Overpopulation?

We as humans have a tendency to look for the simple answer to any problem, even though there may not be any simple answers.  In the course of my work I meet many green / eco types who have concluded that many if not most of the world's problems are due to overpopulation, but when I ask them what the correct maximum population is, they either don't know, or respond with a number which they have no data to support.

The fact is we have no meaningful definition of overpopulation because much like wealth, it is not a number.  The world can easily support more than twice it's current population, or be completely unable to support a population of even one person!  Overpopulation is a function of how each of us chooses to live, and if a single individual uses all the resources currently used by the entire human race, a population of one is unsustainable, but if we all choose to live a simple life just growing food and doing without modern conveniences, the planet could support far more people.

I am not suggesting that we do either one of these things; however, we need to stop looking for the simple answers like "overpopulation"; which are really just a great excuse to do nothing.  Most of us aren't going to be willing to kill off a large portion of the world's population to solve the "overpopulation" problem and if we blindly accept that this is the problem, we have just declared it unsolvable and can safely go about our lives knowing that there is nothing we can do.  Since the reality is that overpopulation is not the problem, we need to be willing to take the time to understand the real problem, which in this case is our chosen life styles, and at the very least make some changes in how we live.