Population Matters

Population Matters, formerly known as the Optimum Population Trust, is a UK-based charity that addresses population size and its effects on environmental sustainability. It considers population growth as a major contributor to environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion and climate change.[3][4] The group promotes ethical, choice-based solutions through lobbying, campaigning and awareness-raising.[5]

Population Matters
Founded1991 (1991)
FounderDavid Willey
Type
FocusPromotion of smaller families[1] and sustainable consumption[2]
Location
MethodCampaigning, education, lobbying and research
Key people
Websitepopulationmatters.org
Formerly called
Optimum Population Trust

History and background

Population Matters was launched as the Optimum Population Trust following a meeting on 24 July 1991 by the late David Willey and others concerned about population numbers and sustainability. They were impelled to act by the failure of United Kingdom governments to respond to population growth and threats to sustainability.

The Optimum Population Trust prepared analyses and lobbied on issues affected by population growth. It was granted charitable status on 9 May 2006.[6] Population Matters was adopted as its new name in 2011.[7]

Views and aims

Population Matters highlights how rapid human population growth has fueled the destruction of nature and natural resource depletion.[3][4] The charity promotes positive, voluntary measures to achieve a sustainable human population size that enables everyone to have a decent quality of life while safeguarding our natural environment.

The United Nations projects that global population size will reach 9.7 billion in the year 2050 and 10.9 in 2100,[8] which illustrates the urgency of the matter, according to the organisation.

Vision

Population Matters' vision[9] is of a future in which our population co-exists in harmony with nature and prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all.

Mission

Population Matters' mission is to drive positive, large-scale action through fostering choices that help achieve a sustainable human population and regenerate our environment.

Solutions

Population Matters promotes five solutions to slow and ultimately reverse population growth:[10]

  • Achieve global gender equality
  • Remove all barriers to modern family planning
  • Quality education for all
  • End poverty
  • Encourage small family size

In addition, recognising the disproportionately large environmental footprint of wealthy nations, the charity calls for reducing consumption in high-income countries.[11]

Activities

Population Matters campaigns to stabilise population at a sustainable level through encouraging a culture shift towards smaller family sizes worldwide and improving funding for women's empowerment and family planning in lower income countries.[12][13] Over the years, the organisation has supported various campaigns, including Caroline Lucas' Bill to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) a statutory requirement in state-funded schools.[14] It also informs the public on overpopulation and positive solutions through its communications, events and outreach activities. Finally, the charity commissions research to examine some issues in depth, for example, analysing the latest UN population projections, or exploring the impacts of UK population growth on biodiversity.[15]

Population Matters publishes the editorially independent Journal of Population and Sustainability, an open access, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal exploring all aspects of the relationship between human numbers and environmental issues.

The charity runs Empower to Plan, a crowdfunding' project that offers members of the public the opportunity to donate directly towards family planning and women's empowerment projects around the world.[16] This project superseded the carbon offsetting project called PopOffsets.

Organisational structure

Population Matters consists of patrons, an advisory council, a board, a team of staff, volunteers and members.[17] It relies on members and donors for its funding.[18]

Patrons

Population Matters' patrons include prominent public figures such as Sir David Attenborough, Chris Packham, Dr Jane Goodall, Leilani Münter, Jonathon Porritt, Sir Partha Dasgupta, Professor Paul Ehrlich, Lionel Shriver and Professor John Guillebaud.[19]

Criticism

In 2015, Population Matters was criticized for a blog post disagreeing with an Amnesty International call on the UK and other EU countries to "significantly increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees from Syria" while saying that these "countries should continue to support migrants from the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the countries adjacent to those conflicts".[20] The organization subsequently confirmed that this had never been official Population Matters policy and had been repudiated and withdrawn.[21] The Optimum Population Trust had called for numerically balanced or "zero-net" migration to the UK, but did not continue to support this policy as Population Matters. In 2015, Population Matters advocated stopping child benefit and tax credits for third and subsequent children.[20] In 2017, the organization stopped advocating for specific policy changes, replacing them with a call for a Sustainable Population Policy.[22]

See also

References
  1. "Smaller families". populationmatters.org.
  2. "Consume mindfully". populationmatters.org.
  3. "Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?". Scientific American. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  4. "Climate change and population growth are making the world's water woes more urgent". The Economist. 28 February 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  5. "Solutions". Population Matters | Sustainable World Population | Every Choice Counts. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  6. "Charity framework". Charity Commission. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  7. "Governance". Population Matters. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. "World Population Prospects 2019 (Key findings)" (PDF).
  9. "About us". Population Matters | Every Choice Counts | Sustainable World Population. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  10. "Solutions". Population Matters | Every Choice Counts | Sustainable World Population. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  11. "What else can I do?". Population Matters | Every Choice Counts | Sustainable World Population. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  12. "Central London Humanists". Meetup. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  13. Martin, Roger (23 October 2011). "Why current population growth is costing us the Earth". the Guardian. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  14. Lucas, Caroline. "PSHE briefing for MPs". Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  15. "What we do". Population Matters. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
  16. "Empower to Plan". Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  17. "Our team - Population Matters". Population Matters. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  18. "Governance". Population Matters. 13 September 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
  19. "Patrons - Population Matters". Population Matters. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  20. "The charity which campaigned to ban Syrian refugees from Britain". openDemocracy. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  21. "Population Matters' past policies". Population Matters | Every Choice Counts | Sustainable World Population. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  22. "Sustainable population policy". Population Matters. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
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