Elon Musk believes ‘population collapse’ poses ‘the greatest risk to the future of civilisation’

You’ve seen it in dystopian sci-fi like The Handmaid’s Tale and Children of Men but Elon Musk believes we should be seriously concerned about population collapse.

On Tuesday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO shared an article from the Wall Street Journal titled: ‘U.S. Population Growth, an Economic Driver, Grinds to a Halt.’ The article details how America’s fertility slump has been further impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with more people dying in numerous states last year than were born.

As the pandemic continues, Musk now believes that this fall in births could pose a real threat to humanity. When sharing the article he wrote: “Population collapse is potentially the greatest risk to the future of civilization.”

Musk, who has seven children himself, was championed by one Tweet user who commented on his post and said that he is “one of the few at the top that legitimately cares about humanity’s future, on this planet & beyond.”

The South African billionaire responded by saying: “And that’s just for Earth! Mars has zero human population. We need a lot of people to become a multiplanet civilization.”

Musk had also spoken out on the subject earlier this month after a Tesla account complimented his efforts to try and prevent population collapse. In response, he said he is “trying to set a good example” adding: “Population collapse is a much bigger problem than people realize and that’s just for Earth.”

Several factors are contributing to the downfall in birth rates and the population across the US, such as the Covid-19 death rates, but those are already starting to decrease following the vaccine rollout. However, the WSJ report states that there will be 300,000 fewer births in the US this year, as people are said to be uncertain about having children due to the economic impact of the pandemic.

One thing that could help ease the problem is immigration, which the Biden administration is easing restrictions on. Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the conservative American Enterprise Institute is quoted as saying: “The United States’ demographic situation is comparatively favourable. The big wild card is going to be what happens with immigration.”