Malthus’s specter and the anthropocene

Abstract

Hegemonic narratives and practices around environmental change, even when coming from concerned and seemingly progressive fronts, often contribute to a larger project of population control. The Malthusian specter of overpopulation looms large in pervasive images of imminent ecological disaster in ways that are profoundly depoliticizing and that serve projects of militarization, misogyny, and racism. In this paper, we expose and challenge problematic discourses of neo-Malthusian environmental change, paying particular attention to discourses surrounding climate change. Aiming to bring history, geography and politics back into public debate on environmental change, we argue for the destabilization of neo-Malthusianism and see this as key to building a (feminist) political ecology of climate change.