It's not about overpopulation

I was looking over my notes from the videos I watched and books I read before. It is a nice way to remind me of something that I thought important, and maybe useful for me now, or just in general just re-inspire me. 

I made some notes on a video about 'Overpopulation or Overconsumption'. The video and the videos I watched before this were about climate change. 

Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

So there was a discussion about whether climate change is caused by overpopulation. And this topic is one of the biggest agendas that people push, so that we, humans, can do something about overpopulation to prevent climate change.  

Of course, there was an opposite view, which was talked about in this video. I recommend you to watch it, but I will point out some interesting findings. 

Do you know that ten minutes of using a yacht is equal to the entire energy rural Africans can use in their lifetime? 

Oh yeah and I think that will be about the same energy for rural Indonesian too. 

So the problem they were talking about is that climate change's cause is not overpopulation but overconsumption from x% of wealthy people, so the problem is the income inequality. Slavery, unfair trade, make it worse, because the poor countries can't have the same distributed wealth, and this causes some wealthy people can overuse the energy because they can afford to.

If there is a fair trade, the price will be fairer, no fast fashion or fast consumption, more distributed wealth, and no one can just take over entire resources for themselves. And this will lead to more conscious consumption, while of course, we need to make an effort to have the mindset for conscious consumption. Then, conscious consumption will help in preserving the planet for humanity in the future. 

So what is offered here? it is that we should prevent only the rich to take control and take over the resources. It is ridiculous that people who have more money can use more earth's resources. The big corporations they owned is encouraging overconsumption, and also have an irresponsible way to manage the waste and resources (not only the natural resources but also the human). 

How often do you see the news about a clash between locals and big corporations? 

Have you heard about the water sources that have been sucked out dry by the mineral water company that the locals can't even get clean water in their area? 

I watched the documentary about it years ago, yet nothing really changes now. 

Oh, or do you know the river that is poisoned and stink so much because of the irresponsible textile companies in West Java that even the rice produced there contained lead?

Also, the consumerism trap that makes us believe that consumption is the only key to growth when it is mainly to serve the big corporation taking over the resources and 'rob' your money. it's not to a degree that all consumption is bad, no, not that, but the consumerism mindset actually leads us to overconsumption.

Let's not get trapped in 'their' effort of shifting our focus into overpopulation as the main problem of climate change, which is an effort the shift the blame from 'them'. It is about income inequality, the overconsumption from x% of wealthy people, and the consumption-based growth. 

Consumerism or consumption-based growth or economy probably isn't the right way, because it prevents us and blocks us from ethical consumption in general.