HAVING welcomed a set of twins with a new partner to make him a father-of-nine living children, Elon Musk has again declared ‘underpopulation’ to be the biggest threat facing humanity.

 

The biggest threat…?

Business magnate and investor, Musk - the world’s richest man - has been vocal for years over his belief that earth is facing a population collapse, expressing his views increasingly in recent months as his own brood has expanded.

 

What does he believe exactly?

In May, the Tesla CEO shared a video of a chat he had with Chinese tycoon Jack Ma back in 2019, discussing the decline of the world's population, captioning the film: "Population collapse is the biggest threat to civilisation.” Musk said in the old clip: "Most people think we have too many people on the planet, but actually, this is an outdated view...Assuming there is a benevolent future with AI (Artificial Intelligence), I think the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years is population collapse”.

 

And?

Just last month, responding to a BBC tweet about China's population falling for the first time in 60 years, he said: "Most people still think China has a one-child policy. China had its lowest birthrate ever last year, despite having a three-child policy! At current birth rates, China will lose 40 per cent of people every generation. Population collapse.” In fact, his ‘pinned’ Tweet at the top of his page is about the issue, stating: “USA birth rate has been below min sustainable levels for ~50 years.”

 

It comes as…?

Tesla CEO Musk, 51, who is said to be worth around $233.5 billion and is now trying to end his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion - was revealed to be the father of twins with an executive at one of his firms, with the babies born late last year, before he had a second child with on-off partner, electronic artist Grimes. The twins are his second set as he also fathered twins and triplets with ex wife, Canadian writer Justine Wilson, after their first son tragically died at just 10 weeks from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

 

He’s addressing the issue?

As news of his latest arrivals broke this week, Must said he was “doing my best to help the underpopulation crisis…A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilisation faces by far. Mark my words, they are sadly true. Far too many people are under the illusion that Earth is overpopulated, even though birth rate trends are so obviously headed to population collapse.”

 

Data backs it up?

A study in the Lancet in 2020 revealed that nearly every country in the world is facing falling populations by the end of this century, with 23 countries, including Japan and Spain, likely to see their populations halve, with researchers predicting the planet's population could hit 9.7 billion around 2064 and then fall by nearly a billion by 2100. The impact on society will be profound as a smaller working demographic support a vast ageing population.