For more than two centuries, the idea that the world's ills are caused by poor people having too many babies has been remarkably successful at diverting attention from the social causes of poverty and injustice. Once the exclusive preserve of right-wing ideologues, the argument that rising population and immigration is damaging to the environment is increasingly defended in mainstream media and in the environmental movement. This is a clear, well-documented and popularly written refutation of populationist ideology, focusing in particular on the arguments on the environment.