News from Population Matters.
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Meet our new chief executive
In December, Robin Maynard started work at Population Matters as our Interim CEO. In this interview, he explains why he is here and what he hopes to achieve. What’s your background? Having read English at university, I worked briefly in advertising where my burgeoning environmental concerns soon ran up against the requirements of the day…
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Livestock, extinction . . . and population
Last week, Population Matters attended the high-profile Livestock and Extinction conference in London, organised by Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and WWF-UK. The conference brought together experts on food production, wildlife, the environment, policymaking, and health to examine the impact of industrial agriculture on the natural world and identify solutions. PM held a stall at the conference – featuring our…
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Meet our new President: Jonathon Porritt
One of UK’s most high profile environmental campaigners is to become the new President of Population Matters. Former Green Party leader and director of Friends of the Earth, Jonathon Porritt has been a vocal advocate for population issues and will champion Population Matters’ work in his new role. We are delighted to announce the appointment…
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US ends funding for United Nations Population Fund
On Monday, the US declared it was cutting its funds to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – an agency that promotes family planning in more than 150 countries – threatening the health and rights of millions of girls and women around the world, particularly those most vulnerable. In its memo, the U.S. stated that the UNFPA supports…
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Key WWF report fails to address overpopulation
WWF International’s latest report on the state of the world’s wildlife once again shies away from addressing the ‘elephant in the room’. As one of the world’s most influential and popular environmental organisations, WWF is failing in its duty to confront the main driver of species decline: unsustainable human population pressure. Plummeting wildlife The Living Planet…
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Report: Ageing populations are good
A new opinion paper published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution argues that societies should embrace ageing populations instead of fearing them. The authors demonstrate multiple socio-economic and environmental benefits of shrinking, ageing populations and that associated costs are manageable. Promoting unchecked population growth as is currently the norm pushes humanity further and further away from achieving lasting societal…
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IPCC report: we need net zero by 2050
A crucial new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires “rapid and far-reaching” economic transitions. Disappointingly, the report does not call for action on population, but acknowledges that high population growth is a “key impediment” to reaching climate targets. Achieving Paris goals The report, known as SR15, states…
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Ten thousand walk for Britain’s disappearing wildlife
Last Saturday, Population Matters joined ten thousand people from across the UK who flocked to London for a ground-breaking event: the biggest march for wildlife the country has ever seen. The People’s Walk for Wildlife, organised by Population Matters patron Chris Packham, was a rallying cry to halt the precipitous decline in Britain’s biodiversity. The…
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Tanzanian president: “birth control is for the lazy”
UPDATE 25 September 2018 Since this story was written, the Tanzanian government has ordered a US health charity to withdraw television advertisements promoting family planning. This worrying development suggests that President Magufuli’s comments may herald a change in policy on family planning and a threat to sexual and reproductive health and rights in Tanzania. Population…
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Wildlife under threat – UK hedgehog numbers plummet
A recent large-scale hedgehog survey across Britain’s rural areas found an alarmingly low number of animals, bolstering earlier research indicating a steep decline. An iconic animal in the UK, the decline in hedgehog numbers reflects disappearing biodiversity under human pressure. That’s why Population Matters is joining our patron Chris Packham in his Walk for Wildlife…