The Weight of Population: Myth-Making and Distributed Reproduction. Views from Settler Australia.

Yardena Tankel, The University of Melbourne

This paper critically interrogates enduring myths of overpopulation that underpin contemporary anxieties about Anthropogenic climate change. Drawing on qualitative narratives from my PhD research, it examines how neoliberal and colonial logics are revived under the guise of environmental concern, reconfiguring outdated population control ideologies as rational responses to ecological crises. Focusing on settler White Australia, I explore how overpopulation discourse operates as a veiled mechanism of governance that reinforces historical hierarchies of worth while concealing colonial anxieties. Grounded in the lived experiences and narratives of individuals, this inquiry reveals how the pervasive belief in ‘too many people’ on an overburdened planet is accepted as self-evident truth, reinforcing stratified and uneven reproduction. Using a reproductive justice framework, this paper analyses how unchallenged population myths solidify into accepted truths, fostering narratives that legitimize control over certain populations under the pretext of societal and environmental concerns. It introduces the concept of averted life, examining how societies manufacture disposability and manage life through climate discourse, often manifesting in uncritical everyday spaces.

Keywords: Population, Environment, and Climate Change, Gender Dynamics, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Population Policies

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