Overpopulation – The Human Explosion Explained
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it in population, climate, and birth-rate threads as a clear, light-hearted overview of the demographic transition.
What it is
A Kurzgesagt explainer on why the human population exploded and why growth is slowing, drawing on Our World in Data. It argues that birth rates fall as countries develop, easing overpopulation fears.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2017 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Fej · 2017-07 · on “Japan's population is falling faster than ever before”
If you're worried about overpopulation on Earth, check out Kurzgesagt's video on the topic. It's absolutely essential. [this video]
Recommends xiaq · 2017-05 · on “Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas (2012)”
The trend is universal, although some developing countries have not reached that stage yet. Kurzgesagt has a good video on this: [this video]
Recommends rocknor · 2021-06 · on “The American West is drying out. Things will get ugly”
> the likes of China and India are by far the biggest culprits while Africa is projected to quadruple it's population while rapidly industrializing. The growing number of people is the main problem. Bullshit. The western ignorance and entitlement is unreal. Americans and Europeans are responsible for the vast majority of historical CO2 emissions, while having a small fraction of the world's population. If someone is to be blamed for climate change, it's them. [LINK] What gives you the right to stop the rest of the world from industrializing? Look at the obscene CO2 emissions caused due to over-consumption in western countries: [LINK] Poor countries are going through the standard demographic
Recommends rocknor · 2021-06 · on “Australia opposes Great Barrier Reef ′in danger′ listing”
> if the 1 billion "rich people" drop their emissions down to below average then the majority of the problem will still be here. True. But the "majority" is not as big as you think. > there will be 1 billion less wealthy people Just wrong. There are lots of ways to reduce emissions without any effect in wealth. Eating less meat is one example. > for no particular net gain. Very wrong, there are huge gains: [LINK] > I advocate the radical approach of encouraging people to have less children. I knew you would say this, I was just waiting for it. Global birth rates have been in freefall for decades now, it's tragic that people don't know about it. You'd assume that supposedly "better" education
Recommends mLuby · 2023-01 · on “Should we care about people who need never exist?”
It's survivorship bias—where bias means skewed from the full distribution of choices people and societies made, not bias as in discrimination. Most of the families and societies that didn't prioritize population growth (by reproduction or immigration) aren't around to advocate for that approach's merits, whereas those that did are. Fun fact: for each human alive today there've been 15 deceased humans ever. As zombie apocalypses go, 15:1 doesn't sound too bad. Kurzgesagt has some interesting videos on human population if that's your style: [LINK] [this video]
Cites amingilani · 2018-06 · on “Three facts from “Our World in Data” that everyone should know”
Relevant Kurzgesagt video on overpopulation: [this video] I learnt about the overpopulation myth during my undergrad, but I'm continuously surprised by how many people (including Thanos) didn't know this. Edit: Here's a chart of expected population growths. It's expected to start slowing down[1] [1]: Select WORLD from the menu: [LINK]
Cites PinkMilkshake · 2018-10 · on “Scientists say halting deforestation 'just as urgent' as reducing emissions”
> China would not be where it is without the great effort (though hamfistedly implemented) it put into controlling growth I would not advocate this authoritarian approach (I'm not saying you are). Part of the solution is what you said earlier, education. But population stabilizes on it's own as a country goes through the Demographic Transition. See: [LINK] Or for something more light-hearted: [this video]
Cites kmlx · 2020-01 · on “Climate change now detectable from any single day of weather at global scale”
the overpopulation mantra has been debunked so many times already. edit: since i'm getting downvoted for pointing out the obvious, here's links pointing out that overpopulation is a myth, even a racist one in some circumstances: wapo: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] kurzgesagt: [this video] the guardian: [LINK] nytimes: [LINK] [LINK]