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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 09 2016
This year’s theme is “investing in teenage girls.”
Date posted: July 09 2016
This portion of Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story, on the occasion of World Population Day in 2009, featured some frank talk from GrowthBusters director Dave Gardner. Still valid 7 years later.
Date posted: July 08 2014
If we wish to leave future generations a planet worth inheriting, we need to scale back. We need to “Think Small.” Returning world population to a sustainable level is mathematically achievable within a century. Fertility rates have been declining; we just need to accelerate that process. To do that, yes, we need to empower women. We need to make family planning affordable and accessible. We need to arm couples making family-size decisions with good information about overshoot and sustainability. We need to make small families cool, and large families, well…not.
Check out the Think Small photos, videos and stories people are sharing. And share yours! At the GrowthBusters Think Small page. You’ll find information there about how to get your Think Small Family Sticker.
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 11 2013
Today, on World Population Day 2013 we unveil the number one reason to choose a small family:
You Love Kids So Much, You Want Them to Have a World Worth Inheriting!
Every parent wants his/her children to have a good life. Today we have a full world with a lot of population and consumption pressure. This threatens the quality of life of our children, if not their very lives. Conceiving fewer children is an essential part of the path to leaving our children a world where they have a fair shot at living good lives. Planning a small family is the most loving, compassionate decision you will ever make.
Enough said!
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
Date posted: July 10 2013
It’s easy to think of 20 good reasons to limit the number of children we conceive. We’ve been a little tongue-in-cheek about the inconveniences of parenthood (though they ARE real), but – seriously – some of the reasons to limit family size are based on how much we love our kids! Reason #2 in our top 10 list is: Children Who Receive More Parental Attention Tend to Do Better in Life. If you have a “quiver-full” of children, you may be able to get lots of chores done around the house, but it will be a struggle to have quality time with each child, to help with homework, etc. Why not focus on quality rather than quantity?
See The Only-Child: Debunking the Myths for some fresh insights. You’ll be creating a better life for your child, by not contributing to overpopulation, and at the same time ensuring you have the time and resources to be a beautiful parent!
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
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 09 2013
World Population Day 2013 is 2 days away, and we’re counting down the Top 10 Reasons to Choose a Small Family. Reason #3 is: The Average Cost to Raise a Child (in the U.S.) is a Whopping $389,670. That does NOT include college tuition (or beer). It’s an astonishing number, especially when you consider the many socialized costs that are not included (like public education). It’s entirely possible couples would be much more careful about practicing safe sex if they had this information.
I’m confident couples around the world will also plan their families carefully and happily choose to conceive only one or two children, or perhaps none, if they understand how the world is overpopulated today. U.N. estimates that world population will hit 10 billion around the year 2061 should not fool us into thinking this is predestined. We have the power to end overpopulation this century. The first step is to EXPECT moral, rational behavior from ourselves!
More information about the cost of raising children can be found here (we used this source) and here.
How do I know the world is overpopulated? Data from the scientists at Global Footprint Network, as published in the WWF Living Planet Report, is a good place to start. There are either too many of us, or we are living too high on the hog. Both are actually true.
This week, as we contemplate World Population Day, let’s make an extra effort to talk about overpopulation, and especially to make sure everyone approaching child-rearing age is made aware of the situation!
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
Date posted: July 09 2013
As we observe World Population Day 2013 on July 11, we at the GrowthBusters project think this is a time to ensure the public is armed with the facts about population. We put this video together to do just that. I went out with a camera and microphone to talk to the people, to find out what they know and think about the state of the world population. You might be surprised at what I found.
Growth apologists want us to relax about population growth and remain complacent, waiting at least another 100 years for world population to stabilize (if supplies of food, water, energy and scarce resources miraculously keep up). Many people feel the UN population projections are just a fact of life and nothing we can do will end population growth sooner.
The truth is we don’t want to be complacent about the world’s growing population. The scale of the human enterprise (the size of our population and our economies) passed into overshoot (exceeding the Earth’s sustainable carrying capacity) 30 years ago.
This story will give you a quick snapshot.
And the truth is we have the power to not only stop population growth but to contract our population to a sustainable level – within 100 years if we really set our hearts on it, by simply making sure every couple around the world is armed with knowledge of what their family size decisions will mean to their own children, and by ensuring these couples have access to family planning tools like contraception, and by supporting women’s right to have a say in their own reproductive health.
You are welcome to show the video to any audience, at any event. I hope teachers will show this to their classes, parents to their children, constituents to their elected officials.
Special thanks to Nina Paley for the use of her wonderful stork animation.
To learn more about our full world and our culture’s unhealthy growth addiction, check out my documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth. Follow us on facebook and Twitter. And please donate to help us spread the word about our culture’s worship of growth everlasting.
Dave Gardner
Director of the documentary
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth
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