News from Population Matters.
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Heading towards collapse: two major warnings
Updates to two landmark environmental studies were published in recent weeks: one examines the accuracy of the Club of Rome’s predictions in their bestselling 1972 book ‘Limits to Growth’, the other is a reiteration of the 2019 ‘Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency’. Needless to say, neither update offers good news – we must act…
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Earth Overshoot Day: No Plan(et) B
Today is Earth Overshoot Day, the date on which humanity has used up all the natural resources the Earth can regenerate within a year. Despite urgent calls to avoid a return to our destructive pre-pandemic status quo, we are still hurtling in the wrong direction. It is high time for those in power to confront…
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Happy birthday, but more to do before we blow out the candles
We’ve been committed to raising the profile of population and our collective impact on Earth since 24 July 1991, and though a cynic might consider it counter-intuitive for us to celebrate, that cynic would be ignorant of our unerring dedication to help create a better world for people everywhere, and the positive difference we are making.
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UK parliament committee backs family planning and tackling consumption to protect biodiversity
An influential committee in the UK Parliament has called on the Government to do more to address population and overconsumption as drivers of biodiversity loss. Its comments, in a highly critical report on the UK Government’s action so far, reflect and refer directly to evidence submitted by Population Matters to its enquiry. The Environmental Audit…
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Field report: changing minds and lives in Uganda’s fishing communities
At the end of last year, we launched our Empower to Plan campaign with Family Medical Point to ensure that every woman and young person in Abaita Ababiri, Uganda, has free and safe access to sexual and reproductive healthcare. With your help, we raised £5,000 to support Family Medical Point in reaching 1,759 community-members and…
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Why we must seize this chance for change
If we’ve learnt anything from the devastating impact of COVID-19, it’s that life will never be quite the same again, which, according to conservationists Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, opens up a whole world of opportunity – if we’re brave enough to stand up for change. Here, they share their thoughts on what needs to…
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China’s changing child policy: what does it mean?
China’s panic over the consequences of a falling birth rate is typical of concerns across Asia and increasingly, the world’s wealthiest countries. The Chinese government’s response – moving its family size limit from one to two to three children – is a typical mix of apparent liberalisation and continued state control. Our Head of Campaigns,…
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The sixth mass extinction and the future of humanity
Everyone is aware of the climate crisis but not many people know there is another, equally serious environmental crisis: the sixth mass extinction. Renowned ecologist and conservationist Dr Gerardo Ceballos explains this alarmingly rapid erosion of biodiversity and why the survival of our own species depends on whether we manage to halt it. Somewhere, sometime…
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Will environment groups break their silence on population?
For International Biodiversity Day, some of Population Matters’ most authoritative and high-profile supporters have joined us in asking major environmental groups to speak out on population. Chris Packham, Gordon Buchanan and Prof William Ripple are among those who have signed a letter to the CEOs of WWF-UK, Greenpeace UK and others, urging them to accept…
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PM supporters take action on UK aid cuts
Placeholder lead *UPDATED 14 July 2021: Population Matters is utterly dismayed that the Government won a vote in Parliament yesterday confirming its plan to cut UK aid to the world’s poorest to 0.5% of GNI, and that the economic circumstances required to allow it to return to 0.7% in future are completely unrealistic. The cuts, slashing a…