Written by Olivia Nater | Published: December 12, 2025
The Guardian recently published an op-ed by George Monbiot in which he spreads misinformation about population concern. We sent a letter to the editor in response, which wasn’t published, so we are featuring it here.
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Re: The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction
Once again, George Monbiot is throwing around ridiculous falsehoods about population organizations, saying the only way to achieve our goal of a more sustainable population size is to commit “mass murder on an unprecedented scale.” He argues that the human population growth trajectory is set in stone, but this is simply incorrect. Small changes in fertility rates today result in very large population size differences by the end of the century.
Population models developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), for example, show that if the Sustainable Development Goal targets related to girls’ education and unmet need for family planning were met by their 2030 deadline, our global population would peak in the 2060s and decline to 6.3 billion by 2100. This is four billion people fewer than the UN’s median projection.
Accelerating girls’ and women’s empowerment is not only morally essential in its own right – it’s also critical to solving all of our environmental crises. Our population of 8.2 billion and counting is already using natural resources almost twice as fast as they can regenerate. While we desperately need to slash overconsumption by the wealthiest, per capita consumption rates will keep increasing as people rightfully escape poverty. We simply cannot afford to ignore the population factor.
Mr. Monbiot claims he is not a pronatalist – if true, then he should refrain from joining Elon Musk in fearmongering about the absurd notion of the “disappearance of society.” There are one million species hurtling towards extinction due to human activity. We are most certainly not one of them.
Sincerely,
Olivia Nater
Communications Manager
Population Connection
