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.

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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National TFR at 1.9

2026-09-23T10:37:14+00:00

National average is down from 2.3 a decade earlier. Bihar still at 2.9 and at the other end of the spectrum is Delhi at 1.2.

Decline foreshadows an ageing society, shifting workforce dynamics, and long-term economic adjustments similar to other Asian nations.

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Overpopulation Is a Consumption Crisis: A 3-Step Survival Plan

2026-09-23T06:45:11+00:00

We are already at ~8 billion people and climbing, triple the number we had in 1960 and heading towards 10 billion by 2050. Overpopulation is not just a numbers game. It is an indicator of how unaware we are as a species. If already a million species are on the brink of extinction and wildlife populations have declined by over two-thirds in the last 50 years, then the problem is that far too many of us are living the wrong type of life.

Even as birth rates drop, our ecological footprint increases, so the scientist’s warnings should make us ask ourselves if adding new lives amidst a planetary emergency is not fuel to the fire.

The trap of overpopulation lies in its extremes:
• poor areas where children are seen as earning hands, forced into low-grade jobs due to a lack of education and healthcare
• and the rich who treat children as affordable possessions, a sign of their wealth and power

I recently stumbled upon an article where Indian spiritual teacher and environmental thinker Acharya Prashant was talking about it and what I like the most was he outlines a path forward :

1. Secure Reproductive Freedom
Free contraception, girls’ higher education, and old-age social security to take pressure off the expectation that one has to have children to have someone to care for you in your years. Political will is lacking because political parties benefit from cheap labor, increased consumer base, and higher voter counts.

2. Legally Limit the Top Ecological Footprints
The top 1% need to be legally limited in their ability to negatively impact the planet. Carbon emission taxes, already at a unnatural level for most developing countries, should apply to private jets, private water usage, and multiple mansion ownership – all to be invested in eco grids, circular economy projects, and social security. It is a matter of political will to enforce the former while the latter will provide the breathing room for cultural change to occur.

3. Change the Narrative, Change the Culture
Scorecards should replace GDP as a measurement of national success and prosperity while also introducing indices similar to Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness.

Unless we change the culture that puts consumption at the center of our existence and make people understand that the consumption is not an indicator of life, nothing will change. Beyond legal reforms, we need to make a cultural shift to decouple having children from sense of completeness and sexual gratification. Given reproductive freedom and social security, women will have smaller families on their own, and the reduction in population and consumption will follow, intelligently and voluntarily.

Read the full article here and share your thoughts.

Can legally limiting top ecological footprints buy us enough time for the cultural shift to occur?

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Mexico’s fertility rate falls to around 1.2 children per woman, according to new government survey

2026-09-22T21:04:48+00:00

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Overpopulation is the main driving force of Collapse. Because there are too many humans, consuming too much.

2026-09-22T12:13:31+00:00

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Will future have people?

2026-09-22T20:47:41+00:00

submitted by /u/Electrical_Budy1998
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'for all 7.6 billion of us to live a life we consider “decent” and “dignified,” the level of consumption required far exceeds most of the ecological “planetary boundaries” that many scientists believe should not be crossed if we hope to stick around for a while.'

2026-09-21T04:08:49+00:00

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People who want to be environmentally conscious might need to reconsider having kids. Especially rich people.

2026-09-19T09:14:51+00:00

I don't have a problem with kids. Hell, I love them. However, with climate change and pollution growing at an unprecedented scale. Avoiding single use plastic isn't going to cut it anymore.

No child deserves to be born into poverty, and every kid deserves at least a comfortable, sufficient standard of living.

The problem is, in most of today's economies, a decent standard of living still tends to come bundled with high consumption like bigger homes, more travel, more goods. Even managing a modest, non-impoverished life in a wealthy country carries a larger footprint than a life in poverty elsewhere.

We love to ask why poor families have so many kids but rarely ask why rich families have any.
The richer the kid, the larger the carbon footprint.

People who want to be environmentally conscious need to reconsider having kids at all. Especially rich people. I'm not saying nobody should have kids because that's obviously not how a society keeps functioning. But if you're serious about your own environmental impact, this is worth actually sitting with, not brushing past.

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Capitalism is the new slavery.

2026-09-17T11:01:38+00:00

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The number of people aged 100 and older in Japan has surpassed 100,000 for the first time.

2026-09-16T22:29:00+00:00

🇯🇵 Japan : Key points

Centenarians (2026): 107,677
TFR (2025): 1.14 — historic low
65+ (2026): ~30%
Projected population (2070): 87 million
Projected 65+ (2070): nearly 40%
Population peak (2008): 128 million
Centenarians (1963): 153
Centenarians (1981): 1,000+
Centenarians (1998): 10,000+

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Australia's Indigenous Population Was 7 Times Larger Than Estimated, Study Finds

2026-09-16T13:40:18+00:00

Reason why linking population growth to modern territorial boundaries doesn't make sense. The out of Europe population continues to explode elsewhere hardly attracting the attention it deserves.

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India's total fertility rate falls below replacement level for the first time

2026-09-16T04:22:12+00:00

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Development or Destruction? Why Does Endless Consumption Never Satisfy Us?

2026-09-15T11:39:24+00:00

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South Africa’s birth rate is falling as fewer women have children

2026-09-15T07:11:52+00:00

The rate fell from 2.78 children per woman in 2008 to 2.21 in 2025, while the latest 2026 population estimates put the figure at about 2.12 children per woman.

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What's the message to coming generation

2026-09-12T14:22:56+00:00

This is hilarious but at the same time very serious.

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Greater Cairo (1984 vs 2019)

2026-09-12T13:25:40+00:00

1989 in the original post is a mistake, it is confirmed as 1984 further down in the thread.

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¿Que mierda esta pasando con la humanidad

2026-09-12T05:32:00+00:00

Hoy en día hacen muchos casos de contaminación y cemtamiento global ¿cual es el problema? El problema es que la gente sige consumiendo marcas como:Nestlé,Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Adidas, Nike, Google, chat gpt, dola ness cafe, y muchas más gastan agua, chat gpt usa millones de galones de agua para mantener sus motores fríos para surgir funcionando, EL POLO NORTE SE ESTÁ DERRITIENDO, los oso polares se están muriendo, por el calentamiento global, muchos animales también, solo nos quedan 2 años y más de 300 días y si seguimos ignorando esto el agua sería un lujo y no un derecho, podrás usar bolsas reciclables y no las de plastico, podrías usas botellas reciclables, hay demasiada contaminación en el mar el agua potable ya no sería potable en vez de verse transparente se vería sucia si no actúa rápido lo mejor sería borrar chat gpt y dola y descargarte Ecogpt o ecosia cada búsqueda plaran un árbol. Por favor solo nos quedan 2 años y 310 días ayuda a tu planeta

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The Shrinking Global population - what will the world be like in 100 years?

2026-09-11T11:25:09+00:00

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Capitalism always chooses profitable plundering over sustainable production

2026-09-10T13:38:28+00:00

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Delulu of natalistic incel

2026-09-10T11:06:46+00:00

Only absolute assholes would say that we "should teach fear of childlessness". But after all Elon is somebody who believes childless people should not vote + somebody who believes woman is unable to not want children unless she is "brainwashed by feminism"

.. imagine that somebody is afraid of childlessness like "Oh no! I am afraid I will never get to experience childbirth, I want my genitalia multilated and my pelvis floor and narves damaged! I want to have PTSD and Post Partum Depression so bad! 😭" - That's being said, natalistic assholes are living in complete delusional reality of their own creation.

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A population clock made me question something deeper than overpopulation

2026-09-08T14:16:56+00:00

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For the First Time in History, There Are More People Over 65 Than Children Under 5

2026-09-08T16:29:55+00:00

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Why do we need population decline for the next 200 years.

2026-09-07T15:42:29+00:00

Humans and entire domesticated population was less than 30% in 1500s and now, it is 96%.

Wild mammal population has plummeted to historic lows and this clearly implies the overpopulation of humans and human domesticated animals.

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Why are we worried about population decline?

2026-09-07T01:47:04+00:00

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