The Overpopulation Project
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Too many people consuming too much
The views and opinions expressed in guest blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Overpopulation Project.
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Greenwashing growth: Boulder’s climate problem
Greenwashing typically means conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about the environmental soundness of a company’s products. But governments, too, can be tempted to greenwash, as this week’s blog illustrates. Gary Wockner describes how the city council of Boulder, Colorado has declared a climate emergency, while hiding the increased emissions caused by growth through “creative”…
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TOP publishes new paper on the potential environmental impacts of EU immigration policy
Last year, TOP researchers published new policy-based population projections for the European Union. In a new companion piece, we explore the impacts of alternative immigration policies on two important EU environmental goals: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improved biodiversity conservation. We find that in both cases, less immigration, leading to smaller populations, will make…
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Five myths about population, aging and environmental sustainability
By Jane O’Sullivan, Francesco Ricciardi, Susann Roth For sustainable development, universal wellbeing should be the goal, rather than endless growth. Minimizing further growth in human populations is only part of the solution, but an essential part. Climate change has been described as one of the greatest challenges of our time. But for many Asian countries,…
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The population question: Toward a plan for global sustainability
Too often, it seems, matters of population are overlooked in discussions of global sustainability. And this is true, despite some rather obvious points: A world of, say, 5 billion people is more likely to be sustainable than one of 10 billion; and a world of 1 billion is likely more sustainable still. All things being…
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Why is Brazil a useful model in demographics?
Brazil’s transition from the demographic transition model’s stage 3 to stage 4 was fast paced and lacked government intervention. By Pete Bailey This post was originally published on the PopEd blog, see the original post here>> Over the past fifty years, Brazil has seen fertility rates drop from an average of six children/woman to less…
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TOP wraps up 2019 and prepares for the new decade
by Phil Cafaro and Frank Götmark Greetings! It’s been a busy year here at The Overpopulation Project. As many of you know, we have an active website, with a new blog almost every week and more invited authors this year. The total number of visitors to our website was 84,848 in 2019, and average monthly…
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Know the Numbers! TOP unveils new interactive population projections for the European Union
by Philip Cafaro In my experience teaching environmental ethics to college students and advocating for sustainable policies in the United States, the biggest obstacle to good discussions about population matters is ignorance about the numbers. How many people live in the United States? My students don’t know. Many environmentalists don’t know. What will the US…
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The Missing SDG – what should be added?
This past week, TOP researchers Patrícia Dérer and Jenna Dodson organized a successful seminar focused on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. As part of Act Sustainable! Week at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), participants enthusiastically discussed five potential additions to the SDGs: air quality, democratic governments, harmful chemicals, ocean…
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