For The Planet
Hear That? It’s a Tired Eco-Fascist Talking Point
A Week After Welcoming Humanity’s 8 Billionth, the Conversation is Starting to Shift from Overpopulation to Overconsumption
Overpopulation and carrying capacity are not the same thing. One, helps scientists determine population limits across a variety of species within an ecosystem. The other is a xenophobic remnant of the environmental movement’s racist origins. Fortunately, the dominant narrative is evolving socially as it is environmentally.
Sure, some might argue the human species exceeded our carrying capacity long ago. But what that argument fails to account for is, unlike most other species, human populations have wildly unequal ecological impacts per capita. For this reason amongst others, carrying capacity falls short of telling the whole picture. It is but a single variable within the broader context of population dynamics.
Origins of an Idea
Population dynamics can be traced back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to the work of economist, Thomas Malthus. While Malthus and his work influenced many of his contemporaries, notably Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, his ideas have also received plenty of pushback.
In 1798, Malthus published an essay, On the Principle of Population, raising concerns of “overpopulation” for the first time. In the essay, Malthus warned of impending resource scarcity as that rate at which humanity’s population doubled was increasing. He would go on to revise the work five times — perhaps a good indicator of the fluidity of the subject matter.
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What Malthus was famously unable to account for though is our capacity to shape various environments to suit, and even transcend, the needs of the species. But, as the sordid history of science has often shown, where the laws of nature are concerned, those seeking to justify their perceived genetic entitlement aren’t far off.
Racism in the Environmental Movement
Overpopulation by its very nature implies something of an ideal human population. It should come as little surprise then that concerns regarding overpopulation tend to find a home amongst those who claim their heritage is under threat by another (often growing) population.
Looking back at the history of the environmental movement, it would be generous to call it merely white-centric. Many early heroes advocated for plainly racist values in the name of preserving wilderness; figures like President Teddy Rosevelt and early advocates of eugenics. Roosevelt championed works like The Passing of the Great Race, written by zoologist and fellow American aristocrat, Madison Grant. In the book, Grant’s environmental concerns are deeply connected to what he perceived as the decline of “Nordic” peoples across Europe and in the United States. An influential warning that was celebrated years later by non other than Hitler himself.
More recently, well-founded concerns regarding the climate crisis appear to have given some permission to ask how many humans should call Earth home. Just last week, as we crossed the threshold of eight billion people on this planet, comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time, Bill Maher, expressed concerns of overpopulation yet again. Something he hasn’t shied away from voicing before.
And while I can wrap my head around the second-grade logic that may initially lead some to consider overpopulation, the ensuing question of who should or shouldn’t procreate should be enough to discard the notion altogether.
Standards of Living
While concerns regarding the increasing ecological impact of humans are warranted, to do so on the basis of ethnographic populations makes little sense. Unlike most species, standards of living for humans varies widely.
Consider for a moment two pods of dolphins. Ecologists are unlikely to observe one pod grossly overfishing their region while the other lives in relative equilibrium with the environment. This consistency in behavior allows ecologists to determine sustainable population figures within a specified environment. Without consistent variables and determined conditions, concepts like carrying capacity fail when considering complexity on a truly global scale.
Despite a checkered past, there is reason to celebrate new trends in the conversation. Over nearly two decades, search trends for overpopulation have been decreasing. Similarly, as the severity of the climate crisis worsens, a growing curiosity to better understand the impact of our consumption habits can be seen.
At its core, the environmental movement must be about living in harmony with our surroundings, not demonizing in-groups and out-groups. Hell, even for those who claim genetic longevity is of particular interest, there’s no surer way to bring about the end of any lineage than to close oneself off from variety. Because if nature’s taught us one thing, it’s that diversity is the key to life.
