There is enough arable land on the planet to support 3 times our number. Over-population is a trope.

"Trashing the Planet." Good book. Was written in the 1980's by Dixie Lee Ray, the former governor of Washington. Read it, and get a fresh perspective on an old con game- environmentalism. It's a short read, and very insightful.

But to your question, the planet doesn't need any saving from humanity. Humans need saving from other humans who value their esoteric vision of what they assume is best for "the planet" over what other people decide is best for people. Humanity doesn't have an overpopulation problem, but there is evidence of populations being over-concentrated in regions. And population concentration problems are solvable issues.

But, ironically (not ironically) solving those population concentration issues run into problems largely created by the very same people who complain about how overpopulation, and technology is killing the planet.

Stopping the construction of new coal, and nuclear power plants does nothing to help spread out population. $5.00/gallon gasoline doesn't help that either. Stopping oil, and natural gas production in many parts of the nation (world) doesn't help people move to new regions. Nor does limiting hunting and fishing areas that people use for food encourage people to live in new areas.

But in return for humanities noble sacrifices "for the planet" we get millions of acres of pretty parks to take pictures of, and film of whales swimming the oceans, we even get an entire continent (Antarctica) where humans are forbidden from tarnishing this part of the planet, and so forth. Meanwhile, the overlords who deem the earth to be overpopulated cram humans into living "pods" and literal cage housing (see urban China) while demanding more taxes from their peasants to save the planet from climate change- which we humans are allegedly to blame for that too.

I'll end my ramble before it gets too long by simply stating that those who run this planet are the problem with this planet. Not overpopulation. It's just like everything else- all failures of society begin with poor leadership. And, when viewed on a global scale, we do have an overpopulation of terrible leaders.

Over population is going from the assumption of one Thomas Malthus, who said that London couldn't continue sustaining its population, which has since increased many fold. There are constant claims that we will eventually reach a population that is incapable of being sustained, but it never happens, and over time we get better and better about using clean methods (on average) and so now for example you see areas like Africa contribute massively to emissions despite their very low industrial base. As our technological capabilities increase, so too will our capacity to fix that which we must use. Here is a good primer on the subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV18Xx5EkaE EDIT: to go along with your framing assuming those premises, no, I would say we should put all resources into finding ways to colonize other planets. Killing off the population would only damn us to using up the planet in that scenario before we could spread out to other planets and possibly find a long term solution. The only way would be forward.

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

No, never. I suppose if those are the only options, yeah the world can get "trashed", whatever that means. The world was supposed to end in 10 years decades ago. But thats not what it really looks like. Huge mega cities are main offenders of pollution, along with mega globohomo corporations.

God controls the earth's existence. not us.

No one can predict the future. Killing yourself because someone told you to is the most lemming thing you could do. If you don't value your life, bye. But don't take any other lemmings with you.

Overpopulation is a manmade construct of fear. If we trusted our Creator we would never even consider such a concept. Mismanagement of land and resources creates a false impression of overpopulation. Mankind living in rebellion to the Creator results in unnecessary death and destruction. If you study population densities of the world you will see that things aren’t as dire as they want you to believe. Let’s take the state of Ohio which is in the top ten for density for a random example. Ohio has a population density of 287 people per square mile. With 640 acres per square mile that gives an average of 2.22 acres per person in that state. If you have a family of four then it would be 8.88 acres for your family. Now let’s look at Georgia. With a density of 188 per square mile that gives an average of 3.4 acres per person with a family of four having 13.6 acres. Most of our states are less denser than these two examples. Take Colorado with a density of 57 people per square mile. That gives an average of 11.22 acres per person with a family of four having 44.88 acres.

Here are two charts showing density per square mile for our states and countries of the world:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/state-densities

https://www.infoplease.com/world/population/population-density-square-mile-countries

Keep in mind there are 640 acres per square mile.

Yes, I know I did not factor in arable land but you still get the picture. All you have to do is drive out of the city to see that there is plenty of land. Concrete jungles disconnect us from contact with nature and our Creator which is exactly what the evil ones of this world want. They want us crammed into the cites so they can have the rest of the land for themselves

Let the planet do its thing. Through out time God’s system he put the earth on figures out a way to do its own mass extinction. Humans are also very good at killing each other by war, when push comes to shove, comes to crowd. We don’t need a purposeful chemical to wipe us out. But on that note, the Vaccine is An Act of War. So as I said above, we’re good at killing each other. Sadly, it won’t be over for awhile. Because once the war is over, the imprisonments and executions will follow. And a few thousand or tens of thousands of traitors per country will meet their end. So I think one way or another due to the executions, and sadly due to the Vaxx, we’ll have more elbow room when all is said and done.

I would prefer to base my view on history. The earth has been here for 4.5 billion years. Life forms come and go - ask the dinosaurs - or the methane producing microbes.

Secondly, I would consider what scientists have told us about the planet in the past. The Climate Change scientists have created all kinds of scare stories that were believed at the time and their new stories are still being believed now - ask Greta Thunberg.

Based on the resilience of the earth and the erroneous predictions of "scientists", I would conclude that the earth will not get trashed by overpopulation. It will just find another way to live just like it did when oxygen first polluted (yes, polluted) the atmosphere.

Let us remind ourselves what the scientists told us back in 1970.