this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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Science Memes

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[–] KoboldCoterie@pawb.social 98 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sounds like shrinking the population would solve the problem, as long as it's a very specific 10% that was shrunk.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 58 points 3 days ago

Just a little off the top.

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 90 points 3 days ago (3 children)

This reeks of the “noble savage” stereotype. I would be willing to bet 80% of biodiversity being in native lands has more to do with how brutally they’ve been repressed than how “in tune” with the environment they are.

They’re people too, and I see little reason to believe they wouldn’t fall to the same human flaws as the rest of us if given the chance.

[–] dumples@piefed.social 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Except the fact we have lots of evidence that native population (which also includes pre-industrial European culture) built sustainable systems which includes altering the environment. Throughout North America there tons of evidence of the use of fire was used. The classic prairie environment of the Oak Savana is only possible through burns and supports a large buffalo population. There's tons of evidence of strategic cultivation of trees and other plants within the Amazon rainforest that allow people to get food and medicine close by that to the untrained eye looks identical to the rest of the forest.

That being said some of those same people them destroy the same forest via slash and burn agriculture in order to earn a living for cash crops and more traditional agriculture. So profits is a main driver

[–] deranger@sh.itjust.works 21 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So profits is a main driver

This is exactly what I’m getting at. If these groups of humans were placed in the same scenarios that Europeans or other westerners were placed in, would they not be susceptible to the same greed that motivated them?

I do not deny that many native societies appear to live in more harmony with the environment than your average westerner. There is certainly a lot to learn there, and I believe we would do better if we emulated some of those characteristics. However, I think that we’re all susceptible to the same flaws, as we are all human.

Ultimately what I’m saying is I don’t think that natives have some superpower where they have figured out how to escape the flaws that have plagued humanity for thousands of years.

[–] dumples@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago

While I agree that people are fundamentally the same the cultural values can alter their behavior. A culture that says Human are separate and above nature who should submit to it's will acts differently than one who thinks humans are the youngest sibling to plants and animals who have lots to teach us. So by understanding cultural values, mindsets and techniques we can alter how we interact with the rest of the world.

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[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Many indigineous peoples uphold sustainability as crucial to their culture.

It is actually a common logical failing of Western thinking to assume that everyone sees the world and interacts with it the same way (like them). An unfortunate legacy of Eurocentrism during the colonial era.

The noble savage archetype itself came from Western schools of thought, and though it's now accepted as overly reductive, that doesn't mean that many Indigineous cultures do not live lives closer to nature and therefore put more thought into their ecological impact.

Indigineous cultures are layered and sophisticated. Some argue that principles of egalitarianism and self governance were introduced to englightenment thinkers through contact with Indigineous peoples in the Americas. Unfortunately a Eurocentric world view meant that crediting non European cultures for anything over most of the past 500 years has been discouraged.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

Many indigineous peoples uphold sustainability as crucial to their culture.

Many of every other nation, race, culture and creed do too.

It is actually a common logical failing of Western thinking to assume that everyone sees the world and interacts with it the same way (like them).

See how the sentence describes the crime you just committed? Philosopher, heal thyself.

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[–] TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I really dislike equating talking of ”overpopulation” with fascism.

The problem of building sustainable societies is a problem of scale. Inevitably, what a sustainable society looks like will depend on how many people that society has to provide finite resources for without causing too much environmental harm. Assuming we could agree on a lowest acceptable standard of living for everyone and a hard cap on emissions and other environmental harms of resource extraction, any population growth exceeding the rate of efficiency gains in resource extraction and resource utilization/distribution would drive a decline in that acceptable standard. And the reality is that efficiency gains are not guaranteed.

As land is finite, bigger populations by default means higher population density, requires higher extraction efficiency and scaling the average standard of living – allotment of resources and space – in line with keeping environment impact below sustainability thresholds. When using indigenous people as an example, we can note that they are often, conversely, characterized by low population density and low extraction efficiency. Despite low impact living standards, the world would not be able to accommodate a very large population relying on that as a model for sustainability.

The point is not to say that indigenous people living in traditional ways are inferior or less sustainable than people living wastefully in the global north. The point is that population/scale is a huge part in the equation, whether you’re making that point because you’re a fascist who wants to exterminate parts of the population or not.

Obviously, what is a good society with an acceptable living standard for all is hard to agree on. And so is at what point the human population exceeds the world’s capacity. But baring the invention of Star Trek like replicators, inter-planetary expansion or similar technological step-changes for humanity, every ideology infers a point of population overshoot where Earth cannot provide enough resources to offer an acceptable standard of living for its inhabitants.

[–] relianceschool@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Thank you for this thoughtful and nuanced take on the subject. It's sad that constructive discussion around population is often shut down due to the link between eugenics and population control. It's often assumed that anyone advocating for lowered population is in support of similarly dystopian/authoritarian policies, when increasing access to birth control and education has the same effect while increasing personal agency.

I would also note that the theory of evolution has been used to justify all kinds of absurd ideologies, yet we don't have a problem accepting its basic tenets.

If we accept the fact that humanity is in a state of ecological overshoot, and that overshoot is a function of population x consumption, then it's entirely reasonable to want to address both sides of the equation.

[–] VoteNixon2016@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The issue isn't population, it's consumption.

We don't need a dozen different plastic tchotchkes delivered to our doorstep the day after we order them. We don't need 64 GB of RAM for 10,000 steam games we'll never play in 4k at 60fps. We don't need to be able to order greasy piles of fast food whenever we want.

To me, blaming overpopulation for the world's problems always comes across as saying "I don't want to change my lifestyle, and if there's 6 billion fewer people, I won't have to"

[–] threeduck@aussie.zone 5 points 2 days ago

Agreed, if we all cut out meat from our diet, land the size of both of the America's and China are returned to us while still providing the same amount of food. 20% of the entire planets GHG emissions are instantly removed. Humans aren't a virus, people who refuse to change their lifestyles are.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the good vibes, they'd also love this over on LeftyMemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 7 points 2 days ago

Feel free to crosspost!

[–] Wander@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

I watched a documentary in New Zealand about fish stocks. It was talking about how the fish around New Zealand are overfished and numbers are low. Had experts talking about issues with boats and how they need no fishing areas. They had Maori on there talking about how much abundance of fish there was before the white people came. They talked about how in tune the Maori were with the land and had ways to manage stock.

The documentary finished saying the issue is still ongoing and not enough has been done. Didn't really go into why.

Well I looked it up after the majority of fishing companies are owned by the Maori and the reason the scientifically justified areas were not set as a sanctuary was because the Maori didnt agree and wanted to do things there own way that would allow them to fish at levels higher than what the science was saying is possible. On this matter New Zealand cared more about what Maori incorrectly believed over what the scientific evidence was saying to them.

People need to get off their high horse. People suck all over the world. Yea shock the people that live in mountains which remain untouched because it is shit farmland is going to have the most nature. But go to other countries and you see it's the same, well worse than white countries. Places like UK has had protected land for hundreds of years. They set up protected land in the new places they went. Areas they left like Malaysia and India are full of rubbish and monoculture. They didn't get better. Go to Indonesia and look at their beautiful islands. The tour guide said to us "look no littering sign. Only in Indonesian. Westerners don't litter but the locals do".

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

no littering sign. Only in Indonesian

Not really related, but in Japan, I came across a monolingual sign that said: "In Japanese culture, it is considered impolite to piss in public".

Westerners don’t litter but the locals do

Have you not seen how westerners behave on vacation? Maybe you got lucky, but there's a reason the tourist part of nearly every city has the most litter

[–] Wander@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Japanese are better than the westerners I'm not denying that.

Probably because thats where the most people are.

When you go to Asia most people are locals. Even driving through areas buses and trains don't stop the amount of trash is monumental.

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[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I distinctly remember being taught in 2002 in upstate New York that humans were outside of the ecosystem and not bound by the same rules and things as animals were. The teacher said that’s what made us so special.

What a fucking crime.

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[–] FarceOfWill 24 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Your meme has too many words and the four block structure makes no sense.

[–] Soulg@ani.social 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s actually “TL;DR rich people bad” but sure, pop off I guess.

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

White people do be bad tho.

Anne Hathaway, Emma Watson, Cate Blanchette....

Absolute baddies 🥵

[–] craigers@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

And the bottom 2 panels should maybe be reversed?

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[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 28 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ecofascism isn't a real ideology I don't know why people keep insisting it is. Almost seems like a deliberate psy-op to create divisions among environmentalists. But more likely people are just stupid and afraid and angry.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm not sure this person is aware what indigenous means. Unless, of course this meme is a 100% America-centric meme and largely ignores the entire rest of the world.

Also pretty funny that "eco fascism" is placed underneath what I assume are native Americans.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Switch the bottom panels in your head. They're not meant to be associated with the up row. Oop poor design choice.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 10 points 3 days ago

I get the intent, but I still think it's funny that you placed eco fascist underneath the group the native Americans.

Btw, I still don't think you know what indigenous means.

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[–] Anivia@feddit.org 9 points 3 days ago

Although I dont disagree, the argument doesn't make sense. Do you think our worlds population would be the same if we all lived like indigenous people?

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 18 points 3 days ago (11 children)

I'm tired of people pretending they are smart and problem solving by by mass murdering most humans on the planet and stopping procreation.

You don't solve a jigsaw puzzle by putting 10 pieces together and burning the rest so you dont have to deal with them.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 9 points 3 days ago

amazon, many rainforests(both amazon and mega-biodiversity of indonesia, south eas asia) is being decimated and untold species both undiscovered and rares are fast disappearing.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

There is a point burried in there that is drowned out by all the fallacious added baggage. Its disingenuous bullshit.

Indigenous Chinese or Indians or Nigerians are not protectors of the earth, just like every other industrial nation. The picture meant to frame "Indigenous" as what Canada calls the indigenous First Nations peoples. It's relying on the racist trope of the noble savage, forgetting that First Nations aren't against industrializing their lands, as long as they are included as partner beneficiaries and they don't maximize returns via egregious environmental destruction on their lands. They also generally want industrialization and trade including water treatment, sanitation and all the other goodies like internet, tv, playstations and the like.

It also targets "capitalist" without looking at the eco-horrors of every other 'ism on earth. Go have a cool tall glass of Ganges, Nile or Yellow river water and tell me how refreshing it is.

This is a shitpost carefully designed to be a lopsided attack.

[–] plyth@feddit.org 6 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Who is reading this without being part of the 10%?

[–] relianceschool@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

According to this study, an income of $38,000/year puts you in the top 10% of carbon emitters. This study puts it at €42,980, or about $50K USD. That's a little higher than the median income in N. America, Europe, and Australia.

That said, carbon emissions are just one way humans impact the environment; other facets are far less variable (we all produce about the same amount of human waste per day, for example).

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
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[–] elvis_depresley@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

what's the cutoff to be in the 90%?

[–] plyth@feddit.org 8 points 3 days ago

Wealth distribution pyramid has $100,000 as limit to top 7.7%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth

So $90,000 could be the cutoff.

Of course students don't have that. However I would include anybody into the top 10% who will own $100,000 at one point in their life which should be anybody with real estate or a private pension plan in the West.

[–] arararagi@ani.social 8 points 3 days ago

Nihilists should lead by example and remove themselves first.

[–] peteypete420@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Ima need yall to not crush a good imeperionstion that I do. I can do a great Hugo Weaving (as mr smith), and the main line that i start off with, or use in my head while saying other things, is the humans are cancer speech.

Also just.. Missssster Anderson

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