The overpopulation myth, debunked by a data scientist | Hannah Ritchie

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About the video: Is human overpopulation alarmist hype with disturbing consequences? Oxford data scientist Hannah Ritchie debunks the overpopulation myth.
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A widespread concern with overpopulation became prominent in the 1960s and the 1970s, when scholars wondered how we could produce enough food for a rapidly growing global population. Brought to the fore with the publication of the book, "The Population Bomb," by Paul R. Ehrlich in 1968, it seemed that the only way to solve this problem was to discourage people from having more children.
This concern hinged on the assumption that the world population would continue to grow exponentially, but it hasn't. While the global population is still growing, in fact it's growing at a much slower rate, as global population growth rates peaked decades ago and have halved since then.
So is this concern completely unfounded? What can future population projections tell us? Data scientist Hannah Ritchie explains why.
00:00: The overpopulation concern
02:01: Global population growth rates
02:28: The fall in global fertility rates
03:06: Amount of food produced per person
03:50: Per capita CO2 emissions
04:17: The underpopulation concern
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About Hannah Ritchie:
Hannah Ritchie is a data scientist and science communicator focused on the largest problems that shape our world, and how to solve them.
Ritchie's work focuses on environmental sustainability, including climate change, energy, food and agriculture, biodiversity, air pollution and deforestation.
Ritchie is a Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, and a researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme in Global Development, at the University of Oxford.

Опубликовано:

6 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 906

@billygauthier9512 25 дней назад

I think it would be better to think of the human population as bacteria rather than cancer. No cancer is good, but a balanced amount of bacteria is, although too much bacteria is bad for our health.

@neleig 2 дня назад

Then all species are bacteria, because we are all part of the same ecosystem and evolved from the same source. We are just a highly successful bacteria!

@carlosr192 Час назад

The good environment and food don't improve the population in the developed world... Who would say that? That's was tricky true for the science. In other hand no food couldn't stop the África growth...but they growth not pressuring the food price. The life expectancy is low as 35 years. The environment eco problem is an industrial problem but since 80's the model has improved with recycling, renewable energy and ethanol for cars. We need think more to make verdicts.

@gmenezesdea 25 дней назад

The real problem is the system works for the benefit of a handful of billionaires in detriment of the planet itself.

@bradleythebuilder8743 24 дня назад

I agree wholeheartedly, but if a critical mass of people decided that they were sick of that then it could be changed, nonviolently even.

@neelotpaldas2710 24 дня назад

& that is why we need education

@steffenh2 20 дней назад

The real problem is that while you are all right - it's a system for billionaires, we need a critical mass of people sick of this to change it, and education is key (education in Marxist theory) - , there is an ideological veil over society that does net let Big Thinkers be that explicit: let us look at class antagonism, is that something that should exist?! People getting more money out of money without working for it just because they have (inherited) it? They can only do that on the back of others who have to work for that (material!) wealth but don't have the fruit of their own labour. Now in a system that works like this - some work hard but get nothing, others hardly work and get a lot (A LOT) - it is understandable that we become greedy (both those that work a lot and want to be rewarded and those that hardly work and want to maintain that). And then we say: "oh that's human nature, we are naturally greedy!". No, let's not have an economic system, capitalism, whose driving value is greed because it creates inequality and thus recreates classes, people who are high and low value, just because of how much currency they own. In the video, she showed well that the world can be fed and that we need to tackle environmental questions but she should have said clearly that the contradictions of the capitalist system do not allow us to address demographic and environmental issues adequately. That she doesn't say this although it's obvious and that this only shows up in the comments of videos is the ideological veil I'm speaking of.

@padilijamesmikomangwa519 15 дней назад

How dumb can you be not to see the over population problem? Have you seen India, Nigeria and Bangladesh filth? How are billionaires involved?

@raminsoudbakhsh7551 14 дней назад

Greed should be a crim punishable by law.

@alexlindbjerg8283 20 дней назад

I'm not sure this video answered the question that set out to answer in the beginning. The question: Is population causing enviromental problems? One answer prompted: We are able to feed the people. I have absolutely no idea how "We are able to feed the people" is an answer to the question "Is population causing environmental problems?"

@vogrilgraywood5754 25 дней назад

Other comments have already pointed out a number of problems with this argument, but one I haven't seen is that most of the agricultural practices being used to reach such a high food output are very unsustainable and constantly depleting the soil. The idea that we can sustain billions more people is just ridiculous when many around the world are already starving and even in the US (supposed richest country in the world) people can barely afford groceries. There's a reason data scientist don't make these kinds of decisions, there's a hell of a lot more to consider than numbers and factors on a spread sheet.

@coolbreeze3 25 дней назад

That plus the dead zones from overfishing & algae plumes from chemicals we’re spilling into the oceans. We are very behind in sustaining anything.

@jonnanderson6489 25 дней назад

The problem isn't the sheer number of humans, it's the damage to the environment exacted by each individual human. If we were 7 billion hunter gatherers the damage would be far less harmful. The problems arise due to the desire of billions to possess and consume at the level of the 1%. Multiple cars, multiple homes, massive carbon footprints and massive waste. If there were only a million humans the ecosystem could probably deal with it. The open question is which will happen first, reducing human materiel ambition or reducing human population?

@Lukas-ye4wz 25 дней назад

Agreed. And what do you think is the cause of the desire to possess and consume?

@leosteeds3481 24 дня назад

The earth can’t sustain 7 billion hunter gatherers. The population per area that can be sustained in those societies is much lower. It’s about moving forward to new, more efficient systems, not going back to hunting and gathering.

@douggolden255 24 дня назад

@@AhmdHidayatIn a way, what you (and she) are saying that as long as a population is poor, then we can handle feeding us. But climate change makes it difficult to grow more food and makes living more difficult, particularly for poor people. Inflation, partially because of crop failures, makes it even more challenging for those people to live. This also doesn’t take decreasing resources, like potable water, into account.

@artistsingerwriterproducer8288 23 дня назад

The truth is true!!!

@jimmyp.6180 23 дня назад

There is no climate problem.

@jeddak 25 дней назад

It's not as simple as people seem to want to make it. Yes, population growth is slowing. Yes, food production yields have skyrocketed over the past several decades. But these yields are not sustainable - due to overuse of fertilizer, industrial monoculture farming techniques, and climate change, we will see massive food shortages. In that respect, it's good that pop. growth has slowed, but there will still be massive deprivation.

@Al-cynic 25 дней назад

Not to mention the shift to the far right in reaction to mass migration.

@worldwithoutwar8622 15 дней назад

Yes . . .Humans have been able to produce much much more crap unnatural, poisoned, unhealthy foods in order to feed a sick (over)-population . . Great solution!!!

@darinherrick9224 4 дня назад

Interestingly this modern prediction has always been false. The reason is that with larger population comes more collective problem solving ability. People simply figured to solutions faster than problems could cause devastation. It could go differently this time, but yields are so massive now the most I would expect are price shocks.

@PrayTellGaming 24 дня назад

The planet doesnt belong to humanity. We have to give space to the rest of life on Earth. Its called "ecosystem" not "humansystem."

@neleig 2 дня назад

Humans are part of the ecosystem, we just choose to ignore this fact!

@davidmclachlan6592 19 дней назад

I grew up in the sixties and seventies, UK population estimated 50 million, UK population today (2024) estimated 70 + million and still growing. That's an extra 20 million people. Today there's a severe housing shortage, an NHS that's at breaking point , overcrowded prisons, shortage of school places for children not enough doctors or dentists to cope with the number of people, infrastructure break down etc etc It's obvious to me that the UK is vastly overpopulated.

@edithskeard 13 дней назад

You are highlighting huge systemic issues but then, for some reason, point to population instead. The problem isn't families, it's policy.

@cool3884 6 дней назад

you uk people are foolish to allow certain groups of non grateful immigrants in galore. (condolences from your Indian wellwisher.)

@russelsellick316 6 дней назад

Yes and why? Mass immigration? Could be.

@jimzweighaft8079 23 дня назад

After living on the front range near Denver Colorado for 43 years, I've seen an alarming number of changes due to population increase. Traffic jams. Toll roads. Reservations required to go to Rocky Mountain National Park, Mount Blue Sky, Brainard Lake and many other venues. None of this is good.

@jimmyp.6180 23 дня назад

You're problem with more people is that they inconvenience you?

@v1kt0u5 20 дней назад

well, that doesn't represent most of the rest of the world... ... in that case the issue is high population density

@krisk5988 25 дней назад

I am not sure what arguments she is trying to make. Overpopulation isn’t a problem because birth rates have fallen? Okay, but in the countries with declining birth rates, people are typically wealthier and the carbon emissions per capita are dramatically higher. In less wealthy countries, the birth rate is higher but that’s okay because they barely use any resources? I thought that moving people out of poverty is a good thing. Since economic activity is tied to environmental disruption, at least currently, as people in these less wealthy countries increase their standard of living, this argument makes less sense. We need more people in their working age years to keep the economy moving forward? That is a problem of a population which has a rate of growth that is too low. It has nothing to do with population size. Also, how does she define “moving the economy forward”? She neglects to mention the absolute environmental destruction required to increase food production. People think the carbon cycle is a problem? Look at the nitrogen cycle. There is some population that is reasonable given a certain standard of living that falls within the constraints of what natural systems can provide. The rate at which you get there, on the decline, creates problems in how the society functions. That is the concern. The problem of overpopulation has not been “debunked”.

@thinkabout602 25 дней назад

SPOT ON !!

@user-gh3wt2uf2p 25 дней назад

Except in SOME countries in Africa, population growth is declining, even in India for example. Check the data in any media. 😅

@MrAlRats 25 дней назад

There is no problem of overpopulation. There never was. It's a myth. Population can continue to grow without any environmental consequences.

@spectrum910 25 дней назад

@@user-gh3wt2uf2pthe existing population is too much in india

@edgarvega7758 25 дней назад

Exactly, spot on. She presents questions and then answers them with a fact that might not have any correlation with the problem. The SYSTEM we have for having a decent life (shelter, food, energy) at the moment is not sustainable. And also who’s quality of life improves with an increase of population? When now in the US for the first time parents had it better that their future generations. This video was simple-minded, the topic is a complex one where there might not be a one-fit-all answer.

@qhack 25 дней назад

The UN predicts that in the next 50 years or so, the population will increase by another 2 Billion. Not sure I buy into her argument. It may not have the impact on climate change, but we already have a problem with the quality of life for much of the current population. Adding 2 Billion isn't going to help.

@michelestidhamwhitmore8313 25 дней назад

I hate these quantity over quality people. We cannot provide the people we have a quality of life but lets add more.

@user-if7vt2ni2z 25 дней назад

But that has nothing to do with the population. We have more resources availability than we ever have as a planet. Technology advancements are exponentially faster than population growth. There's so much food that obesity is a major health crisis, yet people still starve. There's so much land that the wealthy have multiple homes, and entire skyscrapers are empty, yet people are still homeless. People not getting enough access to those resources is because of greed of the powerful, plain and simple.

@my.names.robb.with.two.bs1 25 дней назад

What qualifies as quality of life? Would hot running water qualify? Would flush toilets qualify? Would heating and air conditioning qualify? Would ready-made meals qualify? Would access to all entertainment and education ever conceived qualify? All the people you think have a low quality of life have those things and much more. Most people in this country just a few decades ago didn't have those things. They got their water from hand pumps they bucketed into the house. Their toilet was outhouses. Their air conditioning was a shade tree. Their furnace was several layers of clothes. Their entertainment was humming songs and playing with rocks and sticks. They lived ignorant and died ignorant. So what qualifies as quality of life, in your view?

@WellHiddenTreasure 25 дней назад

@@michelestidhamwhitmore8313 quality of life for an average human has improved over time. You're living in more comfort than 'kings' 400 years ago. Lately it seems like we're evening out the quality between people globally which feels like your quality of life is becoming worse... But overall it's still better.

@iknowiamwrong.butstill...2073 25 дней назад

no it's just the rich countries my guy@@user-if7vt2ni2z

@justindie7543 25 дней назад

@@user-if7vt2ni2z The way I see it there are 3 solutions: 1. we keep the population the same but everyone lives like an indian. 2. we cut the population in half but everyone left gets to live like an american. or 3. americans get to live like americans and everyone else can fight over the scraps.

@MrsFeatherbottom 25 дней назад

An absolute masterclass in how to deceive with statistics. Bravo! The declining population growth argument is misleading because it forgets to mention that you are applying this growth rate to a base population that's 3x larger than it was in 1950. Global population grew by 44M from 1950-51 vs. a gain of 74M from 2023-24, a whopping 68% increase in people added annually versus 1950. For the CO2 emissions per capita argument: 1) no credible scientist would support the assumption that India and Africa could "add billions" with zero corresponding impact to their CO2 per capita rates 2) multiplying a small number BY BILLIONS still adds up to billions on a planet that should be decreasing its CO2 emissions, not increasing them.

@lynnehinkey4601 18 дней назад

As I tell my students--statistics can't lie to those who understand them, only to those who are ignorant of statistical analysis. Take a math class, folks!

@tristangibson5956 12 дней назад

It's easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of capitalism. They really demoized depopulation in this video. The real key to depopulation is educating women, giving them contraception and the right to choice and good health care

@servethesongs 11 дней назад

hey genius.. learn how to use paragraphs.. I think thats taught in grade 3

@russelsellick316 6 дней назад

CO2 is Not the danger some claim. Right now the Sahel is greening because CO2 has increased. The excess will be absorbed in plant growth.

@darinherrick9224 4 дня назад

You need to read "what to expect when no one is expecting". What you aren't getting is that birth-rate results in GENERATIONAL growth/degrowth patterns. So what happens is, less children being born. So population keeps growing, and growing... until the old people start dying. Then suddenly population falls off a cliff...and because children are born slower than old people die, the population just keeps falling and falling for decades. Economic growth goes negative, and STAYS negative until the population falls back parity. This means complete economic collapse for the 1st world, pretty much worldwide. The middle east and Africa will look rosy but Asia, Europe, and America will be ghost towns.

@clintstinkeye5607 25 дней назад

Human chauvinism is the problem. Overshoot is the problem. More humans living in unsustainable ways is the problem for all life that enables us to exist. The human ego is insultingly pompous to the very life event that allowed us to figure out how to use a thumb.

@Ozplanman1 25 дней назад

Nope. Our food production systems are unsustainable. The degradation of the environment we are wreaking as a species is unsustainable. Our manipulation of global fauna now sees a concentration of biomass into just a few food species plus ourselves, this is catastrophic for biodiversity on which we rely in more ways than we even know!

@GunterSwoboda 25 дней назад

Unfortunately, she has a rather narrow view that does not consider a deeper analysis of variables including wealth distribution, quality of life factors and economic inequalities. I’d rather pay attention ecologists who are in general very clear about the overpopulation problem. For starters we live in a finite ecosystem but believe and try to operate an infinite growth model in economics. Very disturbing.

@radhe-hp7239 2 дня назад

And she is being promoted by rich Elon Musk and bill gates

@michaelmorrissey1052 25 дней назад

Not ONCE did she even mention energy. Big Think….really?

@LukasBradley 25 дней назад

She didn't mention energy, she didn't mention pollution, she didn't mention ecological collapse due to over farming, over fishing, over encroachment. This is easily the worst "Big Think" I've watched.

@FekuEntertainmentLtd 25 дней назад

@@LukasBradley Thank you, I straight away came to the comments section after seeing the title. And now I know I don't have to watch to this Sh**

@MrAlRats 24 дня назад

@@LukasBradley Pollution and ecological collapse are not due to overpopulation. Overpopulation is such a pervasive myth that people are not willing to even consider the possibility that it may not be the root cause of all the things they have been led to believe.

@SamuelTheosmy 14 дней назад

Usually these are snippets from a longer conversation. Hopefully they'll post the full video soon.

@JoyJonas 13 дней назад

@@FekuEntertainmentLtd same here. Thank goodness for thoughtful educated commenters.

@Qoutes-Dialogues-Songs 25 дней назад

The video argues that overpopulation is not a critical global issue, citing slowed population growth and agricultural advancements. However, this view overlooks the ongoing environmental pressures from a growing population, such as resource depletion and ecological degradation. It also fails to consider the cumulative local impacts of high population growth in low-income countries, which can exacerbate poverty and environmental damage. While concerns about aging populations in wealthier countries are valid, they do not negate the significant challenges posed by overpopulation.

@user-gh3wt2uf2p 25 дней назад

Most low income countries also has a decreasing birth rate. Check the data. 😅

@vaibhavsati538 25 дней назад

@@user-gh3wt2uf2p not india / pakistan

@lilsheep23 25 дней назад

Needed to be said. Thank you. Complexity is the hobgoblin of many a youtube video.

@KrispKiwi 25 дней назад

It's also worth noting that the much of the damage our species is doing purely on the basis of habitat loss on other species as a result of our demand for resources is permanent. Anyone who tries to argue that overpopulation isn't a problem must focus on this or immediately their argument falls due to a complete lack of of compassion for others

@lilsheep23 25 дней назад

@@KrispKiwi even with no compassion for other species, biodiversity is essential to our survivial.

@jigonro 25 дней назад

Try feeding real food to the whole world, then you will realize that there is too much people.

@user-gt2cp7oz4c 24 дня назад

Compared to ten thousand years ago, humans have lowered wild mammal biomass to be only 1/5 what it was. 98% of all mammal biomass is now humans and livestock, and human and livestock biomass is 11 times what all mammal biomass was 10,00 years ago. Someone please tell me how this could possibly be workable for the longterm health of our living systems.

@danielwhyatt3278 21 день назад

It most certainly isn’t workable for the long-term.

@toadster_strudel 20 дней назад

@@user-gt2cp7oz4c I don't think they're ready for this.

@worldwithoutwar8622 15 дней назад

Totally agreed . . and we have stolen too much land from the animals etc., not allowing places where nature can thrive untouched by stupid human scientific manipulation. . .

@conscientiamngo 15 дней назад

I follow teacher Aurelien Barrau e Hubert Reeves. We are at sixth mass extinction...

@Ebenezer456 13 дней назад

Interesting stats, nice one

@ScottM1973 24 дня назад

I can't take serious about video which slanders the opposing view with talk of forced sterilizations and secret birth control conspiracies!

@peteraugust5295 21 день назад

Really things like this are the only reason I follow this channel. To see how far you can move away from actual thinking and discourse. 90% of the Videos published here are left wing, woke bullshit from the first to the last second.

@musiqueetmontagne 25 дней назад

Statisticians often ignore or are ignorant of scientific facts. This subject is so complex that a base line of facts needs to be accepted first before any ideas formulated can move on and make real progress. Study both the Milankovitch Cycles in detail along with their most recent super computer modelings alongside accepting that we are not yet at the natural cycle bottom that is glacial minimum. Temperatures will rise as we approach GM and are unstoppable. Further more understand that CO2 levels are not the most urgent problem with the environment in so far as sustaining 8-10 billion people. Our loss of natural habitats, general bio-diversity and massive decline in numbers and species of insects is a huge problem looking forward in the case of food production. The earth will continue to warm even if we had zero CO2 emissions tomorrow. We must urgently stop the destruction of natural habitats, counter chemical and waste pollution, care for the oceans that regenerate 60-70% of our oxygen and are a huge food source. As the climate warms, populations need to adapt and some move geographically over the next 100-200 years, if mankind is capable of that vision and planning. Mother earth will recover as she has done over billions of years but mankind has a choice if it wants to survive here or not. The myopic approach of just looking at rising CO2 and temperature increases without firstly addressing the above points will spell the biggest problem for mankind's future and that of most other animal species.

@artistsingerwriterproducer8288 23 дня назад

The truth is true!

@N1otAn1otherN1ame 22 дня назад

Apparently, habitat and biodiversity loss are the most important topics in which, apparently, nobody is really interested.

@scout11238 22 дня назад

I couldn't agree more! This is true.

@apmcsilva 22 дня назад

Well said!

@suneasmussen2650 18 дней назад

We don't want to be here, if we did, we'd act differently.

@kurtphilly 25 дней назад

We have massively increased the amount of food we have produced and gotten there through deforestation. Additionally we have lost a lot of farm land for suburban housing sprawl.

@shubhthepro 25 дней назад

no urban housing is 10 perecent compared to farm land or forests in world . i think you never saw world map bruhh

@kurtphilly 25 дней назад

@@shubhthepro well bruhh! Your response has nothing to do with what I said. I didn't mention urban housing and providing a percentage has nothing to do with farmland being converted to suburban housing. Less is less.

@scivolanto 25 дней назад

@@shubhthepro 10 percent is still huge, though. Suburban housing is clearly an issue.

@samsudo2730 25 дней назад

Also destroyed local ecology

@ahome3406 25 дней назад

She didn’t debunk overpopulation. She’s just saying it’s not the only problem. Her arguments about food make no sense. Those methods of producing food on massive scales are not good for the environment. Although they seemed to feed the population, the harms happen over a long term.

@bbravoo 25 дней назад

Exactly. And if we may reach a point where the population stops growing is because there was an alarm and countries like China took very strong actions. I am now saying that aging population cannot be a problem to. But if pollution can be a worse problem than food production. And CO2 is just one small type of environmental damage

@skymakai 25 дней назад

Exactly. This is what I came to say.

@aliciaux 24 дня назад

Food waste and starvation (extreme poverty, inequality) haven't been mentioned either.

@MrAlRats 24 дня назад

No. She is trying to educate people to the fact that the problems that most people attribute to overpopulation are in fact not fundamentally due to overpopulation.

@jimmyp.6180 23 дня назад

@@aliciauxso go feed them.

@gravestone4840 25 дней назад

Thats weird because I know multiple people who are actual ecologists who deal with fixing population collapse for various species and they all say that humans are on course to either see our population drop like a rock when climate change makes a large portion of our usable farmland worthless or full extinction if our activities and pollution take out a few more keystone species or ecosystems. We don't have to worry about overpopulation because there won't be many of us left who live somewhere where food can still be grown or gathered. This is why you don't hire a data scientist to explain the complicated relationships between real world ecosystems and how human civilization will likely be affected by them. The real world doesn't work or organize itself into neat little categories where exact numbers rule the day and predict outcomes. The only people who don't mind overpopulation is the super rich, more slave labor to make sure when the collapse does come only those rich people will have the resources to survive.

@LOGOS_Official 25 дней назад

Propaganda has poisoned your mind

@billygauthier9512 25 дней назад

@@LOGOS_Officialwho has the most to gain by increasing population? Multibillion dollar companies do! They depend on many poor people. The ones who gain from population decrease are the environment and future generations. If you learn more about the environment and how everything we do effects it you would not be able to deny this simple truth.

@micahgmiranda 25 дней назад

"when the collapse does come" 😂 but you can't trust the data.

@user-gh3wt2uf2p 25 дней назад

@@billygauthier9512Poor people don't consume so much. 😅😅😅

@gideonbrown4215 25 дней назад

“[Hannah Ritchie] earned her undergraduate degree in environmental geoscience and a master's degree in carbon management.” How does that foot taste?

@nigeljones7 25 дней назад

Population is an issue of equality and distribution. That's to say blaming any single issue isn't relevant in the complexity of human society. Let alone the environment. The environment is dying due to greedy 1%s. Just saying

@JoyJonas 13 дней назад

Most folks look at what wealthier people have and want more for themselves and their families.

@OpalRussell-q4z 6 дней назад

This completely fails to address overpopulation concerns. All it debunks are slightly insane overpopulation remedies from the '60s and '70s...

@beyonder7817 25 дней назад

it doesnt matter if the population is declining, but the rate at which the resources are declining and also species extinctions is surpassing the population decline so we wouldn't reach the stabilising rate probably the climate change will be irreversible before the population stabilisation

@MAKC-666 25 дней назад

For sure no problem. with large resources needed to feed so many people, and of course it is very humane to kill another species to feed a large number of new consumers for new iPhones, etc. and giant dumpsters are also the norm. so new consumers are definitely needed in even greater numbers.

@rafael2499 25 дней назад

Population vs quality of life … that is the question

@micahgmiranda 25 дней назад

That's not a question. Clearly quality of life has increased with population increase.

@coolbreeze3 25 дней назад

@@micahgmirandathat depends on how you measure quality of life. Because I don’t eat many foods anymore because they’re toxic. And even healthier foods don’t taste the same & are proven to have less nutritional value due to factory farming. Our water supply is full of toxins too. So yeah, maybe some things have improved for our comfort & safety but other things that we need to sustain a healthy lifestyle have gotten worse.

@micahgmiranda 25 дней назад

@@coolbreeze3 What does any of that have to do with overpopulation? Factory farming is not a function of overpopulation, that has to do with regulation of the industry. I would argue that as the population grows it allows for niche industries that grow organic produce to be more viable. Toxins in the water supply has nothing to do with overpopulation, again that has to do with manufacturing malpractice not overpopulation.

@coolbreeze3 25 дней назад

@@micahgmiranda because it everything I mentioned supports larger populations. It’s unsustainable.

@micahgmiranda 25 дней назад

@@coolbreeze3 that doesn't make sense. If you'd research sustainability you'll see it's about using sustainable energy sources like wind and solar or using sustainable practices like crop rotation. The real problem here is that a lack of education is unsustainable.

@m.willow11 25 дней назад

Our planet is pretty capable of preservation. I mean it did survive that cataclysmic event a while back. If it starts to tip too far on the scale, we're saddled w plagues, poor soil quality, dying oceans and climate change. We're in the throws of it already. A winnowing fork.

@purpledrank135 24 дня назад

We aren't making enough cheap laborers for the bourgeoisie. 😅 How could I even think about having kids when I can barely afford to survive... why would I drag another life into this miserable existence?

@7-ten 24 дня назад

Why not? our parents did the same with us... misery loves company I suppose...

@brianterence3211 19 дней назад

America once had a vast dust bowl region. The use of human made fertilisers later created a food productive region that changed the world for the better. In Asia used concrete was dumped in the ocean to create reefs that became richly inhabited by fish, sea weeds and shell fish. There are other examples of the planet proliferating life - thus benefitting from humans.

@popov0705 25 дней назад

Nope, still too many people. We know kids demand a lot more attention than what we give them nowadays. The more you have, logically, the more complicated it becomes to provide attention to each individually. We'd raise much healthier kids if we were having less per family. Also Humans are acting as if this planet is our own - it is not. We share it with a whole lot of other species that are as intelligent or more than us, although they use theirs differently.

@lexdeobesean 24 дня назад

I come from Malawi. The country is in a crisis in every way. One crisis is deforestation because of wood fires for cooking like they've done for thousands of years. And then the resulting erosion and floods. All a direct result of there being way way too many people.

@hamdiirza8145 7 дней назад

Nature knows best, and when nature said that this earth is can't hold much longer, there will be catastrophic consequences.

@suseendar 9 дней назад

Eventhough food production has increased, Many study suggests that the nutritional value of the food is at the all time lowest. We are just eating to fill us and not to make us healthy !

@coolbreeze3 25 дней назад

It’s amazing how much wildlife was teeming with just a few weeks of the global shutdown in 2020. Air quality was better too. If that’s not proof that there’s too many people I don’t know what is. We can’t sustain so many people with consumer mentalities when their output is mostly self serving & bad for the environment. Lots of people are waking up & no one telling us there’s something wrong with us seeing how bad things have gotten in a short period of time (gaslighting us) is gonna change that.

@pabloariza2295 25 дней назад

We're definitely clever enough to come up with a way to support. more humans without destroying the planet. like no need to be genocidal

@kmick8108 25 дней назад

Oh Pablo

@m53goldsmith 25 дней назад

The C0R0NA death rate wasn't quick enough to account for the "teeming with just a few weeks" statement above. It was that much better for wildlife because the population (not yet dented in those first few weeks) was staying home and not generating the carbon emissions as before lockdown. In fact, there was a dramatic drop in climate changing emissions almost immediately after lockdown, followed by a corresponding rise once lockdown was over (links in my reply below). Perhaps largest contributor was the dramatic drop in airplane travel and other forms of transportation. So, it's not the population that changed in that instant, it was the way we use / abuse our resources that made a huge difference.

@coolbreeze3 24 дня назад

@@m53goldsmith Your drop in flights & emissions are factors in what I stated. Where’s the contradiction? Or do people just type to argue?

@plucas1 24 дня назад

You really can't blame people way back when for not anticipating the technological advancements that allowed for much greater food production. As much as many of us have faith in steadily improving technology, we can't know for sure what technological improvements will actually pan out and which won't until they're atcually tested and tried, a process that can take many years or decades. So many people that try to project future trends tend to be very conservative on the impact of new technologies, as that's one of the biggest variables no one can really foresee.

@westrobbie 24 дня назад

Quite astonished by how poor this is. Ritchie is usually balanced and well-informed. As are Big Think videos. This is anything but. So many problems with her argument: 1. What about biodiversity loss? 2. What about deforestation? 3. What about plastic? 4. What about overfishing? 5. What about the fact millions are still starving? 6. What about the fact global population is still rising? Of course overpopulation is not the single root cause of all problems. But it is indeed a factor in many of the environmental and social problems we face. 6 out of 9 planetary boundaries have been crossed. The fact there are 8.2 billion people on the planet, twice as many as there were a mere 50 years ago, is clearly correlated! This videos shines a light on the limits of thinking through data and not through systems.

@SanjeevKumar-hn2ml 25 дней назад

Sand ,water , soil,air, forest everything is carrying the burden and lack of resources!! Insane competition to survive

@willinthearea6318 25 дней назад

So, why the hell do people move to the city to be around a lot of people and find “jobs”? Why do they need a large population to find jobs? Why aren’t people moving to the country where there’s no competition and less people?? 🤔

@bradleythebuilder8743 24 дня назад

@@willinthearea6318that’s a great point but it’s not exactly analogous to the original comment, because the humans are going to be around other humans, while in an ecosystem there are thousands of species competing for the same resources. And I would disagree with both comments to some extent because nature is much more complex than just species vying for resources against each other, it has a very specific order and balance that is maintained by the _cooperation_ of all species

@willinthearea6318 24 дня назад

@@bradleythebuilder8743 Humans aren’t competing for food with other animals. We can grow food, other animals can’t. There’s no shortage of water…. The earth is 71% water. 85% of drinking water in Israel comes from desalination. Humans are smart, we can turn salt water into drinking water if we wanted to. Only 10% of the earth is populated by human cities”. The problem is, the vast majority of our population want to consume and not produce. They want an easy life working at an office in a big city with “jobs” and spend their money on plastic. An economy is like a pyramid, it needs a working population feeding that pyramid otherwise everything falls apart. A shrinking population means death to the economy. That’s why rural areas like West Virginia and Mississippi are the poorest states in the US. If there’s no economy, that means you have to be self-sufficient and grow your own food otherwise you will starve to death. Also, our population is shrinking in many parts of the world….. Japan, Korea, white Europeans, White Australians, White Americans, White Uruguayans, white Brazilians, Sierra Leone etc…..Birth rates are going down in many places.

@karmicbreath 25 дней назад

It's not just food. It's plastic. Paper. Clothing. Lithium batteries. How much raw resources are consumed by the average person from an industrialized country? Also, look at tourism. If there's long lines to travel up Mt. Everest, there's probably too many people.

@Thomas-gk42 25 дней назад

Yes.

@timwoodger7896 25 дней назад

@@karmicbreath if there’s too many people in a line , there’s too many people 😂😂

@daniellassander 25 дней назад

Pkastic our oil reserves have never before been as high as they are today so there is no risk of us running out of plastic any time soon, paper yes trees can grow, yes plants can also grow, lithium, we have barely even looked for it, because it was so easily found in old salt basins. Its also that those things are not exactly consumed, they are used once and then return back to more earth, they dont cease to exist, most of them end up in landfills, if we do run out of fresh resources those landfills will become worth quiet a bit of money. If we look at people wanting to climb mount everest that only tells us that people have grown a lot richer and they want to feel like they have accomplished something nothing else really. But a plus side of this is that people who live in that area have become wastly much better off as they can charge ludicrous amounts of money to help them up the mountain.

@keydavis26 25 дней назад

from what you're saying consumption is our problem... Not overpopulation

@pavanbk15589 25 дней назад

Tourism is one of the most pathetic forms of activity. I used to love the idea of traveling but looking at what people do, the donkeys and horses that are used up in the North Easten India because these tourists couldnt carry their own two nuts, the animals suffering and the crowded invasive behaviors destroying the local ecosystems. Hence, I dont travel because I am just invasive somewhere else.

@marxxthespot 25 дней назад

In the shadow of unprecedented wealth inequality, a climate crisis, 6th Mass Extinction, our life sustaining topsoil and coral reefs being wiped out and multiple genocides, the richest man in the world wants us to breed like rabbits 🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇 Doesn’t anybody else think that’s weird? Apparently not this channel 👋🫠

@pavanbk15589 25 дней назад

I dont understand the video at all. She kept giving stats but nowhere she pointed evidence to say its a myth. I mean her idea is to consume till the last drop of water and last piece of fruit and the last chicken and egg. Then she may start thinking okay there's not enough. The idea of overpopulation is its not there's not enough to go around. Its that we have to destroy more forests and ecosystems to cater to the population. The idea that its harder to educate a million than how hard it is to educate 100K. We are already seeing heatwaves and temperatures killing thousands and air becoming unbreathable. Ofcourse the planet will recover but not before we go extinct cos of our own doing.

@mikepotter5718 20 дней назад

The food supply is so secure we're talking about eating insects. The water supply is so secure we;re talking about fresh water being more expensive than oil. The idea that the population isn't too high is absurd.

@edithskeard 13 дней назад

These are policy issues, not people issues. Time to put the justification for eugenics practices in the trash. Perhaps instead getting curious about our inefficient food systems and unchecked dumping into fresh water streams? Maybe even favouring native plant species, which are far more resilient and use less water than non-native counterparts? There are sustainable, life-affirming solutions well within reach.

@mikepotter5718 13 дней назад

@@edithskeard Nobody is talking eugenics. This is individual making the decision that the world is over crowded.

@ramshaka 25 дней назад

This completely fails to address overpopulation concerns. All it debunks are slightly insane overpopulation remedies from the '60s and '70s...

@danielwhyatt3278 21 день назад

Exactly. It just says that the population isn’t growing as fast as the original addicted, but it doesn’t at all address still the problems of overpopulation that genuinely would be fixed if those people weren’t there. Mainly also the fact that we produced so much food, but it’s at the expense of the environment and so much of that said food is wasted, and we predict your climate change that we won’t be able to produce it in the same way for much longer if things keep going the way they are.

@ramshaka 20 дней назад

@@danielwhyatt3278 The video commentary is actually worse... She's basically claiming that natural remedies are already addressing the issue, and suggesting that means we don't have to worry about it. The thing is we all KNOW that nature will address the issue, but those remedies, such as starvation, and sterilization, are EXACTLY what we should want to avoid. But yes, as you say, where we've increased production, it's largely unsustainable, most especially where meat products are concerned. Anyway, the whole point in pointing out the population issue, has always been more about improving quality of life, not about what kind of numbers we're capable of sustaining in theory, but what kind of numbers we can sustain in comfort... And, thing is, on that metric we've already been grossly overpopulated for some time now...

@FranzVonZeta 8 дней назад

No. What she's saying is that "overpopulation" is not the reason for climate change, nor is the reason for hunger, or overpopulated cities, or i don't know what else. "Overpopulation" is not even a term that describes the current situation, as it refers to a World with too many people, which is not the case (what is "too many" supposed to mean?). Thus, this current "overpopulation" is not a problem per se, and it doesn't make sense to address it. What we need to address is problems such as climate change, hunger, etc., but those problems would also be there with smaller World populations, and are for sure not gonna be solved by addressing this "overpopulation", they need to be addressed in other ways. She's just pointing to that fact, claiming besides that those "overpopulation" policies typically point towards the weakest people in the World, which are also the least responsible for all those problems (a message that is also quite convenient for certain people, especially in power, by the way).

@wadej769 24 дня назад

She must not live in an overcrowded polluted city where human decency and society is breaking down. Just because you can fit 100 rats in a box doesn’t mean you should

@padilijamesmikomangwa519 15 дней назад

Agreed, she lives in a first world. Let her live in slums of Kenya, India, Bangladesh and let her see what we are talking about.

@graceboxer2103 25 дней назад

The fact that over 600 people in the space of one day have debunked this ridiculous twaddle is encouraging. Let us hope that another data scientist has the opportunity to give a counter argument that overpopulation is decimating the environment, climate and other species (who have as much 'right' as humans to occupy the space).

@OMGSAMCOPSEY 25 дней назад

Unless things change fast, the worst thing you can do for your carbon footprint is have another kid.

@PhaseControlDNB 25 дней назад

I remember a few years ago I read somewhere that the Earth population is throwing away tons of food every day. I don't really remember the source and what was the exact amount of food mentioned but if it's not a false information - then there's no way we don't produce enough food for the population.

@chivasroco1752 25 дней назад

The problem is the location of the food, do you think the 500 yogurt cups a German supermarket throws out because the yogurt can't be sold anymore is going to help any starving people? How about the stale donuts of any donut chain? Sure the local homeless can get a few but nothing significant can't be done with these.

@BlankVsudo 25 дней назад

They sadistic. They prefer you as dumb, poor, and starving.

@swordchaos1181 25 дней назад

You could also argue that with more people and therefore more food production, there will also be more food waste.

@igorGriffiths 25 дней назад

The British government raised the concern about the lack of food however the Indian government retorted with the response if we reduced the amount of food waste there would be no issues with food supply

@TheTanman412 25 дней назад

30-40% of all food is thrown away. It all used to go to landfill (releasing methane w/28x warming effect of CO2, but now a lot of that is atleast composted locally or on-site, improving soil quality, while the rest is turned into biogas & biofuel which power 2-3% of the electricity grid in CA since 2021.

@tradeprosper5002 25 дней назад

The climate change argument of "The poors don't count in emissions, so more poors is fine" is highly suspect. The problem is that the world is developing, and everyone likes cars, AC, etc. The West has reduced emissions, but it has been more than offset by the developing world, especially China. In the mid 1970s, China could have been considered poor but now has emissions per capita of Europe and is the largest single emitter. Global emissions continue to climb year after year.

@scivolanto 25 дней назад

What you call developing world are the countries with the lowest fertility rate: China, S. Corea... So, fighting climate change with demography is not realistic. It should have been done like two centuries ago to work. And the reduction of emissions in the West may just be an illusion, as most of the production for the West is made in other countries. We can blame Chinese for getting richer, but they are still way below Americans regarding their consumption. So, can we ask them to stop getting richer, so that Westerners can keep getting richer? How could the accept? The only way forward, I'm afraid, is to reduce one's consumption to a sustainable level, especially in rich countries and among upper classes all over the world.

@tradeprosper5002 25 дней назад

@@scivolanto China is now developed by most standards. I don't expect the developing countries, like India, to not do it, but if they use fossil fuels as the West did, then we will get a hot planet. We need sustainable emissions, but billions moving to increased emissions is not sustainable. China now emits more than the USA and Europe combined, so what the West does is not even determinant now. USA is the second largest emitter, but India will probably overtake it by the end of the century.

@conscientiamngo 15 дней назад

No matter what she says...its already the sixth mass extinction...

@Gunslinga13 25 дней назад

Its not the amount of individuals, but the efficiency and the cost of the system that we live in. We have build a feedback loop of complexity in our society, which makes bigger and bigger imbalance and we will have to put more and more effort to keep things in motion. Moreover we tend to forget that we live in a closed system called planet Earth and every action, is contributing to changes in that system and we just don't know when the system collapse threshold will be met.

@NormCobbJrTourLife 25 дней назад

Just because you can crunch numbers and deny it doesn't make sense when urban sprawl is impacting wildlife habitat and isn't slowing down in any way whatsoever.

@johnc3273 25 дней назад

Very poor arguments. Estimates are that we need five times as many resources as we have for the level of consumption that's going on. In other words five earths are needed to maintain the current population and she saying let's have more. I've never heard the barbaric arguments that she says people are making for how to reduce population and I wouldn't agree with the ones she provided. But saying nobody's come up with a good solution for population problems is not a valid argument that there's not a population problem.

@Metaknight145 25 дней назад

Yes. The only problem with high populations is food. No other concerns or considerations. The value of labor isn't a concern, housing prices with a lot of people creating a high demand isn't a factor, to say nothing about the fact that humans evolved to live in low pop tribes not massive fucking colonies leading to massive mental health problems we already see.

@vvolfflovv 25 дней назад

Most peoples drive to work says otherwise

@mikeorick6898 25 дней назад

Of course there can be too many people. Too much pollution. Not enough food. Let's add 8 billion people to Africa and see what happens to the chimps, gorillas, rhinos, and elephants. Let's let millions of bison and horses roam the steppes, great plains, and pampas and see how many people we can feed. Living on a planet where nobody has seen the wild spaces or animals in eons is not living.

@scivolanto 25 дней назад

I suggest you watch the video.

@mikeorick6898 24 дня назад

@@scivolanto I did. I suggest you improve your reading comprehension.

@WellHiddenTreasure 25 дней назад

Food production has increased, but food nutrition has plummeted. It'd be nice to compare nutrition , because it's not about eating kilos of carbon.

@JakeSezz 25 дней назад

I was surprised there was also no mention of food waste, either.

@krisk5988 25 дней назад

Exactly. Food quality. Why are so many people so unhealthy? Also, she neglects to mention what has been done to the environment to increase food production so dramatically.

@DoriterEater 21 день назад

Our food and water supplies are absolutely under too much pressure. Also maybe make it easier for people to become citizens?? I am so confused how I keep hearing "the population is actually growing globally," but we don't see the solution. lol

@RichGrande 25 дней назад

Her PhD / general background appears to be in geosciences. Never take a data scientist seriously unless their background is statistics or mathematics straight up.

@guyfromthe80s92 24 дня назад

In the far distant future, alien archaeologists will find this video on a ssd and say: hey look how stupid these people were.

@anwardaniels1394 25 дней назад

Nothing that she has said has really convinced me of the contrary.

@kingk2405 22 дня назад

The problem is a big population who aspire to live at western world standard …and it will not happen .

@insearchofself. 23 дня назад

No valid arguments presented. Fact is we are over populated as of today, irrespective of whether or not growth rate is rising or falling. Carbon emissions case is also not well argued. Bottomline is, we need to fall back to a world population level of about 4 billion.

@huizhechen3779 25 дней назад

Hannah Ritchie must live in a sparsely populated rural area. And she's just debunking Thomas Malthus's predictions about overpopulation. She failed to mention the psychological problems created by living in densely populated urban areas where the housing is predominately vertical. I hate living in high-rise apt buildings; I hate crowded streets & sidewalks; I hate the incessant noise & constant delays in overcrowded cities (NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Taipei, London, Paris, e.g., all places I've spent much time in). Too many rats in an overcrowded cage leads to violence.

@user-gh3wt2uf2p 25 дней назад

This has nothing to do with the purpose of the video. 😅

@Jamesviolaofficial 25 дней назад

Anecdotal

@StarryNightGazing 25 дней назад

I think I found one of the neanderthals that would turn violent...

@ccederlo 25 дней назад

"Infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide." Michael Moore

@YoavHillel 25 дней назад

Not his quote

@AhmdHidayat 24 дня назад

"Infinite growth on a infinite universe is literally in all of the sci-fi movie" I guess, Dream big.

@ccederlo 24 дня назад

@@YoavHillel Then who's is it?

@AT-os6nb 25 дней назад

why do all the population estimates never seem to take into account generational population expansion....ie humans don't die as soon as they have kids they are still around when their kids and sometimes even their kids kids have kids...so a replacement rate of 2 only works when you die when they,'re born..not when you continue to live another 60+ years. add to that the increasing life span....population may decline a bit due to the boomer bubble checking out soon but long term it isn't going to decline unless birthrates continue down, lifespan declines or a major catastrophe wipes out a large portion of the bipeds here.

@PandaPanda-ud4ne 12 дней назад

Because it is NOT about general population expansion, but about WORKING AGE related Population expansion, and here, especdially, the YOUNG WORKERS, that do the heaviest lifting for the lowest pay.

@nandeepkhajuria2326 25 дней назад

What about energy? I am certain that in poor country like india people use similar or more air conditioner than any other developed countries - they have to due to climate change. 2. They also have to use cars only for travel. At this point of extreme heat they just really can't think about money or environment anymore. Its a necessity nowdays 3. The amount the plastic use per person is tremendous, which is a huge problem in itself. And literally there are a hundred more reasons.

@Distech1 25 дней назад

Learned absolutely nothing. Big Think usually a very reliable & interesting information source

@KoMerdan 25 дней назад

1804, world population eclipses ONE BILLION. 1927 (2), 1960 (3), 1975(4), 1987 (5), 1999 (6), 2011 (7), 2023 (8 BILLION). What is the real quality of life for the majority of people living today?

@Choo-choo-chookcha 25 дней назад

Better than it was during any time of the written history

@tafseerahmad7383 25 дней назад

@@Choo-choo-chookcha like really? Resources have grown but it has become way too fast paced , I don't think we are gonna last next 1000 years even

@soonny002 25 дней назад

I'm not trying to dump on African countries... But they do not produce as much Co2 emissions because they are less industrialized. You can't argue that's it's fine to increase the population there by BILLIONS (yes, she said BILLIONS) without considering poverty, unemployment, war, terrorism, and illegal mass migration. I think we need to hear more arguments from this lady because I'm not sure she has explained herself very well.

@oftenlucid 3 дня назад

I have been working with population groups for 20 some years now. I don't know anyone that is thinking forced sterilization or putting sterilants in water is a good thing. That just seems like fear mongering the Big Thinks part. Education and a fair system on living has been our approach. Where you do not need to have 5 kids to have someone take care of you in your old age. The population has more than doubled in my life time and to say that we can just keep growing is straight up irresponsible.

@darkhorseman8263 25 дней назад

When they say overpopulation, what they are saying is big business doesn't need as many workers.

@chiquita683 25 дней назад

You are the carbon they want to reduce

@justindie7543 25 дней назад

I'd say big business wants more customers to consume their products

@swansinmotion 23 дня назад

This is so ridiculously ignorant. Objectively, if resources were distributed equally, could the world sustain the current population? Of course. However, that is assuming we live in an apolitical, equitable, global society, which has never existed and will not exist for centuries to come - if ever. This is an extremely myopic point of view.

@davidfoster3625 25 дней назад

As they say hindsight is always 20/20. It is easy to say that because population growth has slowed down significantly and food production has increased significantly, that the concerns about overpopulation in the past were overblown. But when those concerned were raised there was no indication of any slowing of population or that we technology could keep up with the grown anticipated. So, what happened? Was it all just alarmism and nothing needed to be done? OR maybe, just maybe a lot of things WERE done to head off that crisis and that is why we see less population growth and higher food production today. In the 80 politician actually talked about 'population control' a lot, and some people actually heard these messaged and maybe decided that 2 or 3 kids was 'enough' instead of having 6. Industries saw a need for more efficient food production, so investments were made there, leading to change. To say that if nothing was done everything would have been fine is just as short sighted as saying the world was going to end do to overpopulation back in the 70's making the assumption that nothing would be done to address that situation back then. Humans are not a cancer. They are the only specie capably of directing their own evolution over time. They do that though adaptation based on observation and prediction and taking action based on those predictions (science to the rescue). Saying past predictions are worthless because the most dire outcome did not come to pass and ignoring the impact those predictions had on decision that alter human behavior which led to averting that worse case outcome lead to the belief that future predictions are just as worthless. Should we ignore the warning of climate change today and just have faith that everything will be find if we do nothing? If 50 years from now we have found ways to 'undo' climate change and everything is fine does that means the warning from today are worthless?

@gurdeeps 24 дня назад

Don't believe your eyes and see the world crumbling. I have some numbers which says things are great!

@joegillum 25 дней назад

Her arguments shy around the real problem here. There are too many people, period. Not too many poor people, or rich, or in this country or that. Just 'too many people'. We are an overcrowded fish tank, where the filter systems are overwhelmed and the tank is slowly dying. We either need less population overall, or new miraculous technology to 'filter the tank'. We could get that, and we may be so far gone that it's the only way out for us, frankly. We innovated our way out with food supply, now we need to do it with environmental maintenance behavior and technology.

@tads73 25 дней назад

That food is less nutritional. Weak argument.

@MilkshaketheKitten 25 дней назад

The problem is that poor countries, especially in Africa, are leading the way in population growth. .

@raycallie637 25 дней назад

Yeah let's go for 20 billion people!!! You didn't Even come close to proving, More people better.

@aethellstan 25 дней назад

this is rubbish. centring on food when there are many other aspects of the population such as energy, housing, education, medical, finances plus all the ephemera people do and use. like holidays, hobbies, furniture, white goods, shampoo, televisions and so on. the total "bill" for a population isn't simply food it's everything that makes a typical life.

@michaelmorrissey1052 25 дней назад

Bingo!

@daniellassander 25 дней назад

and nearly all of it is created by other human beings working.

@djackson4605 25 дней назад

The majority of those things aren't daily necessities and/or are luxuries. There are plenty of cultures/lifestyles that don't require 1st world country quality of life. You're just framing those things in due to your own understanding of how (your) society works. You even equated those things to a "typical life", which is obviously ignorant. You should think deeper and with a more open mind before calling something rubbish...

@user-gh3wt2uf2p 25 дней назад

@@djackson4605They don't think they repeat outdated slogans like parrots. 😅

@aethellstan 25 дней назад

@@daniellassander which means that you're putting consumerism first before the environment

@leroywalton4348 25 дней назад

We consume more resources than the earth can provide. Therefore we are too numerous as a specie.

@AbilosThrownEnder 25 дней назад

Just like she argues 1950’s didn’t account for variables changing from then to today, birth rates, food production. She doesn’t account for todays variables changing in the future. Super virus. Plant species extinction. Consumption of resources per capita. There may not be to many people but those people are definitely doing to much.

@AbilosThrownEnder 25 дней назад

I like that video editor used corn almond and coffee as the food examples. All in danger of extinction or depletion.

@h.fraziershefferiii736 22 дня назад

WATER. Life can not exist without it, and Ms. Ritchie neglected to plug that data into her calculations. Or, perhaps, she isn't aware that the supply is finite and dwindling rapidly. Accelerating climate change and growing demand is only exacerbating the problem. Keep thinking!

@chadreilly 23 дня назад

"A much slower rate" added another billion people in just 11 years, but who's counting?

@user-hc1sx3ps3o 25 дней назад

"Oxford data scientist Hannah Ritchie debunks the overpopulation myth." - I don't think so. A large and growing population can exist at a rate that exceeds the planets sustainable capacity for a time. Solutions to yesterdays food problems shown in the video - use of fossil fuels and ground water reserves will eventually be depleted and new solutions will need to be found. The graph using percentage population growth was misleading since in the base year the word population was 2.5 billion and over 3 times that in 2020... so halving of the % growth rate over the period means the number of people born today is 150% of the number in 1950. People who see the reality of the future for their children will tend to chose to have fewer children. If there is a downside to a actual world human population decline - will it be any easier for the population in 2083 than those of us alive today ?

@tedyshor 25 дней назад

Took me a while to realize "pobom" is problem , as a non native english speaker 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@ilaannwhite3094 25 дней назад

If capitalism renders the poor worse off--then there are too many people. The have-nots way outnumber the greedy upper class. Pay attention to the starving thoussnds in the world who are suffering, and while the rich get richer. No one needs billions of dollars to live. Until there is a more equal distribution of wealth and equality--we have too many people.

@Thrasalt 25 дней назад

What’s your solution to capitalism? Failed command economies that have been tried dozens of times?

@ilaannwhite3094 25 дней назад

@Thrasalt tax the wealthy, big time. No one needs millions or billions of dollars to live. Provide healthcare for all and affordable housing. Free education.

@ThePsykool8 25 дней назад

Optimum global population is 0.5 to 2 billion people. & we're fast approaching 9 billion. Infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide.

@singyedorji 25 дней назад

So will you be the first to help reduce our population?

@Wulfen73 25 дней назад

According to what? Lol

@m.willow11 25 дней назад

Who decided that number and by what means did they decide it? I'd argue that there's not enough people in some areas already. China and Japan can't sustain themselves and there's a massive worker shortage in the US. Some will say that's due to laziness. I don't think so. People are working harder than ever to keep up w prices of inflation and there's still not enough workers.

@daniellassander 25 дней назад

True if taken to the extreme, for example if all the worlds farms were as efficient as american corn farms, we could produce twice the food on half the area. Another problem is that there is no lack of land at all, and its people who grow food so as the population grows you also end up with more farmers. Then the major major problem is that you have fallen for propaganda that isnt based on reality, there are no valid studies at all that can say how many people can live on earth they are all way too simplistic, they dont take technology into account, they think that cities will only be able to grow higher and not wider, they dont take into account that we can actually make house boats or dig into the ground. We cant say if the world is overpopulated at all, are people starving, yes there are people starving today. But we can also go back in time to early 1900s when over half of the population of earth was starving and today its very few people in comparison. If we go with that alone more people is equall to less starving people, of course i dont hold that view at all. But that is the view most people take when they say we are overpopulated, they look at a few things and draw conclusions based on that.

@DieNibelungenliad 25 дней назад

The world population should decrease to less than half a billion people

@PinStratsDan 24 дня назад

No man. That is such a human centric point of view. From a biodiversity and conservation point of view, the major damage has already been done 50+ years ago. The human population was already way too big then. The fact that we now have technology that can feed billions more people doesn't make a difference to the fact that there are already too many people on this planet. It is actually a moot point now what is going to happen to the human population, except in places like Africa and South America where the populations are still exploding. There are, for instance, huge areas of Africa where there are no more large birds of prey outside of protected areas. Majorily because their prey base has been eaten by humans and they get persecuted for e.g. killing lambs. The damage is globally already irreversible in terms of habitat and biodiversity loss, at least in human time frames. Just don't be disillusioned that the human population is or was never an issue.

@1KentKent 4 дня назад

It's not a myth. There are limits to natural resources, such as land to grow food, and all the items around you that have been mined from the ground. With more people, prices will rise as these items become more expensive to obtain, resulting in more conflict and an overall lower quality of life due to scarcity. Overpopulation was a real concern worldwide and is still an issue in sub-Saharan Africa. Africa's overpopulation problem will become the world's problem in another generation, as they are unable to take care of themselves. If the world had continued the 5 child average from 70 years ago, the resulting problems from scarcity and pollution would be exponentially worse today. Imagine if we currently had an extra 3 billion people. How much extra oil and gas would have to burnt to support them? How much more CO2 would be in the air? How much worse off would our oceans be with the overfishing? The list of negatives is long with very few benefits. Currently, there are 2 billion people living who don't have air conditioning or a car. Imagine the extra stress on our resources and the pollution this will cause once they do get these simple items? The answer is to stabilize the population and slowly reduce it to match the resources that we have. Show me a country with 4 children per mother, that doesn't have extreme poverty, lack of education and oppression of women?

@mrbinc0 23 дня назад

People tend to look at numbers, statistics and scientific research that support their preconceptions and paradigms, twisting them to fit their own narrative. All other narratives are just ignored or distorted.

@iknowiamwrong.butstill...2073 25 дней назад

overpopulation is a huge problem.. just take a look at Bangladesh..

@avaandlilah8133 25 дней назад

Sorry; Not convinced; SOME indicators may show a slow down in birth rates but real problem is an increase in average CONSUMPTION. That’s of all resources across the board!! Too many people, consuming too much. It’s ok though, in the end nature will sort it all out.

@agwarden 25 дней назад

There's plenty for everyone. There are people starving, and people who are morbidly obese. Do the math.

@dosomething6975 25 дней назад

Consumerism is not even correlated to population 😅

@aethellstan 25 дней назад

@@agwarden it's not just about food. it's about the amount of resource used by people. for example if everyone lived like the average american then we would need five earths. You do the maths.

@aethellstan 25 дней назад

there is an average level of consumerism per society but obviously there are many orders of magnitude between them, even in the same culture. the op's view is still valid.

@agwarden 25 дней назад

@@aethellstan that's because America is a consumer based society, which is the problem, not population.

@chinookvalley 25 дней назад

Where do you not stand in line? Where do you get immediate service, or how long do you have to wait to see a dr? The food is horrific because it has been mass grown void of nutrients and health benefits, our water is polluted because we treat our water with poison in order to provide enough "clean" water to the masses. We are depleting our resources faster than the Earth can regenerate. We are OVERPOPULATED. It will take decades for the planet to recover. If ever.

@meandthecat4025 9 дней назад

The challenges that 8 billion people 'made', are solved by 10 billion people.

@DaviSPinheiro 22 дня назад

The problem is the food possible for this population. You don't feed only of bread, we need a lot of nutrients, and our food has less and less of this nutrients. With time, soil have less and less minerals and trace minerals essential for our health. And then people don't understand why so much autism and other problems

@nigeljones7 25 дней назад

Population is an issue! Because us rich generally whites don't share and distribute to people in need. While we've an economic system based upon consumption and therefore waste. We have no hope of survival.....

@itzhexen0 25 дней назад

Well you're kind of responsible for your own survival is what i understand.

@nigeljones7 25 дней назад

@@itzhexen0 I chose not to have children from teenage years. Just starting without a different economic system we are fcked. Is my honest opinion. Having followed the 'science' for decades. I'm 63 and self educated. I doubt you've able to name a science I haven't researched. Including social sciences like economics.

@edgarjdq 25 дней назад

So you are saying you don't have kids and you are going to die with a lot stuff because you never share?

@itzhexen0 25 дней назад

@@edgarjdq Correct.

@itzhexen0 25 дней назад

@@edgarjdq You to will no longer be with us and you cannot take it with you. Yet I bet you're trying.

@ProdJefeDelPerre0 25 дней назад

Thanos had a solution, but his solution would have just restarted the clock.

@davewheatley 25 дней назад

She didn’t mention the Simon Erhlich bet, which is relevant. Nor the idea that human ingenuity and creativity and etc., are infinite resources, which will allow us to overcome all external obstacles.