12 Facts About Human overpopulation

Human overpopulation is the concept of a human population becoming too large to be sustained by its environment or resources in the long term.

Discussions of Human overpopulation follow a similar line of inquiry as Malthusianism and its Malthusian catastrophe, a hypothetical event where population exceeds agricultural capacity, causing famine or war over resources, resulting in poverty and depopulation.

Recent discussion of Human overpopulation was popularized by Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 book The Population Bomb.

Concept of Human overpopulation is controversial, with many parts of the environmental movement and academic communities disputing its premise.

The idea of Human overpopulation was a topic of some works of English-language science fiction and dystopian fiction during the latter part of the 1960s.

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Critics of Human overpopulation criticize the basic assumptions associated with these estimates.

Human overpopulation and continued population growth are considered by some, including animal rights attorney Doris Lin and philosopher Steven Best, to be an animal rights issue, as more human activity means the destruction of animal habitats and more direct killing of animals.

Some commentary has attributed depletion of non-renewable resources, such as land, food and water, to overpopulation and suggested it could lead to a diminished quality of human life.

Some proponents of Human overpopulation warn expansion of agricultural production to meet population growth is likely to have a substantial impact on the environment, and have expressed concern at usable land area becoming limited.

Paul Ehrlich proposed in The Population Bomb that rhetoric supporting the increase of city density is a means of avoiding dealing with what he views as the root problem of Human overpopulation and has been promoted by what he views as the same interests that have allegedly profited from population increase .

Influential advocates such as Betsy Hartmann consider the "myth of Human overpopulation" to be destructive as it "prevents constructive thinking and action on reproductive rights, " which acutely affects women and communities of women in poverty.

Argument of overpopulation has been criticized by some scholars and environmentalists as being racist and having roots in colonialism and white supremacy, since control and reduction of human population is often focused on the global south, instead of on overconsumption and the global north, where it occurs.