Pollution has more to do with high intensity resource usage and unpriced negative externality than the # of people who are alive. For example, meat is much more

Pollution has more to do with high intensity resource usage and unpriced negative externality than the # of people who are alive. For example, meat is much more energy intense because you require farmland to not only feed people, but also the cows. It also pollutes more, in addition to being more expensive to buy, but not expensive enough to cover all the damage being done to the environment. Also, increased efficiency is a form of economic growth. We are after all doing more with less. Another important thing to consider is that population size allows and enable certain economic activities to exist. For example, I go to theater and do theater activities, but theater can only exist if enough people go to theater. That threshold can be more easily reached if your theater is in a city. If you want computer to exists, you need a certain amount of specialists dedicated to that. You need a large population because not everyone cares about computing and there are essential tasks that first need to be taken of such as agriculture and grocery stores and trains. Finally, economic growth is desirable the same reason improving technology is desirable. It enables more capabilities. The bad side is when we abuse these capabilities, not that these capabilities are bad in itself.