Lesbian Flower 🌺

"Overpopulation IS real but yh3 solution isn't genocide!"

Overpopulation is literally not real. At all. And pretending it is is literally offering no solution except genocide and that's the entire purpose of it. There are not too many people. People existing is not the fucking problem. It is literally 1% of the entire human population on this planet that is causing 99.99 repeating of the fucking problems causing climate change. Stop pretending that overpopulation is real. You could get rid of billions of people tomorrow and it would not stop climate change because the poor fucking people who are not running private jets and pumping carbon dioxide and poison into the atmosphere and the ocean are not the fucking problem.

talking about the myth of overpopulation

not to get on my soapbox again

I absolutely depise the "humans are the disease human population dying out is good" rhetoric and I will block over it. Humans are not a disease. If you celebrate the population being hit with deaths you're celebrating eugenics - because the people who are killed during wars and by bioharzards and plagues and cancer giving chemicals aren't the rich who are getting their karma, the people who die are the disabled, the homeless, queer kids, people of color, poor people, every other group who is oppressed and struggling to not only access Healthcare but limit their exposure to harm.

Mass death isn't good. Stop blaming the general population rather than the bourgeoisie who are the ones committing mass ecocide.

I think I lean somewhat in this direction. I definitely believe that overpopulation is one of the problems we face in this world. And it's not just contributing to environmental change, but also to other unsustainable trends like the exhaustion of limited natural resources.

And, as the population in poorer countries continues to explode, this generates more mouths to feed while continually making labourers worth less. So population growth increases poverty and hunger and the resulting illness, conflict, violence and suffering.

But! I am very much against any genocide. Let me make that clear. If genocide was needed to ensure the future of mankind, would mankind even be worth saving? :/

However, I do think that we, humanity globally, need to start thinking about how we are going to decelerate population growth on a worldwide scale. Perhaps even reaching a slow, but controlled decline in world population by some point.

I assume that some limit in birth rate would have to be enforced in order to realise this. Not a strict 1-child policy like China had - That just causes major economic and social problems in the future - but more like a 2-3 child policy-ish? Of course this policy would have to be indiscriminatory on all fronts and worldwide, which is hard to enforce.

Another thing we could do to buy more time for population growth to decelerate in, would be to, especially in the west, lower our expected standard of living. There are many things we could do without, that unnecessarily waste resources or otherwise have a negative environmental impact.

Also, of course there is one minority that ultimately is responsible for all suffering, corruption and injustice in the world:

Eat the rich! ;)

Hey, I wanted to let you know that the threat of overpopulation is a myth and is inherently tied to racist and white supremacist ideals in and of itself. Here’s a couple articles about it so you can see for yourself. Overpopulation is not a threat to the planet and you’d be better off putting your attention towards other environmental issues.

Nothing like a bit of royalist ecofascism.

TL;DR: all the problems in Africa are a direct result of European imperialism leading up through modern capitalism.

Boris Johnson has said similar things and he has 8 or more kids. Elon Musk has a bunch too. Evey child born to wealth is a million times worse for our planet than the same child born to a modest family.

Poor people in third world countries must die so that billionaire imperialist princes may live.

if your "climate change reversal tips" include "teaching people in developing countries to have less children" i'm sorry you're just a racist

as the BRAZILIAN!!! op of this i want to make clear that yes "investing in missionary foreign aid programs to decrease overpopulation in developing countries" was something i saw along with basic shit like recycling and biking in a thread about what to do in face of the new climate report, and that yes this is necessarily racist because it places a significant amount of the blame for climate change on impoverished people of colour (when you think about women in developing countries you're NEVER thinking of the white ones, admit it) who often have a lot of children for economic reasons (as in, needing more hands to provide for the family) as much as for "lack of education" or lack of resources reasons.

obviously, the solution to this problem, which isn't actually about overpopulation or global warming, is to END THE ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION THAT FACILITATES THIS SITUATION. and NOT!!! send white people here to proselytise about birth control and condoms and sterilisation, which can be important actually, but which are inherently suspicious coming from our chief exploiters with the goal of specifically reducing OUR population, never their own, which individually wastes and pollutes much more than any rural family of eleven here ever could.

and btw. we have our own grassroots movements for bodily autonomy and reproductive health :) which are actually the issue at hand with "too many children" and not some fictional caricature of There's Too Many Brown People Out There Which Is Killing The Planet. go help yourselves first.

PSA

— Susuana Amoah, Overpopulation & The Unbearable Whiteness of Green (via solarpunkwitchcraft)

Finally a moment to show off my obsession with solarpunk!

“Overpopulation” is such an easy thing to brainwash people on. I used to believe this until somebody pointed out that you could double the living space of my hometown without developing more land by hypothetically adding one extra floor per building. Do this across the board and you’ve already ended homelessness- but thats not even considering all the millions of vacant buildings just lying around that could be used for housing (fill those up first).

Theres also a more sci-fi concept for incredibly tall, thick skyscrapers and artificial layered mountains that, to my knowledge, are completely within the realm of physical possibility and would house tens of thousands of people. Blueprints were drawn up in the 90s in a few different countries, like Sky City 100 in Japan

And the Ultima Tower in San Francisco

The designs are gathering dust and need proof-of-concept but the basic idea is contemporary: If youre a high-technology civilization and you have too many people, build UP, or DOWN, but never OUT. Then surround the towers with farming space and preserve the rest of nature. You could triple the global population if you wanted to, and not only would you be able to give all of those people the living space of a modest house, but youd actually vastly increase food production (which is already enough to feed all those people and can be doubled like OP said)

And if you still prefer living out in the country? Nobodys saying you can’t! It would barely affect current living accommodations, it would just make things easier for the current homeless and you wouldnt need to pay as much for food.

Or if you wanna look at something that we can 100% do now, literally just combine agriculture and architecture.

These are just concept art pieces of Forest Cities, but there are legitimate plans to begin building living spaces that use plants in their designs. Again, towers are more environmentally friendly than individual housing because you get vastly more living space per acre and if those buildings double as crop/oxygen production then youre basically supercharging nature by “overpopulating” humans.

Remember kids: We are the only species on earth that can not only intentionally save nature, but vastly increase its potential. When people talk about environmental issues and housing crisises by saying “the earth is dying because of human overpopulation,” they’re detracting from any real solution by saying that it’s actually your fault just for existing in a large species. Never listen to them.

overpopulation is a capitalist myth. pass it on

housing crises dont just happen. theyre designed.

Everyday people should not take majority of the blame for greenhouse gas emissions

Famines are political, not natural disasters.

A low income family using food stamps to literally survive and make ends meet aren’t “stealing your hard earned money” but a billionaire buying his 5th yacht or 3rd mega super mansion is.

“welfare queens” are a lie meant to demonize poor people for having a nice thing every once in a while. 

Mostly agreed, but I think that two of these points unnecessarily avoid two facts:

Overpopulation is a RACIST myth. Pass it on.

“Welfare queens” are a lie meant to demonize BLACK people for having a nice thing every once in a while.

Let’s definitely point out capitalism as a hellscape but let’s not do it by pretending these problems aren’t primarily racist and racially focused.

Don't buy into overpopulation theories. The Earth has enough for all, and we have the capabilities to provide for everyone.

Demand is not the issue, supply chains are.

https://overpopulationisamyth.com/

You know when people talk about overpopulation they’re not just thinking of human beings, right? We, y’know, are also caring about the animals we’re displacing and killing off for room for us and our needs in what is considered the sixth mass extinction event except for this time instead of a super volcano or an asteroid colliding with our planet, it’s us that’s killing everything off. 

But yeah sure, right, it’s a “neo-Nazi talking point” that actual scientists just sprout off because reasons~. Jfc, I hate this website...

This issue STILL IS NOT OVERPOPULATION. And STILL ignores the fact that the wealthiest people and wealthiest nations are the real drivers of the anthropocene/capitalocene.

95% Of The World's Population Lives On 10% Of The Land. Now, it’s then estimated that ~83% of the Earth is under some form of human influence. Which yes, agreed, not great!

But that has nothing to do with having 7 billion people here, and everything to do with consumerism being the status quo for the Western World, with beef and other intensive meats being in high demand, and with the abhorrent waste of planned obsolescence for everything from consumer tech to clothes.

The demands of the Imperial Core (”the West”) require the Colonized World (global south, “developing countries”, “third world nations”) to give up their natural resources and ecology to produce goods for us.

Again, nothing to do with 7 billion people.

Not everyone who talks about overpopulation is a neo-nazi, and that’s the point. We need to not let their language and ideas be seen as valid or reasonable critiques/solutions to the actual problems at hand.