There are far too many people. That’s not only my feeling, when there are more than two persons in the bed. That’s a common argument by climate doomers who think, there’s nothing we can do against climate change, as long as there are so many people aka overpopulation.
I completely understand how someone can have the feeling there are too many people. I not only don’t like if there are too many people in my bed. If there are more than two people with me in the same room, I think it is too crowded.
But the comments on social media blaming overpopulation as the evil are different from my sociopathic feelings. It often has underlying racism, is used as an excuse and above all it is wrong.
In this article, I write about why blaming overpopulation as cause for climate change is wrong, what the real problems are, how to handle them and what population growth will look like in our good system.
Introduction: Rethinking Overpopulation and Climate Change
In discussions, I frequently hear the argument about that overpopulation is the real problem. While it is right that more people emit more CO₂, population growth is not the key driver for climate change. It’s the overuse of natural resources, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
That’s why many developing countries with bigger population have fewer emissions than western countries. Total and in particular per person.
Even crueler, while the richer countries and especially the super rich are mostly responsible for the climate crisis, the poorest people are the ones who suffer the most.
Overpopulation is used to cover racism
The argument of overpopulation often has underlying racism. Because it insinuates that the countries with the highest birth rates are responsible for climate change. It presumes that the people can’t control themselves. Denying that in western countries, birth rates only declined because of industrialization and welfare state.
Who is too much?
Furthermore, it raises the question, “who is too much?” Assuming there really are too many people in the world, who are the ones who are too many? Are they those who were born recently? Are they the elderly? Are they those who use too many resources? Or should criteria such as race, gender, or disease be used to decide?
You can’t answer these question without discriminating against a whole group and wanting to annihilate them.
The easy way out
But overpopulation is not only brought up by people who dream of a new holocaust. It is also frequently used because it is an easy excuse. Those people realize that you can’t really do something about population growth, and conclude from this that we can’t do anything against climate change. Especially, we do not need to change anything of our system because it is not responsible.
It’s the lazy way out of responsibility.
How to sustain a growing population
That said, population growth has its issues we have to work on. People need food, which has to be produced. They require a place to live, which needs to be built and requires space. So we end up with more sealed soil.
But these issues can be solved. It is possible to feed up to 10.2 billion people. But there needs to be changes. Like sustainable farming, change of diet and reducing food loss and waste. And despite 2024 being the hottest year on record, many staple crops reached production heights.
Furthermore, the space needed for housing is only a problem if the world starts living like us. Where not only the houses get bigger, often we have more than one home. There is also an increase in single households, while in poorer countries typically more generations live under one roof.
Going slow
If we can feed the world and give everyone a roof over their head, do we then have an overpopulation? There is reasonable criticism on the theory of overpopulation. There can be regions that cannot adequately supply their population. But at a global perspective, there is no overpopulation, and it looks like, there will not be an overpopulation.
Because the population growth has slowed down for decades. And the U.N. had to correct their projection of population peak from 10.4 billion people in 2086 in 2022 to 10.3 billion in 2084 in 2024.
Yes, that is only a projection, but it declines for several years now and since I am not a psychic I rely on these data.
There is already a growing number of countries in which populations are shrinking. And an even larger number of countries which only grow because of migration and not because of births.
Like for example China or Germany.
The problems of a shrinking population
While slower growth or even a shrinking population is not a bad thing, it creates issues for the system.
Society as a whole gets older, when not enough babies are born. That means that there is less working force to provide the welfare state like pensions or maybe even a working system.
Besides that, system change will be more difficult because elderly people tend to be less progressive and more conservative, although that might relate more to possessions than age.
Conservative politics mean to preserve the status quo. It’s the opposite to change. So the fight for a good system in an aging society may be harder.
We need more women
When people get fewer children, they tend to want male offspring. Since in many cultures and societies still a boy is more precious than a girl. Because the thinking often is a male can provide a family, a woman not. You may even have to pay a dowry in some cultures, which can be difficult to afford.
Furthermore, a society with more men than women tends to be more violent, typically against women.
That’s one of the many reasons why fighting sexism is so important.
Education, health and social security
One other reason is slowing population growth. Several studies have shown that well-educated girls and women tend to have fewer children. One of the many reasons, why education is so essential.
Besides education, a valid health and social system is key. In many countries, you rely on your family as a social net. They take care of you, when you need help, and also the ones who earn money spread it among their perhaps pretty large family.
Because if the health system isn’t available or bad, women tend to get more children. So that at least some of them survive and can help their parents when they grow old and, because of the lack of a social system, require help.
There is nothing wrong with helping your parents and siblings and having a good bond with your family. Nevertheless, a public social security net is necessary for balance. So those who don’t have a family or don’t have the money are also best taken care of.
Overpopulation is a hard topic
Overpopulation is a hard topic to talk about. Because defining who is in the over part is always discriminating. Furthermore, because there is no global overpopulation and, from today’s perspective, will never be.
Most certainly not, if we implement the good system. What a transition.
With the good system comes along good education, good health and social care and no systemic racism and sexism. All this naturally leads to greater prosperity and a lower birth rate.
This means of course that at the beginning there will be more elderly people. We will need to find a good way to handle it. Like a well-built democratic and social system. Which we will need to adapt over time. Because nothing is final, everything changes, that’s why the good system has to be flexible.
Over time, the population size should neither grow nor shrink. It keeps roughly the same.
And because of sustainable agriculture and infrastructure like housing we make sure to stay inside the planetary boundaries.
Conclusion: Shifting the Narrative on Overpopulation
As I said in the beginning, I can absolutely understand, if you think there are too many people. But my and your sociopathic perception has nothing to do with the global population.
We can feed well over 10 billion people, and it looks like that this will be peak population.
If, and that is a big if, we do not waste the global resources as we now do in western countries.
In its singularity, overpopulation is not responsible for climate change, but how we produce and consume. Our system ruins our planet and kills mankind, not the growing population.
We need to change the system to survive and not to blame others for our failure.
My name is Ian DeBay.
I am the founder of iandebay.com. I am a content creator, blogger, podcast, YouTuber. This is my blog where I talk about system change, sustainability and other fun stuff.
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