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A Word for Stephen Colbert - Overpopulation
02 Jul 2012
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Nonsense About Sustainable Population Advocacy
23 Jul 2012
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Irrational Fear of Population Decline
13 Jul 2012
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Endangered Species Condoms
27 Jun 2012
Date posted: July 08 2014
The GrowthBusters team put this video together for Earth Day 2014. It ought to be required viewing every morning for every passenger (that’s all of us)!
Date posted: July 10 2013
“The new UN population projections are a blunt reminder of the consequences of our silence. No end to global population growth is in sight. Nor will one be until we resolve to act on women’s autonomy, the dignity of sex without reproduction, and the importance of a non-growing population to environmental sustainability.”
This is from a very informative and thoughtful essay by Robert Engleman, one of the world’s foremost experts on population issues.
Date posted: July 03 2013
In the run up to World Population Day 2013, we’re counting down the Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family. Reason #5 is: Each child adds over 9,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to a parent’s carbon legacy.
We know the scale of human activity on Earth passed into overshoot several decades ago. The coming crises are so severe we must make drastic changes in both our consumption and our reproductive behavior. In considering climate change, we tend to focus on how we heat, cool, feed and transport ourselves. But we seldom consider how many need to be heated, cooled, fed and transported. Research conducted by Oregon State University reveals our decisions about family size will have a much greater impact over the long haul than whether we drive a hummer or ride a bike. Grist Senior Editor Lisa Hymas wrote beautifully about this in her column a few years ago. Lisa wrote from the perspective of someone who has chosen not to conceive any children, but the logic is just as useful in determining whether to have one child vs. two, or two vs. three. The 400+ comments posted to this column give us a hint about how fascinating and challenging this conversation can be.
We can humanely and voluntarily get world population back to a sustainable level within a century, if we are genuinely committed to it. What we lack is the will to acknowledge the problem and to strongly recommend to all our children that they limit the size of their family.
The current population level and state of overshoot are two very good reasons to choose to have no children, or perhaps just one. Even stopping at two will help. Adoption is a good option for those who desire more.
Please share this thought with your friends and children. Subscribe to our updates to get the rest of the Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family!
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth