Net benefit of smaller human populations to environmental integrity and individual health and wellbeing

The global human population is still growing such that our collective enterprise is driving environmental catastrophe. Despite a decline in average population growth rate, we are still experiencing the highest annual increase of global human population size in the history of our species-averaging an additional 84 million people per year since 1990.

Citation:
Saraswati CM, Judge MA, Weeda LJZ, et al. Net benefit of smaller human populations to environmental integrity and individual health and wellbeing. Front Public Health. 2024;12.

Keywords:
Air pollution; child health; climate change; consumption; environment; overshoot; pediatrics; sustainability

Abstract:
The global human population is still growing such that our collective enterprise is driving environmental catastrophe. Despite a decline in average population growth rate, we are still experiencing the highest annual increase of global human population size in the history of our species-averaging an additional 84 million people per year since 1990.