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News

Canadian tax policy: Subject to change

by Emma Slack-Jørgensen on

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To mark the 100th anniversary of Canada’s income tax, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) held its annual “Who Pays for Canada? Taxes & Fairness” conference on Feb. 22 and 23. A series of panels covered the philosophy of taxes, ways to fairly distribute tax revenue across society, and the evolution of Canadian tax policy.

 

Canada’s departure from distributive justice

Daniel Weinstock, a professor in the Faculty of Law and Department of Philosophy, opened the “Philosophies of Fairness” panel. The main topic was Rawls’ social science theory of distributive justice, which presents taxes as a way to give resources to those who need them the most. Weinstock finds that this concept oversimplifies the idea of taxation and fails to account for the different methods of taxation such as income tax and consumption tax.

“There are fairness issues that are at play [in] how we decide to orient institutions of taxation,” Weinstock said. “The principles theorists of distributive justice have come up with really don’t descend down to the level of giving us tools to think about those kinds of decisions.”

However, Weinstock emphasized that Rawls’ distributive justice is still constructive because it upholds the idea of reflective equilibrium, which means that a solution should reflect the different reactions to a particular situation, rather than a unilateral decision. Overall, Weinstock feels that Canada’s tax system should be adaptable to the complexities of reality, something that he feels the distributive justice theory fails to do.

Panellist Vida Panitch, the director of the Doctoral Program in Ethics and Public Affairs at Carleton University, introduced the notion of the government regularly giving every citizen a sum of money as a “basic income,” and whether this can achieve her two aims of fairness: Autonomy to choose when to work and decommodification—in other words, providing citizens with wealth that inherently belongs to them rather than being something they worked for. Thus, in practice, Panitch hopes for a high enough level of basic income to enable people’s liberty and whether it is broadly applicable enough to replace public goods, such as health coverage.

“If it is not high enough to offer a genuine alternative to labour force participation, if it is not high enough to mean that you have to work, then it looks like it is not going to be all that consistent associated with the economy and decommodification,” Panitch said.

 

One Hundred Years of Canadian Tax Policy

Robert Raizenne, a practicing tax lawyer, argued that there has been a significant continuity in how Canada’s income tax has been structured in the past one hundred years and that nothing has changed since 1917. Raizenne explained that perfecting the tax system will always be a challenge.

“After 100 years, lots has changed, in the sense that all we hear about is [reforming] the tax system,” Raizenne said. “However on the other hand, nothing has changed. If we look at the foundational principles, we see that there is a lot that has stayed the same.”

Shirley Tillotson, a professor at the University of King’s College, was more convinced that Canadian tax policy changes over time and responds to current events.

“Studying tax history has certainly convinced me that there is no golden age of Canadian tax politics,” Tillotson said. “[History] does actually provide us with a sense of the particular tendencies that take these general problems and convert them into quite normal political circumstances.”

Jack Mintz, president’s fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, considered lessons from Canada’s history and concluded the discussion by explaining three objectives in tax policies: Minimizing economic inequalities, achieving the best use of resources, and ensuring equity.

“Fairness isn’t the only objective in looking at taxes,” Mintz said. “There are other objectives.”

News, SSMU

Tre Mansdoerfer wins SSMU Presidency by 69 vote margin

by Audrey Carleton on

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U2 Engineering student Tre Mansdoerfer was elected Students’ Society McGill University Presidenct on March 21 with 50.7 per cent of the vote. Mansdoerfer received only 69 more votes than his competitor, U2 Arts student Corinne Bulger, who garnered 49.3 per cent of votes. 32.8 per cent of the undergraduate student body voted in this year’s election, an 11 percentage point increase from last year’s voter turnout of 21.8 per cent.

Vice-President (VP) Internal Matthew McLaughlin, VP Finance Jun Wang, VP External Marina Cupido, VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro, and VP Student Life Cody Esterle will join Mansdoerfer on the executive team.

Mansdoerfer ran on a platform focused on accountability and advocacy. His campaign promises included to improve mental health services, build relationships with faculty executives, and lobby the university for a Fall reading week. In the immediate future, he plans to focus on SSMU’s more pressing needs.

“I’m literally shaking and beyond excited to be the next SSMU president,” Mansdoerfer said. “I’m looking forward to getting to work right away […] I’m going to be focusing on making the GA online and being a part of facilitating the building closure. But for the next month and a half, I want to meet all faculty executives and create those relationships for the year.”

In a statement to The McGill Tribune, Bulger expressed gratitude for the experience she gained during her campaign.

“I think that this year’s campaign season showed support, and had a positive nature to it that I think will be reflective of the years to come,” Bulger said. “A big congratulations to Tre, Marina, Jacob, Cody, Matthew, and Jun. I wish you all the love and luck! This opportunity gave me the chance to meet new people, share ideas, and really engage with students on our campus—which at the end of the day matters most to me, and I will continue to do during my time here at McGill.”

Mansdoerfer is the only executive who ran opposed. Despite a vocal “no” campaign against her, Cupido won the election for VP External with 62.9 per cent of students voting in favour and 37.1 per cent against.

“I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who supported me through this process,” Cupido said. “I truly couldn’t have gotten through the past couple weeks without my campaign team and my friends, particularly given the toxic nature of some of the opposition to my candidacy.”

Coming into the position, Cupido plans to put more resources into the Indigenous Affairs portfolio, partner with a provincial student federation, and work with other Quebec universities to lobby against unpaid internships.

“I’m looking forward to the transition process a lot,” Cupido said. “I need to get up to speed with some of the organizing going on on campus, particularly around the indigenous affairs portfolio. I’m coming to terms with the fact that I didn’t give nearly enough space in my platform to the work indigenous student leaders are doing as we speak. Moving into the transition, I have to do a lot of listening and de-centreing of my own voice”

Currently a first-year student, McLaughlin will come into the position of VP Internal as the youngest member of the SSMU executive. Going forward, he plans to meet with representatives from faculties and the First Year Council (FYC) to ensure a smooth transition into his role.

“I’ll be hitting the ground running,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve already met with a number of executives from faculty student societies, and I’ll be meeting with many many more over the coming weeks [….] I’m excited to form a group to explore the best way to create the SSMU centralized calendar. I’ll also be focusing on working with the current FYC executives to prepare for a smooth transition to next year.”

Shapiro’s victory follows a candidacy based on ensuring continuity between SSMU executives each year and making SSMU more engaging for the average student. Noting his lack a competitor, he emphasized the importance of remaining open to students’ thoughts and concerns going forward.

“Despite the positive results of this campaign, at the end of the day, I received the votes of a mere 17 per cent of the student population, and this, crucially, is without having had a challenger,” Shapiro said. “I must continue to seek out and engage the feedback and opinions of others if I am to be successful and if I am to play a positive role in taking a step to build a stronger student union.”

 

Vote breakdown:
President Tre Mansdoerfer: 50.7 per cent

VP University Affairs Jacob Shapiro: Yes, 90.5 per cent

VP External Marina Cupido: Yes, 62.9 per cent

VP Internal Matthew McLaughlin: Yes, 87.3 per cent

VP Finance Jun Wang: Yes, 82.6 per cent

VP Student Life Cody Esterle: Yes, 88.4 per cent

News, SSMU

SSMU Council accepts recommendations from committee on anti-Semitism

by Stephen Gill on

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At its March 15 meeting, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Legislative Council passed the Motion Regarding the Policy for the Implementation of a Fall Reading Break, renewing SSMU’s mandate to lobby for the institution of a Fall break at McGill. Council also passed the Motion Regarding the Joint Board of Directors and Legislative Council Special Committee on Anti-Semitism, enacting the committee’s various recommendations to combat anti-Semitism on campus. Senior Director, Planning and Resources Diane Koen and Trenholme Dean of Libraries C. Colleen Cook also presented more information about the Fiat Lux library project.

 

McGill librarians discuss Fiat Lux project

The Fiat Lux library construction proposal, currently in its planning phase, proposes renovations to the Redpath and McLennan Libraries to fit the modern needs and desires of McGill students. The project leaders for the creation of a “library of the mid-21st century” informed Council of the project’s current status and on soliciting feedback from the student population.

“This project really is about students and your needs,” Cook said. “So we want to hear from you […and] get some of your input.”

Cook and Koen spoke about planned improvements to the library such as better lighting and air conditioning, greater selection and flexibility for individual and group study spaces, and additional seating.

“The whole thing, in the best of all possible worlds, [would be finished] within five to six [years],” Cook said.

 

Fall Reading Break motion goes to referendum

The motion resolved to continue the Society’s push for implementing a Fall break. It would renew SSMU’s stance on the issue and mandates the Vice-President (VP) External, VP University Affairs (UA), and members of the Senate Caucus to lobby the provincial government, administration, and Senate to establish a Fall Reading Week at McGill.

“[This composition] implements a three-pronged approach,” Bryan Buraga, the incoming Arts and Science senator and a representative from the motion’s “yes” campaign, said. “[As a result,] this would apply the maximum amount of pressure in order for this to be implemented.”

After acknowledging the need for special considerations for certain faculties such as Engineering—whose professors must lecture for a certain number of hours per semester as mandated by the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec—and Medicine, which doesn’t have two-semester academic years, Council passed the motion to be voted on as a referendum question during the Winter 2018 voting period.

 

Recommendations from the Special Committee on Anti-Semitism passes

After a presentation from a member of the committee, Council deliberated a motion to enact each of its recommendations. These include renewing the committee’s mandate for the 2018-2019 academic year, adopting a working definition of anti-Semitism, and having new SSMU executives undergo a mandatory training session on anti-Semitism. The committee also recommended additional mandates for the VP UA, including hiring a special researcher on anti-Semitism on campus, organizing open workshops to educating students on relevant issues, and working with the McGill administration to implement their recommendations.

The proposed definition of anti-Semitism, one of the motion’s two clauses that passed through the committee without consensus but was addressed by a footnote within the motion, drew the most attention from Council. The motion proposes adopting the European Union’s (EU) Fundamental Rights Agency’s (FRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, though no such definition currently exists. In 2013, the FRA controversially removed an unofficial working paper from its website that included a “working definition of anti-Semitism” which many had taken to be the EU’s official working definition of anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition read. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

One councillor raised concerns about the definition potentially being too broad.

“As […] someone that is pro-[Boycott Divestment Sanctions] BDS, I’m a little worried that I will automatically be labelled as anti-Semite under this definition, without it being fully explained in the section,” Social Work representative Matthew Savage said.

Shira Mattuck, a committee member from Chabad McGill, reasoned that considering the committee’s composition and the included footnote, the proposal should not be modified.

“It’s really important to understand that these clauses were voted on by a majority of Jewish groups on campus,” Mattuck said. “It’s really important that we hear the lived experiences of Jewish students on campus and let Jewish students define anti-Semitism, and I think that [those concerns] are valid, but they are addressed in the footnote.”

After adding a friendly amendment for the committee to revisit its terms of composition during the Fall 2018 semester, Council passed the motion.

McGill, News

McGill professors debate the effectiveness of fossil fuel divestment

by Andras Nemeth on

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A panel of four McGill professors debated the merits of fossil fuel divestment at an event organized by Divest McGill on March 15. While the topic remains contentious at McGill, 133 educational institutions worldwide have already divested their endowments from the fossil fuel industry, including Laval University, the only Canadian institution to do so.

On the panel was Greg Mikkelson, associate professor in the School of Environment; Dror Etzion, associate member of the School of Environment; Ken Hastings, molecular biologist and Vice-President Finance of the McGill Association of University Teachers (MAUT); and Christopher Ragan, the newly-appointed director of the Max Bell School of Public Policy. The panel presented contrasting ideas about the merits and drawbacks of universities divesting from fossil fuel companies.

Mikkelson began the debate by citing research showing the impact that divestment campaigns can have in creating social change. Examples of successful divestment campaigns include the international boycott of South African goods during apartheid, and a global movement to divest from major tobacco companies in the 1990s.

“The research shows that [divestment] does make a difference,” Mikkelson said. “The most comprehensive study [of divestment movements] was done at Oxford, and they looked at other divestment campaigns that didn’t necessarily cripple the industries they were targeting, but what they did do is make a big public impact, and that spurred governments to take action [….] Divestment creates impact by raising awareness, stigmatizing target companies, and influencing legislation.”

Etzion further emphasized the status of divestment as a social rather than economic movement.

“I don’t really perceive [fossil fuel divestment] as a financial tactic,” Etzion said. “It’s about something much bigger than what you invest in, it’s actually a social movement. And the objective of this tactic is to de-legitimize an entire industry. [Universities] are very influential in how the world perceives issues, and [divestment] empowers people to envision a world that is not running on a path to destruction.”

Hastings gave the faculty perspective by describing the discussion that took place at the MAUT Fall General Meeting on Nov. 17, in which the association voted to divest its funds from fossil fuels.

“Some people felt that the idea of divesting is grandstanding, that it wasn’t really doing anything concrete,” Hastings said. “There were quite a few people more in favour of positive actions, like supporting alternative energy in some positive way, rather than pulling out [of fossil fuel]. Nonetheless, the motion passed by wide margins.”  

Ragan, chair of Canada’s Ecofiscal Commision, took a stance against divestment, expressing doubts about McGill’s ability to tangibly impact fuel emissions. He instead suggested alternative policies.

“The reason that divestment doesn’t actually reduce emissions is that it is trying to get at the supply of oil,” Ragan said. “Policies that are effective have to be policies that try to reduce our demand for oil. A carbon tax or a cap and trade system is aimed right at that. Regulations of various kinds are aimed at that. So let’s talk about those policies, that Canada is now doing and ought to be doing way more of.”

Audience members were also given the chance to share their opinions. Several proposed shareholder action, wherein parties retain shares of firms with the intention of influencing their behaviour, as a potential alternative to divestment. Antonina Scheer, U3 Arts and the organizer of the event, commented on the potential for this method to reduce emissions.

“As a shareholder you can say OK, let’s change what we’re doing, but overall the company is fine and we can just tweak things,” Scheer said. “In the case of fossil fuels, we have to phase it out and we have to phase it out really quickly. So as a shareholder, you’re asking them to shut down the company, which is not something a shareholder can do.”

McGill, News

ISA walk out brings movement for Indigenous justice to McGill

by Kendall McGowan on

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Protesters honoured the deaths of Tina Fontaine, Colten Boushie, and Brady Francis—three Indigenous youths who were murdered without any suspects being held criminally responsible—at a walkout on campus on March 14, National School Walkout Day. Over 3,100 walkouts took place at schools across North America that day, mostly over gun reform laws in the United States. The walkout was organized by the Indigenous Student Alliance (ISA) of McGill University in coordination with Indigenous students at Concordia University.

Dozens of students and supporters gathered at the Y-intersection with signs at the start of the demonstration. The event began with a moment of silence before a series of activists spoke about Indigenous justice and the Buffalo Hat Singers drum group led performances. In their talks, Indigenous community figures lamented the lack of justice for Fontaine, Boushie, Francis, and others, asking that the victims’ lives be honoured through continued education and action.

Talia Bellerose, a First Peoples’ Studies major at Concordia and speaker at the event, recommended that activists devote their energy toward bringing about change to the Canadian criminal justice system.

“I want this to be about forgiving,” Bellerose said. “I want Colten and Tina and every other Indigenous person that is gone to know that we’re sorry we failed them. Canada, the government, they’re not going to apologize to them. But we have to make a better future for the [next] generations.”

Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Indigenous Affairs Commissioner and speaker Carlee Kawinehta Loft affirmed that the Canadian criminal justice system is discriminatory on an institutional level, but pointed out that university students have a unique opportunity to create change.

“These injustices occur due to nationwide implementation of various Canadian systems which systematically devalue Indigenous lives,” Kawinehta Loft said. “We as university students recognize that it’s part of a system that trains courts, juries, and jurors, that trains future social workers, police officers, and influential citizens in general. We have a responsibility to be knowledgeable, to care, and to use this privilege to enact change for the better.”

Nakuset, the executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM), shared her struggles growing up during the Sixties Scoop, a government program that removed Indigenous children from their families and isolated them from their culture.

“Because of that experience, even though I was told to be ashamed of my culture, I ended up getting my education,” Nakuset said. “I ended up working at the Native Women’s shelter and creating projects [to combat] a lack of services for Indigenous people, and injustices on many levels. So if it’s possible for someone like me to be able to do all of these projects and get funding, you can all be the answer to this, because it’s not going to change [otherwise].”

Although she praised those who attended the walkout, Kawinehta Loft emphasized the need for demonstrators to maintain the momentum of the movement for Indigenous justice.

“I’m happy you came today, but remember that your action doesn’t stop here,” Kawinehta Loft said. “It doesn’t stop today, and there are many ways you can reach out. You can go reach out to other activist organizations, you can look up where to donate, and most importantly, you can just know what’s happening around you, what’s happening in this territory and others.”

Ben Geboe, a speaker and the executive director of the American Indian Community House in New York, emphasized the importance of activism to the Indigenous community.

“Indigenous people have suffered this great oppression which continues,” Geboe said. “It’s not an ideological or a passive battle. It’s actually happening, and […] we’re surviving with the help of great activism.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

A Wrinkle In Time is a fresh faced children’s movie

by Noah Simon on

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Recent dialogue surrounding the new film adaptation of Madeleine’s L’Engle’s classic book, A Wrinkle in Time, pits the film’s quality against its desire to be an inclusive big budget production. Is it good merely because of this prerogative? Is that proper criticism?

It’s a fair question. Critics are hailing the Disney film as a progressive milestone for Hollywood due to its choice of director and diverse cast. Make no mistake, it is a big deal that a studio as influential as Disney handed over a movie of this magnitude to Ava Duvernay (Selma (2015)), a woman of colour. A 2017 study by the University of Southern California found that of the top 100 movies in 2016, a female director helmed only eight. The same study found that out of the top 1,100 movies since 2007, only four were directed by a woman of colour. A Wrinkle in Time stands as a beautiful aberration to Hollywood’s suffocating whiteness, and is truly refreshing from a representational standpoint. Ultimately, this is to the film’s benefit, but it isn’t the only thing DuVernay brings to the table.

A Wrinkle in Time follows Meg (Storm Reid), a bullied and insecure child who, after the disappearance of her scientist father (Chris Pine), becomes apathetic and despondent. When she and her family receive a visit from universe protector Ms. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), Meg, her brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and new friend Calvin (Levi Miller) literally travel the universe in search of their father. With the guidance of two other universe protectors, Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling) and Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Meg tests her limits and learns how to believe in herself.

Thematically, A Wrinkle in Time is pretty standard as far as children’s movies go, preaching the importance of family and a healthy self-esteem. But it is the powerful dynamic within the central family that carries the film’s emotional weight, and moments that could have been cheesy are actually quite moving. DuVernay’s direction helps mask the film’s clichés. And while there are some narrative shortcomings that thaw at the film’s cohesion—such as questions of why exactly Meg’s peers treat her so poorly, or why Calvin chooses to go on the adventure so soon after meeting Meg—they don’t take away from the experience as a whole.

A Wrinkle in Time can often feel familiar, hitting each industry standard for big budget family films: Likable and simple characters, an easy-to-follow story, and lots of colours.  Each of these elements works well enough to create a satisfying and entertaining film, yet DuVernay injects enough of her own voice to also make it feel decidedly different. Her experience in documentary and gritty realism provides a grounded aesthetic that contrasts well with the extraterrestrial sets that allows her to show off her flair for visual grandeur. The vibrant colours and eerie symmetry of the evil planet Camazotz are stunning, and a giant Oprah Winfrey guiding you through a cross-universe road trip (“tessering” as they call it) is truly something to behold. These creative decisions often make the film feel surprisingly weird, and the film is bolstered not only by its diversity, but also its idiosyncrasies.  However, A Wrinkle in Time could have dived deeper into the darker elements of the story. Hidden behind a veneer of childish play is a film on the brink of becoming much bleeker. One can sense it wants to linger on the novel’s scarier and more mature moments, that it could become something its young audience looks back on and says, “I watched that as a kid??” For a story that warns against a contagious and menacing darkness, it is too bad DuVernay didn’t explore the narrative’s compelling trenches.

There is a certain life to A Wrinkle in Time that feels confoundingly new, and this is due in large part to DuVernay’s fresh perspective. A film about a young girl finding her place in the world, despite the universe’s inherent evils, resonates more in DuVernay’s hands than it would in a white director’s. The film is a progressive milestone, as well as a fun, though flawed, family film: Quality versus inclusivity becomes irrelevant because the two elements are intertwined. The film’s progressiveness and subversions propel what could have been a dull, CGI-filled children’s movie into something culturally important.

Science & Technology

How many people is too many people?

by Emma Gillies on

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There are currently 7.6 billion people on Earth. The United Nations (UN) projects that the planet’s population will increase by one billion within the next 15 years. By 2100, over 11 billion people could be inhabiting the planet.

The concept of overpopulation is not new. Thomas Malthus, an 18th century English economist famous for his theories regarding population growth and demographics, argued that the human population’s growth rate exceeded that of food production. To combat this disparity, Malthus urged for population control as an effort to conserve natural resources.

While logical in some ways, Malthus’s theory had numerous shortcomings. Firstly, he failed to account for technological advancements that would greatly increase food production. He also didn’t account for the many advances in public health, family planning, and contraception that would control human population. Furthermore, Malthus blamed the poor for their poverty, arguing that welfare would worsen the population problem by encouraging early marriage and having more children. Malthus supported regulation of the size of poorer families. This argument led the British government to proclaim that the Irish potato famine of the late 1840s was an effective method to reduce population, and bolstered the eugenics movements that selectively bred out what were considered socially undesirable—or non-white—traits.

Though flawed, Malthus’ ideas are important. Large, rapidly expanding populations lead to increased violence, poverty, and unemployment. Humanity currently depends on finite resources for energy and food production. In the natural world, carrying capacity refers to the maximum number of individuals of a species that can survive in a given environment. Using this theory, ecologists have been able to explain and observe the effects of overpopulation.

“When predators have been removed from areas, we see the effects of too many prey animals on vegetation, and their own precipitous decline in numbers,” Anthony Masi, professor of industrial relations and organizational behavior in the Desautels Faculty of Management, wrote in an email to The McGill Tribune.

Unlike other animals, humans can consciously change their behaviour patterns, such as by reducing fertility or deciding to migrate. They can also engage in trade, or expand the boundaries of their habitats. The carrying capacity of the earth regarding human population isn’t uniformly distributed between, or even within, countries. Coming up with an exact number is complex and dependent on many variables. According to Masi, the calculations are heavily debated and controversial, but various estimates put Earth’s carrying capacity for humankind at around 15 billion people.

Peter Brown, a professor in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences, said that Earth’s  carrying capacity depends on lifestyle.

“If you have a large number of people who want to eat red meat, the carrying capacity would be a lot lower than if you have a lot of people who want to eat lentils or rice,” Brown told the Tribune.

In Canada, discussions about human population growth often revolve around countries like India, since, in general, high-income countries have slower-growing populations than low-income ones. But most low-income countries are not growing at exponential rates. For Brown, the biggest problem is additional people in rich, consumerist countries.

Advanced economies are often guilty of being stuck on a “treadmill,” where they are constantly in pursuit of economic expansion via population growth, either through births or immigration. The consumerist attitude that accompanies continuous economic growth is a large part of the problem, according to Sarah Brauner-Otto, an associate professor in McGill’s Department of Sociology.

“If everybody lived the way […] that the people I study in Nepal do, we would not be talking about the population and the sustainability problem to the same degree,” Brauner-Otto said. “The resource use in wealthy countries is so astronomical that it far outweighs the high populations in any place.”

Humans have so heavily impacted the environment that many scientists are now calling the current geological era the Anthropocene—an epoch dominated by humans. We cover grass with tarmac, frack for oil and natural gas, and drain entire lakes for irrigation. But even if we’re living in  the age of humans, human lives aren’t the only ones that matter.

“All kinds of species […] are being driven to extinction, or at least to much lower numbers, in part by human population,” Brown said. “We’re one species among many, and we should learn to share the household.”

In Earth’s history, there have been five mass extinctions causing between 50 and 90 per cent of the planet’s species to die off. According to a study in Science, we’re entering a sixth mass extinction, due mainly to human activity. Brown emphasized that even though lifestyle can make an impact, a larger population will still lead to greater strain on the environment.

“Any organism, no matter how benign, degrades the environment in which it lives,” Brown said.

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on climate change argued that the problem isn’t the number of human beings, but how they act.Pointing out that even if everyone were as virtuous and thoughtful as the Pope, Brown argued that the number of people is an unavoidable factor leading to environmental degradation.

Environmental impact is related to the size and growth rate of the population, how the Earth’s resources are used, and technological innovation. It can be modelled with the IPAT equation, I = P x A x T, in which “I” stands for impact, “P” for population, “A” for affluence, and “T” for technology.

Technology is a particularly important variable in the equation because it has the ability to increase Earth’s carrying capacity. People think that they can always invent something to get past limitations. However, this is public perception, though. Brauner-Otto pointed out that while innovation has the potential to expand carrying capacity, there may be limits to our ingenuity.

“We do not have evidence that our inventions can move at the pace that our current use of resources shows,” Brauner-Otto said.

On the global scale, human population depends on the world’s births and deaths. Demographic transition is the shift between low growth and high growth based on birth and death rates. Low birth and high death rates result in low growth. With improvements to public health, death rates decrease, resulting in higher overall growth. Over time, improved education, which increases job opportunities for women and makes contraceptives more available, lowers the birth rate, and low growth returns.

Factors that affect growth vary by location, even within countries. For example, mortality is extremely dependent on the quality of medical care. According to Brauner-Otto, there’s very high variation in mortality in places like the United States, where the quality of medical care is good, but access to it is inconsistent.

When Malthus started this controversial conversation in 1798, which has since pitted pessimists against optimists, he simplified the issue. To solve the population problem, its full complexity must be considered. Factors like culture, technology, social institutions, policy, and ethics cannot be ignored. High-income societies should consume less and help low-incomes ones by sharing technologies to empower women, improve living standards, and increase education—thus preventing humans from exceeding Earth’s carrying capacity.

In his 1998 book, How Many People Can the Earth Support?, mathematical biologist Joel E. Cohen presented the three schools of thought in balancing natural resources and the human population: “Bigger pie” through technological advancement, “fewer forks” through reductions in population growth rates, and “better manners” through improved governance and elimination of inequalities. Cohen envisioned bringing these philosophies together through universal primary and secondary education. Masi agreed that all three must be observed.

“They are not mutually exclusive, and we should move ahead on all three fronts to avoid ever reaching the Earth’s carrying capacity for human beings,” Masi said.

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