Fuzzy but not quite cuddly math

Driving around today I wondered how bad the traffic would be if humans had increased their population since 1950 nearly fivefold — as has happened over that span with the apparently soon-to-be-declared "endangered" polar bear — instead of the mere sub-threefold we've experienced.

I'm just saying. One man's population bomb, explosion, epidemic, etc. is another's threat of extinction, harkening back to P.J. O'Rourke's distillation of the population nags' philosophy as "just enough of them, way too many of you and me."