You will probably immediately think of precious-water conservation. But that is in no way how we got low-flow toilets. In an age of ever-growing Conservative economics philosophy municipalities with increasing populations were facing a demand for more water. But that would have required spending on public utilities, which would have jeopardized ideological tax cuts. So the solution was that more people needing more water infrastructure investment would just have to do with less.
Which was tricky. Because, if you have even a very basic understanding of wastewater management, you will understand that solid waste is carried through the system by the volume of water flushed with it. Less water, less push.
And so, in the subsequent years and decades after this superficially “Green” conservation measure was enacted, the very same municipalities found themselves spending large sums of money on, for example, replacing or relining sewer laterals which were failing as a result of low water flow.
And the critical lesson here was that more people need more resources. That just telling each individual to make do with less, that does not work.
And so it is with every existential problem we face today. Be it a crisis in energy or resources, sustaining a higher population will always increase the demand we make on this finite system we live in. And unless you are blind, you ought to see that we are depleting this world at a rapidly increasing rate which is not sustainable. And fundamentally, at the base of that is the number of people we are multiplying our individual need for resources by.
People do not want to deal with population. No, that is not it. People are actively aggressive toward anyone discussing overpopulation. It is a taboo subject. “More people good!” is the orthodoxy. But no matter how you want to believe otherwise, THAT is not going to work out.
