I do agree that the population needs to shrink. We are completely dependent on the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers at this point. They have allowed us to exceed the natural carrying capacity of the planet by about 5 billion.

This is a highly artificial condition that cannot last forever.

Just our use of all of this nitrogen is screwing with the planetary nitrogen cycle. We are poisoning the planet with excessive nitrogen. It has to stop.

So, on a fundamental level we do agree.

But, I have been down the road with the overpopulation crowd in the 70's and the 80's. In my experience there is always a racist contingent of people in these groups. One that envisions solving overpopulation by reducing the number of POC.

It's a difficult conversation to have without animus.

Have you read "Nature's End: The Consequences of the Twentieth Century" by Whitley Strieber and James W. Kunetka?

You might find it interesting. Here's a precis.

It is 2025 and the planet is rapidly approaching environmental death. Dr. Gupta Singh, a Hindu guru with a Jim Jones-like following, has proposed the suicide, by lottery, of one-third of the world's population.

His followers have elected a Depopulationist majority in Congress. Led by journalist John Sinclair, a small group hopes to prove that Singh is a fraud.

Singh is a formidable enemy: he cancels the medical-cosmetological treatment that the 72-year-old Sinclair (who looks 46 due to the treatment) receives, causing Sinclair to age rapidly. Singh sets the feared tax police after Sinclair, alters his records, and wipes out his wealth.

Tension mounts as Sinclair stalks Singh and gains access to his "conviction", an electronic document into Singh's true identity and character. Ultimately revealing that the "random lottery" is actually fixed.

Singh is planning a "targeted" reduction in the population. Not the random one he has convinced his followers will save the planet.

It's from 1986 but I think it still speaks to the current issues.