Is the world overpopulated? Why or why not?

No, there’s just not enough energy.

We’re overpopulated with people who consume and waste more than the Earth can sustain in the long-term.

We live on a finite planet, governed by the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Aside from physical limits on resources and energy, there is also ecology and biodiversity, which we need to maintain for things like pollination, food production, and pest control.

That’s not how the term is typically used though. I only mostly only hear “overpopulated” used by nativists and racists who demand that poor countries cut their birthrates, because they imagine the tiny proportion of their country’s national product going on foreign aid (which is practically always conditional, and effectively a subsidy to increase exports) is some terrible domestic burden that’s making them poorer.

The reality is is that rich countries, mostly in the northern hemisphere, gain trillions of dollars worth in natural resources, food, and consumer products which come from the poorest countries in the world. Within these rich countries of ours, there is also internal inequality, where a few consume more in resources than everyone else combined.

tldr; we’re overpopulated with millionaires and billionaires, who will destroy civilisation and life on the planet as we know it unless we get rid of all of them, and soon.

Another way to think of it is this way: If the human population were 1% or less of what it is today, there would not be an extinction crisis for the other species, nor would the human population’s needs for food and water and energy and so on be causing environmental crises and threatening destruction of our entire ecosystem and life as we know it.

So yes. Too many humans. Though I’d say @Kropotkin ‘s answer points to one of the best and most efficient ways to address the problem.

A group of experts, supposedly, have erected a stone monument near Atlanta, Georgia. The inscription says the world should only have a maximum of 500 million people.
Right now, we are rapidly nearing 8 billion.
In 1800 the world hit 1 billion people.
In 1930 the world’s population was about 2 billion.
Every year, the world’s population grows by about 95 million. Do the math.
According to the UN, the world’s population should level off at about 11 billion just after the turn of this century. I’ll let you figure out what that means!
Having ever more people is not helping the world’s problems!

@kritiper Sure, I agree that growth can’t be infinite. At the same time, I think true overpopulation would mean that there are not enough resources to support the population, but that isn’t true. Just because resources are not distributed evenly or efficiently doesn’t mean there isn’t enough to go around. We just need less exploitation and better allocation of resources.

@Demosthenes “I think true overpopulation would mean that there are not enough resources to support the population…”

…while maintaining homeostasis with the planet. You forgot that part.

One child policy for 500 years. Free medicine, food, housing, education, infrastructure. Utopia.

@Demosthenes Knowing the generalities of humanity, I think my idea would work better because you could never, and will never, get enough people on-board to do what has to be done to stop the destruction of the environment.

Just think! If the population of the planet is increasing by 95 million per year, when the population levels off after the turn of this century, 95 million more people will die each year than were before.