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1. LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Saturday, 03-Feb-2024 09:20:29 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

   • Ji Fu
   @fu They do say:
   
   > Population growth is a difficult topic to broach given the not-too-distant history of eugenics and ethnic cleansing practised in many nations around the world. However, Merz and colleagues insist it is important to confront the issue as population growth has cancelled out most climate gains from renewables and efficiency over the past three decades.
   
   > “It’s a question of women’s liberation, frankly,” says Barnard. “Higher levels of education lead to lower fertility rates. Who could possibly claim to be against educating girls – and if they are, why?”
   
   They also wrote:
   
   > Merz and colleagues believe that most climate “solutions” proposed so far only tackle symptoms rather than the root cause of the crisis. This, they say, leads to increasing levels of the three “levers” of overshoot: consumption, waste and population.
   
   So they did mention overpopulation a couple of times, but not by name.
   
   https://nu.federati.net/url/293272 [www theguardian com]
   • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Thursday, 01-Feb-2024 19:36:41 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     • Ji Fu
     @fu I'd say there's definitely overpopulation. But for each individual nation, reversing population growth brings the potential hazard of too many retirees for the work-age population to support.
     
     As far as I know, this hasn't happened in any nation yet, but the prospect scares political leaders (and especially nationalists, who want to fill the world with people of their nationality and loyal to their government)
     
     Also, if you're Russia and you've been preparing to start wars of reconquest since 2008 or so, the possibility of population growth soon becoming negative necessarily means that your war has to occur sooner rather than later.
   • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Saturday, 03-Feb-2024 09:26:17 UTC LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to

     • Ji Fu
     @fu But you're right that they don't say clearly that human overpopulation is a big part of what is wrecking this planet.