Right, but we could have the same number of people while being ecologically sustainable.

What are you basing that on?

We can live more sustainably than we do, but that doesn’t mean we can support this level of population sustainably on the earth’s systems.

And besides, what’s the alternative? So I think it’s ok to say it’s a good thing the population outlook is downward while recognizing we’ve still got problems

The alternative is to frankly acknowledge that the earth can’t sustain our current population levels, so policymakers and voters should be focused on increasing economic output with fewer people, and individuals should not be maximalist when it comes to number of children.