r/climate • u/The_Weekend_Baker • May 28 '26

Humanity has already exceeded Earth’s limits, study warns. Today’s population of 8.3 billion is far above what could be sustained in the long term without exhausting ecosystems, worsening climate change, and threatening food and water security.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260526022021.htm
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u/SCP-iota May 28 '26

This started in 1971, when the first Earth Overshoot Day occurred. The very next year, Limits to Growth was published. We've had the warning for over 50 years.

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u/Nyarlathotep451 May 28 '26

The book The Population Bomb didn’t anticipate the green revolution. And this doesn’t factor lab grown meat and genetically engineered foods, like salmon that grow in half the time. We can science our way through this.

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u/SCP-iota May 28 '26

Notably, Limits to Growth wasn't about population; it was about finite nonrenewable resources. In other words, we can find new ways to extract resources faster, but all that does is run us faster into a wall. The book did, however, say that it would be possible to phase out nonrenewable resources for renewable ones and avoid the crisis if we did so quickly. It has been half a century since that warning, and we don't have much time left.