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(Image credit:Alamy)

By Zaria Gorvett5th September 2022

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220905-is-the-world-overpopulated

Towards the end of 2022, the human population on Earth is expected to reach eight billion. To mark the occasion, BBC Future takes a look at one of the most controversial issues of our time. Are there too many of us? Or is this the wrong question?

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One moment, the valley was a tranquil,swampy wetland. Grasses and palm trees cast fuzzy shadows on the water below. Fish lurked warily at the edges of mangroves.Orangutanssought out fruit with leathery fingers. Then a dormant giant awoke from its sleep.

It was around 72,000 BC on the island of Sumatra,Indonesia.The Toba supervolcano was erupting, in what is thought to have been the greatest such event in the last 100,000 years. A series of thunderous explosions blasted out