Issue 38 Spring 2021 | 30th anniversary edition

30 years to save the world Every choice we make and each action we take will have an impact It’s not too late Jonathon Porritt – as much of an activist as he ever was Facing the future Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin on our chance to rebuild a post-pandemic world that’s better for people and planet

ISSN 2053-0412 (Print) ISSN 2053-0420 (Online) CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Contents Chapter 4: Human Impact on the Biosphere

Figure 4.11 The Economy is Embedded in the Biosphere 3 From the Director About us Robin Maynard looks at how, from a meeting 7 of interested parties three decades ago, Population Matters is a UK-based charity Population Matters has grown to become a working globally to achieve our vision of humanity co-existing in harmony with nature small but mighty charity that’s taking on and prospering on a healthy planet. We drive the immense challenges of the future. positive action through fostering choices that will help achieve a sustainable human 4 News round-up population and regenerate our environment. Population news stories, PM poll We promote positive, practical, ethical results and Endgame 2050. solutions – encouraging people to choose smaller families and inspiring people to 6 Going nowhere fast consume sustainably – to enable everyone to How population growth is holding enjoy a decent quality of life whilst sustaining back efforts to tackle climate change. the natural ecosystems upon which all life depends. We support human rights, women’s empowerment and global justice. 7 Can economists save the planet? Population Matters is a registered charity in England and The Dasgupta Review challenges the Wales (1114109) and a company limited by guarantee in England (3019081) registered address 135-137 Station Road, way economic success is measured and Box 4.8 London, E4 6AG. Population Matters is the working name of asks for transformative change. Plus, Land-Use Change and the Spread of Viruses the Optimum Population Trust Registered trademark. news of PM’s 2021 Conference. It is customary to regard trade in goods as ways that smooth local disruptions10 across space and time. Globalisation is also applauded because it expands output and has been shown to have helped to reduce global poverty. But because globalisation has taken place when much Magazine 8 The campaigning generationof the biosphere is not merely free for all to use as we like but is also subsidised for our use (Annex 8.1, Chapter 8), it has increased the likelihood of societal crashes. It has done that by Printed in the UK by Jamm Print & PM’s President Jonathon Porritt is putconnecting in economic units closely to one another via firms’ supply chains and the movement Productions using vegetable-based inks the hotseat by PM activist Stella Wright.of people. Close connections among its parts make the global economy less modular on 100% recycled paper. (Chapter 2): a crash in one part spreads to other parts. There are further drivers of societal crashes. Our remarkable ability to enter every ecological Design, infographics & illustrations: 10 Pullout poster – 30 yearsniche has raised the chances of pandemics (Daily and Ehrlich, 1996; Jones et al. 2008). Miller Design Humans now enter niches occupied by organisms with which we have not evolved. Intimate to save the world associations between humans and wildlife disease reservoirs have raised the risks of exposure Editor: Anna Harris To commemorate 30 years of Populationto zoonotic viruses. Being unfamiliar pathogens, they are able to spread rapidly across the globe (Gottdenker et al. 2014). Moreover, biodiversity loss creates niches for pathogens that Cover image: Tom Gilks/BBC Wildlife Magazine Matters, here are 10 facts, 10 actionsare lying in wait in small numbers to explode in their populations, and for new pathogens to evolve.154 Population Matters Magazine is produced twice a year by and 10 possible outcomes that could Population Matters, 135-137 Station Road, London E4 6AG see us heading towards 2050 with hope. Registered charity: 1114109 Tel: 020 8123 9116 154 As elsewhere in the Review, we use expressions that could suggest organisms have intention. But as noted previously, such expressions are used routinely among scientists with no such intention, as for example when they say Nature abhors a vacuum. For further information, e-versions and back copies log onto 13 Want change? Take action! populationmatters.org/members-magazine Conservationists Chris Packham and 128 The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review Megan McCubbin share their thoughts on 14 Stay connected building a positive post-pandemic future. populationmatters.org 14 One team for the planet PopulationMatters It’s time for the environmental community to PopnMatters come together to address our environmental popnmatters crises, urges PM’s Olivia Nater. PopulationMatters 15 A sustainable future t: 020 8123 9116 Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi looks at the e: [email protected] opportunities arising from Pakistan’s ed: [email protected] demographic transition if the potential of a: 135-137 Station Road, London E4 6AG the country’s women and girls is harnessed. 16 Transforming lives 19 An update on some of PM’s Empower to Plan projects in Uganda, Kenya and the WORLD UK, funded by our members. POPULATION 18 Women under pressure PM’s Alistair Currie reports on the THIS ISSUE: toxic mix of governments promoting population growth and restricting 7,857,422,900 women’s rights. 19 Q&A with Alisha Graves The newest member of PM’s Expert WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED READING Advisory Group on the work of OASIS, THIS MAGAZINE PLEASE RECYCLE IT which is focused on advancing education BY PASSING IT ON and choice for women and girls in the Sahel. CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 From the Director From a meeting in a House of Commons committee room three decades ago to a charity with global reach, our belief in positive action continues to drive us forward to face the challenges ahead. Chaurasia’s research, published in our Journal of Population and Sustainability, reveals that ongoing population growth is overwhelming reductions in carbon emissions achieved through energy efficiency. Similarly, as highlighted on page 14, the shift by millions of people to plant-based diets and the consequent eco-benefits are outstripped by increasing population and consumption. Despite such contradictions, despite the science, optimism and the belief in positive action motivates us and our supporters, as they did the founders of the Optimum Population Trust.

HOPE RISING In this, our 30th Anniversary Today, our researchers Optimism spans the decades, inspiring issue, I must firstly pay tribute to the far- and consultants are a new generation of campaigners. Our sightedness of the founders of Optimum President, Jonathon Porritt, sees hope Population Trust (OPT), now known as working in the UK, rising out of the “intergenerational rage” Population Matters (PM). Issue number France, Africa, Australia of the third of the world’s population one of OPT’s magazine, Better World, was and the US. Our Patrons under 18 who must contend with published in January 1993, a little under worsening ecological challenges, but two years after, as that first issue phrased and Expert Advisory whose rage can fuel greater activism. it, “OPT was conceived, if readers will Group members include Similarly, our Patron Chris Packham pardon the word, in a committee room laments the “unexceptional leaders” of the House of Commons on March 21, academics, broadcasters, currently in power for these “exceptional 1991”. The occasion was marked by a conservationists, times”, whose paucity of vision leaves debate on population. Four months later scientists and women’s them blustering about ‘returning to on 24 July, a little after its first trimester, normal’ and ‘getting back to business’, at a meeting in a London language school, empowerment activists. when it is ‘business as normal’ that has got with David Willey (who, dedicated to the PM supporters number us and our planet in this present plight. cause, continued to lead and inspire OPT His stepdaughter, Megan McCubbin, until his death in 2000), his wife Yvette more than 20,000 directs her ‘intergenerational rage’ at clear Willey, David Richardson and others in from 120 countries. targets and tactics: “The new generation, attendance, the Optimum Population when they reach positions of power, the Trust was born. activists from across the world. PM big change will come then.” A lot has happened over the past three supporters number more than 20,000 Population Matters continues to build decades, with Population Matters finally from 120 countries worldwide. on the foresight of our predecessors. Our achieving charitable status in 2006, There’s consistency and continuity strategy, currently undergoing review, will, enhancing its ability to increase members too: our overall objective can still be emulating Megan’s energy and optimism, and finances and transition from being summed up as seeking to achieve a ‘Better be focused on clear targets, extending our dependent entirely on volunteers to an World’. However, to quote Professor existing global partnerships, promoting organisation employing full-time staff. Alok Ranjan Chaurasia, 30 years on positive solutions and offering increased Today, team members, our researchers there’s still, “a conspicuous silence about opportunities for more people, young and and consultants are actively working for the role of population in the debate old, to be active in our ongoing campaign PM in the UK, France, Africa, Australia on environmental sustainability”. to build a ‘Better World’. and the US. Our Patrons and Expert Mainstream environmental groups Advisory Group members include Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Robin Maynard internationally recognised academics, the RSPB remain reluctant to promote Director, Population Matters broadcasters (if one can describe Sir David positive action on population, despite Attenborough as merely a ‘broadcaster’!), the growing body of science linking campaigners, conservationists, scientists biodiversity loss and climate change to and women’s empowerment and rights human population impacts. Professor

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People want action on extinctions © Unsplash/Simon Greenwood

As PM Patron Sir David “very concerned” about the loss of Attenborough’s documentaries animal and plant species, 41% thought highlight the biodiversity crisis, a PM it should have the same priority as poll shows two-thirds of people in the tackling climate change and 32% UK want the same or more priority on thought it should have more. species loss as on climate change. Last September, a Leaders’ Pledge for The poll, taken just after broadcast Nature was announced, prior to the of Sir David’s powerful Extinction: United Nation’s biodiversity summit, the facts documentary on BBC One committing to reverse the decline in found that 91% of respondents were biodiversity by 2030. The pledge was global leaders to do what they say they concerned about biodiversity loss. signed by the leaders of more than will this time, and that includes truly And, while climate change and plastic 60 nations. We’ve seen fine words and addressing the most important indirect pollution are the greatest concerns, promises before and they haven’t been drivers – expanding consumption and nearly half of those polled were delivered. At PM, we’re pushing for human population. © Unsplash/Hello I’m Nik It’s now or never By numbers Biodiversity is declining An important new study warns that the world is failing faster than at any time in to grasp the gravity of our environmental crises and human history that without urgent action on the underlying causes – population and consumption growth – we face a ‘ghastly future’ of catastrophic mass extinction, 70% climate disruption, and human suffering. The amount that vertebrate wildlife populations have shrunk The paper, published in Frontiers in decades. The damage will be felt for centuries during the last 50 years* Conservation Science by Corey Bradshaw, and threatens the survival of all species.” PM Patron Professor Paul Ehrlich and 15 other leading scientists, summarises The report’s authors suggest that the lack 1 million The number of species estimated more than 150 major studies on the state of urgency is down to several factors. These to be threatened with extinction* of our planet and predicts that future include the failure to connect and relay environmental conditions will be far planetary crises and solutions identified by worse than what is generally believed. individual academics (who tend to specialise

in one particular topic) in a meaningful way 50% Agriculture occupies half of all In an article for The Conversation, the to policy makers and the wider audience. habitable land on Earth and is , pnas.org authors state: “The problems, all tied to the main driver of habitat and human consumption and population growth, Turn to pages 10-11 for details of how we can biodiversity loss** will almost certainly worsen over coming all have a positive impact on our future >>

60% COVID-19 – what lessons have we learnt? of all mammal species on the ** © Unsplash/Kevin Grieve © Unsplash/Kevin , ourworldindata.org/land-use planet are farm animals In March 2020, as COVID-19 was revealing its deadly impact on the world, PM published a blog about the link between population growth, environmental destruction and pandemics. Since 70% of all bird species on Earth are then, a major report has been published by the farmed poultry** Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, summarising how our exponential rise in consumption, trade Our modern food and population pressure is driving a rapid 1 systems are responsible increase in the risk of pandemics, with more not shy away from the hard truth in a recent /3 for a third of all than five new diseases emerging every year. address, but he added: “Human activities are greenhouse gas emissions*** at the root of our descent toward chaos. But PM Patron Jane Goodall stated in a recent that means human action can help to solve it.” Find out more about changing interview: “We brought it (COVID-19) on our food consumption ourselves by our disrespect of nature.” UN A change for the better? Chris Packham and patterns on page 14 >> Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also did Megan McCubbin comment on pages 12-13 >> 2020, ** Living Planet Report Fund’s Wildlife *World numbers panel sources: By – Tim G Benton, Carling Bieg, Helen Harwatt, Roshan Pudasaini and Laura Wellesley Roshan Harwatt, Carling Bieg, Helen loss – Tim G Benton, impacts on biodiversity system *** Food

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Thumbs up from our members © Unsplash/Jacqueline Munguia A big thank you to everyone who took part in our first annual survey, released late last year. We heard from more than 400 members from 22 countries and it’s really encouraging to find that 90% are ‘very satisfied’ or ‘somewhat satisfied’ with their experience to Can we change our ways? date. In addition, 79% feel ‘very connected’ or ‘somewhat connected’ to the work taking place – with the top two “Humanity has backed itself into an ecological topics most resonating with members being global endgame as we approach mid-century.” population growth and that of nature and biodiversity. What will the future be like in the year 2050? A mere three In terms of member benefits, the monthly email newsletter decades away, most of us hope to still be around. So, what came out on top, with this magazine being a close second! kind of future are we heading into? ENDGAME 2050 gives Many of you enjoy our themed talks and Q&A sessions, which us a glimpse – and it does not look good. we’re hoping to feature more frequently as part of a growing In February, PM held a live screening of the population programme of online events this year. With 94% saying they’re segment of this important new documentary, which is likely to renew their membership, it’s great that so many PM members will continue to support our campaigns. an urgent call to action to tackle the existential crises bearing down on the planet. This was followed by a © Unsplash/Dainis Graveris © Unsplash/Dainis panel discussion with the film-maker Sofia Pineda Ochoa – a physician-turned-environmentalist; reproductive health expert Alisha Graves; and our esteemed Patrons Professor Paul Ehrlich, renowned ecologist and author of the seminal Population Bomb, and Leilani Münter, environmental activist and childfree advocate. When asked about why film can have a bigger impact on attitudes and actions than traditional campaigning, Sofia Pineda Ochoa said: “Our emotional centre has a very strong say in how we behave. Film can be visceral – tapping into our instincts and emotions in such a way Birth control: where are that moves us to change our ways.” This sentiment was echoed by Professor Ehrlich, who added: “Emotions are the male options? an incredibly important part of our lives and just telling people more science doesn’t have as much impact as Decades of research have led to the development of pills, telling stories does.” injections, implants, coils, patches, rings and barriers. All the panellists agreed that there was a need to talk However, almost all of these have to be implemented by more openly about population and that negative reactions the female partner. Even today, men only have the choice between vasectomy (male sterilisation), and condoms. to women who choose to have smaller families or be childfree should be challenged. Alisha Graves commented: Increasingly, many men wish to play a more active role in “We need to break the silence around it.” Robin Maynard family planning. A survey by the US-based Male Contraceptive added: “This documentary promotes the effective Initiative found that almost four in 10 men are very interested population solutions we advocate for at Population Matters, in potential new methods for male contraception. And, as particularly the empowerment of women and girls.” unplanned pregnancies still account for nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide, increasing the number of options Visit populationmatters.org and search for ‘ENDGAME’ to available to men could help reduce these. watch the live discussion. Read our Q&A with Alisha Graves on page 19 >> Despite a lack of investment, several exciting research projects are underway, including a gel containing testosterone and a synthetic analogue of progesterone, developed by the Population Council. However, without more funding, experts say it’ll take up to 20 years for new drugs to become publicly available. Nevertheless, we salute male contraceptive developers for laying the much-needed groundwork for a more equal society in Sofia Pinedoa Ochoa, Professor Paul Ehrlich, Alisha Graves and which everyone is empowered to plan their family. Leilani Münter taking part in the live discussion.

populationmatters.org every choice counts 5 CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 © Unsplash/Riccardo Annandale © Unsplash/Riccardo Climate change progress being cancelled out Despite increased energy efficiency, a major new study finds that population growth is holding back efforts to tackle climate change. energy use due to increasing cleaner energy supplies. However, as people and societies across the world become more affluent, their average economic activity grows, which pushes up energy While significant strides have been taken over the last use and carbon emissions. 30 years to improve energy efficiency, which reduces both the amount of energy needed and the levels of CO2 emitted, INTEGRATING POPULATION IS ESSENTIAL additional demand, caused partly by population growth, has So, while the link with population is clear, the study’s meant that these solutions are effectively driving with the author points out that there is a distinct lack of discussion brakes on. about it, stating: “There is a conspicuous silence about These are the findings of a substantial new study by Professor the role of population in the debate on environmental Aalok Ranjan Chaurasia, titled Population effects of increase sustainability. For example, the United Nations 2030 Agenda in world energy use and CO2 emissions: 1990 - 2019. The for Sustainable Development pays only passing attention study examines the effects of four factors on total to population related issues and concerns energy use and CO2 emissions across 44 countries: in the quest to secure environmental population change, economic growth, energy “There is a sustainability. My analysis highlights the intensity (the amount of energy use/production need to integrate population as a factor in needed to achieve a certain amount of economic conspicuous environmental sustainability. Reducing activity) and carbon intensity (level of emissions silence about the and ultimately achieving zero population per unit of energy). growth can contribute significantly towards role of population environmental sustainability by considerably ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IS A KEY DRIVER in the debate on decelerating the increase in energy use and The peer-reviewed research has been published environmental CO2 emissions.” in the Journal of Population and Sustainability, Commenting on the study, PM’s Director, an editorially independent academic periodical sustainability.” Robin Maynard, said: “There are many drivers published by Population Matters twice a year. Professor Aalok of climate change and all must be considered. It finds that globally, the growth in economic Ranjan Chaurasia Addressing population or any of those drivers activity per person is the main driver of energy alone will not be enough. We need radical use and CO2 emissions – in each case responsible change across the board, exercising all options for around twice the contribution of population growth on and available actions in behaviour (especially in the high- average. And, while economic growth has been far faster consuming Global North), policy and the economic system to than population growth, this nevertheless demonstrates that achieve the targets set out in the Paris Agreement on climate population growth has accounted for a third of emissions change. However, this study demonstrates that if population is during the period analysed. This means that the total amount ignored then progress in other areas will be overwhelmed and of emissions generated by population growth is equal to even cancelled out. Population has to be central to the debate.” two-thirds of the emissions saved through improved energy efficiency measures – essentially knocking back any positive environmental gains that have been made. FIND OUT MORE AFFLUENCE AND ENERGY You can read more about the Globally, over 29 years from 1990 to 2019, we have reduced relationship between population energy intensity by more than a third because fewer of the and climate change in our fully things we do require as much energy as in the past and the referenced Population Matters Climate energy we use is produced and used more efficiently. We have Change Briefing 2020, available as a PDF at also reduced the carbon intensity of that energy – we now populationmatters.org/resources produce a lower level of emissions for the same amount of

6 populationmatters.org every choice counts CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Can economists save the planet? The environment in which we live can no longer sustain us. It’s time for a paradigm shift, where success is measured in terms of thriving economies, not those in perpetual growth, argues PM’s Alistair Currie.

For generations, economists have perceived the natural at more than $6 trillion – in the report’s words: “paying people world as a source of stuff that can be bought and sold, and a more to exploit Nature than to protect it”. plughole down which stuff that isn’t needed can be thrown. Our relationship with nature has been based on the principle HOW WE MEASURE SUCCESS that it will always keep providing what we want and never The review identifies “deep-rooted, widespread institutional stop absorbing what we don’t. For thousands of years, failure”. It also joins many progressive economists in that understanding has worked for us.Chapter However, 4: Human Impact as on themany Biosphere challenging the way in which economic success is measured, economists are now recognising, that time is over, and that both in crude terms of growth and specifically in Gross assumption is killing us. Figure 4.11 The Economy is Embedded in the BiosphereDomestic Product (GDP), which measures only economic output and activity, but doesn’t account for whether LIVING IN THE SPACE BETWEEN the fundamental “assets” underpinning it – Among them, Kate Raworth’s (senior including nature – are strong. Because of this, research associate at Oxford University’s rising GDP conveys a sense of progress, Environmental Change Institute) even when the thing it depends on, the principle of ‘doughnut economics’ is one environment in which we live, is being that has caught the public imagination degraded to the point where it can no because of its simplicity. Raworth’s longer sustain us. Effectively, future model illustrates the idea that “a generations are subsidising our present healthy economy should be designed affluence: we enjoy prosperity because we to thrive, not grow”. It represents the are taking what belongs to them. level of economic activity that is needed The Economics for everyone to have a decent standard and TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta quality of life as a circle. It then imagines another The review calls for three key changes: Review concentric circle, which is the level of economic activity Box 4.8 policies which reward protecting nature; that exceeds what the planet can sustain. In order Land-Useto ensure Change a and the Spreadmeasuring of Viruses “wealth” in a way that reflects It is customary to regard trade in goods as ways that smooth local disruptions across space decent life for everyone, without wreckingand time. Globalisationthe planet, is also weapplauded must because it people’sexpands output wellbeing and has been shown now to and in the longer have helped to reduce global poverty. But because globalisation has taken place when much live in the ‘doughnut’, the space betweenof the biosphere those is two not merely circles. free for allIn to use as weterm; like but isand also subsidised reducing for our ouruse demands on nature. (Annex 8.1, Chapter 8), it has increased the likelihood of societal crashes. It has done that by a world in which deep poverty and inequalityconnecting economic co-exists units closely with to one an another viaOne firms’ supplyway chains it proposes and the movement to ease that pressure is of people. Close connections among its parts make the global economy less modular environmental crisis driven by unsustainable(Chapter 2): a crash consumption, in one part spreads to it’s other parts.steps to reduce and end population growth, clear that our economic system is failingThere are to further achieve drivers of that. societal crashes. Our remarkablethrough ability tofamily enter every planning ecological and generating new niche has raised the chances of pandemics (Daily and Ehrlich, 1996; Jones et al. 2008). Humans now enter niches occupied by organisms withexpectations which we have not evolved.about Intimate family size. In recognising associations between humans and wildlife disease reservoirs have raised the risks of exposure THEto zoonotic CYCLE viruses. OF Being unfamiliar pathogens, theythe are able need to spread to rapidlyaddress across thenot just consumption behaviour but the The economy is globe (Gottdenker et al. 2014). Moreover, biodiversity loss creates niches for pathogens that CONSUMPTIONare lying in wait in small numbers to explode in theirnumber populations, and of forconsumers, new pathogens the report shows courage and clear- 154 a wholly owned In January,to evolve. leading sightedness. Some economists are calling for still more radical economist and Population changes than the Dasgupta report proposes. Many, however, subsidiary of the 154 As elsewhere in the Review, we use expressions that could suggest organisms have intention. But as noted previously, such environment – Mattersexpressions are Patron used routinely among Sir scientists Partha with no such intention, as seefor example no when need they say Nature to abhorschange a vacuum. at all. That is no longer an option. Dasgupta128 issued a major The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review not the reverse. new report, commissioned Herman Daly, former by the UK’s Treasury, PM CONFERENCE 2021 World Bank economist, The Economics of Population Matters Biodiversity, which called The economic implications of reducing Expert Advisor, 1977 for “transformation” in and ending population growth will be our economic systems. It the subject of Population Matters’ details how the environmental costs of economic activity are public conference this autumn. An authoritative and diverse very rarely factored into the financial cost, so that the prices range of speakers will discuss the opportunities for a better of goods and services don’t reflect their impacts. That makes economic system, and, in the face of increasing scare them cheaper, fostering a cycle of more consumption and stories about ageing societies, explore how demographic more environmental damage. changes which help solve our environmental crisis can also Nor has conventional economics recognised the value of be good for people. For the first time, our conference will be nature in underpinning it – the example of bees and other available as a live, online participatory event. insects pollinating commercial crops at no cost, being the To find out more and join us, either online or in London on most famous. Conservative estimates put the level of the day, visit populationmatters.org/conference-2021 government subsidies internationally which damage nature

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CAMPAIGN TRAIL Spiske © Unsplash/Markus On Population Matters’ 30th anniversary, activist Stella Wright from our London group asks our President, Jonathon Porritt, some searching questions...

Stella Wright: You’ve been a Patron to solve with fewer people, and harder of Population Matters for more than – and ultimately impossible – to solve 10 years, and a long-term campaigner with ever more people.” And, not repugnant, deeply authoritarian surrounding population issues. Has the surprisingly, I find myself endlessly campaigns to control women’s fertility subject got any easier to talk about over returning to that figure of 270 million (in both China and India, for example), the last decade? women of reproductive age who are not and it’s not hard to unearth racist and Jonathon Porritt: I sometimes find it able to manage their own fertility. Up misogynistic individuals who weave hard to explain just how different the from 232 million in 1990. population control into their hateful ‘population debate’ today is compared world views. But all this is so far from to the 1970s and 1980s. The idea of SW: At the London Group, we’re setting the kind of work done today by talking about the long-term prospects up a youth action group, to encourage population advocacy organisations, for humankind without putting the younger people to get involved. In your population question at the heart of experience, do younger generations tend those inquiries would have been seen to be more understanding and accepting then as ridiculous. The combined of population issues? We have to go on impact of humankind on the natural JP: As a young activist in my 20s, back speaking the truth to world is obviously a function of how in the 1970s, population was just the environment and many people there are on the planet, accepted as a critical part of the web of and of how those people live their issues and challenges that had to be development NGOs who lives. Two sides of the same coin. engaged with. But there was nobody at will still not properly This changed in the 1990s. that time trying to ‘de-legitimise’ the Paradoxically, the hugely important debate, let alone call into question the acknowledge that UN Conference on Population and values and political integrity of those population growth is one Development in Cairo in 1994, who felt particularly strongly about of the principal drivers of following on directly from the Earth population and family planning. There’s Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, far too much of that going on today, and both the climate and the turned out to be the high point in I think that sometimes discourages ecological emergencies. addressing unsustainable population young people from getting involved. growth rather than the solid foundation As I heard rather plaintively from a on which to build a global consensus young member of the Green Party in a including Population Matters here in around the pre-eminent importance recent Zoom session: ‘I’m not sure that the UK, of which I am proud to be the of rights-based, progressive family I want to go stumbling into the President. The emphasis for NGOs planning. We simply have to rebuild population minefield!’. operating today is on women’s rights, that foundation. non-coercive family planning, on the SW: Do you expect population growth to wider benefits of education for girls and SW: Is there a single quote, or statistic one day be accepted as a widespread of reproductive healthcare, and on that really seems to hit home for people issue, or do you see it remaining as a ensuring that women can manage their who are reluctant to accept population controversial topic or even opinion? own fertility, especially in repressive growth as a threat? JP: I fear it will never be uncontroversial. and male-dominated cultures. JP: Perhaps unimaginatively, I still And let’s be honest about part of the find my fellow Patron Sir David reason why that’s so: the backstory of SW: The majority of people would like to Attenborough’s quote to be the most some population campaigning in the hope that they won’t witness the serious appropriate and useful: “All our past is deeply regrettable. No-one can environmental effects of a growing environmental problems become easier deny that there have been some population and consumption in their

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lifetime. But how much time do we really have before it’s too late to make positive change? JP: To a certain extent, everybody involved in the debate about climate change agrees that it’s already ‘too late’ for some things if not for others: it’s too late, for instance, to get concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere back to the level they were at before the Industrial Revolution. This in turn means that it’s too late to avoid massive climate- STELLA WRIGHT is a member of the Population Matters London Group. Already aware of induced disruption over the next few how everyone’s life choices impact on the planet, she decided to attend PM’s 2019 annual decades. There’s more or less complete conference, which she calls a ‘light bulb moment’: “I realised the biggest way I could reduce consensus on that score. Beyond that, my impact on the planet and make it a better place for future generations was to have many scientists now feel it’s too late fewer or no children and encourage and empower others to do the same. Since then, I’ve to restrict the average temperature spent my free time volunteering for Population Matters with the London group, working on increase to below 1.5°C by the end of the social media channels as well as playing an active role in the committee and attending the century, but still believe it is not too events to champion better choices.” You can read Stella’s blog on championing better late to stay below 2°C. And that means choices at populationmatters.org. we still have a reasonable chance of avoiding runaway climate change JONATHON PORRITT CBE is a leading environmental campaigner, who headed up Friends before things start moving so fast that of the Earth from 1984-90 during some of its most effective campaigning around nuclear there’s nothing we can do about them. power, tropical deforestation, and food and farming issues. Prior to that he was co-chair of the Green Party. In 1996, he established Forum for the Future, now the UK’s leading SW: We know that having one fewer sustainable development charity working to achieve practical solutions in partnership with child is the biggest thing a person can do proactive businesses, policymakers and the voluntary sector. Throughout his career, he to lessen their impact on the planet, but has championed the case for addressing human population as the ultimate, underpinning is this enough? What other choices have sustainability issue and is currently President of Population Matters. Find out more about his you made in your own personal life, that latest book, Hope in hell: A decade to confront the climate emergency, at jonathonporritt.com. you think others should also consider? JP: It is indeed – and we need to keep spelling that out loud and clear. However this angers the growing population growth is one of the of ‘intergenerational rage’ will become number of pro-natalists who believe principal drivers of both the climate one of the most significant factors of the that the destiny of their country or and the ecological emergencies. next decade, not least as that kind of ethnic group depends on persuading/ rage will be so important in sustaining incentivising women to have more SW: What would you say to the current young people’s hopes. rather than fewer children. Most generation about the importance of pro-natalists today subscribe to continuing to campaign for change? Do SW: After such a long career as an right-wing, deeply intolerant and you think we should be even more radical activist, do you feel just as driven as divisive views that seek to advance the and vocal than even your generation? you always have? interests of their own particular race/ JP: I feel really bad that this burden now JP: I do indeed! tribe/culture/people. Apart from that, in rests on the shoulders of so many young terms of our lifestyles, eat less meat, live people today, and that so many feel simply, shop rarely and waste nothing. understandable anger that it should CAMPAIGN have come to this – that our generation WITH US SW: What gives you the motivation should have been so woefully neglectful to carry on spreading the in addressing these priorities. So what NOW population message? happened in 2019, with schoolchildren As one of the key organisations JP: Because it’s so blindingly obvious! going on strike and the explosion of that focuses on urgently needed Just as we have to go on speaking the young climate activist voices in our ethical and empowering solutions truth to those in power, so we have to midst, was enormously important. I to the population issue and their go on speaking reason to all reasonable see no reason why the anger of young implementation, we need your help. and caring people – as articulated so people will not continue to grow and Find out more about supporting eloquently in the 2017 Scientists’ grow as the full extent of our betrayal of our vision of a future in which our Warning to Humanity. And we have to them is revealed. Nearly 30% of today’s population co-exists in harmony do that especially to the significant global population is under the age of with nature and prospers on a number of environment and 18, increasingly well-informed about healthy planet, to the benefit of all at development NGOs in the West who climate change, increasingly connected populationmatters.org/campaigns. will still not properly acknowledge that through the internet. The phenomenon

populationmatters.org every choice counts 9 CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 GLOBAL 10 FACTS 10 ACTIONS 10 OUTCOMES Globally, almost half of Practise safe sex. Put pressure on Unwanted pregnancies will be pregnancies are unplanned. global leaders to support family reduced and improved child and Source: Guttmacher Institute planning and help end the unmet maternal health provision will VOICES need of 270 million women. be established on a global scale. Major environmental charities such as WWF, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB don’t Become a member of Population Matters and Other environmental and conservation currently promote actions to address population encourage others to join, support our campaigns charities start promoting ethical growth. PM is the only organisation focusing on and help us raise awareness of the population population solutions to tackle our VITAL ethical solutions to the population issue. issue, which is contributing to almost all of the environmental crisis. major problems facing us today.

On average, people in the UK are responsible for 11 times the CO emissions of someone in Personal CO2 emissions are slashed, helping other climate CHOICES 2 Nigeria. Global net human-caused emissions Take a transport challenge – solutions be more effective. There are far fewer cars, drive less, bike, hike, use cities have adapted to be more pedestrian and bike th of CO2 need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by On Population Matters’ 30 2030, to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050. public transport, go friendly, with more green spaces and rooftops Sources: Global Carbon Atlas, Intergovernmental flight-free. hosting solar panels, plants and vegetable gardens. anniversary we’re asking all Panel on Climate Change our supporters to make a commitment towards working Transformative changes to our global food patterns 80% of biodiversity loss is caused by Take a diet challenge such as Veganuary with a shift from industrial agriculture and much together for a better, brighter agriculture and 80% of agricultural to reduce your intake of meat and dairy less dependency on meat-heavy diets will preserve future for people and planet. land is used for livestock. products. Choose organic and local foods. biodiversity and reduce the chance of zoonotic Source: UN Environment Programme Plan meals to reduce food waste. diseases such as COVID-19 developing. Every choice you make and each Volunteer for or support a women’s rights charity. Find out Increased awareness around the key action that you take can and will Gender equality reduces population more about PM’s Empower to Plan projects that support issues will lead to greater women’s growth: empowered women small grassroots NGOs in empowering girls, women and have an impact. empowerment, smaller families, better normally choose smaller families. communities through the delivery of family planning and environmental conservation services, using the lives and a healthier planet. power of crowdfunding.

Humanity is currently using 70% Reduce, reuse, recycle. more of the Earth’s renewable Reducing personal footprints inspires those around you Buy less. resources than it can regenerate. to make positive choices. Politicians recognise there is Source: Global Footprint Network genuine concern about the environmental impact of consumption and are taking action.

Childfree people and Celebrate small families, only children, and those with small families those who choose to be childfree. Engage Choosing to have smaller families still face criticism, stigma in discussions about why these are or be childfree is normalised. and intrusive questioning. positive choices.

The population of the Least Developed Seek out, learn from and amplify Shared understanding and respect for the Countries is projected to rise from just over the voices and experiences of challenges faced by people everywhere. 1bn in 2020 to 1.9bn in 2050. people in the Global South. Collaboration across the world Source: United Nations Population Division promotes sustainable solutions.

Only 5% of income gains from The economy is focused on sustainability Gross Domestic Product growth Support campaigns and wellbeing, not growth, to alleviate #MAKEITPOSSIBLE go to the world’s poorest 60%. for global justice. poverty and move towards global equality. Source: Jason Hickel

Campaign! Understand the issues, bust There is government-level support and Policies to address population are not yet included the myths, take action, sign petitions, add cooperation to work together on an in major environmental agreements such as your voice as a campaigner for positive international level so that a sustainable the UN Framework Convention on Climate change that benefits people and planet. population co-exists in harmony with nature and Change and Convention on Biodiversity. PULLOUT prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all. POSTER CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 GLOBAL 10 FACTS 10 ACTIONS 10 OUTCOMES Globally, almost half of Practise safe sex. Put pressure on Unwanted pregnancies will be pregnancies are unplanned. global leaders to support family reduced and improved child and Source: Guttmacher Institute planning and help end the unmet maternal health provision will VOICES need of 270 million women. be established on a global scale. Major environmental charities such as WWF, Friends of the Earth and the RSPB don’t Become a member of Population Matters and Other environmental and conservation currently promote actions to address population encourage others to join, support our campaigns charities start promoting ethical growth. PM is the only organisation focusing on and help us raise awareness of the population population solutions to tackle our VITAL ethical solutions to the population issue. issue, which is contributing to almost all of the environmental crisis. major problems facing us today.

On average, people in the UK are responsible for 11 times the CO emissions of someone in Personal CO2 emissions are slashed, helping other climate CHOICES 2 Nigeria. Global net human-caused emissions Take a transport challenge – solutions be more effective. There are far fewer cars, drive less, bike, hike, use cities have adapted to be more pedestrian and bike th of CO2 need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by On Population Matters’ 30 2030, to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050. public transport, go friendly, with more green spaces and rooftops Sources: Global Carbon Atlas, Intergovernmental flight-free. hosting solar panels, plants and vegetable gardens. anniversary we’re asking all Panel on Climate Change our supporters to make a commitment towards working Transformative changes to our global food patterns 80% of biodiversity loss is caused by Take a diet challenge such as Veganuary with a shift from industrial agriculture and much together for a better, brighter agriculture and 80% of agricultural to reduce your intake of meat and dairy less dependency on meat-heavy diets will preserve future for people and planet. land is used for livestock. products. Choose organic and local foods. biodiversity and reduce the chance of zoonotic Source: UN Environment Programme Plan meals to reduce food waste. diseases such as COVID-19 developing. Every choice you make and each Volunteer for or support a women’s rights charity. Find out Increased awareness around the key action that you take can and will Gender equality reduces population more about PM’s Empower to Plan projects that support issues will lead to greater women’s growth: empowered women small grassroots NGOs in empowering girls, women and have an impact. empowerment, smaller families, better normally choose smaller families. communities through the delivery of family planning and environmental conservation services, using the lives and a healthier planet. power of crowdfunding.

Humanity is currently using 70% Reduce, reuse, recycle. more of the Earth’s renewable Reducing personal footprints inspires those around you Buy less. resources than it can regenerate. to make positive choices. Politicians recognise there is Source: Global Footprint Network genuine concern about the environmental impact of consumption and are taking action.

Childfree people and Celebrate small families, only children, and those with small families those who choose to be childfree. Engage Choosing to have smaller families still face criticism, stigma in discussions about why these are or be childfree is normalised. and intrusive questioning. positive choices.

The population of the Least Developed Seek out, learn from and amplify Shared understanding and respect for the Countries is projected to rise from just over the voices and experiences of challenges faced by people everywhere. 1bn in 2020 to 1.9bn in 2050. people in the Global South. Collaboration across the world Source: United Nations Population Division promotes sustainable solutions.

Only 5% of income gains from The economy is focused on sustainability Gross Domestic Product growth Support campaigns and wellbeing, not growth, to alleviate #MAKEITPOSSIBLE go to the world’s poorest 60%. for global justice. poverty and move towards global equality. Source: Jason Hickel

Campaign! Understand the issues, bust There is government-level support and Policies to address population are not yet included the myths, take action, sign petitions, add cooperation to work together on an in major environmental agreements such as your voice as a campaigner for positive international level so that a sustainable the UN Framework Convention on Climate change that benefits people and planet. population co-exists in harmony with nature and Change and Convention on Biodiversity. PULLOUT prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all. POSTER CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 WHY WE MUST SEIZE THIS CHANCE FOR CHANGE

I’m confident we can find solutions. We need to look at all the issues as being interconnected – climate change, biodiversity and population are intrinsically linked. And we have to

BBC Wildlife Magazine om Gilks/ BBC Wildlife consider everyone in the world as our © T neighbours and work together.

The people in power are old, the structure of our institutions is outdated. Right now, we need the energy of young people who have the courage to take risks for the sake of our future and the future of our planet. The activism that has come out of the depths of COVID-19 is astonishing – Black If we’ve learnt anything from the devastating Lives Matter, the HS2 protests, women impact of COVID-19, it’s that life will never demonstrating on Clapham Common and in Australia. People are realising be quite the same again, which, according that if they want things to change they have to take action – like we did when to conservationists Chris Packham and I was a young conservationist. But we Megan McCubbin, opens up a whole world of failed. We just didn’t fight hard enough. opportunity – if we’re brave enough to stand up We have potential solutions to our problems, although we’re not going to for change. Here, they share their thoughts on implement them without pain. Our job what needs to be done, right here, right now... right now is to inform and stimulate

CHRIS: For me, being isolated during the times with unexceptional leaders who global pandemic hasn’t been a problem. lack imagination and integrity. People are realising I’ve found it invigorating, reaffirming and that if they want things re-energising to spend time with nature Despite calls that we need to ‘get back in my own personal oasis. But, looking to normal’ and it should be ‘business to change they have to outwards, I’ve watched a world in as usual’, do we really want this when take action – like we turmoil, fear, frustration and distress. it’s a bad normal and bad business? It’s did when I was a young It looked like an experiment to test us, now clear to many people that we have to see what we’re made of. a boundless opportunity to respond to conservationist. But we this crisis in a positive way. Yet those failed. We just didn’t We came out of it brilliantly. Scientists in positions of power are still driven by took action, using the latest technologies this craving to get back to how things fight hard enough. to create a vaccine to beat the disease were – normal education, normal and a means of administering it. This economics – they’re not seeing this as demonstrates that when the human a chance to change. race is put under pressure and gets the world’s best scientists on to it, no We’ve heard the warnings from climate problem is ever too big for humans to scientists for years. Now biodiversity solve. There are no excuses. scientists are adding their voices. It’s an urgent call that’s not being listened to. However, what I’d hoped is that this Enormous damage has been done and horrible hiatus that we brought upon it’s scary. When we break ecology, we ourselves would enable us to look at the break it forever. But fear is incredibly things we’d done wrong and set them important as that’s what makes us get right. Yet, we find ourselves in exceptional things done.

12 populationmatters.org every choice counts CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

SEIZE THIS CHANCE FOR CHANGE people to have conversations so they can of the word ‘activist’. You’re an activist draw their own conclusions. If we don’t by all the actions that you do, no matter talk about it we’ll never see change but, how small. You don’t have to join ultimately, I remain hopeful. Extinction Rebellion. You can write to your MP, sit down with your daughter MEGAN: Those in positions of power and talk about the world’s population may give lip service to the fact that issue and why empowering women and climate change is terrible, but taking girls across the globe to be able to choose action means they’ll be out of pocket smaller families will help take the heat off when they’ve already invested heavily the planet and reduce the pressure of YOU CAN MAKE A in environmentally destructive schemes human encroachment on every wildlife such as fossil fuels and HS2. Those habitat. Whatever positive choices you BETTER FUTURE making decision are the older make, all the small things add up to POSSIBLE generation and the full impact of climate enable real, transformative change. This year marks Population Matters change is not going to affect them – 30th anniversary and the 30-year but it will affect their grandchildren. countdown to 2050 – a significant People are scared to talk milestone for reshaping our In the UK, we’re cushioned from the about changing their relationship with Earth by devastation of what’s already happening mid-century before it’s too late. to our planet – apart from those who’ve behaviours and attitudes been unfortunate enough to have their because it’s difficult. You can help us accelerate our homes flooded. By a fact of geography, campaigns and inspire essential action we’re not in the midst of the hurricane – But we have to change by making a donation of £30 (or any Australia and California are burning, but the narrative to reduce amount you can spare) to enable us to these places are thousands of miles away consumption, habitat elevate our message of empowerment from us. It’s a case of out of sight, out of and choice-based solutions as being mind – if a threat doesn’t feel real and loss and population the key to all our futures. imminent, neurologically, our brains – and we can. We promise to use your contribution can’t compute it. When we do experience to campaign for a better future in a threat first-hand, whether that be rising harmony with nature. We promise sea levels or food and water shortages, to continue empowering women then we’ll feel a powerful connection with and girls across the world to choose the impact of climate change. their family size. We promise to lobby policymakers worldwide to As humans, we’re hardwired to find it ensure population is included in difficult to change our minds. If someone environmental strategies. expresses a difference in opinion we tend to see it as a personal attack. People are Please give whatever you can to our scared to talk about changing their 30th anniversary appeal today at: behaviours and attitudes because it’s populationmatters.org/30-years or difficult. But we have to change the send a cheque to: Freepost narrative – and we can. We have to work POPULATION MATTERS. together to reduce consumption, habitat loss and population. The media should be more honest – the amount of news Chris Packham is one of the UK’s leading naturalists and dedicated to climate science is miniscule. wildlife TV presenters and Patron of Population Matters. But we can use social media as a In October 2016, he earned the Christopher Parsons Award for Outstanding Achievement in recognition powerful tool for storytelling, to share of his significant contribution to wildlife filmmaking, the important messages in an engaging conservation and the public’s understanding of the way to open up that dialogue. I can environment. Megan McCubbin is a zoologist, wildlife TV already see this happening. The new presenter, conservationist and photographer and is the generation – me and those younger than founder of The Self-Isolating Bird Club on Twitter. The duo have been inspired to me – when they reach positions of write a book together – Back to Nature: How to Love Life – and Save It, published by power, the big change will come then. I Two Roads and available via chrispackham.co.uk. also think it’s important to not be scared

populationmatters.org every choice counts 13 CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 © Unsplash/Jonathan Kemper © Unsplash/Jonathan Why our planet needs us to all be on the same team What’s the most environmentally damaging industry? The energy sector? Construction? It’s actually modern agriculture, explains PM’s Olivia Nater, and our choices can change things.

To truly achieve sustainability, our systems and increasing the proportion food system would continue to trash the choices – whether related to family of protein we eat from plant sources.” planet. We zoomed past 7.3 billion back planning or diets – matter, which is why in 2016 and the human enterprise was we need to reach across the table to MEAT PRODUCTION RISING not much more sustainable then, or even everyone – from population activists to However, despite the positive intention, 10 or 15 years ago. vegan campaigners – who is concerned the facts reveal we’re heading in about the future of our world. There’s no completely the wrong direction. Long- ADDRESSING ALL THE ISSUES denying the science – a growing number time vegan Sofia Pineda Ochoa – a Dr Ochoa believes the time has come for of reports are calling for transformative physician-turned-environmentalist – everyone to face up to reality: “We owe it changes to our global food systems admits that the recent rise in veganism to the animals, the planet, and ourselves because the way we produce, consume, seemed to indicate a positive step to be honest about this situation – that process and distribute food is wrecking forward: “Ditching animal foods was humans are continuing to breed and kill our planet. going mainstream. Famous athletes were ever more billions of animals for food. Unsurprisingly, many scientific going vegan. Documentaries on Netflix We cannot help the situation unless we authorities are urging a global shift were promoting veganism. Popular vegan address all the issues driving this trend in towards more plant-based diets. In influencers were popping up and even the wrong direction. Our relentless growth developing countries, many people rely McDonalds and Starbucks were offering is affecting wild animals in countless on meat as their only source of protein, vegan options. But then I read a UN ways too – from our plastic waste that but most of us living in wealthy countries report projecting that, in just 10 years, fills whales’ stomachs, to destroying are able to reduce or eliminate our meat chicken meat and dairy consumption habitats for ever more production of palm and dairy intake without any ill health would increase by 20%, and beef and oil and cacao. That’s why, in addition to effects. A University of Oxford study pig meat would increase by 14%. How raising awareness about the impact of found that with the growing calorie could this be? It turns out that population animal agriculture and promoting plant- demands of a population approaching growth and rising affluence are outpacing based diets, I’ve shifted my activism to 10 billion by mid-century, beef and milk the growth of diet changes, so in the end, also address our unsustainable human consumption in western countries would the number of animals used for food is population growth. It’s pretty self-evident need to fall by 90% and 60%, not decreasing at that we need to address both.” respectively, to limit global It’s time for the all. It’s not even While we set in motion urgently climate warming to 2°C. staying even. needed, empowering population solutions Philip Lymbery, Global environmental It’s actually which take decades to come into effect, CEO of farm animal welfare community to move increasing – we cannot ignore the readily available charity, Compassion in World past silo thinking and by a lot.” actions to shrink humanity’s massive Farming International, is keen Just as some footprint. It’s time for the environmental to see a shift from industrial and acknowledge the vegans aren’t community to move past silo thinking agriculture with much less whole smorgasbord aware that and acknowledge the whole smorgasbord dependency on meat-heavy we can and of solutions. We all share the same diets. He says: “We see the of solutions. should be doing values of respect and compassion and a role for regenerative farming something powerful desire to reduce suffering and in rebooting tired soils – needed for about population, some population build a happier, healthier world. Let’s plant-based foods – and bringing back activists don’t realise that ending assume responsibility for the things we nature. We see the need for a radical population growth alone, although key, can control, such as personal family size reduction in the number of animals will not solve our environmental crises. and what we eat, and join together in our farmed (reduce by more than half), Even if we achieve the UN’s low projection campaigning efforts for a better future introducing mixed, rotational farming of 7.3 billion people by 2100, our current for people, animals and nature.

14 populationmatters.org every choice counts CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

By investing in women and girls, we’ll all have the chance of achieving a sustainable future, writes Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi. Women’s rights key to slowing population growth – a message to world leaders

‘Women hold up half the sky’, reads empowerment through increased access Harnessing women’s potential an old Chinese saying. Indeed, women to voluntary family planning and other also requires empowering women have traditionally been the world’s strategic investments. through the expansion of education and farmers, child-bearers, and caretakers employment opportunities. Invest in – the backbone of families and societies. THE DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND girls and women and the returns will be And yet, girls and women continue to The boost is known as the demographic unprecedented. Let everyone, especially suffer from gender discrimination in dividend – the accelerated economic girls and women, have the right to much of the world. This second-class growth that results from changes to choose and decide about their education, citizenship is detrimental first and a country’s age structure – namely marriage, family size and employment. foremost to the wellbeing of women a decrease in the share of young themselves and is also a major obstacle dependents (net consumers), relative to advancing economic development, to an expanding proportion of working- FACTS AND FIGURES reducing poverty and age adults (net achieving environmentally producers). 6 was the average number of sustainable societies. Let everyone, With a relative children per woman in Pakistan Over the last half increase in the until the 1980s. The 2017-18 century, we’ve learned especially girls and working-age PDHS revealed that although that the best way to slow women, have the right population, if this has declined to 3.6 children, population growth is to choose and decide educated and the move towards smaller families not through coercive productively is significantly slower than in ‘population control’, about their education, employed, these other East Asian countries at but by ensuring that marriage, family size changes can similar points in their all people are able to usher in better demographic transitions. make real choices and employment. living standards about childbearing. for families, 34% of the population of increased Pakistan is therefore below the LOW STATUS, HIGH FERTILITY production per capita, and higher rates age of 15, distorting the country’s Women’s rights are key. Fertility rates of savings and investment. age structure. This cohort requires remain high where women’s status is With a population exceeding significant government and low. Fewer than one-fifth of the world’s 207 million, Pakistan is slowly progressing household investments to fund countries will account for nearly all of the through its demographic transition – or their health, education and other world’s population growth this century. the movement from people living short consumption needs. Not coincidentally, those countries – the lives and having large families to living least developed nations in sub-Saharan long lives and having smaller families. married women still 1 in 5 Images courtesy of Pathfinder International, Pakistan Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere – are Improving access to family planning have an unmet need for family also where girls are less likely to attend is not only important for expediting planning, putting millions at risk school, where child marriage is common, fertility decline and age structure shifts, for mistimed and unplanned and where women lack basic rights. but it’s also critical for making the most pregnancies each year. Pakistan is sadly one of these countries. of the prospects the dividend offers. Yet Pakistan is at a crossroads. Data from the latest Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) show the Dr Yasmeen Sabeeh Qazi has been an active advocate for women’s health issues for more than 25 years. Listed in the top 100 country has an opportunity to seize an Women Leaders in Global Health in Pakistan, she is Senior Advocacy economic boost, but only if they can Advisor on Family Planning for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. accelerate fertility decline and women’s

populationmatters.org every choice counts 15 CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Power to the people Empower to Plan enables people to take action. Thanks to your generous support, lives are being transformed, reports Kat Dixon.

Supporting Family Medical Point, Uganda, in reshaping attitudes ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION + REMOVING THE STIGMA + TACKLING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

At the end of last year, we were excited to welcome a new partner to Empower to Plan. Family Medical Point (FMP), based in Abaita Ababiri​, Uganda, is a not-for-profit sexual and reproductive healthcare provider which reached out to our supporters for help to change the attitude towards contraception in their communities. Contraception use here is viewed with suspicion, and the stigma attached to the community, embedding additional messaging designed to uptake of family planning services is thought to be linked to educate men on gender equality and remove the stigma the prevalence of gender-based violence in the area, which is surrounding the use of family planning services. Moses amongst the highest in the world. adds: “We want to enable women to make a choice and Moses Odongo, Team Leader at FMP, demystify the use of family planning.” The second part of the explains: “Men use pregnancy and programme aims to see the development child-bearing as leverage to control a Men use pregnancy and production of a drama show that will woman, so women are denied access be broadcast on a local radio station, with to the family planning services that and child-bearing as accompanying advertising materials. they need. Women have to seek leverage to control a Using an ‘edutainment’ approach, the permission from their partners. show will feature empowered female The services are also rare and woman, so women are characters, consensual relationships, unaffordable. This combination denied access to the and the use of family planning services makes it very difficult for a woman family planning services without judgement or stigma. The to access the service she needs.” use of storytelling in this way will be that they need. an accessible and engaging vehicle to AMBITIOUS PLANS promote gender equality, normalise FMP has ambitious plans to transform perceptions. Using healthy relationships and contraception. a two-part programme, the organisation aims to generate FMP has raised over three quarters of its project target support from key stakeholders within the fishing communities through the generosity of Empower to Plan supporters. of the Wakiso District to champion the safe delivery of Although the project still needs help to reach its total goal, family planning they’ve already been able to set their plans in motion, resources. including training 10 volunteers to deliver family planning Part one of the workshops. Running programme will parallel to this, include training part two of the CAN YOU HELP? 20 on-the-ground programme has FMP needs your help to reach the peer educators been launched, finishing line and fulfil its ambitions to deliver Sexual with the early in Abaita Ababiri. Donate today at Reproductive conceptualisation populationmatters.org/family- Health (SRH) of the radio show medical-point. workshops to the now under way.

Empower to Plan is PM’s flagship crowdfunding scheme. Thanks to your donations, PM is able to provide financial assistance to small grassroots NGOs (non-governmental organisations) who know exactly what needs to be done in their communities – whether that’s empowering girls and women through the delivery of on-the-ground family planning, or supporting environmental conservation solutions that benefit entire neighbourhoods.

16 populationmatters.org every choice counts CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 © Aaron Edmonds Helping UK charity You Before Power to the people Two to deliver change digitally PROMOTING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS + EMPOWERING YOUNG WOMEN + TACKLING TEENAGE PREGNANCY

The ongoing pandemic has seen an increase in services shifting online, including schools and institutions worldwide delivering sessions over the internet. As the outbreak hit, one of Empower to Plan’s long-standing partners, the UK-based relationships and sex education charity, You Before Two, identified an urgent need to give its website a complete overhaul. With face-to-face workshop delivery impacted, sessions transferred online. It soon became clear that a sophisticated re-development of the charity’s website was needed. The pandemic also hit some of its expected income. Worries about covering overheads and workshop facilitators took the focus away from its vital work with young people. Thanks to PM’s Empower to Plan and poverty remain high, through a fun and supportive Our aim is to educate supporters, You programme. Founder, Dr Rebecca Foljambe, says: “Our and empower young Before Two has aim is to educate and empower young women growing up women growing up in achieved almost 90% in a deprived area, and to prioritise the enrichment of its fundraising of their minds and bodies before even considering having a deprived area. target so far. Using a baby.” To help them understand the impact of their an agreed advance, family planning the charity has been able to commission an agency to decisions on the begin working on the new website development. This wider world, the CAN YOU HELP? included the development of a sophisticated resource programme also area that could be accessed by young people worldwide, includes a session You Before Two is looking forward as well as teachers looking to implement the UK on the issue of to launching its new website, government’s new Relationships and Sex Education unsustainable with improved online workshop (RSE) curriculum plans. population growth capabilities and a resource section – a topic that’s that’s accessible to anybody around INFORMED CHOICES rarely taught the world. Can you help the charity Working with partner schools, You Before Two within the context reach its target? Donate today at takes groups of girls and boys in deprived areas of of relationships and populationmatters.org/you-two. Nottinghamshire, where levels of teenage pregnancy sex education.

Emergency relief for Ghettoh We’re continuing to support Ghettoh Clean Youth Group in Kibra, the largest slum in Africa, with its emergency coronavirus response through a Clean Youth Group in Kenya second flash project. Your support helped Ghettoh Clean to put measures IMPROVING SANITATION + DISTRIBUTING in place to improve sanitation facilities within their community, offset CONTRACEPTION + UPSCALING FAMILY the shortage of condoms and PLANNING SERVICES begin their plan to scale up the CAN YOU HELP? limited family planning services offered in Kibra. Unfortunately, Ghettoh Clean is working tirelessly the emergency continues and to get through the challenges the group needs support to they face due to the pandemic. maintain the new sanitation Visit populationmatters.org/ services and expand its solid ghettoh-clean to find out more. For waste management programme, further information and to support which ensures environmental organisations around the world, visit conservation through populationmatters.org/ responsible waste disposal. empower-to-plan

populationmatters.org every choice counts 17 CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 © Unsplash/Nikola Johnny Mirkovic © Unsplash/Nikola More babies for the nation PM’s Alistair Currie looks at a disturbing rise in restrictions on women’s rights due to coercive population growth policies that put pressure on women to have larger families.

Last year, the policy of the Chinese government to force women in its Muslim Uyghur minority to be sterilised, have abortions, or get fitted with intrauterine devices, was a chilling reminder of how the threat of coercive and eugenics- inspired population control policies has not gone away. However, there is another, and more widespread and insidious threat to women’s rights emerging today: the overlap between a deeply conservative ‘family values’ agenda, and government policies intended to increase national populations. In the most disturbing example of a coercive population growth policy, last year, Iran blocked public hospitals nationalistic goals from policies intended to limit women’s and clinics from providing contraception and performing freedom is not straightforward, but the shared agenda is vasectomies in an attempt to boost birth rates. Meanwhile, evident, not least on the critical battleground for abortion many populist, nationalist and/or far-right governments rights. In 2018, one Hungarian minister declared that its are pursuing domestic pro-natalist policies, encouraging population would be double if abortion had not been legal. or pressuring women to have larger families. The trend is Meanwhile, the pushback on abortion freedom in Russia strong in countries with authoritarian systems, or forms part of the government’s demographic agenda. leaders with authoritarian tendencies, Vladimir Putin has said: “Russia’s fate including China, Russia, Turkey, and its historic prospects depend on Hungary, Belarus and Poland. The UN’s Sexual and how many of us there are … it depends Reproductive Health on how many children are born in SINISTER MOTIVATIONS Russian families”. In many countries concerned about the Agency is concerned economic effects of a very low birth rate, that the focus of some A TOXIC ALLIANCE financial incentives for larger families are Few places exemplify this more used, without any coercive element or other population policies than Poland, where a toxic alliance agenda. However, significant increases in currently being of conservative and religiously births have not yet followed in places like implemented in the driven ‘family values’, concern over China and Poland, and this is where more depopulation, and hostility to immigrants sinister motivations can come in. Eastern Europe and drives policies on family. In January A common central theme in European Central Asia region 2021, it effectively introduced a total ban pro-birth policies and rhetoric is a reactionary on abortion. and often religiously driven promotion of could have a negative This nationalistic neo-eugenicist the traditional nuclear family, which in impact on women’s agenda is not restricted to nominally practice pushes women back into the kitchen and reproductive rights. Christian countries, however. Turkey’s and bedroom. Financial benefits for having President Erdogan has accused Western Alanna Armitage children are often limited to those who are powers of wanting to supress the Turkish UNFPA Regional Director married or heterosexual, for instance. population through birth control, whilst for Eastern Europe also calling for members of the Turkish and Central Asia ETHNIC NATIONALISM diaspora to have families of five or more. Frequently in harness with this is a Abortion is technically legal in Turkey, disturbing ethnic nationalism. Many but is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. East European populists subscribe to the idea of the There’s no room for complacency regarding potential ‘great replacement’ of white European Christians by abuses in pursuit of reduced population growth, but if the other cultures and ethnicities. Poland’s Prime Minister international community in the 2020s focuses on the history has said his government: “want[s] to reshape Europe and of population control rather than the Handmaid’s Tale re-Christianise it”. Hungary’s Victor Orban has put it future threatened (and in some respects, already here) of as simply: “We want Hungarian children. Migration for the nationalistic pro-natal agenda, critical gains in women’s us is surrender.” Disentangling population growth and reproductive rights and freedom stand to be lost.

18 populationmatters.org every choice counts CONTENTS | PAGES 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Q&A with Alisha Graves Founder and Executive Director of OASIS, which works to advance education and choice for women and girls in the Sahel, Alisha Graves is a new member of PM’s Expert Advisory Group. Here she explains more about the organisation’s work.

Q: What are the objectives of OASIS? should redouble our efforts to secure A: OASIS is a non-profit organisation rights-based family planning policies and SAHEL SNAPSHOT programmes and ensure they’re available working to advance education and choice ■ to individual women on a regional scale. The Sahel is an ecological zone known for women and girls in the Sahel. We’re for its resilient people and rich, focused on keeping girls in school, delaying diverse cultures. It stretches from the marriage and overcoming barriers to Q: You’ve also contributed to Project Atlantic Ocean eastwards through family planning. Together with the Centre Drawdown, which identifies available northern Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, for Girls Education in Northern Nigeria, and implementable solutions to climate Burkina Faso, Niger, northern Nigeria, we’ve demonstrated that mentored girls’ change. What insights did you gain? Chad, and into Sudan. clubs (safe spaces) can increase girls’ A: At Drawdown, we found that taken ■ It’s an area that faces many complex completion rates from secondary school together, education and voluntary family and interconnected challenges – by twenty-fold and raise the age of planning are among the top solutions. from food insecurity and the impact marriage by 2.5 years. With L’Initiative By slowing population growth, there’s of climate change, to political OASIS Niger, we’re building a critical the potential to avert 85 gigatons of instability and fragile economies. mass of leaders dedicated to the education greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But ■ The region has some of the world’s and empowerment of women and girls education without quality family planning highest rates of child marriage. via the Sahel Leadership Program. services will be insufficient – it’s through correct information and access to ■ By 2050, the region’s population is Q: What’s the prognosis for the Sahel as contraception that a woman achieves her expected to more than double. The regards its population and climate change? desired family size. More educated girls G5 Sahel countries are projected to increase from 85 million today to are likely to marry later, use health A: The population of the Sahel is expected nearly 200 million. to more than double by mid-century. services, and have decision-making ■ Temperatures in the region are climbing power. These benefits are passed on to The Sahel is experiencing extreme temperatures, which could climb by faster than the global average, with a their children in a virtuous circle. up to 6°C (43°F℉) by the end of the projected increase in air temperature of Q: Can you elaborate on the link between century, according to UN data, with 2-3°C, and robust, negative effects on the potentially disastrous impacts. staple crops. These projections, along with education, access to family planning and the low status of women, mean we must adapting agricultural practices as key to pay special attention to this region. In confronting climate change in the Sahel? brief, academics and activists outside the A: These are like three legs of a stool. Alisha Graves MPH (Master of Public region tend to overlook or minimise links Without all three, the region will not be Health) leads strategy, development and between population and climate change. able to sustain healthy lives by mid- advocacy for OASIS. She lectures on For example, the Intergovernmental century. Most Sahel leaders dedicated population and food security in the Sahel Panel on Climate Change report cited to girls’ education and empowerment and analysed family planning as being beneficial for have not considered how a lack of the contribution mitigation, adaptation and health. But control over fertility impedes women’s of family few of the popular press or research ability to take charge of other aspects of planning for papers picked this up. Talking about their lives. Understanding how rights- reducing the size of our carbon footprints without based family planning can accelerate greenhouse acknowledging the number of footprints fertility decline and make it easier to gas emissions is like trying to calculate the area of meet all of the UN’s Sustainable for Project a rectangle using only the width. Development Goals is creating a lot Drawdown. Understanding these links means we of excitement and fresh energy.

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