We lead with an update on the battle of the overpopulation billboards with Canadian politicians. Our One Planet, One Child project is posting an ad responding to MP Garnett Genuis’ ad promoting large families.

Then we turn the conversation to the overarching question that academics, politicians, and humanity as a whole struggle to answer: How can humanity move towards a common vision and process for achieving ecological sustainability and justice, before we suffer an irreversible catastrophic collapse of civilization? Those advocating for planetary protection and those fighting for social justice want the same thing.

Links:

Developing Trust: An Integrated Vision for Social and Environmental Sustainability and Justice

Justice and Sustainability

Justice and Future Generations

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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Is an advertising battle brewing? A member of Canada’s parliament has promised to run “pro-family” ads on buses in Vancouver in response to recent ads about overpopulation. Garnett Genuis has a problem with the One Planet, One Child billboard campaign, which supports informed decisions and celebrates small-family choices in the interest of reversing population growth and achieving a sustainable population.

In this episode, the World Population Balance team reviews remarks Mr. Genuis recently made to the House of Commons. We take particular exception to the notion of pursuing population growth in order to raise taxes. It’s been far too easy to get hooked on a pyramid scheme to fund social programs – where each generation must be larger than the last. We review the many reasons this is ill-advised on a full planet, not respectful of humanity, and just plain wrong. Every elected official needs to hear this episode.

Spot the ads and we’ll send you a T-shirt. Genuis has indicated he’ll run this ad on Vancouver buses:

If you spot the ad, please send us a photo and/or video of it. We’ll send a free One Planet, One Child t-shirt to anyone providing us with decent quality photos or video.

Sustainable Population Meetup – gather virtually with like-minded activists.

Saturday, November 14, 2020. More information and registration

Planet in Crisis, a pre-COP event hosted by Scientists Warning Europe: Population is the topic on day three of this free virtual event. Dave Gardner, co-host of this podcast and executive director of World Population Balance, will be one of the presenters. More information and registration 

Send us your feedback

LINKS:

Garnett Genuis Takes Aim at Anti-Family Ads in Vancouver

Brief List of Scientific Reports documenting overshoot

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

Adopt a Billboard for Your Community

Sustainable Population Meetup

Balanced View Newsletter

Overpopulation Updates via email

World Population Balance YouTube Channel

Sustainable Population Pledge

Support Our Vital Work

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

Why have One Planet, One Child billboards sprouted in Vancouver, Canada? Their presence has stirred a flurry of questions, critiques and controversy, and support. World Population Balance welcomes the conversation, so we hosted a webinar on 7 October to address the questions and criticism. This episode features the audio from that webinar.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Billboard Campaign Crowdfunding Site

Scientific Reports List from One Planet, One Child website

iPopulation App Dave used to show global population second, by second

Can All 7+ Billion of Us Live the "Good Life" Sustainably?

Sustainable Population Meetup

Balanced View Newsletter

Overpopulation Updates via email

World Population Balance YouTube Channel

Sustainable Population Pledge

Support Our Vital Work

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

The One Planet, One Child billboard campaign has generated a flurry of media coverage, social media conversation and community response. The loudest reactions have been completely off-base. In this episode, the World Population Balance staff shares and discusses some of the feedback, and demolishes the most common overpopulation myths, misconceptions and misassumptions. Accusations of racism led us to drop one ad and issue an apology for making it too easy to be misinterpreted. Those accusations and other public discomfort also led the outdoor ad company to relent to public pressure and remove several other ads.

You can get your questions about the campaign answered at a free webinar on 7 October at 6 pm PDT. Register at Why Should Canada be Talking About Overpopulation?

Contribute to bring billboards to other communities at the campaign’s crowdfunding site.

Help us replace the ads we lost. Submit your billboard design for a chance to win up to $500 in our One Planet, One Child billboard contest.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child billboard campaign

Our One Planet, One Child Declaration of Intent

Our Intentions Were Misconstrued; We Could Have Done Better

Crowdfunding website

One Planet, One Child Campaign Expands (youtube & crowdfunding video)

Billboard Contest

Why Should Canada be Talking About Overpopulation? Webinar Oct 7

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

Sex and conception are separated by contraception. Malcolm Potts and Alisha Graves, experts in reproductive health and sustainable population advocates, join us.

As World Contraception Day (26 September) approaches, Dave and Erika pick the brains of two experts, Alisha Graves and Malcolm Potts. Potts is Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, was the first chair in Population and Family Planning, and founded the Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability. Graves is President of Venture Strategies for Health and Development, a non-profit organization aiming to help stabilize global population by securing women’s freedom to choose their family size. Also in this episode: Release of the 2020 Living Planet Report.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/graves-potts

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings. 

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance. 

*Episodes from 2016-2021 were hosted by former executive director Dave Gardner and later with co-host Erika Arias, and then with co-host Nandita Bajaj.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Human civilization has been in overshoot (making unsustainable demands on the planet) since about 1970. If there was any hope we’ve changed our ways, that hope was dashed on August 22, 2020. Learn more in this episode. There are lots of contributors to overshoot, but the one most often avoided, or at least ignored, is overpopulation. In this episode we applaud a few NGOs for NOT hiding from the subject.

Also: The Australian government readily admits it depends on population growth as the main driver of economic growth, and it is hooked on economic growth. So closed borders due to COVID-19, coupled with couples choosing to delay or even decline to bring children into these dark times, is “bad news” for the nation’s growth-addicted economy.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Coronavirus Pandemic Prompts Couples to Delay Pregnancy Plans
CBS News in the U.S. 8/10/2020

Bad News for the Economy Reliant on Population Growth
ABC in Australia

Thibaud Aronson Population Voice

Crowdedplanet.org
New online resource library by Center for Biological Diversity compiling studies, reports and reviews that make the connection between human population growth and the extinction crisis.

Earth Overshoot Day– official website

Earth Overshoot Day and Population

If the World Was as Densely* Populated As...
(density/footprint analysis tool in above essay)

Manage Your Own Planet
(data analysis tool in above essay)

What Gets Left Behind for Future Generations? Reproduction and the Environment in Spey Bay, Scotland by Katharine Dow

One Planet Prosperity - Our Regulatory Strategy
Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Physicists: 90% Chance of Human Society Collapsing Within Decades

Delayed Earth Overshoot Day Points to Opportunities to Build Future in Harmony with Our Finite Planet
Earth Overshoot Day news release

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

Society can flourish with declining birth rates. That’s what the world needs to know, according to João Abegão, author of The Human Overpopulation Atlas. He wants men and women to desire a smaller family and be able to easily exercise that choice.

Our conversation with João covers depopulation panic and growth mania, civilization collapse, pessimism, overconsumption, the value of simple living, and a billboard campaign in Portugal that celebrated small families.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcasts/2020-08-11-episode-46-cold-showers-depopulation-panic-and-overpopulation-illiteracy

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

World population COULD peak in 2064 instead of sometime after 2100, according to a new world population estimate. On an overpopulated planet, a 2064 peak is far better than post-2100. But you wouldn’t know it based on the news coverage. The BBC headline read, Fertility Rate: 'Jaw-Dropping' Global Crash in Children Being Born. In this episode, we dig into the coverage and highlight how journalists’ pro-growth bias colored the reports – giving very little weight to the environmental benefits and unwarranted emphasis on the challenges economies face in adjusting to a shrinking number of consumers and workers.

Also:

• How do some overzealous sustainable population advocates turn potential allies off?
• Overpopulation Denial AND Shaming run amok at Resilience.org. Crazy Town is one of the best podcasts going, but what is the problem with the podcast’s mothership?

Email your feedback to: [email protected]

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Dear George Monbiot, Shaming Sustainable Population Advocacy Must Stop - by Dave Gardner

World population in 2100 Could be 2 Billion Below UN Forecasts, Study Suggests

Fertility Rate: 'Jaw-Dropping' Global Crash in Children Being Born

International Childfree Day (August 1)

You Had Me at Childfree (new podcast debuts August 1)

Bill and Lou’s Not So Excellent Adventure - Crazy Town podcast episode 14

A Lesson from COVID-19: Growth is Part of the Problem - by Robert Engelman

Welcome to Overshoot: Have a Nice Day – Conversation Earth Special:

• Podcast
• Radio Broadcast Version

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

World Population Day is July 11, but The Overpopulation Podcast team is renaming it World OVERpopulation Day, and we’ve taken over the website worldpopulationday.org to do it. In this episode, we lament how the United Nations avoids the subject of overpopulation in its World Population Day messaging.

We also discuss the sensitivity around the overpopulation issue that leads to discomfort with raising the issue, let alone fully discussing it, and the history and fears we believe are behind the often-false accusations of racism. The modern sustainable population movement rejects racism. It’s not on the agenda here, but we must be sensitive to mistakes of the past.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

World OVERpopulation Day Website (worldpopulationday.org)

United Nations World Population Day info

Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation (at Medium)

Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation (at worldpopulationbalance.org)

How to contact your ambassador to the United Nations:

Blue Book of contact info for all permanent missions to the U.N.

List of UN Representatives

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

Overpopulation shaming has raised its ugly head to new heights with unfounded and misleading critiques of the documentary, Planet of the Humans. We thoroughly debunk the defamation in this episode, especially the deceitful and ugly attacks by UK Guardian columnist George Monbiot and filmmaker Josh Fox. We also continue the discussion of what Planet of the Humans got right.

The controversial film, executive produced by Michael Moore, has been pummeled by some renewable energy enthusiasts as unfairly and inaccurately targeting renewables and as being “racist” for bringing up human overpopulation. World Population Balance co-hosted two webinar panel discussions of the film, and now the World Population Balance staff convenes for this third, and final (for now), conversation.

LINKS:

Episode of Useful Idiots with Michael Moore as guest

See Planet of the Humans here

Fact check section of the Planet of the Humans website

Webinars about Planet of the Humans co-hosted by World Population Balance:

Planet of the Humans: a Sequel (Webinar Part 1)
Video Version
Podcast Version

Planet of the Humans Webinar Part 2
Video Version
Podcast Version

2 Essays by Dave Gardner mentioned in this episode:

Dear George Monbiot, Shaming Sustainable Population Advocacy Must Stop
A retraction from Josh Fox, George Monbiot and others is warranted

What Does Planet of the Humans REALLY Say About Population?
Detractors are intentionally offering misleading accounts. Let’s set the record straight.

A third, related essay, published since this episode was recorded:
Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation

US Births Fall, and Virus Could Drive Them Down More

Rex Weyler On The Double Bind Of The Pandemic - Rewilding podcast Episode 48

Planet of the Censoring Humans – by Matt Taibbi

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates. 

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email