Yeah, seems we're in a population boom because we can. Lynx population grows with rabbits, wolves with moose, etc. This increased carrying capacity of the earth is thanks to the energy we pull from the ground (and air, water, sun), and in times of plenty maybe we're a little wasteful...

How many people can Earth reasonably support?

Edit to answer your (rhetorical?) question: What we can do is build strong local connections; that's the first step towards decreasing our level of domestication, per Why We Need to be Wild, by Jessica Carew Kraft.