Healthier economies and busting the ageing myth

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POPULATION MATTERS SUPPORTERS' UPDATE

OCTOBER 2021

Director's message

Earlier this month, we held our ‘Boom or Bust?’ conference, examining how demographic changes can help develop an economy which delivers wellbeing and lasting security on a healthy planet. The conference was accompanied by the launch of our major new report on ageing (see below), a comprehensive challenge to the prevailing narrative that ageing populations spell economic disaster, and a call for common sense solutions.

As at any worthwhile conference, there were differences of opinion, fresh perspectives and positive challenges. But overall, there was much common ground in our international speakers’ analysis of the issues and their solutions.

Keynote speaker, Dr Eliya Zulu of the African Institute for Development Policy, followed up with a warm endorsement,

"Thank you very much for inviting me to give the keynote to the 2021 Population Matters Conference. The work that Population Matters does is very critical for achieving sustainable development and you provide an unparalleled platform for divergent views on a wide range of population, environment and development issues. …[I] will be happy to explore ways in which AFIDEP and Population Matters can collaborate on various ventures."

Dr Leticia Appiah of the National Population Council of Ghana affirmed the benefits that access to family planning brings for women individually and societies collectively, “What we really need is to slow population growth and have zero population growth [everywhere]”.

Putting those statements into practice, we’re partnering with grassroots Guatemalan organisation Na’leb’ak in supporting adolescent girls in rural regions to make informed life decisions and choices - over 65,000 pregnancies were registered to girls aged between 10-19 years old in the first half of this year.

PM will be promoting the additional benefits to our environment at COP26 in Glasgow, spurred by Lord Adair Turner, former chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, who wrote the foreword to our report on population ageing, “It is a facile statement to say that population growth has really nothing to do with climate change".

- Robin Maynard, Director, Population Matters

NEWS FROM POPULATION MATTERS

A booming success: our 2021 conference

On 8th October, Population Matters hosted Boom or Bust, our first-ever hybrid in-person and online conference. Addressing the intersection of population and economics, a truly global cast of speakers – beaming in from Taiwan, Spain, Ghana, France, the US, UK, and Kenya – brought a wide variety of fascinating perspectives and areas of expertise.

Exposing the ageing myth

A major new report by Population Matters busts the myth that a declining birth rate and ageing population spell economic disaster. 'Silver Linings, not Silver Burdens' reveals the benefits of fewer people being born, and identifies the common-sense policies that will meet the challenges of a society in which more people are older.

From flood protection to family planning: Komb Green Solutions

In July, we launched our crowdfunding campaign with the Kenyan environmental group Komb Green Solutions. After disastrous floods earlier this year, the park they had created for children and youth was almost washed away. Their efforts to empower women, girls and crime-involved youth were in jeopardy but thanks to you, our generous members and supporters, we were able to lend a hand.

POPULATION

A quarter of world's population exposed to deadly city heat

A study published in the journal PNAS reveals that exposure to deadly urban heat has tripled since the 1980s, and now affects nearly a quarter of all people, due to the combination of rising temperatures and population growth in urban areas.

Paul Ehrlich on the population problem and how to solve it

In this interview for the Nature Solutionaries podcast, author of The Population Bomb and Population Matters Patron Professor Paul Ehrlich and lays out the failures of the environmental movement and why empowering women is key.

Listen

ENVIRONMENT

Biodiversity loss risks 'ecological meltdown'

A new assessment released ahead of a key UN biodiversity meeting warns that the world is at risk of tipping into disastrous ecosystem collapse. It shows that the UK is in the bottom 10% of the world's most nature-depleted countries, with only half its biodiversity left, far below the global average of 75%.

Jane Goodall on climate change

In this interview for the Washington Post, our Patron Dr Jane Goodall points out that population growth is an important driver of the climate crisis and stresses the need to overcome the taboo around the issue.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS & SEXUAL HEALTH

The impact of the UK aid cuts

In November 2020, the UK Government announced a reduction in its foreign development aid from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%. Global family planning was one of the areas worst-affected by the cuts – a new report by the Guttmacher Institute reveals their true cost to women and girls.

Gender equality: have we made progress?

A new UN report measures the progress made towards gender equality across all 17 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Due to lack of investment and major setbacks precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall picture is bleak, with many indicators worsening instead of improving.

TAKE ACTION

Become a Choice Ambassador!

Are you a young person interested in promoting ethical and practical population solutions, uplifting women and girls, and tackling the environmental crisis? Join our Choice Ambassadors! Some of our Choice Ambassadors are already doing amazing work campaigning on environmental and gender issues, and we're very proud to be working with them.

Learn more

Quote of the month

"Over the next decade, we have a stark choice: to demonstrate the very best of our natures as Homo sapiens - cooperative, innovative, wise, and ethical, to learn from mistakes and create better societies - or to go down with both a bang of conflict and a whimper of bickering, entitlement and self-interest. That choice is ours. The actions or inactions of individual leaders in government, communities and businesses in this decade will be remembered darkly, or hopefully kindly. Everything we know and love is at stake."

- World Scientists' Warning Into Action - if you're a scientist, please sign this important new paper!