If you associate managing population with racism, sexism, Nazis, eugenics, forced abortion, or government coercion, you’re part of the problem
When people who understand our environmental problems talk about population, they have to pussyfoot around the issue since other people will almost inevitably respond with some Twitter-like attempt to checkmate them by accusing them of racism, sexism, Nazism, or promoting eugenics, forced abortion, or government coercion.
That knee-jerk association shows that person’s ignorance more than anything useful. Nazis promoted economic growth and built autobahns (highways). Should we associate economic growth and highways with fascism?
It’s time we stop backpedaling and not feel compelled to take their ignorance seriously. More humans are alive today than Earth can sustain. Humans have managed our populations since before recorded history. We can do so today with compassion and without pain or unfairness. That’s all there is to it. No one has to apologize for promoting managing our population. We don’t have to take seriously retorts like “you first” or accusations that managing population implies racism or sexism when what we’re talking about achieves the opposite.
We can’t solve our environmental problems if we don’t solve our overpopulation problems. We can’t solve them if we can’t talk about them. We can and we don’t need to apologize or bend over backward.
Look at how human population correlates with energy use for centuries. That’s no accident. Of course humans have known how to manage population.
Listening to my podcast episodes about population may help. Search my podcast episode list or my blog posts for the word population and you’ll find plenty to debunk knee-jerk responses.
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