# Overpopulation activists: Do they quietly applaud disaster/epidemic/famine, etc.? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 14, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745 "2016-05-14T03:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/21 "2016-05-14T22:41:43Z")
After terrible flooding killed thousands in Bangladesh some years ago, a friend smugly said, “If people can’t control themselves [and not reproduce wildly], Mother Nature will do it.” She didn’t say how Mom knew to direct her spankings to the uncontrolled. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/22 "2016-05-14T22:50:10Z")
Malthus was a son of a bitch… Mother nature is that bitch… ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/23 "2016-05-15T02:28:42Z")
> [@](#): > > As noted, none of those big disasters has made any sort of notable dent in the world population. HIV has significantly slowed population growth in Africa. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/24 "2016-05-15T10:34:23Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > I know someone who is anti-vaxx because she thinks we should let nature cull some of the weaker immune systems from the gene pool. Of course, those people never think _they_ should be among the ones culled. Because they’re, like, important or something. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/25 "2016-05-15T13:06:24Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > HIV has significantly slowed population growth in Africa. Slowed it, perhaps, but did not stop it. Africa still is and barring something apocalyptic will continue to be overpopulated, at least in some areas, for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/26 "2016-05-15T14:29:47Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > People like, I don’t know, Stephen Hawking, who wouldn’t be able to naturally survive on their own in the wild. Which begs the friendly question, has Stephen Hawking contributed so much to humanity, that it is better for society to care for millions of severely handicapped and frustratingly unhappy people in order that one Stephen Hawking can be found among them? People don’t need to survive “in the wild” (and I never implied that), but to at least survive within society without undue and intensive personal care and a king’s ramsom in medical intervention. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/27 "2016-05-15T15:25:38Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > [This](http://post-your-secret.tumblr.com/post/13017838484/i-am-so-worried-about-overpopulation-that#note-container) is the sort of message I am alluding to in this thread. Well, that certainly proves that some “overpopulation activists” think that way. Or it could be a random anonymous Internet troll. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/28 "2016-05-15T21:23:04Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > And even that person…does he applaud deaths from disease? Or does he hold it to be a tragic result of our mistaken dependence on vaccinations? (My fingers feel dirty just typing this…) The latter. She realizes that vaccination works, she just feels we need to let the diseases slowly kill off those mose suceptible to them, thus making us stronger as a species. Shes also a naturopath/homeopath so i know shes a nutter. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/29 "2016-05-15T21:43:34Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Of course, those people never think _they_ should be among the ones culled. Because they’re, like, important or something. That’s a straw man, really. There are plenty of people who think their own lives are near-worthless. Or do you think that depressives are all believers in the infinite worth of _other_ human beings? Besides, human life is “cheap” because it’s in a glut. The “same” life is worth more or less depending on scarcity, That’s economics. ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/30 "2016-08-12T00:23:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Among the people who argue that the world is overpopulated with humans and that there needs to be substantial reduction of the human population for the betterment of the Earth and society; I’ve wondered: > > Do some of the hardliners quietly, discreetly, applaud such things as genocide, famine, epidemic, disasters, etc. that kill large numbers of people - provided that such events take place in an environmentally friendly manner? There is enough food and water to go around for everyone now. The problem is many times the food and water don’t get to the people and war, government and money get in the way of why food and water don’t get to people. I hear we have enough food and water to feed three times the earth population. Well there is a shortage of Fish now and that is to get really bad in the coming future when the population goes up. **The World Is Eating More Fish, Shortage Looms.** [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-08-18/the-world-is-eating-more-fish-shortage-looms](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-08-18/the-world-is-eating-more-fish-shortage-looms) ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/31 "2016-08-12T15:06:41Z")
I’m in a few groups with some folks concerned with overpopulation. What I see is mostly advocating for incentives for smaller families and pushing for birth control education, but I have seen some who think only some people should be allowed to reproduce and the rest should be sterilized in order to save future generations from starvation. Some seem to think veganism would save them too. I’ve never seen anyone celebrate a natural disaster though, even with the ones who claim humanity is a plague. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/32 "2016-08-12T20:18:53Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > There is enough food and water to go around for everyone now. The problem is many times the food and water don’t get to the people and war, government and money get in the way of why food and water don’t get to people. . . . There’s also the transportation and energy cost. Yes, the world has enough fresh water…but how do you get it from the Great Lakes to Chad? Yes, North and South America produce enough food to feed the world…but it’d take a lot of additional cargo ships to haul it around. Another scary thing is sustainability, vs. degradation of soil quality. Fields are salting up, or eroding away, from over-intensive agriculture. The Amazon is still seeing slash-and-burn migratory planting, followed by crop failures as the relatively thin soil gets depleted. But, definitely, you are correct that tyrannical governments – and simply apathetic governments – and financial limitations – starving populations tend not to be wealthy populations – are making things all that much worse. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/33 "2016-08-12T20:55:35Z")
The applause I have ever heard by my fellow population control advocates over large scale deaths has been purely gallows humor (i.e., laughing over a bad joke to avoid bursting into hysterical tears over the horror of the situation). For the most part, we do not want to enjoy hearing of people dying painful deaths (outside of reading Darwin Award books). We would however like people to be more serious about planning their reproductive strategies and will (sometimes gleefully, yes, but some people deserve ridicule) point out how often and many of these large scale deaths could have been prevented if a lot more birth control had been used. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/34 "2016-08-12T21:29:04Z")
George R.R. Martin wrote a poisonously funny book about a world with out-of-control population growth. Title is “Tuff Voyaging.” The upshot is that, via heroic measures, their food production is increased by a large amount (say, 300%.) They immediately undertake to increase their population by quite a bit more than that. Any damn fool can see that this can’t continue…but the masters of that world are worse than damn fools. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/35 "2016-08-12T23:04:48Z")
I remember reading articles on the subject of eliminating mosquitos entirely which said that some of those opposed to it didn’t like the fact that it would lead to fewer people dying of malaria and an increase in the population. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/36 "2016-08-13T02:18:25Z")
I suppose if things were absolutely zero-sum, I’d rather people die of malaria than of starvation… But that isn’t exactly how things balance out! (Thank God!) ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745/37 "2016-08-14T20:34:50Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Another scary thing is sustainability, vs. degradation of soil quality. Fields are salting up, or eroding away, from over-intensive agriculture. The Amazon is still seeing slash-and-burn migratory planting, followed by crop failures as the relatively thin soil gets depleted. The thin soil is not a source of nutrients, so its depletion is not a problem. Only time slash-and-burn migratory agriculture is problem if you are concerned about tropical rain forest being cut down and are converted into large-scale industrial farms. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overpopulation-activists-do-they-quietly-applaud-disaster-epidemic-famine-etc/754745.md?page=1)