Population Strategy Meeting 2010
You wouldn’t expect condoms to be distributed to a room full of population experts and environmentalists, but that’s just what Randy Serraglio, Conservation Advocate from the Center for Biological Diversity, did at this year’s Population Strategy Meeting. The event, hosted by Population Media Center on October 4th in Washington DC, brought together over 80 leading experts in population-related fields to discuss how we can effectively solve one of the most pressing issues of our time. A variety of national and global approaches, like Serraglio’s, were highlighted. When asked why the population issue should be important to environmental organizations, Serraglio said, “The Center for Biological Diversity works to protect endangered species all over the world and stop the extinction crisis, and the main driver of that is human overpopulation…so unless we want to see all our work undermined in the next few decades, we should address this issue. The medium we used to get that message out [is] our endangered species condoms.” The endangered species condom project has distributed over 300,000 condoms nationally to date. The condoms feature catchy taglines, drawings, and a short paragraph about species extinction and human population, helping people make the connection that wearing a condom does more than protect against STDS and pregnancy — having safe sex helps to protect our planet, too. Listen to our full interview with Randy:
This year’s Population Strategy Meeting featured a keynote address from Kelvin Thompson, member of the Australian Parliament; Jenny Goldie, former president of Sustainable Population Australia; and Mark O’Connor, co-author of the 2008 book, Overloading Australia. Thompson pointed out that “70% of Australians don’t want rapid population growth,” and he cited the Australian entrepreneur and adventurist, Dick Smith, as a big reason for why the population issue has been gaining ground in Australian politics. Smith became interested in population when his youngest daughter asked him why world leaders convene to talk about climate change and ignore “the elephant in the room” — population. Smith has since made a film about the issue, The Population Puzzle, and he recently announced his Wilberforce Award, which will give $1 million to a person under 30 who educates people about population growth and shows leadership in communicating alternative solutions to our “consumption-based economy”.
Another notable presence at the Population Strategy Meeting was Chris Martenson, fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. Martenson is the creator of The Crash Course, a series of videos that look at how the environment, energy, and the economy are linked. He says that we must choose either ‘growth or prosperity’ at both an individual and global level. Martenson has had great success in getting his message to reach both conservatives and liberals in American politics; he attributes this to keying in on the “moral importance of the story” through facts rather than focusing on the broader ideas that divide people. Martenson uses simple logic to show how money, debt, oil, energy, population, and the environment are all connected, and how the simultaneous exponential growth of each can (or cannot) continue to function as the earth’s physical limitations are reached. Now that’s food for thought.
