Its author is the internet personality Dimitri Legrand, who goes by the pseudonym Dimitri Revolt on this social network. The man is known for the documentary series “See in the Dark” (Eng. “See in the Dark”, sometimes called “Reality Revolt” – Eng. “Reality Revolt”, the latter word is visible not only in the internet user’s pseudonym but also in the video).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that population growth and consumption growth are the two main causes of global warming.
D.Legrand first shows the cover of “The Economist” magazine, released last November. It depicted the publication’s traditional forecast for this year.
The authors depicted many alleged events as a football – a symbol of the recent World Cup in Canada, the USA, and Mexico. This cover has already managed to spawn more than one hoax; it was recently recalled in the context of the championship.
Also read: Did the magazine really predict troubles for 2026 and that the devil would win the football championship?
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This ball (which also represents the Earth globe) is playfully kicked into the air by a red-clad footballer. Although the figure is too small to discern recognizable facial features, the video’s author compared him to the Portuguese winger C.Ronaldo (as one of this country’s national team kits is indeed red).
In the next shot – a smiling athlete with the inscription “Save the Planet” on his left bicep (Eng. “Save the Planet”). Why this phrase is related to the destruction of humanity is unclear from the video, but immediately after, the alleged UN agenda is shown – “The World and the UN Must Slow Down Humanity’s Growth”.
Also read: Sharing a conspiracy theory about human population reduction: allegedly only 5% will survive.
The internet user points out the syringes drawn directly above the footballer and elsewhere on the ball-globe (this is an allusion to vaccinations or diseases, especially infections, in general). He linked this to an article published on the CNN portal at the end of May, whose headline announced: “This year’s World Cup is a test of public health strategy”.
Then the first commandment, carved on the so-called Georgia Guidestones (Eng. Georgia Guidestones), is quoted. These granite slabs, approximately 5.8 m high, were erected in Elbert County, Georgia (USA) in March 1980 by an anonymous person known as “R.C. Christian”.
Carved on it in eight languages were , created as a guide for the survival of civilization. The first stated: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature”.
It is this, written in English, that is shown in the video. In other words, it is proposed to reduce the number of people by approximately 90% from the 4.5 billion living at that time, so that humanity does not become a “cancer on this Earth”.
The structure, known as “America’s Stonehenge”, was controversial and was finally demolished in 2022 after an act of vandalism – the slabs were damaged or completely destroyed in an explosion.
And Masons are mentioned again
Several conspiracy theories are intertwined in the minute-long video. The narrative of humanity’s destruction itself is a popular conspiracy theory, applicable to various crisis situations or people. Often, the World Economic Forum and its founder Klaus Schwab, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, are considered the initiators and even executors of this process.
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Threats of humanity’s destruction became popular during the pandemic, when many opponents of coronavirus vaccines considered them not only harmful to the individual but also a tool for population destruction. Some went even further, claiming that COVID-19 itself was created for this purpose.
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In “The Economist” cover drawing, internet users also saw allusions to certain things that are indeed related to various conspiracy theories. For example, that the syringes could have been harbingers of the hantavirus that frightened the world and the Ebola virus that began to spread again.
The video also mentions Masons, who are mentioned in more than one popular conspiracy theory. C.Ronaldo is shown demonstrating a triangle formed with his fingers. The Eye of Providence depicted in this geometric figure is one of the Masonic symbols.
Conspiracy theorists believe that triangles appearing here and there are a sign that Masons seek to control banks, governments, and all of humanity. In reality, the Eye of Providence as a symbol was used much earlier than the Masons gathered. They use this sign as a reminder to do good deeds.
Finally, a connection emerges between C.Ronaldo and the alleged destruction of humanity – a report from the Turkish news agency “Anadolu” appears on screen, stating that the footballer was the first “Instagram” user to reach the 500 million follower mark. This happened on November 21, 2022. He currently has 677 thousand followers.
Scientists proposed reducing the population
The phrase shown in the video “The World and the UN Must Reduce Population Growth” (Eng. “The World and the UN Must Stop Population Growth”) not only does not mention the destruction of humanity (it can expand, just not as rapidly), but also is not from the organization’s agenda.
This was the title of an article published in September 2019, just before the UN summit in New York, by Frank Götmark, Professor of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and the then head of the UK organization “Population Matters”, Robin Maynard. 13 other scientists from various countries signed their ideas.
Instead of debating whether we have too many or too few people, we should ask how we can sustainably meet the needs of existing people.
The authors commented on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN, which aim to “end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all”. They are said to be commendable and summarize the kind of world many of us would like to see by 2030. “However, if we want this vision to have any chance of materializing, governments must add an 18th goal: ‘Slow down population growth’,” they asserted.
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The set goals, according to experts, mean that there is no longer a need to reduce global population growth, even if it is a serious problem that harms most sustainable development goals. But the challenges humanity faces today arise mainly from overconsumption and overpopulation.
“The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that population growth and economic (consumption) growth are the two main causes of global warming,” the article noted. “Resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions per capita are highest in developed economies, while rapid population growth in developing countries contributes to deforestation and biodiversity loss.”
Also read: Reduce the population by 90%? No, the scientist did not propose such a drastic plan
Thus, the quoted phrases – neither this one nor the one carved on the granite slab erected in Georgia – are not an item on the UN agenda. Rather, on the contrary – they are more like suggestions on how the organization should act, while in a sense criticizing its previous actions.
11 billion people predicted
The increasing number of people posing a threat to the planet has been discussed for decades. “Over the past 70 years, the world’s population has tripled – from 2 billion to 6.1 billion, and continues to grow by approximately 77 million people per year. By 2050, it will reach 9.3 billion,” it was written back in 2001.
A decade later, the BBC announced that the UN was concerned about population growth trends. According to the organization’s medium scenario prepared at the time, the world’s population would peak at 9.4 billion in 2070 and then begin to decline. However, this reportedly requires a significant reduction in fertility in most developing countries.
Five years later, several scientists showed how much global population growth could be reduced by fully implementing the SDGs. According to the study’s authors, these include specific quantitative targets for mortality, reproductive health, and education for all girls by 2030 – measures that will directly and indirectly affect future demographic trends.
In 2022, demographers from the United Kingdom, Melanie Channon and Jasmine Fledderjohann, warned that attempts to control population numbers are often futile and harmful, especially since the population is said to continue to grow anyway. Even the massive mortality from COVID-19 had little impact on population size.
They quoted billionaire Elon Musk, stating that “population decline due to low fertility rates is a much greater risk to civilization than global warming,” and the media’s suggestion to tax childless people, thus addressing the problem of declining birth rates.
Also read: Could all Earth’s inhabitants really fit in New York, as E. Musk claims?
The scientists evaluated both arguments as false and answering the wrong question: “Instead of debating whether we have too many or too few people, we should ask how we can sustainably meet the needs of existing people.
Although 8 billion is a significant milestone, its scale is misleading. The rate of population growth peaked 50 years ago (around 1962-1965) and is now less than 1% per year. Globally, the average number of births per woman is now 2.3, which is slightly more than the “replacement level” of 2.1 needed for the population to remain the same. <…>
Debating whether we have an insufficient or excessive population is unhelpful and distracting when there is actually very little we can do to influence population growth. Worse still, these arguments often have racist, eugenic overtones. Arguments about overpopulation often originate from the Northern Hemisphere and seek to reduce fertility in the Southern Hemisphere <…>.”
Also read: Did B. Gates really talk about reducing humanity with vaccines back in 2011?
Similar comments – that the narrative of “too many people” oversimplifies complex problems and causes real harm – have also been expressed by the UN Population Fund. The UN does not call for reducing humanity; on the contrary, it invites everyone to strive for sustainable development, and also advocates for voluntary, rights-based family planning, education, and gender equality to naturally manage demographic changes.
The UN predicts that by 2050, the planet will be home to 9.7 billion people, and by the end of the century – 11 billion people. However, statistics show that the global population growth rate is already significantly slowing down.
15min verdict: lacks context. Some experts indeed call for reducing the world’s population, but others criticize this proposal, and it is not an item on the UN agenda.
The publication was prepared by 15min in cooperation with “Meta”, aiming to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.
