The climate impact of feeding ourselves is getting worse and worse: If we want to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from food production, we have to make it more efficient as global population grows

What efficient means: switching from ecologically expensive foods like beef to lower impact vegetarian diets.

What efficient does not mean: using vast quantities of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

Why is an ever growing population considered unquestionably good?

If we make more food so we can make more people, it will accelerate the destruction of the planet. No amount of electric cars and vegan diets can do anything but slow down the destruction by a small degree. We can't just wipe out natural environments to mine and farm for the niceties of modern human life and expect the web of life to continue to support us and we cannot survive without this web of life.

I think our species (in aggregate) is no more intelligent than bacteria on a petri dish, we're dumb animals with cell phones. An actual intelligent species would be smart enough to avoid outgrowing it's environment leading to it's own demise. Population is one of the greatest filters.