As a geographer and a humanitarian professional (as well as a recovering neo-Malthusian, a sin I indulged only briefly- Malthus & I share an alma mater) I see this article as an oversimplification and replete with bad faith arguments. https://twitter.com/TheOverpopulat1/status/1313562899881824256

Overpopulation is not the culprit alone. Consumption patterns, technology, all manner of dynamics affect per capita impact on the environment and global carrying capacity, and to imply otherwise is disingenuous.

As a thought experiment it’s not hard to imagine a situation where you halved the world’s population but doubled consumption- and we would be at an equivalent state of environmental harm. The reverse is obviously true.

Equality is a massive blind spot in overpopulation arguments. In both absolute as well as relative terms, a small, wealthy population is responsible for a vastly greater impact on the environment.

A part of the overpopulationist anxiety is the acknowledgement that the very large and vastly poorer segments of the population are moving towards higher consumption rates as various quality-of-life indicators rise. Which is problematic, as well as illustrative.

The ‘we are approaching hyperbole’ argument is almost as old as the study of demographics, and has been empirically falsified repeatedly over centuries.

YES, of course, if consumption levels increase globally and are not offset by technological change, in conjunction with population growth, there will be catastrophe. But these are both critical and unacknowledged (here) assumptions.

YES, humans are doing dreadful and possibly irreversible damage to the environment. But this is a Complex problem, not a Simple problem.

(Simple problems can be described in terms of x causes y; Complex problems acknowledge that x and y are related, but there may be multiple causal factors, feedback loops and dynamics that may not be possible to fully map)

Even the suggestion that it is individuals (ie each additional headcount) that is causing the problems disregards the actions of corporate entities (what portion of environmental harm & resource use is attributable to industry versus individual consumption, for example? Lots.)

These corporate entities are in the control of tiny minorities; changes at this level have disproportionate impact through the system. Blaming overpopulation as the singular problem fails to express the reality of the environmental problem. A shame people are still chasing this.