"We must alert and organise the world's people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve...exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources."
Jacques Cousteau
We support a voluntary reduction in population over time to a level that enables an acceptable quality of life for all, protects wildlife and is ecologically sustainable through:
Jacques Cousteau
We call on governments and the international community to recognise the role that population size plays in the issues facing humanity and to incorporate consideration of population in discussions of biodiversity, climate change, conflict, migration, poverty reduction and resource security. In emerging discussions on Sustainable Development Goals, we should seek to include a goal or goals promoting a reduction in population growth.
We also ask governments to acknowledge the undesirable consequences for their citizens of increasing population density: housing shortages, falling residential property sizes, traffic congestion, transport overcrowding, pollution, loss of amenity and unspoilt areas, and water, food, energy and mineral security issues. We also call on governments to assign responsibility for population to a nominated individual.
For the UK, we ask the government to commit to keeping the population below 70 million.
We also ask governments to acknowledge the undesirable consequences for their citizens of increasing population density: housing shortages, falling residential property sizes, traffic congestion, transport overcrowding, pollution, loss of amenity and unspoilt areas, and water, food, energy and mineral security issues. We also call on governments to assign responsibility for population to a nominated individual.
For the UK, we ask the government to commit to keeping the population below 70 million.
Goals
We support a voluntary reduction in population over time to a level that enables an acceptable quality of life for all, protects wildlife and is ecologically sustainable through:
- universal user-led access to the full range of family planning services;
- high-quality education and support that is intended to help men and women avoid unintended conceptions;
- encouragement for individuals to make responsible decisions on family size;
- an end to subsidies of larger families, except in cases of proven need; and
- an end to discrimination against women and equal access for women to education, decision-making and resources.
- sustainable development in the developing countries;
- a significant reduction in consumption;
- more efficient resource use and improved skills development for individuals;
- balanced migration flows — no more in than out — for countries that consume unsustainably; and
- due consideration of the interaction of population size and government policies
