The Earth has already exceeded its ability to support the global population sustainably, with new research warning of increasing pressure on food security, climate stability, and human wellbeing. However, slowing population growth and raising global awareness could still offer humanity some hope.
The study shows that humans have pushed well beyond the planet’s long-term capacity and that continued growth under current patterns of consumption will intensify environmental and social challenges for communities worldwide.
This article so so fucked up I don’t even know where to start. Like just the framing from the get-go treats economic development, human lives, and the ecology as equivalent in importance. But also, we know what sort of socioeconomic systems this sort of Malthusian ideology gets us, and we know what sort of socioeconomic systems (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102287) lead to a sustainable future (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0172-6 ).
This focus in academia on “what population can the earth sustain capitalism at” instead of “how can we shape our lives to live as one with the rest of the life on earth” is insidious. It stokes the fires of global fascism and manufactures consent for ethnic cleansing of the peoples who we should be most closely learning from.
It’s never been a resource problem. It’s always been a distribution issue.