Saving the World?

The world as we know it is coming to an end. It is depressing, indeed. As you all know, I'm not talking about the kind of ending in movies like Armageddon, or even all of those apocalyptic, end of the world movies. Instead, I'm talking about the obvious fact that humans are taking advantage of the earth's precious and limited resources. The problem with today's society is that even though we want to believe that this is a well-known problem... it isn't. We live in such a materialistic society, where just about everyone seems to be in some dreamland where there are no worries of the end of the world or resources being depleted. Many people in developing countries are simply uneducated about this problem, and are totally oblivious.
And for population growth??! The world seems to be growing like mad! However, there might be an opportunity for improvement. With more developing countries receiving access to education and family planning programs, more women will use contraceptives, thus helping the population growth be a little more sustainable. With more employment opportunities for women, they are more likely to focus on work outside of the home, and not have as many kids as before. This, in the long run could bring about some stability in the human population, but it could take years. China has already realized that they have a population almost too large to handle, and has put a limit on the number of kids a family can have. However, if we were to attempt this in other nations... people would protest and riot.. and it would cause more chaos.
And, it would be beneficial if we look at what we actually NEED and try not to be so excessively wasteful with our limited resources. Paying more attention to our economic footprint and trying to reduce this won't necessarily 'bring back' some resources.. but will definitely help to preserve them so we can use in moderation. I honestly believe that at the rate we are headed, there isn't much hope. However, if we can provide more education, worldwide, about the enormity of these problems, we can hope for the better.