Human Population Surges While Silence Haunts the Natural World
Scrolling the Internet, I came across the haunting sounds of a bird call. It stopped me cold. Recorded in 1987, it was the song of the male Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a Hawaiian bird species. He paused his singing – waiting for a female to respond. That never happened. It seems he was the last of the […]
A Scientist’s Silly Musings on the Serious Subject of Population Growth
Deep knowledge and professional acumen in one area does not confer expertise in all subjects. The false alarm sounded about ostensible population decline in a recent Irish Times commentary entitled Reducing World Population May Be a Bad Idea by Dr. William Reville, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at Ireland’s University College Cork, is an excruciating case […]
COVID-19 Lockdowns Clear Skies
People hate to take the heat. We are masters of deflection and somehow always find a way to put the blame on someone, or something, else. And then, when there’s no one else to blame, we resort to sheer denial. Take climate change, for example. On an episode of “Good Morning Britain” in 2019, Trump […]
Planet of the Humans Swings Wildly, Misses Badly
Toward the end of the recently-released, Michael Moore-produced film Planet of the Humans, the narrator blames everyone: “It’s not one thing, but everything we are doing. A human-caused apocalypse.” Does this universal condemnation apply to public health workers in besieged reproductive health clinics risking their lives to foster a safer, less-crowded world? Does it include […]
2020 World Day of Social Justice
There are three primary reasons we at Population Connection work toward population stabilization every day: improved human health and longevity environmental protection social justice The third reason is the focus of this blog post. The United Nations declared February 20 the World Day of Social Justice when its general assembly passed a resolution on November […]
Don’t Conflate Population Control and Eugenics With Voluntary Population Stabilization
I admit to gnashing my teeth when I read Caitlin Fendley’s op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Post. While there were some valid points raised, it conflated the history of our group and the movement at large. In that sense, it’s a bit like excoriating today’s Democratic Party for the overt racism of President Wilson. While ZPG […]
Scientists Call for Population Stabilization—and Gradual Reduction—to Mitigate “Climate Emergency”
Over 11,000 scientists from 153 countries signed on to an article — “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” — published in BioScience yesterday, declaring that we’re facing a “climate emergency.” Prominent climate scientist James Hansen is among the signatories. It’s a short piece, published in the “Viewpoint” section of the academic journal, and it’s […]
World Population Day 2019
July 11, 2019, marks 30 years of observing World Population Day. Since the first World Population Day, in 1989, a lot has changed. Global population had just reached the 5 billion milestone two years earlier. China’s draconian one-child policy was in full force. The HIV/AIDS crisis was in its early years, and treatments were in […]
Avengers: Endgame and The Snap: Did Thanos Get It Right?
This post contains spoilers for multiple Avengers movies, including Endgame. Seriously, you’ve been warned. We’ve been talking about writing an Avengers: Endgame post for a few weeks now, given the obvious thematic connection to our work on global population growth. We haven’t done it until now because, the internet being what it is, someone will […]
State of World Population, 50 Years Ago and Today
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) turns 50 this year. To mark the occasion, the multilateral agency’s annual State of World Population report includes a timeline of the agency’s work and the of events that shaped it into the organization it is today: an organization the United States isn’t funding under the Trump administration. In […]
