{"id":15413,"date":"2021-01-27T07:41:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/?p=15413"},"modified":"2021-02-15T14:40:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T01:40:42","slug":"overpopulation-and-environmentalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The flawed, dangerous idea of population control redirects the blame for societal problems to those with the least power to address them.<\/p>\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n

You may have heard people say, \u201cwe wouldn\u2019t be in a climate crisis if we had fewer people on Earth.\u201d  The overpopulation narrative<\/em> is an outdated frame that was popularized in the 1960s. It serves to redirect the blame for societal problems to those with the least power to address them. The justification goes like this: \u201cour global population is increasing to a point that the environment simply cannot support, and overpopulation is the main cause of resource depletion and climate chaos, therefore we need solutions like \u2018population control\u2019\u2014reducing the number of people to curb climate change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

While 100 companies are responsible for 70% of global CO2 emissions<\/a>, \u2018population control\u2019 keeps us focusing on individual action instead of larger, system-wide change. Instead of identifying the role of climate villains and the governments that enable environmental and climate destruction, this argument takes us in a dangerous direction. Over time, environmental groups have fed this flawed, dangerous reasoning. <\/p>\n\n

The \u2018population control\u2019 concept has racist origins<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

The Population Bomb<\/em>, a book which first popularized this idea, was based on the author Paul Ehrlich\u2019s experience in a crowded city in India. It advocates for incentives and coercion to control the population\u2014specifically targeted at non-white people. Even today when people talk about overpopulation, they are often talking about China, India, and other primarily non-white countries in the Global South. In the US, \u2018population control\u2019 has come in the form of forced sterilization of Black and Brown mothers. It has been used to justify ecofascist attacks, like the El Paso mass shooting<\/a>, where the white supremacist shooter cited anti-immigration rhetoric based in the overpopulation myth to justify targeting and killing immigrants in order to compensate for the environmental costs of white American lifestyles.<\/p>\n\n

Like any racist narrative, \u2018population control\u2019 has real-life consequences. <\/em><\/p>\n\n

In reality, people from the Global South have much lower emissions per capita, so reducing our population would not solve the climate crisis. According to a study from Oxfam in 2015<\/a>, \u201csomeone in the richest 10 percent of citizens in India uses on average just one quarter of the carbon of someone in the poorest half of the population of the United States.\u201d Most population control arguments focus on developing countries with negligible environmental impacts, rather than affluent white countries\u2014which upholds white supremacy.<\/p>\n\n

The best way to address the climate crisis is through pressuring the companies who are the root cause, and through sustainable, renewable, just and equitable distribution\u2014not by reducing the number of people on Earth.<\/p>\n\n

We must confront the 1% of billionaire CEOs and shareholders of companies who are hoarding resources, and create a system that provides for everyone on the planet sustainably.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u2018Population control\u2019 causes real harm, upholds white supremacy, and suppresses the real issues causing the climate crisis. We must be critical of harmful narratives that undermine justice and human rights under the guise of environmentalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

We must also acknowledge our<\/strong> complicity in promoting and benefiting from them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is fighting for a world where the planet AND people can thrive. This means we all have a responsibility to challenge the idea of population control as a solution to climate change every time and in every space that it comes up, and refocus our energy on real solutions to overconsumption by the wealthiest people and corporations in the world.<\/p>\n\n

Dakota Schee and Varsha Nair work for Greenpeace in the USA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The flawed, dangerous idea of population control redirects the blame for societal problems to those with the least power to address them. Like any racist narrative, \u2018population control\u2019 has real-life consequences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism","p4_og_description":"Like any racist narrative, \u2018population control\u2019 has real-life consequences. ","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16],"p4-page-type":[6],"class_list":["post-15413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\nOverpopulation and Environmentalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Overpopulation and Environmentalism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The flawed, dangerous idea of population control redirects the blame for societal problems to those with the least power to address them. Like any racist narrative, \u2018population control\u2019 has real-life consequences.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Young\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221\"},\"headline\":\"Overpopulation and Environmentalism\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\"},\"wordCount\":600,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Climate Change\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Greenpeace\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\",\"name\":\"Overpopulation and Environmentalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Overpopulation and Environmentalism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\",\"name\":\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\",\"description\":\"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221\",\"name\":\"Nick Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/a\/ACg8ocJXAN_-aMrfD7T6ibEnGzjWzprHxw_WFoPiQQUe__I7aSNfu5_q=s96-c\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/a\/ACg8ocJXAN_-aMrfD7T6ibEnGzjWzprHxw_WFoPiQQUe__I7aSNfu5_q=s96-c\",\"caption\":\"Nick Young\"},\"description\":\"I've been doing digital at Greenpeace since before Facebook. Now the head of communications at Greenpeace Aotearoa. Follow me on Bluesky or Threads\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org.nz\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/nyoung\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism","og_description":"The flawed, dangerous idea of population control redirects the blame for societal problems to those with the least power to address them. Like any racist narrative, \u2018population control\u2019 has real-life consequences.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/","og_site_name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz","article_published_time":"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nick Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_site":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nick Young","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/"},"author":{"name":"Nick Young","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221"},"headline":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism","datePublished":"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/"},"wordCount":600,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg","keywords":["Climate Change"],"articleSection":["Greenpeace"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/","name":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg","datePublished":"2021-01-26T18:41:02+00:00","dateModified":"2021-02-15T01:40:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/static\/planet4-aotearoa-stateless\/2021\/01\/df9f5b5d-gp0stseon-rise-for-climate.jpg","width":900,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/overpopulation-and-environmentalism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Overpopulation and Environmentalism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/","name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","description":"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cd74b3cb7be5f23213b8b83730534221","name":"Nick Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/a\/ACg8ocJXAN_-aMrfD7T6ibEnGzjWzprHxw_WFoPiQQUe__I7aSNfu5_q=s96-c","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/a\/ACg8ocJXAN_-aMrfD7T6ibEnGzjWzprHxw_WFoPiQQUe__I7aSNfu5_q=s96-c","caption":"Nick Young"},"description":"I've been doing digital at Greenpeace since before Facebook. Now the head of communications at Greenpeace Aotearoa. Follow me on Bluesky or Threads","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org.nz"],"url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/nyoung\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15417,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions\/15417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15413"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=15413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}