This is what we believe and hope to achieve:
We love children. Every life is precious.
We’re striving for a world in which…
- every child is wanted,
- every child has her/his needs met, including love, food, shelter, a healthy planet, and the opportunity to live a meaningful, fulfilling life,
- every prospective parent considering bringing a child into the world is aware of the overpopulation crisis, and is free of pressure from big business, government, church or society to breed more taxpayers, consumers, workers, soldiers or congregants,
- everyone around the world has access to convenient, effective, affordable family planning.
We must be clear: we do not suggest that allowing our numbers to contract is all that’s necessary to ensure a beautiful future for the world’s children. Allowing our population to coast back down to half of today’s population will not, by itself, bring human civilization into sustainable balance with nature. Most of us need to also alter our behavior – our profligate lifestyles. We who are among the wealthiest half of the world’s population need to shrink our own ecological footprints. We need to shrink them enough that the poorest half of the world’s population can rise out of poverty and have their needs met.
Many of our growth and consumption oriented systems and beliefs need to change. We support that, but the math and science make it clear, that alone will not be sufficient, either. The long-term viability of our society – of our species – and the future of all the children of the world, and their children, require that we all work together to shrink our levels of consumption AND reduce the number of consumers.
Since our society has brushed the topic of human population numbers under the rug for so long, we’ve chosen to champion the cause of raising awareness and increasing knowledge about overpopulation. The topic needs daylight so people learn how to approach the issue with sensitivity and respect for human rights. It needs daylight so people can understand no one is to blame for overpopulation and no group deserves to be targeted.
We need to debunk the myths and banish the misinformation. Daylight will reveal we’ve naturally been doing what’s necessary to resolve overpopulation for 60 years, choosing smaller and smaller families. We can resolve this crisis voluntarily, ethically and with respect for human rights. We all have a role to play in this. Some valuable roles include making informed, well-considered decisions in planning our own family, supporting family planning where we live, and supporting family planning around the world.
We’re not here to dictate anyone’s personal decisions. We’re not here to judge or to shame. We’re here to educate, and to support every child’s right to a beautiful future.
Learn more by exploring a few episodes of The Overpopulation Podcast. We’re also happy to answer questions about this initiative at a free webinar 7 October, 2020 at 6pm PDT.
