species would you allow to be exterminated in the
process?

It doesn't matter how much I'd allow. It won't be my decision.

Do we have the right to make such a decision?

Yes we do. "Rights" come from the human mind. Not from Mother Earth.

Do you care?

I do, but not to the point that I would accept a population-control society.

Doubling our
energy requirements. And if you're one of the desperately poor
inhabitants of some third world slum, consciousness might not seem such
a blessing.

Funny, we don't hear about mass-suicide in these poor places. Even the
"desperately poor" seem to enjoy being alive, and propagating their life.

We want to see a stable population precisely
because we value the principles of human freedom and dignity embodied in
Western Civilization.

Then we don't want a Chinese-type society . And lowering the P requires it.