in the late 90s / early 00s i remember hearing about overpopulation and how it’s bad and how this means we should adopt kids more and have our own kids less. does anyone still care about this now? seems to have died as a talking point. maybe subsumed into sustainability?
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TFR is below replacement basically everywhere now, so we have the opposite problem (assuming overpopulation was a “problem” in the first place)
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There are periodically stories about couples apparently not having children to save the environment or not wanting to bring a child into a climate change riddled world. So yeah, mostly been incorporated into that particular issue IMO.
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Admittedly I don't think it has ever been particularly far from sustainability, when Ehrlich and Simon made their wager it was about how overpopulation was going to exhaust so many natural resources.
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I think maybe the rate slowed down/inverted faster than expected in a lot of 1st world countries, and others are expected to follow suit as they industrialize, or something
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I heard "overpopulation is a problem" for a long time. Then I heard one time that "actually we are underpopulated" and I realized it was just as believable and there was no good reason for me to believe either at the time.
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I think it had something to do with the discover of how complicated adoption is, plus all the foster care controversies
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I still see that foolishness occasionally. And yes, it's usually rolled into sustainability and global warming panic these days.
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