Fred Pearce’s recent blog post on why population is not the issue shouldn’t be controversial; it’s what most sensible environmentalists have been saying for over a decade. But a quick perusal through the comments section and it is clear that there are still many in the environmental community who think population is the main culprit of environmental decline. 

So for those in this camp, I have two questions:

  1. If population is a key driver of environmental decline, what do you propose as solutions? 

  2. What in your view is the “optimum” population of planet Earth? And why?

Please, only serious and thoughtful responses. Thanks.

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UPDATE: You can now read my responses to commenters here.