Written by Olivia Nater | Published: July 30, 2025
The authors of a new book warning of depopulation driven by low fertility have been getting a lot of media attention, including in this Wall Street Journal article. We sent a letter to the editor in response, which wasn’t published, so we are featuring it here.
We encourage all our members and supporters to make their voices heard! See our media guide for advice on how to do that.
Re: The Depopulation Bomb (July 27, 2025)
Dear Editor,
Greg Ip promotes Dean Spears’ and Michael Geruso’s problematic ideology that more people is always better, without considering the many facts that disprove it. “Population growth actually makes challenges such as resource scarcity easier to solve,” he writes. If true, why is our depletion of vital resources like freshwater and forests worsening instead of improving? Our other environmental crises, from climate warming to biodiversity loss, are also escalating in step with our growing population.
By Spears’ and Geruso’s logic, the most rapidly growing countries should be fairing the best. The opposite is true — rapid population growth exacerbates poverty and hampers sustainable development. The countries with the highest birth rates are plagued by extreme human rights violations, hunger, and conflict. It is not sheer numbers that fuel human progress. It is investments in education, healthcare, and social welfare. It is ensuring that every child is wanted and given a good start in life.
Depopulation as a result of people choosing smaller families should be the least of our worries in a world teetering on the brink of environmental collapse. According to UN projections, our global population is on track to exceed 10 billion in the 2080s and to stay at that level through the end of the century. Barring catastrophic mass die-offs, no one alive today will see a global population that is smaller than today’s 8.2 billion. Let’s please focus on the real problems at hand, including the fact that we’ve already breached six of nine critical planetary boundaries due to our failure to rein in the massive, overconsuming human enterprise.
Sincerely,
Olivia Nater
Communications Manager
Population Connection
