#1570 The overpopulation debate is more philosophical than empirical
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Air Date 7/8/2023
Today, we take a look at the dubious, ideologically-driven debate between overpopulation being a danger to the future of humanity and it being a dangerous myth obscuring the real issue of over-consumption
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Is Overpopulation Killing the Planet? - Ideas - Air Date 6-12-23
In the fall of 2022, humanity entered unprecedented territory when, according to the United Nations, the world’s population reached eight billion people. Journalist Bruce Livesey explores the complex issues around population growth
We discuss how we might deliberately rein in our power, starting with an urgent transition away from fossil fuels, and move from a culture of unabated growth toward a culture of sufficiency, simplicity, and resilience.
Ch. 3: Could Everything You Know About Global Population Growth Be Wrong? - WhoWhatWhy - Air Date 4-5-19
Contrary to popular and long held assumptions, global population is declining. The environmental consequences are good, the economic consequences are bad, says this podcast guest.
Ch. 4: The Dubious Overpopulation Debate - Acclimated - Air Date 8-12-20
Is overpopulation driving environmental collapse? Nope. But that hasn't stopped politicians, filmmakers, and comic book villains from making the claim. We consider the real-world consequences of two centuries of overpopulation concerns
Ch. 5: Overpopulation or overproduction? Marx vs. Malthus - International Marxist Radio - Air Date 5-31-23
Is human population growth to blame for poverty and climate change? Plenty of pundits and politicians on the right and left alike seem to think so. Knowingly or not, they repeat the reactionary ideas of the Reverend Thomas Malthus
Overpopulation and pronatalism, the role of humane education in turning the tide on human population issues, the effects of overpopulation on people, wildlife, and wild places, and simple, practical, humane solutions to the population crisis
Ch. 7: The Dangerous Myth of Overpopulation - The Wild Life - Air Date 4-8-21
Welcome to part 1 of Us, an ongoing series examining our connections and impact on the environment, sustainability, and our changing climate.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
We discuss the role that libertarian, techno-fundamentalist, anti-choice think tanks have played in fueling anti-Science propaganda on overpopulation denialism, and why these forces must be vehemently opposed for a more just and sustainable planet.
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 9: Final comments on the philosophical question behind the overpopulation debate
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | First, a quick reminder that we are in the middle of a membership drive for the month of July. |
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| 0:14.9 | Sign up through our site or on Patreon. |
| 0:17.9 | All the details are at bestofleft.com slash support, which you can find linked in the show notes. |
| 0:24.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast in which we shall take a look |
| 0:33.0 | at the dubious, ideologically driven debate between overpopulation, being a danger to the future of |
| 0:39.2 | humanity, and it being a dangerous myth, obscuring the real issue of overconsumption. |
| 0:45.2 | Sources today include Ideas, the Overpopulation podcast, Huwatt-Y, |
| 0:52.2 | Acclimated International Marxist Radio, the rewilding Earth podcast, and the Wild Life, |
| 1:00.1 | with an additional members-only clip from the Overpopulation podcast. |
| 1:04.3 | China's one-child policy is estimated to have resulted in 400 million people not being born, |
| 1:16.0 | although the country's population continued to climb and is more than 1.4 billion people today. |
| 1:21.7 | The one-child policy was rescinded in 2016 as China was facing an aging and declining population. |
| 1:28.8 | These harsh methods of population control shocked Western environmental organizations. |
| 1:34.0 | To the point where the term overpopulation became something too frayed to talk about. |
| 1:41.1 | In a fundamentally shifted the debate because a lot of people who were less concerned about |
| 1:46.6 | population but very concerned about issues of justice and fairness and equity and the coercion of |
| 1:53.1 | less powerful groups within societies saw exercises at fertility, at reducing fertility, |
| 1:59.3 | and a quote-unquote population control as basically forms of state coercion. |
| 2:05.0 | Population growth has been largely removed from contemporary debates. It's almost a verboten topic. |
| 2:15.7 | I think we created a Pandora box because we didn't discuss population growth in the right |
... |
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