While Elon Musk erroneously claims population collapse is our biggest worry, world population is hitting 8 billion, adding the latest billion faster than any time in history. The UN has declared world population will surpass 8 billion on November 15, 2022. We persist in adding about 80 million people to the planet every year, despite overwhelming evidence we’ve outgrown our planet.

Christopher Tucker, author of A Planet of 3 Billion: Mapping Humanity’s Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future, joins Dave in a conversation intended to help cure the rampant overshoot illiteracy resulting from misguided silence on the subject. This illiteracy is demonstrated as Dave shares his new YouTube video (link below) about the 8 billion milestone.

Tucker shares his disappointment in United Nations messaging around World Population Day (July 11) and the 8 billion milestone, and Dave turns his criticism up to eleven. He makes this important point about the silence on overshoot and overpopulation:

If responsible people don’t talk about these issues, irresponsible people will – and they’ll spread disinformation and perpetuate the negative attitudes we want to avoid.

The conversation also turns to coercive pronatalism, a topic that may be new to some listeners. It’s surprisingly pervasive.

LINKS:

8 Billion is Too Many: Don’t be a Twit About Overpopulation - by Dave Gardner on Medium
(we’ll post this link here later today)

World Population Hits 8 Billion: What Do People on the Street Think? - new YouTube video by Dave Gardner
https://youtu.be/ncT-J5BsVuc

New Rule: Let the Population Collapse - Bill Maher
https://youtu.be/HB97iwcm_Qc

A Planet of 3 Billion: Mapping Humanity’s Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future - by Christopher Tucker
http://planet3billion.com/index.html

Bending the Curve by 2030: On the Path to a Population Safe Harbour - by Christopher Tucker
https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/761/515

We Know How Many People the Earth Can Support – by Christopher Tucker
Journal of Population and Sustainability December 2020
https://www.whp-journals.co.uk/JPS/article/view/657

How Many People Can the Earth Sustain? - The Stream on Al Jazeerah English  10/27/22
https://youtu.be/EStNKj5WNnI

Sustain What: How Many Billions Can a Heating, Pandemic-Wrapped Planet Support? - A Sustain What chat hosted by Earth Institute’s Andrew Revkin
https://youtu.be/KkPIyR_SrO4

Decline and Prosper! Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children
(new book debunking aging and other depopulation fears)
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91611-4

Dismissal of “Population Alarmism” is Rooted in Pronatalist Ideology - by Nandita Bajaj https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/opinion/5709-dismissal-of-population-alarmism-is-rooted-in-pronatalist-ideology

GrowthBusters Online Community
https://growthbusters.groups.io/

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth - 2011 documentary by Dave Gardner
https://tinyurl.com/growthbustersmovie

Global Footprint Network - data on biocapacity, ecological footprint and overshoot
https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

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The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/

On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.

Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.

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