A spate of op-eds have appeared in major news publications around the world suggesting human population is going to peak in just a few decades, and we should be concerned not about population growth, but population decline. It’s an impressive publicity campaign for a new book with the same premise. But not so fast! We unpack this interesting development.

Plus: Educating women is great, but it’s not enough to solve world overpopulation. Are you reluctant to bring up the subject of human overpopulation because it might make someone uncomfortable? What if you’re an environmental journalist? Don’t you have an obligation to cover the root cause of our most urgent environmental crises? The Overpopulation Podcast team picks another bone with David Roberts at Vox and provides an update on an essay at Resilience.org suggesting the sustainability problem is just overconsumption, not overpopulation.

Also, the late science writer Isaac Asimov on our pronatal society, an update on U.S. population and trends, and an exciting forum in Washington DC on April 9.

LINKS:

Our response to the Resilience.org piece by Chris Smaje:

Yes, (Over) Population is a Problem 
On our website
At Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere

U.S. Census Data

U.S. Census Population Clock

The Vox piece we took exception to:

I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. By David Roberts at Vox

Population Matters' response to new book, Empty Planet, and the op-eds discussed in this episode)

Will the World Run Out of People? 

2017 Guttmacher Institute Study - estimating 23 million fewer births in developing regions if contraceptive needs were met 

2011 study in Science - estimating 1 billion fewer people in 2050 if we 'fast-track' girls' education

NBC piece discussed in this episode:
6 Ways Ordinary People Can Prevent Climate Change 

Project Drawdown CO2 Solutions

Climate Change Needs Behavior Change (30 behaviors report)

BBC Minute: I’m Not Having Children to Help Fight Climate Change

NY Times survey

Sustainable Population Meetup

April 9, 2019 Forum: Tackling the Population Taboo

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Yes, the world is overpopulated, but the problem is NOT too big to solve. In this roundtable discussion we’ve convened the “overpopulation solution team” from World Population Balance to offer a “sustainable future” scenario. The team paints a picture of the wonderful world that results from a population sized to match our planet.

They enumerate key benefits to having fewer people, including more affordable housing, a welcome mat for migrants, better care and nurturing of our children, and happier parents. People would be valued more, educational opportunities improve, and we might even enjoy a 20-hour workweek. 

Learn more at the World Population Balance website.

LINKS:

Living Planet Report 2018 – Told us we’ve lost 60% of the population of vertebrate species over the last 50 years. 

IPCC Report: GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5 °C – Told us we have 12 years to cut in HALF the CO2 we’re on track to emit, to have any hope of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5˚C / 2.7˚ F. 

Earth Overshoot Day - Global Footprint Network announced we had burned through a year’s worth of the Earth’s regenerative capacity by August 1, 2018. 

World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice – Warned that environmental challenges – rather than being solved  – are getting worse, thanks to our intense material consumption and rapid population growth.

Population Decline and the Great Economic Reversal by George Friedman, Chairman of Stratfor, a global intelligence firm

Does it surprise you that democracy does NOT get better with population growth? In a 1989 interview with Bill Moyers, science writer Isaac Asimov observed: “Democracy cannot survive overpopulation; human dignity cannot survive [overpopulation]; convenience and decency cannot survive [overpopulation]; as you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies, the more people there are, the less one individual matters."

In the aftermath of the midterm U.S. election in November, 2018, the World Population Balance team discusses the ways democracy is hamstrung by overpopulation. Each U.S. citizen, for example, is one of over 700,000 constituents represented by a U.S. Representative. 220 years ago, when U.S. population was 5 million (vs. today’s 325 million), just 34,000 citizens had to share a representative. Growing population also creates opportunities for disproportionate influence by moneyed interests, and it necessitates more and more regulation.

This episode includes a classic story Isaac Asimov told about sharing a bathroom, very relevant to population and regulation. The late physicist Al Bartlett, famous for writing Laws Related to Sustainability, and for his college lecture, Arithmetic, Population and Energy, wrote: “Politicians like to talk to people, but because of overpopulation, they can't talk to everyone. So they talk to a few, a self-selecting small group of wealthy and influential people. Because of this dilution, the old statement, ‘One person, one vote,’ is now being replaced by ‘One dollar, one vote.”

LINKS:

World Population Balance website

"Democracy Cannot Survive Overpopulation" – essay by Al Bartlett 

"Laws Related to Sustainability" – by Al Bartlett (scroll down to find them)

An aging and shrinking population is good for both humanity and the Earth. Philip Cafaro, philosopher and environmental ethicist, joins us.

News reports and economists exhibit collective angst about declining birth rates and the resulting aging of populations in many nations. They worry about labor shortages, upside-down pension programs, rising health care burdens and stagnating GDP. A research team at The Overpopulation Project wondered if these challenges are outweighed by the ecological advantage of a population shrinking back to a level that won’t crush the Earth.

In this episode World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner visits with one of the researchers, Philip Cafaro, professor of philosophy at Colorado State University and affiliated faculty member of CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability. Up for discussion: Can a contracting population work economically and socially?

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

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

And it warrants greater attention, not less. This roundtable discussion with the staff of World Population Balance answers the question, “Is there a problem with population?” An attempt to answer the question with a “not really” was recently published in a commentary at Resilience.org. The article, Population: What’s the Problem?, written by Chris Smaje, made some points that World Population Balance staff members believe should not stand unchallenged.

In this staff roundtable edition of the podcast, Executive Director Dave Gardner, Carolyn VandenDolder and Alan Ware examine Smaje’s premise, his characterizations, and his assumptions. Ultimately, we strongly disagree with his conclusion. You can read an article we wrote in response to Smaje: Yes, (Over)Population IS a Problem! 

LINKS:

I=PAT equation 

A Good Life for All Within Planetary Boundaries (University of Leeds study) 

Detailed fertility rate information (including nations achieving rapid fertility rate reduction) https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate

We need to put our children first. Carter Dillard and Karin Kuhlemann of the non-profit, Having Kids, explain "child-first" family planning and how it will benefit our children and make human civilization more sustainable.

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

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

We wanted to hear what you, our listeners, are thinking - about the challenges, the setbacks, and the wins in the race to achieve a sustainable world population. So we convened an online “Listeners Roundtable” for this episode.

Seven listeners joined the four members of our World Population Balance staff for this conversation, which covered: - Ways to break down the population taboo - How to improve “overpopulation literacy” around the world - Getting the topic addressed in schools - Changing the culture to make it okay again, like it was on the first Earth Day, to address overpopulation

Links:

A Call to Action on World Scientists’ Warning - The recent collaboration of several sustainable population groups:

World Population Simulator (website created by listener Christian Roehr)

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth (film mentioned by Mike Hanauer) 

Graduate student Emma Spett was surprised not that people in their twenties aren’t interested in having kids, but that they have children in spite of that feeling. She thinks, “It’s not wise to NOT be deliberate about bringing children into this new world.” Her commentary published by Having Kids, Parenting in the Anthropocene, and this conversation on The Overpopulation Podcast, raised important questions like: “Why does everyone need their own genetic offspring to feel fulfilled?” “Is freedom to choose more important than the sustained existence of our ecological and human systems?”

It just doesn’t fly anymore to get pregnant and start a family without serious consideration of all the ramifications – for that child, for the family, and for the planet. Those ramifications include the fact that the Earth is buckling today under the pressure of 7.6 billion of us. Emma’s curiosity, sensibilities and articulate way of addressing this issue inspired us to invite her to have this conversation with World Population Balance Executive Director (and host of The Overpopulation Podcast) Dave Gardner. Emma Spett is a graduate student at the University of Vermont in community development and applied economics. She’s also a fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.

Find us here: Population Balance

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Parenting in the Anthropocene by Emma Spett
• Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene by Roy Scranton
• We're Doomed. Now What? by Roy Scranton
• Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization by Roy Scranton
• Gund Institute
• Share Your Thoughts With Us
• Join Our Monthly Podcast Club
• Support this Podcast

Can 7.6 billion or more people live sustainably and happily on the planet? Can we avoid the sensitive topic of choosing smaller families simply by eating less meat, taking public transportation and turning the thermostat down in winter and up in summer?

The World Population Balance staff kicks this subject around in response to a study that concluded resource use would need to decline by a factor of two to six times for all the world’s people to live well within planetary boundaries. 

LINKS:

Oxfam From Poverty to Power Blog: "If Everyone Lived Sustainably, What Would Their Lives Be Like?" by Andrew Fanning 

Global Footprint Network: National Footprint Accounts 

College students grieve when presented the facts about overshoot. World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner picks the brain of a professor teaching a college course on human population. Chris Bystroff, Professor of Biological Sciences and Computer Science, and Director of the Bioinformatics Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shares what he’s observed about the knowledge and attitudes of young adults enrolled in his college course. Bystroff also shares exciting news about his research project to develop an easily reversible contraceptive vaccine.

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

https://www.populationbalance.org/2018-04-03-chris-bystroff-teaching-students-about-overshoot

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/