Overpopulation is Rich People’s Way of Shifting Blame to the Poor

The actual problem behind the climate and resource crisis is different

Source: United Nations Statistics Division

I recently read an article about an American complaining about the number of friends and acquaintances of hers that were thinking of having large families.

Four kids, six kids, and the want for more — the term called pronatalism was the problem being discussed.

Sure, it is a problem — anyone with a very basic understanding of the world would find it quite easy to understand that more people will need more resources to satisfy their needs.

So, if the world’s resources arent’ growing, a growing population will increase the stress on the limited resources.

Correct.

Yet, grossly incomplete.

Overpopulation is an eyewash because the real problem actually has a solution

Picture from author’s bathroom

What if I told you that the actual solution to the climate, environmental, and resource crisis that the world is going through is in the above picture?

Confused?

Let me simplify.

Let me offer you two ways of solving the earth’s crisis.

1) Your government now has a law that each individual may only have a maximum of two children (irrespective of from the same or different partners).

2) You need to stop using a bathtub or a shower but use a bucket to take your daily wash.

Which one is more radical a change? What would you agree to more easily if you had to pick one?

Hopefully, that isn’t too tough of a choice.

What if I told you the second isn’t just the simpler choice but also the more effective one?

The real problem is Overconsumption and not Overpopulation

It is so easy to blame overpopulation because unless you’re an authoritarian country like China…