Patrons

Naturalist, broadcaster and former controller of BBC Two.

"The human population can no longer be allowed to grow in the same old uncontrolled way. If we do not take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us and it is the poor people of the world who will suffer most."

"As I see it, humanity needs to reduce its impact on the earth urgently and there are three ways to achieve this: we can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce the growth of our population."

Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, University of Cambridge.

"Population growth, poverty and degradation of local resources often fuel one another."

Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University.

"Overdrafts on aquifers are one reason some of our geologist colleagues are convinced that water shortages will bring the human population explosion to a halt. There are substitutes for oil; there is no substitute for fresh water."

"Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism... of sexism... of religious intolerance... of war... of gross economic inequality. But if you don't solve the population problem, you're not going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem you're interested in, you're not going to solve it unless you also solve the population problem."

First Asian woman member of the House of Lords; crossbencher.

"With the global population reaching the milestone of seven billion, population size is starting to get the attention it deserves. One of the most effective contributions to solving these problems would be to enable women worldwide to decide their own family size and timing through funding universal access to family planning and through enabling them to exercise their social and economic rights."

Founder, Jane Goodall Institute, and UN Messenger of Peace.

"It's our population growth that underlies just about every single one of the problems that we've inflicted on the planet. If there were just a few of us, then the nasty things we do wouldn't really matter and Mother Nature would take care of it — but there are so many of us."

Former Co-chair of Population Matters, Emeritus Professor of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, University College, London. Former Medical Director, Margaret Pyke Centre for Family Planning.

"Should we now explain to UK couples who plan a family that stopping at two children, or at least having one less than first intended, is the simplest and biggest contribution anyone can make to leaving a habitable planet for our grandchildren?"

Actress and population campaigner.

Originator of Gaia Theory.

"Those who fail to see that population growth and climate change are two sides of the same coin are either ignorant or hiding from the truth. These two huge environmental problems are inseparable and to discuss one while ignoring the other is irrational."

Emeritus Professor of Natural History, University of Edinburgh.

"Looking across the world at present it is obvious to anybody with even slight biological knowledge that human numbers are out of balance."

Visiting Fellow, Green College, Oxford University, and at Universities of Harvard, Cornell, Stanford, California, Michigan and Texas.

"Many children face a prospect of a world which has been devastated of its forest cover and lost many of its species. Would it not be worthwhile to reinforce that enormous investment in the future, that grand gesture of hope in the future by chipping in just a little bit more, that one penny per day for family planning facilities? To insure that our children inherit a world worth living in. A world where population growth has been slowed to zero, with equity and fairness for all citizens on this planet, and where our environments are safeguarded and restored."

Naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author.

"There's no point bleating about the future of pandas, polar bears and tigers when we're not addressing the one single factor that's putting more pressure on the ecosystem than any other — namely the ever-increasing size of the world's population."

Founder Director and Trustee of Forum for the Future and board member of the Natural Environment Research Council and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and Head Teachers into Industry.

"…as the soaring demand for food, water and energy is exacerbated by climate change, it is no longer legitimate to leave policies for lowering birth rates off the policy agenda."

Founder Director of Forum for the Future and former Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

"Population raises all these questions about religion, about culture, about male dominance in the world; and (people) get very uncomfortable about that."

Journalist and author.

"We need to recognise that slowing population growth is one of the most cost-effective and reliable ways of easing pressure on our environment and securing a sustainable future for us all."

Director of the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin Institute, and former UK Permanent Representative on the United Nations Security Council.

"Population was a big issue about 30 years ago, now it's not, but I suspect it will come back because it has to be discussed as one of the big environmental problems of our time, it's one animal species out of control, and the awful thing is that if we don't control it then Mother Nature will do it for us."