is a right, not a responsibility. How long can society continue to function with this burden?
• There's a lot of talk about our "changing world," but how often do you hear people admit that population growth is the single most obvious component of this change?
• Will more users make the Internet more usable? Since it's fairly new, the growth of the Internet isn't directly tied to population growth but there's a strong analogy. Jammed Internet sites are becoming as common as jammed freeways. We can't add new servers and extra phone-lines indefinitely. Users of growing ISPs generally notice more busy signals, despite promises that new hardware and economies of scale will compensate.
• Why did dozens of nations meet in Cairo in 1994 to discuss solutions to the population problem if it doesn't even exist? Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
• In the time it took you to read this list, at least 300 more people were added to the Earth's population...

You may come up with counterpoints to some of these questions, but that doesn't make the rest of them disappear. Consider also that population problems are a relatively slow-moving threat, and cannot be viewed in the same context as earthquakes, hurricanes and fires. All too often, the wrong criteria are applied, and the seriousness of gradual threats is vastly underestimated. If you think overpopulation means bodies in the streets overnight, you are looking for the wrong evidence.