Why is global population not a larger part of the discussion on global impact?
I personally think the reason is that the Earth is relatively sparsely populated, at present. If my memory serves me, there are currently ~6.3 Billion people on Earth, with ~65% of these living in a relatively narrow band of land from Iran to Japan that is within 350 miles of the sea coast, which is less than 10% of the total land area of the Earth. Another 10% of the total population lives in the western third of Europe. This means that ~75% of the people live in less that 15% of the total land, leaving the other 25% of us to live in the other 85% of the land. Furthermore, birth rates are dropping like a rock all over the world, with some countries such as Russia and Germany, France, and Italy actually shrinking in population. The world health organization projects the world population to peak at about 9 Billion at around the year 2100 and then begin a slow decline. I remember reading that if the entire Sahara desert and the entire continent of Australia were intensively irrigated and
