The only way to stop it increasing is to make the morbidity rate (MR) equal the birth rate (BR), overall.
Inorder to reduce it, the MR must overtake the BR, overall.
Neither is likely to happen, barring some widespread catastrophe (ala' Bird Flu?)
Some sort of enforced measure of curbing population growth is unlikely to go down well with the greater public. The majority of people want to bear children, and also don't particularly wish to die young.
So i would say leave it to nature to take care of this. It will, sooner or later.
In the mean time, i feel methods should be looked at to protect the human species (and others, of course), in the event of Earth's exhaustion, like Planetary Terraforming, and methods to slow down said exhaustion; its gonna happen; i'd rather it be later than sooner.
In the "greater scheme of things" (if such a thing even exists), could it be said that humans aren't really that important (except to us). If we do die out, probably others will come after us. Life will carry on.
"The good Christian should beware the mathematician and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of hell." - St. Augustine
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