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The 'overpopulation' argument in re: to environmental impacts is so harmful and supports eugenics!
Why? Let's chat...
CW: genocide, eugenics, racism, discrimination
Why? Let's chat...
CW: genocide, eugenics, racism, discrimination
First, we have to talk about some history. The origins of overpopulation come from Malthus in the 18th and 19th century.
Yes overpopulation arguments today rely upon outdated and frankly incorrect ideas from a man in the 1700s... 2/
[Yes this GIF is incorrect.]
Yes overpopulation arguments today rely upon outdated and frankly incorrect ideas from a man in the 1700s... 2/
[Yes this GIF is incorrect.]
Malthus, an economist, came up with the Malthusian Theory (overpopulation) when he realized that human population growth was exponential and resource production was linear.
That was it.
There was no incorporation of how complex human society was (or is!) in this theory. 3/
That was it.
There was no incorporation of how complex human society was (or is!) in this theory. 3/
Next, ecologists applied this to natural systems and came up with ideas such as carrying capacity.
In essence a habitat can only provide resources for a certain number of individuals of a species. Once the population exceeds this, lower survival and population declines 4/
In essence a habitat can only provide resources for a certain number of individuals of a species. Once the population exceeds this, lower survival and population declines 4/
And often you may hear ecologists talk about overpopulation or exceeding carrying capacity of a certain species.
This is *sloppy* jargon in the field but within management convos- there is nuance, a whole report on the species, & importantly we know we are making assumptions 5/
This is *sloppy* jargon in the field but within management convos- there is nuance, a whole report on the species, & importantly we know we are making assumptions 5/
What assumptions are we talking about? Well crucial to this convo: That every individual uses the same amount of resources.
We know it isn't true, but for the sake of our population models, we make that assumption and for many species it works out fine in wildlife management. 6/
We know it isn't true, but for the sake of our population models, we make that assumption and for many species it works out fine in wildlife management. 6/
But again - our wildlife population models aren't 2 lines like Malthus used. They try to realistically portray the incredibly complex natural systems.
Despite the bad jargon in ecology, we can't and shouldn't translate that back to human population numbers. 7/
Despite the bad jargon in ecology, we can't and shouldn't translate that back to human population numbers. 7/
Now back to human overpopulation -- by not being explicit about the complexity of human society and consumption, we pave the way for bad actors to do so for us.
We know just by looking around in our communities that every individual does not use the same amount of resources. 8/
We know just by looking around in our communities that every individual does not use the same amount of resources. 8/
So when things start going wrong - starvation, plague, economic depression - in our society, bad actors can add a false narrative on top of overpopulation speaking to unequal resource use.
"We are out of resources, but it isn't because of you - it's too many of X group" 9/
"We are out of resources, but it isn't because of you - it's too many of X group" 9/
How do I know this will happen? Because it has (and still does today) --
*1930s Germany enters the chat room.*
1930s Germany was in economic ruin and one way the Nazi party came in power was it scapegoated marginalized communities and blamed their resource use.
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*1930s Germany enters the chat room.*
1930s Germany was in economic ruin and one way the Nazi party came in power was it scapegoated marginalized communities and blamed their resource use.
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I'm no historian, but overpopulation was a central theme to Nazi sentiments and economic/political practice. It was an underpinning to putting these scapegoated groups into camps and why according to Nazis, they needed to be removed from society.
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Eugenics, a field of evil science, found 'differences' between groups of people and used them to rationalize these horrific events.
"This group is bad and they ruined our economy - its bc they are scientifically bad"
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"This group is bad and they ruined our economy - its bc they are scientifically bad"
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Not just in Europe circa WWII, but these practices were/are used in the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, oppression of Black people in the US, and countless disturbing and evil parts of world history.
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*pause*
This is some heavy stuff - take a moment for all the people hurt historically and today, the trauma today and generational trauma from some of these events.
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This is some heavy stuff - take a moment for all the people hurt historically and today, the trauma today and generational trauma from some of these events.
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I gave one of the more well known events, but there are so many in history in which overpopulation arguments were used to oppress people.
But let's say we have established how quickly these overpopulation arguments can be used for harm...
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But let's say we have established how quickly these overpopulation arguments can be used for harm...
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... and chat about how current overpopulation arguments are a myth.
Why do we think that we don't have enough resources? No clue.
Nothing I can find actually supports this idea.
[Although human resource use is problematic]
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Why do we think that we don't have enough resources? No clue.
Nothing I can find actually supports this idea.
[Although human resource use is problematic]
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So bear with me, ignoring environmental impact for a moment (don't worry we will be back)
There is more than enough food produced on this earth to feed the entire human population. Don't believe me - look into food waste. The majority of food waste is from overproduction.
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There is more than enough food produced on this earth to feed the entire human population. Don't believe me - look into food waste. The majority of food waste is from overproduction.
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World hunger (yes - super important problem) is about *access and equity* to those food resources, not about too many humans on the earth.
https://www.foodaidfoundation.org/world-hunger-statistics.html
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https://www.foodaidfoundation.org/world-hunger-statistics.html
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I know what everyone's knee jerk reaction is going to be. Put your knee back down.
WE ALL AGREE THAT HUMAN RESOURCE USE HAS CAUSED A MASS EXTINCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Humans* are the problem yes.
*resource use is vastly diff based on race/class
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WE ALL AGREE THAT HUMAN RESOURCE USE HAS CAUSED A MASS EXTINCTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE. Humans* are the problem yes.
*resource use is vastly diff based on race/class
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The current problem is overconsumption - we need to decouple this with population numbers. I think most people when using overpopulation arguments mean overconsumption.
Yes they correlate but !!!correlation does not mean causation!!!
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Yes they correlate but !!!correlation does not mean causation!!!
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We can't attribute overconsumption to population numbers when something like the top 1% use ~50% (read: a disproportionately high amount) of the resources.
https://twitter.com/Prof_FSultana/status/1327998386231005185
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https://twitter.com/Prof_FSultana/status/1327998386231005185
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Now why do I as a wildlife biologist care so much about this?!
I'm a population geneticist - our field has the stain of eugenics in our history. I personally feel with that history, it's our responsibility to watch for + call out harmful eugenics supporting ideas.
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I'm a population geneticist - our field has the stain of eugenics in our history. I personally feel with that history, it's our responsibility to watch for + call out harmful eugenics supporting ideas.
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I hear people everyday (colleagues in ecology too!) say things like
-"We should require a test before someone can have a baby"
-"We need a new plague, there are too many people"
-"D*mb people shouldn't have kids, it's making us d*mber as a society"
And this is eugenics!
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-"We should require a test before someone can have a baby"
-"We need a new plague, there are too many people"
-"D*mb people shouldn't have kids, it's making us d*mber as a society"
And this is eugenics!
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Here is a thread of many pop sci articles and threads that are well researched with experts (better than I) for you to read.
Don't trust my word at face value - go look this up! Use your critical thinking! Question it!
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Don't trust my word at face value - go look this up! Use your critical thinking! Question it!
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DETAILED THREAD ON THIS https://twitter.com/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1258364688435478528?s=19
