The latest example of Narrative Science has arrived dressed up as sober sustainability analysis: a paper that treats a smaller human population as the cleanest route to a cleaner planet. However, rather than the instant destruction envisioned in that blockbuster hit, the scientists say that this could be managed as a gradual decline. Scientists say we need to halve Earth’s population to just 4 billion to save the planet, per Daily Mail. In this study, metrics of biodiversity, consumption, and pollution show extremely strong correlations when charted against human population size and its per capita impacts. Others are listed as working in “Urban Environment and Human Resources,” Philosophy, and the Department of Population Sciences.