this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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We could feed and clothe every single person on the planet right now with about one third of the resources that we use. We aren't over capacity, we're being murdered by the owners of about 100 companies across the globe that are responsible for 50% of global pollution.
For how long? The current output is unsustainable. Respectfully, you're not seeing the whole picture.
Indefinitely. Overpopulation is a lie that corporations have fed you so you blame the average person for the repercussions of corporate greed. It's the same propaganda campaign they used with littering so you don't blame the companies dumping chemical waste in rivers, and the propaganda about jaywalking that shifted the blame from car companies for lethal pedestrian accidents that eventually saw roads being designed for cars first instead of people. Recycling programs started before we had a realistic way to recycle in order to get people used to the concept for when practical ways to recycle were actually developed, but recycling companies never bothered with that. They just shipped most stuff overseas to landfills in China.
The largest freight ships in the world each individually put out more emissions annually than every car on the planet combined. During the COVID lockdowns, vehicle used dropped dramatically across the globe - by something like 80%. And yet, global emissions barely budged during that time. Because the freighters and factories and all the other things that produce substantially more pollution were still running like normal. The US throws away 50% of the food it produces every year, and most of that waste is from companies and stores throwing away perfectly good food.
Corporations are the biggest factor in climate change and the death of every ecosystem on the planet. But they have reshaped the question and shifted the blame from themselves and the wealthy to the common man.
I'm not saying that we don't have to change how we live, but while us using paper straws instead of plastic is a net good thing for the environment, even if every single person were to switch entirely, it would barely be a drop in the bucket compared to the excessive plastic waste generated by companies through single-use packaging. We need to question why companies are allowed to get away with it, not discuss how we're going to uselessly cull the population so companies can keep doing what they're doing.
Yeah, none of that addresses how we're supposed to feed >8 billion people without modern logistics and farming backed by unsustainable practices and fossil fuel use. Especially with the weather becoming so unstable.
The fastest action that we could take that would have the largest effect is to cut out all the waste that companies get away with. Stuff like using water in California on cash crops unsuitable for the climate and on grass lawns and golf courses, or telling people in Texas to shower less and drink less water because they're using it all in new AI data centers. Stopping practices like that will reduce strain on the system from multiple points by reducing energy and resource consumption both. Couple that with the ever increasing green energy use (solar/wind was cheaper than coal for the first time like 10 years back), better efficiency, and more effective materials and we'll eventually make fossil fuels too expensive to use (legislation would also help big time there). There are sustainable farming practices that have been used for centuries in areas of little farmable land that have been replaced with harmful nitrogen fertilizers shipped and sold from countries like the US. Fast fashion and consumerism, loose regulations around hazardous waste disposal, the list goes on and on.
There's massive amounts of waste in how our society works, and there's tons we can do towards fixing the world without giving up and murdering half the world so the billionaires can keep destroying the rest of it.