The most recent in what’s becoming a never-ending barrage of alarming scientific reports suggests a million animal species are in danger of being pushed off the planet by the relentless expansion of the human enterprise. World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner and Research Associate Alan Ware discuss this news, and ponder whether scientists, and the journalists who report on their work, are doing their part to alert us to the role of human overpopulation in biodiversity loss and climate change.

We’ve suffered over two decades of “population taboo,” in which politicians, journalists, and many environmental activists and NGOs, have tiptoed, tap-danced, detoured, ducked and sidestepped the subject, for fear of offending women, the impoverished, or people of color. In light of the severity of the crises we’re facing, isn’t it time we all face the truth? Ditching plastic straws and protecting duck billed platypus habitat are essential, but not sufficient, to save the planet and human civilization. We must acknowledge the role of human numbers in today’s environmental crises, so that couples making family-size decisions can do so armed with full knowledge of all the implications.

We get into detail analyzing how the overpopulation topic was treated in a recent episode of The Heat, a nightly news program on the China Global TV Network (CGTN). Dave was a guest on the June 3, 2019 episode (link below).

 

LINKS:

IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – News Release

The Heat television program with Dave Gardner

Newest UN World Population Prospects

 

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