In a review of Ronald Bailey's "The true state of the planet", Athanasiou writes:

"...it plays upon the oldest stupidity of green reductionism --- the confusion of the biologic notion of 'overpopulation' with the political problems of poverty and sustainable food production .. so many environmentalists honestly believe that by soberly intoning that there are just 'too many people' they somehow cut across all the moral and political agonies of globalization, of rising human migrations, mass extinctions, atmospheric instability and the rest of it. In fact 'overpopulation' explains none of these things, and as long as we cling to it we remain the confused citizens of a incomprehensible world."