Overpopulation: unending growth on our finite planet is impossible.

Some truths about overpopulation - for all sides

2026-06-22T10:27:23+00:00

Overpopulation is not about space. In theory if we build a mega city on 600x600 Kilometers, and use the same population density like Macau or Monaco, all people on the Planet could live there. Overpopulation is about the impact on the environment like water/fuel/resource consumption and CO2 production, pollution etc.
It is undeniable that this consumption and pollution is too high. If everyone lived like the average citizen of Qatar, we would need 9 Earths. Even if everyone lived like the people of Moldavia, the poorest country in Europe, we would still need 1.2 Earths. Mathematically this proves that our current level of population is too high.
You can have more people with a reduced living standard, or less people with a higher living standard. You cannot have more people and a better living standard without more damage.
Overpopulation is also NOT about better resource distribution. This would elevate some problems but not most. Assume that each Billionaire consumes the same resources like 1000 American Middle Class Persons. Eliminating 3500 Billionaires is thus equal to 3.5 Million Americans. Its something but not enough to have any large effect.
Overpopulation is a global problem but at the same time a regional one. Countries like Afghanistan or Pakistan are running out of Water because their population increased 4-5x in the last 50 years.
Immigration into First World countries is making the problem worse. The Western World has below replacement level birth rates. Immigration artificially increases this population and leads to more resource consumption and CO2 production. Because every immigrant coming there consumes more resources, even if they get less kids than at home.
Green hopium/technology/going vegan is not a silver bullet. Wind+Solar produce just around 25% of the worlds energy despite 4 decades of investment. There are already 22 000 desalination plants supplying 300 Million people with water every day. Even if we tripple this number to 900 Million, thats just 10% of world population in 2035. Also these cost lots of energy. Mining the lithium for electric batteries/solar panels is also extremely devastating to the environment.
We can feed ourselves only because we got lucky through the Green Revolution and because we just abused fossil fuels and artificial fertilizer. But with Climate change and water shortages, we have probably reached peak farmland/yields.
World population is expected to increase from 8.3 Billion in 2026 to 10.3 Billion in 2056. If we can barely supply 8.3 Billion people, with all possible tricks and a perfectly running system, how are we going to supply 10 Billion+.
Why should we want this? Why are 8.3 Billion not enough? Even if our population would be reduced by one Billion. We would still be at 7 Billion people. So the level in 2011. The world worked just fine then. Its just Capitalist propaganda. The Capitalists want more consumers and more workers so that they can keep wages low and rent/house prices high.
People like Malthus and Ehrlich were prophets that were ridiculed, but they were right. They were just off by 3/4 of a century or so. Once artificial fertilizers become scarce and all the ground water is used up, carrying capacity of this planet will revert back to its natural perhaps 4 Billion.

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What are some links that you like to share in discussions relevant to overpopulation?

2026-04-29T20:28:16+00:00

Let's share some of the links that we find useful when we're discussing overpopulation and related topics. I'm interested in anything that you've found yourself returning to.

Maybe you have some bookmarks that you use often, maybe something obscure that rarely comes up but you know how to talk about it when it does.

Please drop as many as you'd like here!

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I think India needs a population-control policy — even if it’s only for 5–7 years

2026-08-26T05:46:06+00:00

I know population control is one of those topics that immediately becomes political, but I genuinely think India needs to have an uncomfortable conversation about this.
I’m increasingly convinced that India should consider a time-bound one-child policy for at least 5–7 years, with the goal being to slow population growth and give the country some breathing room to catch up on housing, education, healthcare, employment and infrastructure.
This isn’t about blaming people for having children. It’s about asking a basic question:
Can India realistically provide a decent quality of life to the population it already has, while continuing to add tens of millions more people?
Look around.
Our cities are already struggling with housing, traffic, pollution, water availability, waste management and basic urban infrastructure. Government schools and colleges have enormous demand. Healthcare systems are stretched. Good jobs aren’t being created at the same pace as the number of people entering the workforce. And even when GDP grows, per-capita gains are diluted when the population denominator keeps getting larger.
And before someone says “But China tried a one-child policy and look what happened”, I don’t think India-China comparisons are that simple.
China’s one-child policy eventually contributed to a severe demographic imbalance, including an ageing population and a shrinking workforce. That is a legitimate warning for India.
But that doesn’t automatically mean population policy is irrelevant to India.
India has a different problem: extremely high population density in many of its most economically important regions, enormous pressure on urban infrastructure, and huge disparities in access to quality education, healthcare and employment.
We shouldn’t copy China’s policy blindly. We should learn from both its successes and its mistakes.
For example, a policy could be:
Time-bound: 5–7 years initially, rather than permanent.
One-child norm: with a clear sunset/review clause.
Strong exceptions: genuinely necessary medical, humanitarian and special circumstances.
Non-coercive incentives/disincentives wherever possible, rather than criminalising families.
Massive investment in contraception and reproductive healthcare.
Better education for girls and women, because fertility tends to fall when women have greater educational and economic opportunities.
A serious review before extending the policy, using actual birth rates, dependency ratios, workforce projections and regional demographics.
And there is another point that gets lost in this debate.
Population isn’t just about how much land we have. It’s about how much usable infrastructure and productive capacity we can create per person.
India isn’t running out of geographical territory tomorrow. The problem is that building enough high-quality housing, schools, hospitals, public transport, water systems, sewage networks and jobs for another huge wave of population is incredibly difficult.
A country can have a large landmass and still have overcrowded cities. It can have a huge economy and still have insufficient schools. It can have a growing GDP and still have millions of people competing for relatively few good jobs.
The objective shouldn’t be “fewer Indians because Indians are the problem.”
The objective should be:
Give the Indians who already exist a better life.
If slowing population growth for 5–7 years gives India time to build infrastructure, improve education, increase productivity and raise living standards, I think it’s at least a policy worth seriously debating rather than immediately dismissing.
And yes, there are serious risks. An overly aggressive policy could accelerate ageing, create gender-selection problems, distort demographics between states, and create a future labour shortage. That’s exactly why I would support a limited, data-driven policy with periodic review, rather than blindly implementing China’s model.
But doing nothing isn’t automatically a neutral choice either.
At some point we have to ask:
Is India’s goal simply to have a larger population, or is it to give the people already here a genuinely good quality of life?

Used ai to structure my thoughts

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BBC David Attenborough - How many People Can Live On Planet Earth

2026-08-24T21:53:46+00:00

For anyone who has not watched this.

This BBC documentary hosted by Sir David Attenborough in 2009 explores whether Earth is becoming overpopulated and what its ultimate carrying capacity might be.

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It shouldnt be so hard to have a roof over our heads.

2026-08-24T14:15:04+00:00

Everytime we talk about it, we dont talk about the elephant in the room. We are too many.

Houses are expensive because of the location yes, but because of how much competition and how packed the world is becoming.

I wonder if we were half the numbers we are, how cheap the houses would be.

Not only that our jobs would probably pay more. Why would they hire us, if they have millions of desperate applicants willing to almost pay to work.

I think quality of life is directly related to population numbers. The more natalism the more life will get harder for everyone.

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"India’s problem isn’t just corruption—it’s overpopulation + civic sense. Change my mind."

2026-08-24T05:47:01+00:00

India’s problem isn’t just corruption—it’s overpopulation dressed in dirty roads and crowded trains.

More people = more waste. More waste = more litter. More litter = more blame—on everyone except ourselves.

Ban gutka, pan masala, and tobacco. Not for health—but because littering stops instantly when there’s nothing to throw.

Install dustbins everywhere. Teach civic sense—not just in books, but in habits.

And for the love of India—use a condom. If you can’t afford a third child, don’t create one. Reproducing without responsibility isn’t culture—it’s chaos.

China has land mass. We have people mass. That’s the real divide.

Corruption exists—but it thrives in chaos. Clean the chaos, and corruption shrinks.

Foreign countries have corruption too—but their roads aren't littered because their people respect public space.

We throw gutka packets everywhere, spit pan on walls, and then cry 'corruption' when no one cleans it.

You can't have Switzerland when you live like garbage.

Blame yourself first. Then blame the system.

India won't change until we do.

Start with your own habits—not just comments.

#ThinkBeforeYouLitter #CivicSenseOverCorruption

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Poland’s birth decline finally stalls

2026-08-24T12:10:02+00:00

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India’s Low-Fertility Shift: Most States Below Replacement

2026-08-23T04:17:48+00:00

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4.1 Million Pigs, 822,000 Cattle & Millions More — How Many Animals Are Slaughtered Every Day Worldwide?

2026-08-22T00:07:22+00:00

Around the world each day, roughly 4.1 million pigs, 822,000 cattle, 1.4 million turkeys, 1.9 million sheep, and 1.4 million goats are slaughtered for food. Chickens are on an entirely different scale, with hundreds of millions slaughtered every day worldwide.

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Wow, great news!... Wait, economists? Never mind, this is manipulative bullshit.

2026-08-21T01:46:57+00:00

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The Case for Chilling Out About Birth Rates — Even if the fertility decline doesn’t reverse itself anytime soon, the consequences are unlikely to be apocalyptic.

2026-08-20T22:36:11+00:00

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Why do we feel the need to continue reproducing when the earth is already overpopulated?

2026-08-20T11:14:43+00:00

Reproduction happens in nature to keep the species alive in the ecosystem. Whichever species has more survival skills which are - get the food to sustain the energy, shelter to protect themselves from danger, rains and heat and keep themselves safe as in to be alive through fight or flight against danger. Humans have been in the nature for around 300000 years now. they are the top most intelligent species to exist. the purpose of reproduction for human is the same as for any other species. but because of how many ever hundreds of reasons, we came to a conclusion on how to lead life. the factors and the process of this might change with location but fundamentally the system of life cycle for all the humans is segregated in 5 stages - get educated, get a job to sustain, get married, give birth, raise them, die now, all the stages have their own purpose - 1. get educated so that you can use the knowledge to earn the money that you need to get food, shelter etc 2. get married so that your emotional along with physical needs are met in the most moral way possible 3. give birth - to keep your legacy and your reputation and money forward 4. Raise kids - to make them their own self and to take care of you when you cant tend to yourself 5. die - because we are not immortal while this system says what it says and has been set for as long as the civilization existed, now we are aware of a vast majority of what makes the earth inhabitable, basically what is good for us and what is bad for us and in what is good for us, good food - organic, less artificial chemicals, good shelter - that can protect us from the dangers, good personality - conducting yourself properly so that the codependency can happen smoothly, good values - which comes out from the good personality what is bad for us - whatever threatens our existence - food which has artificial chemicals in it, bad personality which might lead to crime, bad values - don't consider the repercussions of actions, overpopulation - don't consider other life worth living which brings me to my main point which is - after all of the civilization and all the knowledge that we possess, why do we still feel the need to reproduce just because the social systems ask you to do so which were set when there was less knowledge and less awareness,

why do you feel the need to continue this when we are aware of the biggest problem to our own existence is overpopulation?

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70 years of demographic change: population, mortality, and fertility for countries worldwide, 1953-2023

2026-08-17T20:51:49+00:00

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What do you think the future of Africa will be?

2026-08-17T14:48:02+00:00

They are already importers of food and worldwide small farmers are no longer being able to make a profit and hence are going bankrupt/not sowing crops anymore(the grocery price rise in US is mainly caused by this) soo countries will not be exporting food all that often now.

Dont think people will take too many refuges anymore.

What do you think will happen.

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Which countries have already passed peak population, and when will the rest do so?

2026-08-17T15:41:15+00:00

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Angola's Extreme Population Growth

2026-08-15T22:44:51+00:00

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This is a repost from the Natalism thread. The post seems pretty reasonable, but it was downvoted to hell, of course.

2026-08-15T19:23:20+00:00

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This is disingenuous framing. Natalists constantly engage in this manipulative rhetoric.

2026-08-14T19:50:28+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Natalism/s/1gEEiHkPox

World population, 1960 = 3 billion. 37.4%. That's 1.122 billion kids 0-14.

World population, 2026 = 8.3 billion. 24.4%. That's 2.025 billion kids 0-14.

Where'd they go? They INCREASED in number, significantly, almost doubling. The overall global human population almost tripled. The world is FULL of humans and human-made stuff. If people are responding to that level of fullness by having slightly fewer kids per person, GREAT! We should encourage human birth rates to keep decreasing.

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Why are there so many damn people driving around on a weekday at 2pm

2026-08-14T13:43:22+00:00

Even when I go to the gym at 2am I’m seeing people everywhere ffs

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Out of 40 million to 300 million cells that compete to fertilize an egg only 200 or so make it to the egg. After hitting the biological 1 in a million jackpot of being born as a human. Why is it that after all our basic needs such as shelter and hunger are taken care of, depression spikes are common

2026-08-14T15:01:00+00:00

Thoughts?

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Spain's absurdly low Fertility Rate

2026-08-13T01:54:54+00:00

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Kinderlos

2026-08-12T07:09:33+00:00

Alle heulen Rum buhu Zuwenig Kinder unsere Bevölkerung schrumpft auf ein Drittel in 2 Generationen Blabla... Ich weiss nicht ob euch jemand über den bevölkerungsanstieg seit den 20ern informiert hat. Die Bevölkerung diverser länder hat sich extrem multipliziert. Soweit das in Ballungszentrenlebenshaltung so teuer geworden ist das man es sich kaum leisten kann. Wir haben einen gigantischen Niedriglohnsektor, man benötigt 2 Einkommen um halbwegs normal über die Runden zu kommen. Zu allem überfluss ist Wohneigentum quasi unerschwinglich, Neubauhaus in 10 Jahren abbezahlen? Keine Chance wenn du nicht Grade über 100.000 netto verdienst. Also kleines extra schaut mal an die Schule, du könntest das perfekte Eltern paar sein um dein Kind zu einer Horde lernbehinderter Vollidioten in die Schule stopfen. Statistiken belegen das die Kinder inzwischen selbst in der 8ten Klassen zublöd zum lesen und schreiben sind. Als kleines extra gibt es noch Alimente etc die man leisten muss wenn die Beziehung in die brüche geht, man kann also mit Kindern eher sein Leben nachhaltig zerstören als mit einem falschen Job. Hätten wir Bezahlung wie in den 60ern oder 80ern und die gleichen finanziellen wie systemischen unterstützungen wär das ganze ja noch denkbar. Sind an sich ja immernoch 18-30 Jahre volle Verantwortung. Für das Alter hab ich Jahre in die Rente eingezahlt, sollte das in 35 Jahren nicht funktionieren bin ich auch nicht weiter enttäuscht von der Gesellschaft und Regierung. Ist doch alles nur noch peinlich.

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We Got Better at Keeping You Alive. Not at Keeping Healthy.

2026-08-10T19:47:04+00:00

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Stage 5 DTM model

2026-08-08T03:36:54+00:00

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Pensions Buy Fewer Babies. Cutting Them Costs Votes.

2026-08-07T11:45:58+00:00

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Overpopulation: unending growth on our finite planet is impossible.

Some truths about overpopulation - for all sides

What are some links that you like to share in discussions relevant to overpopulation?

I think India needs a population-control policy — even if it’s only for 5–7 years

BBC David Attenborough - How many People Can Live On Planet Earth

It shouldnt be so hard to have a roof over our heads.

"India’s problem isn’t just corruption—it’s overpopulation + civic sense. Change my mind."

Poland’s birth decline finally stalls

India’s Low-Fertility Shift: Most States Below Replacement

4.1 Million Pigs, 822,000 Cattle & Millions More — How Many Animals Are Slaughtered Every Day Worldwide?

Wow, great news!... Wait, *economists*? Never mind, this is manipulative bullshit.

The Case for Chilling Out About Birth Rates — Even if the fertility decline doesn’t reverse itself anytime soon, the consequences are unlikely to be apocalyptic.

Why do we feel the need to continue reproducing when the earth is already overpopulated?

70 years of demographic change: population, mortality, and fertility for countries worldwide, 1953-2023

What do you think the future of Africa will be?

Which countries have already passed peak population, and when will the rest do so?

Angola's Extreme Population Growth

This is a repost from the Natalism thread. The post seems pretty reasonable, but it was downvoted to hell, of course.

This is disingenuous framing. Natalists constantly engage in this manipulative rhetoric.

Why are there so many damn people driving around on a weekday at 2pm

Spain's absurdly low Fertility Rate

Kinderlos

We Got Better at Keeping You Alive. Not at Keeping Healthy.

Stage 5 DTM model

Pensions Buy Fewer Babies. Cutting Them Costs Votes.

Wow, great news!... Wait, economists? Never mind, this is manipulative bullshit.