[benstrumental]

The post focuses on countering the strawman-like argument that resource shortages are the primary threat with overpopulation. However, it is overwhelmingly clear that climate change is the biggest threat related to overpopulation, unless we are able to get carbon emissions per capita below 0 globally.

[jbotz]

And in a very real sense AGW is a resource shortage problem... the natural resource that's being depleted here is the natural carbon cycle that that kept CO2 levels fairly stable and gave us temperatures at the near optimal levels they were at during the time that civilization developed. We are "depleting" this resource by overloading it with excess CO2 and by destroying natural carbon sinks.

Natural resources aren't limited to materials, natural processes also qualify. So it is also with fresh water... we won't "run out" of water, but we are exceeding the water-recycling capacities of the biosphere and thus this absolutely essential natural resource is becoming quite scarce in a lot of places. Theoretically you can replace it with artificial processes (desalination, treating contaminated water, etc) but to do that on a scale that can replace that natural water cycle is completely beyond our technology for now.

[rr808]

Meh. Climate change is devastating for huge chunks of the planet. But the population of the hottest parts could easily move to cooler parts of the world, most of which are sparsely populated.

[benstrumental]

>But the population of the hottest parts could easily move to cooler parts of the world, most of which are sparsely populated.

I would not describe relocating billions of people hundreds to thousands of miles north, often across country borders, as easy.

This article contains some stories of a few climate refugees of today:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/23/magazine/clim...

[rr808]

I cant see the article but yes it isn't easy to be a refugee right now. However I'd think places like Siberia would actually be much better with 100 million poor people from India who could build cities from scratch (over decades of course).