Why Human Overpopulation Is Real

If you discuss human overpopulation online, you can expect to be called a Malthusian, an ecofascist, a racist, anti-civilization, or anti-human. People will also often tell you to kill yourself. What is more pro-human than telling people to kill themselves? 

I reject the notion that I am a Malthusian. Because I haven’t read Malthus. A guy who died almost 200 years ago is not the reason I believe in overpopulation. Yet people insist I am a Malthusian, and Malthus was wrong, therefore I am wrong. Have they read Malthus themselves? Unlikely. 

Here's a tip, if you counter a statement of fact with "you are a..." it is probably an 'ad hominem fallacy', also known as 'a personal attack'.

I think there are two ways in which we are overpopulated. One is a matter of values: We are eradicating nature and for some nature is sacred. The other is the question of whether we can sustain our numbers.

For me personally, I see no point of bringing a child onto an essentially dead planet. My child will only further kill nature, just like I do. Every day scientific reports are published about how we are destroying life on earth. I have noticed in my lifetime that the nature in my village has practically disappeared. I saw one bee last year. Extinction is forever. In the near future there won't be wild elephants, whales or wild gorilla's. If there is anything that is closest to a God, it's nature that created us.

Then there is the question of sustainability. Can we sustain a population of 8 billion humans? Climate change will probably make agriculture impossible. And if it doesn't, we will run out of fossil water, fertile soil and synthetic fertilizer. And there is no going back to nature for 8 billion humans, when agriculture fails.

Some predict a voluntary population decline. They even freak out over it. But we are adding 200 000 people netto to the planet per day. If the Nigerians alone maintain their birthrate, there will be 105 billion Nigerians in 5 generations.

There will be a steep decline in human population. Maybe even to zero. But it won't be voluntary. 

If you think industrial civilization gives your life meaning, we are going to run out of the resources that make it possible. And as far as I know, only wild nature produces a surplus of oxygen. 

The planet is round, space colonization is a fantasy, and so there are limits to consumption, pollution and the amount of space we take up.

The only hope life has is humans running out of energy sources. Or degrowth.