Elon Musk believes Earth can sustain a global population higher than current figures

Earth can sustain a population much higher than the current number without harming the planet's ecosystem, believes billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. Known to be a big believer in the theory of inevitable population collapse, Musk again raised the issue in his recent tweet claiming the Earth doesn't have "too many people". The billionaire made this statement while responding to a tweet by White House Economic Policy reporter Emel Akan who reiterated Musk's belief in an impending population collapse in the next 20 years. 

"Earth could sustain many times its current human population and the ecosystem would be fine. We definitely don’t have “too many people", Musk wrote on Twitter.

It is pertinent to mention here that this is not the first time Musk has used the microblogging platform to draw people's attention to a shrinking global population. Earlier last month, he shared data compiled by the Wall Street Journal and warned that the fertility level in the US has remained below the sustainable levels for the last five decades. While many believe that having many children would put a strain on the limited resources of Earth, Musk even addressed the common notion of the rich having fewer kids. "I am a rare exception. Most people I know have zero or one kid", said the father of eight. 

Global population decline will occur inexorably: Study

The United Nations, in August last year, declared a "code red for humanity" over the fears of climate change and overpopulation as it predicted that the global population would rise from the current eight billion to 11 billion in 2100, which in turn would worsen the climate crisis. However, a recent demographic study backed by the Gates Foundation and published in The Lancet suggests otherwise. 

According to The Epoch Times, the study authors said that the population will peak at 9.7 billion within this century and then rapidly decline. "Once global population decline begins, it will probably continue inexorably", the authors wrote. To be specific, China is expected to lose around 668 million people by the end of this century whereas India will reportedly lose around 290 million people. Earlier a BBC report published in 2020 warned that about 23 countries, the majority of them in Europe, will see their population drop to half the current number by 2100. 

Notably, Musk has been a big critic of the UN's report on the world population and has even labelled them as "utter nonsense". The billionaire has reiterated time and again that if there are not enough people on Earth, there would not be enough people for Mars.