population environmental

Op-ed: What the media gets wrong about the new world population numbers

The last time that we lived within the productivity limits of our planet was about 50 years ago — that is a problem.

The essay the Washington Post’s editorial board recently published downplaying the population disaster is itself a disaster — a misrepresentation of the implications of a global human population that recently reached 8 billion people.


To publish an editorial on the population crisis titled, in part, “That’s probably a good thing” gives people license to consume as much as they want, to have as many super-consuming children as they want and simply get on with their day-to-day activities. It offers no hope of finding our way out of the catastrophe, of avoiding the tightly population-related existential threats of climate disruption, biodiversity extermination, toxic chemicals (likely related to the global decline in human sperm count), declines in soil quality, ground water, and other resources and escalating chances for nuclear war.

For example, Earth Overshoot Day — the day when humans have used all of the biological resources that Earth regenerates during the entire year — occurred this year on July 28. The last time we lived within the productivity limits of our planet was about 50 years ago, when the global population, at approximately 3.8 billion, was less than half of what it just reached.

World-class economist Sir Partha Dasgupta, who in 2020 completed review of the economics of biodiversity for the U.K. Treasury Department, calculated that if everyone in the world were given an annual income of about $20,000, a human population of perhaps 3.2 billion people would be able to live sustainably on our planet. Earlier estimates were even lower. The huge disparities between current gross national income per capita at $70,480 in the U.S. and $3,993 in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa seem to make it virtually impossible for humanity to live sustainably on this planet under current economic distribution. When will Americans or western Europeans be ready to give up large parts of their current standards of living to even things out globally? And as for the eight individuals who control as much money as the 3.6 billion poorest among us, they certainly don’t have any urge to level matters out either.

The Washington Post editorial board apparently doesn’t realize that neither the planet nor people react to percentages but to numbers. While “only” about 25% of people are living in misery today, at the very least malnourished, that’s two billion people. And the other 75% are busily bringing down civilization.

The editorial contains many of the long-disproved population bromides from fear of the aged to more minds bringing new ideas. It is about as dangerously misleading as anything we’ve read anywhere on a topic that affects us all so profoundly.

Other questionable population crisis coverage 

The Washington Post was not alone in questionable coverage of the population data. The New York Times accepted a fine opinion piece on population by Peter Gleick, a world-renowned expert on water and climate issues, but withdrew it to publish a column by Somini Sengupta entitled “The Population Question.” Sengupta properly recognizes the major role of the rich in emitting greenhouse gasses and the critical importance of women’s education, but then acts as if climate disruption were the only existential threat. She writes “history is littered with population control horrors” but fails to name similar “growthmania” nightmares. There certainly have been such horrors, especially in forced eugenic sterilizations in the U.S. and those trying to deal with overpopulation in India. But Sengupta does not mention horrific acts of “growthmania” that dwarf those episodes, and that were usually guided by the very same colonial and racist thinking behind population control horrors. For example, there were many millions of lives destroyed in the name of population growth from the European invasion of the Americas, not to mention the triangular slave trade and Hitler’s immense slaughter of Jewish and Slavic peoples in search of eastern “Lebensraum” and “racial purity.”

Sadly, the third prominent article we want to discuss marking the “passing 8 billion” was published in the Guardian, usually one of the best major publications on critical environmental issues. We will not bore you with an analysis of the same long-dealt-with mistakes, except to note that the author discounts the obviously massive population contribution to overconsumption. He even makes the classic mistake of focusing on numbers without considering the real world.

Time is running out 

More than 15,000 scientists have signed on to the renewed scientific warning on population-related issues.

“To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual,” the 2017 report reads. “Soon it will be too late to shift course away from our failing trajectory, and time is running out.”

As Earth passes 8 billion people, these words ring even more true. And we need more intentional, accurate reporting on the many impacts that this over-capacity creates.

Peter H. Raven is president emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis.

Paul R. Ehrlich is a Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford University.

A dry corn field

Global economic losses from climate change may be far worse than predicted, new study warns

Climate change could slash global income for the average person by 40% if temperatures rise 4C above pre-industrial levels, a new study shows, challenging decades of economic modeling.

Graham Readfearn reports for The Guardian.

Keep reading...Show less
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
Firefighters in full gear fighting a barn fire.

Urban wildfires may expose firefighters to toxic metals like lead and mercury

A new study has found that Los Angeles firefighters who battled January’s urban wildfires had significantly higher levels of mercury and lead in their blood cells than those who fought rural forest fires.

Maggie Astor reports for The New York Times.

Keep reading...Show less
A large pipe emitting water into a dirty water source.

Texas water fight pits growing cities against each other over groundwater exports

A legal battle in Central Texas reveals rising tensions as booming urban areas seek to secure groundwater supplies by pumping from rural aquifers.

Dylan Baddour reports for Inside Climate News.

Keep reading...Show less
a bridge that is lit up at night with wave breaking on a nearby lake shore in foreground.

Tribes exit pipeline negotiations in Michigan over lack of consultation

Seven Indigenous nations in Michigan have walked away from federal talks over a proposed oil pipeline tunnel, citing a lack of meaningful engagement and treaty violations.

Izzy Ross reports for Grist and Interlochen Public Radio.

In short:

  • The tribes oppose Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel project, which would replace part of a 72-year-old pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, a critical freshwater corridor between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
  • Their withdrawal follows the Army Corps of Engineers’ move to fast-track permitting under President Trump’s energy emergency order, which tribes say dismisses their environmental and legal concerns.
  • Tribal leaders and legal advocates argue that the project threatens water resources and violates both U.S. treaty obligations and international law requiring Indigenous consent.

Key quote:

“Tribal Nations are no longer willing to expend their time and resources as Cooperating Agencies just so their participation may be used by the Corps to lend credibility to a flawed [Environmental Impact Statement] process and document.”

— Letter from seven Indigenous nations to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Why this matters:

Buried beneath the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge, Line 5 has become a flashpoint in the battle over fossil fuel infrastructure, Indigenous sovereignty, and environmental protection. The aging oil and gas pipeline — operated by Canadian energy giant Enbridge — moves millions of gallons of crude and natural gas liquids daily through a region that holds 20% of the planet’s surface freshwater. A proposed tunnel to house a replacement segment beneath the lakebed has drawn fierce opposition from tribal nations, who warn it risks catastrophic spills and continued desecration of sacred territory.

Related: Trump donor’s company set to profit from Michigan pipeline deal

Red and white Dow Chemical logo on a concrete wall next to barren trees and patches of snow.

Dow seeks to replace fossil fuels with nuclear reactors at Texas plastics plant

Dow has applied for federal approval to build small nuclear reactors at its Seadrift, Texas, facility to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reduce its reliance on natural gas.

Jennifer McDermott reports for The Associated Press.

Keep reading...Show less
Person in a yellow vest installing a solar panel

DOE drops solar focus in revamp of student building competition

The U.S. Department of Energy has rebranded its long-running Solar Decathlon as a broader building design event without a competition or emphasis on renewable energy.

Christa Marshall reports for E&E News.

Keep reading...Show less
Offshore wind turbines in a line on a cloudy ocean horizon.

Offshore wind turbines may offer new habitat for key fish species

Some commercial fish like haddock and flatfish are gathering around offshore wind turbines, showing how these clean energy structures might reshape marine ecosystems.

Clare Fieseler reports for Canary Media.

Keep reading...Show less
From our Newsroom
silhouette of people holding hands by a lake at sunset

An open letter from EPA staff to the American public

“We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. We need to hold this administration accountable.”

wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.