Population Density and Resource Abundance: Turning the Malthusian Logic on its Head

A few months ago prominent naturalist David Attenborough told attendees at the World Economic Forum about humanity’s unsustainable population growth and his certainty that it has to “come to an end” quickly. In the meantime, he told participants, we should also eat a lot less meat. In delivering this message, Attenborough was once again echoing his long standing belief that “[a]ll of our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people, and harder – and ultimately impossible – to solve with ever more people.”

by Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurmak