The myth of human overpopulation — that there is some hard limit to the population human society can sustain and we are near it if not past it — is over 3,500 years old but never seems to die. Some in the climate movement are giving it new life even now. But the reality is that every past prediction of overpopulation has turned out to be wrong, that trying to control the population always harms impoverished people and people of color first, and that no matter how quickly you shrink humanity and at what moral cost, so long as the economic system is based on infinite growth, you will run into ecological limits sooner or later. Full text in Hebrew >>
This piece draws heavily on several sources in English which I would recommend:
- Murray Bookchin, The Population Myth
- Peter Coffin, Overpopulation, Eugenics + Capitalism | Very Important Docs¹³ (YouTube)
- David Roberts, I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. (Vox)
- Mexie, The Problem With “Overpopulation” (YouTube)
- Leon Thomas, Thanos Was Wrong – Eugenics and Overpopulation | Renegade Cut (YouTube)