Population Balance

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Population Balance (formerly World Population Balance) is a non-profit organization in the United States that raises awareness of the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot, and advocates for solutions to address their combined impacts on the planet, people, and animals. [1] [2]

Contents

History and background

Population Balance was founded by David Paxson [3] [4] [5] as World Population Balance in 1993. [1] He was succeeded as the executive director in 2016 by Dave Gardner [6] [7] . In 2021 Nandita Bajaj [8] [9] became executive director and the organization adopted its current name of Population Balance and a new vision, mission, and philosophy [10] . Notable past and present advisors include Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, former Governor of Michigan William Milliken, originator of the "ecological footprint" concept William E. Rees, actress and activist Alexandra Paul, and physicist Albert Allen Bartlett.

Philosophy

Tagline

Shrink Toward Abundance [10]

Vision

Population Balance envisions a future where human's footprint is in balance with life on Earth, enabling all species to thrive. [10]

Mission

Population Balance's mission is to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet. [10]

Approach

Population Balance is the only organization globally that uses a humane education [8] lens to address ecological overshoot by advocating for solutions that elevate social, ecological, and intergenerational justice. Their pillars [2] are:

Activities

Population Balance uses the humane education [8] framework for its outreach activities that help draw the connections between pronatalism, overpopulation, human supremacy, and ecological collapse and promote urgently needed solutions. Activities include The Overpopulation Podcast, [11] classroom and conference presentations, [12] [13] [14] [15] academic and media publications, and media and podcast interviews. [16] [17] [18]

The Overpopulation Podcast

The Overpopulation Podcast is released twice monthly and is ranked in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally. [19] The podcast hosts interview expert guests to explore the drivers and impacts of ecological overshoot as well as individual and collective solutions. Notable guests have included Mechai Viravaidya, Riane Eisler, Paul Ehrlich, Alan Weisman, Naomi Oreskes, William E. Rees, Angela Saini, Partha Dasgupta, Carl Safina, Richard Heinberg, Orna Donath, Robert Jensen, Jo-Anne McArthur, Robert Engelman, Malcolm Potts, Alexandra Paul, Kevin Bales, and Vegard Skirbekk.

Academic publications

Population Balance staff make regular contributions in academic publications on the subjects of ecological overshoot, pronatalism, [20] and critical animal studies, [21] and in 2024 co-authored a World Scientists' Warning to Humanity [22] paper.

Media appearances

Population Balance’s work has appeared in a variety of media, including The Globe and Mail, [23] National Post, [24] CBC Radio, [25] The Guardian, [26] The Washington Post, [27] Ms. Magazine, [28] [29] Newsweek, [30] [31] [32] The Christian Science Monitor, [33] Truthdig, [34] [35] CounterPunch, [36] Inter Press Service, [37] [38] Wisconsin Public Radio, [39] and Radio Paradise. [9]

Charity evaluation

Population Balance has a 4-star rating through Charity Navigator [40] and a Platinum transparency rating through Candid (Guidestar). [41]

Related Research Articles

The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as the environment's maximal load, which in population ecology corresponds to the population equilibrium, when the number of deaths in a population equals the number of births. The effect of carrying capacity on population dynamics is modelled with a logistic function. Carrying capacity is applied to the maximum population an environment can support in ecology, agriculture and fisheries. The term carrying capacity has been applied to a few different processes in the past before finally being applied to population limits in the 1950s. The notion of carrying capacity for humans is covered by the notion of sustainable population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Resource depletion</span> Depletion of natural organic and inorganic resources

Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than it can be replenished. Natural resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources. The use of either of these forms of resources beyond their rate of replacement is considered to be resource depletion. The value of a resource is a direct result of its availability in nature and the cost of extracting the resource. The more a resource is depleted the more the value of the resource increases. There are several types of resource depletion, including but not limited to: mining for fossil fuels and minerals, deforestation, pollution or contamination of resources, wetland and ecosystem degradation, soil erosion, overconsumption, aquifer depletion, and the excessive or unnecessary use of resources. Resource depletion is most commonly used in reference to farming, fishing, mining, water usage, and the consumption of fossil fuels. Depletion of wildlife populations is called defaunation.

Overconsumption describes a situation where a consumer overuses their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this may be described as the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater than their marginal utility. The term overconsumption is quite controversial in use and does not necessarily have a single unifying definition. When used to refer to natural resources to the point where the environment is negatively affected, it is synonymous with the term overexploitation. However, when used in the broader economic sense, overconsumption can refer to all types of goods and services, including manmade ones, e.g. "the overconsumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning". Overconsumption is driven by several factors of the current global economy, including forces like consumerism, planned obsolescence, economic materialism, and other unsustainable business models and can be contrasted with sustainable consumption.

The ecological footprint measures human demand on natural capital, i.e. the quantity of nature it takes to support people and their economies. It tracks human demand on nature through an ecological accounting system. The accounts contrast the biologically productive area people use to satisfy their consumption to the biologically productive area available within a region, nation, or the world (biocapacity). Biocapacity is the productive area that can regenerate what people demand from nature. Therefore, the metric is a measure of human impact on the environment. As Ecological Footprint accounts measure to what extent human activities operate within the means of our planet, they are a central metric for sustainability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul R. Ehrlich</span> American biologist (1932–present)

Paul Ralph Ehrlich is an American biologist known for his predictions and warnings about the consequences of population growth, including famine and resource depletion. Ehrlich is the Bing Professor Emeritus of Population Studies of the Department of Biology of Stanford University.

An ecological or environmental crisis occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include:

Natalism is an ideology that promotes the reproduction of human life as an important objective of being human and advocates high birthrate. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term, as it relates to the belief itself, dates from 1971 and comes from French: nataliste, formed from French: natalité, birthrate.

The "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity" was a document written in 1992 by Henry W. Kendall and signed by about 1,700 leading scientists. Twenty-five years later, in November 2017, 15,364 scientists signed "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice" written by William J. Ripple and seven co-authors calling for, among other things, human population planning, and drastically diminishing per capita consumption of fossil fuels, meat, and other resources. The second notice has more scientist cosigners and formal supporters than any other journal article ever published.

Human overpopulation describes a concern that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term. The topic is usually discussed in the context of world population, though it may concern individual nations, regions, and cities.

The global hectare (gha) is a measurement unit for the ecological footprint of people or activities and the biocapacity of the Earth or its regions. One global hectare is the world's annual amount of biological production for human use and human waste assimilation, per hectare of biologically productive land and fisheries.

Mathis Wackernagel is a Swiss-born sustainability advocate. He is President of Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in Oakland, California, and Geneva, Switzerland. The think-tank is a non-profit that focuses on developing and promoting metrics for sustainability.

The balance of nature, also known as ecological balance, is a theory that proposes that ecological systems are usually in a stable equilibrium or homeostasis, which is to say that a small change will be corrected by some negative feedback that will bring the parameter back to its original "point of balance" with the rest of the system. The balance is sometimes depicted as easily disturbed and delicate, while other times it is inversely portrayed as powerful enough to correct any imbalances by itself. The concept has been described as "normative", as well as teleological, as it makes a claim about how nature should be: nature is balanced because "it is supposed to be balanced". The theory has been employed to describe how populations depend on each other, for example in predator-prey systems, or relationships between herbivores and their food source. It is also sometimes applied to the relationship between the Earth's ecosystem, the composition of the atmosphere, and weather.

Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale migration, leading to an overabundant species and other animals in the ecosystem competing for food, space, and resources. The animals in an overpopulated area may then be forced to migrate to areas not typically inhabited, or die off without access to necessary resources.

In environmental science, a population "overshoots" its local carrying capacity — the capacity of the biome to feed and sustain that population — when that population has not only begun to outstrip its food supply in excess of regeneration, but actually shot past that point, setting up a potentially catastrophic crash of that feeder population once its food populations have been consumed completely. Overshoot can apply to human overpopulation as well as other animal populations: any life-form that consumes others to sustain itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earth Overshoot Day</span> Calculated calendar date when humanitys yearly consumption exceeds Earths replenishment

Earth Overshoot Day (EOD) is the calculated illustrative calendar date on which humanity's resource consumption for the year exceeds Earth’s capacity to regenerate those resources that year. The term "overshoot" represents the level by which human population's demand overshoots the sustainable amount of biological resources regenerated on Earth. When viewed through an economic perspective, the annual EOD represents the day by which the planet's annual regenerative budget is spent, and humanity enters environmental deficit spending. EOD is calculated by dividing the world biocapacity, by the world ecological footprint, and multiplying by 365, the number of days in a year:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Global Footprint Network</span> Ecological organization

The Global Footprint Network was founded in 2003 and is an independent think tank originally based in the United States, Belgium and Switzerland. It was established as a charitable not-for-profit organization in each of those three countries. Its aim is to develop and promote tools for advancing sustainability, including the ecological footprint and biocapacity, which measure the amount of resources we use and how much we have. These tools aim at bringing ecological limits to the center of decision-making.

Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from excessive rates of extinction, which is referred to as conservation biology.

The Ten Million Club Foundation is a non-governmental organization based in the Netherlands which promotes global overpopulation awareness. For the Netherlands, it advocates to match the population size with the carrying capacity of the area. Initially, the foundation was calling for a shrinking population; later on the emphasis was also put on a reduction of the ecological footprint of the inhabitants of the Netherlands. The club was set up as a private foundation by the Dutch historian Paul Gerbrands in 1994.

Sustainable population refers to a proposed sustainable human population of Earth or a particular region of Earth, such as a nation or continent. Estimates vary widely, with estimates based on different figures ranging from 0.65 billion people to 9.8 billion, with 8 billion people being a typical estimate. Projections of population growth, evaluations of overconsumption and associated human pressures on the environment have led to some to advocate for what they consider a sustainable population. Proposed policy solutions vary, including sustainable development, female education, family planning and broad human population planning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecological overshoot</span> Demands on ecosystem exceeding regeneration

Ecological overshoot is the phenomenon which occurs when the demands made on a natural ecosystem exceed its regenerative capacity. Global ecological overshoot occurs when the demands made by humanity exceed what the biosphere of Earth can provide through its capacity for renewal.

References

  1. 1 2 ProPublica (1993-05-01). "World Population Balance". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  2. 1 2 "Population Balance". Population Balance. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  3. ↑ PBS (2000-12-21). "Small World Discussion". PBS: Newsnight Minnesota. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  4. ↑ Wig, Andrew (2013-02-28). "Richfield man a lonely voice against overpopulation". Sun Current. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  5. ↑ The Messenger (2013-04-25). "How to solve overpopulation". The Messenger. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  6. ↑ Foster, David (2020-03-22). "Birth Strike: Can going childless help the planet?". TRT World Roundtable. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  7. ↑ Gemmell, Edmund (2020-11-12). "Why Population Cant be Ignored". Scientists Warning Europe. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  8. 1 2 3 Weil, Zoe (2021-09-02). "We need to talk about human overpopulation: An interview with Nandita Bajaj". Institute for Humane Education. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  9. 1 2 Goldsmith, William; Goldsmith, Alanna; Cunningham, Josh (2024-04-04). "No Vacancy feat Nandita Bajaj". Radio Paradise. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Philosophy | Population Balance". Population Balance. 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  11. ↑ Apple Podcasts (2016-08-01). "The Overpopulation Podcast". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  12. ↑ Mobius Foundation (2023-09-30). "International Conference on Sustainability Education 2023". Mobius Foundation. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  13. ↑ The Center for Biological Diversity (2021-06-25). "Film Screening and Discussion: "8 Billion Angels"". The Center for Biological Diversity. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  14. ↑ University of Denver (2024-02-21). "Confronting Pronatalism and Human Supremacy: The Key to Advancing Reproductive and Animal Rights". Strum College of Law, University of Denver. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  15. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2022-11-16). "Challenging Pronatalism is Key to Advancing Reproductive Liberation and Planetary Health". 2022 International Conference on Family Planning.
  16. ↑ Donald, Rachel (2023-03-15). "How Pronatalism Feeds The Economy | Nandita Bajaj". Planet: Critical. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  17. ↑ Perková, Veronika (2022-10-26). "Pronatalism: Outdated, Unfair, and Unsustainable in a World of 8 Billion". Population 8 Billion | Population Media Center. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  18. ↑ Woodhouse, Jamie (2021-09-29). ""Think of what reverence really means" with Nandita Bajaj of Population Balance". Sentientism. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  19. ↑ Listen Notes (2016-08-01). "The Overpopulation Podcast". Listen Notes. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  20. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita; Stade, Kirsten (2023-02-03). "Challenging Pronatalism Is Key to Advancing Reproductive Rights and a Sustainable Population". The Journal of Population and Sustainability. 7 (1): 39–70. doi: 10.3197/JPS.63799953906861 . ISSN   2398-5496.
  21. ↑ Poirier, Nathan; Tomasello, Sarah; George, Amber E., eds. (2023-12-18). Expanding the Critical Animal Studies Imagination. Peter Lang Verlag. doi:10.3726/b21322. ISBN   978-1-63667-075-1.
  22. ↑ Merz, Joseph J; Barnard, Phoebe; Rees, William E; Smith, Dane; Maroni, Mat; Rhodes, Christopher J; Dederer, Julia H; Bajaj, Nandita; Joy, Michael K; Wiedmann, Thomas; Sutherland, Rory (2023-09-20). "World scientists' warning: The behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot". Science Progress. 106 (3). doi:10.1177/00368504231201372. ISSN   0036-8504. PMC   10515534 . PMID   37728669.
  23. ↑ Bielski, Zosia (2022-01-14). "Amplify: Pope Francis's criticism of childless couples hurts parents and nonparents alike". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  24. ↑ Kirkey, Sharon (2023-01-27). "The new push for more babies: How tech elites think it will save the planet". The National Post. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  25. ↑ McDonald, Bob (2022-11-12). "Next week there will be 8 billion of us, and that's already too many". CBC Radio: Quirks and Quarks. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  26. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2023-08-13). "Reproductive rights are under threat". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  27. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita; Stade, Kirsten (2022-02-22). "The Baby Bust is Good for the Planet". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  28. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2022-06-07). "Abortion Bans Are a Natural Outgrowth of Coercive Pronatalism". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  29. ↑ Stade, Kirsten (2022-07-11). "I Am Not a Slave to the Biological Clock". Ms. Magazine. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  30. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2023-02-28). "Coercive Birth Policies Have Devastating Impacts on People and the Planet". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  31. ↑ Stade, Kirsten (2023-06-13). "Saying Out Loud What Others Won't Even Whisper About Climate Change". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  32. ↑ Stade, Kirsten (2023-10-18). "Technology Won't Save Us From Global Warming, but This Just Might". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  33. ↑ Francis, David R. (2009-01-26). "Can Obama's family-planning policies help the economy?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  34. ↑ Ketcham, Christopher (2023-12-06). "Too Much? Too Little? Too Late?". Truthdig. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  35. ↑ Ketcham, Christopher (2024-01-18). "The Seasons of Death for Wild Horses". Truthdig. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  36. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2023-10-06). "The Rise of Pronatalism". CounterPunch. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  37. ↑ Bajaj, Nandita (2023-05-10). "Population Growth is Not Good for People or the Planet". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  38. ↑ Stade, Kirsten (2023-05-25). "Population Denialism is Reminiscent of Climate Denialism". Inter Press Service. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  39. ↑ Archer Kent, Kate (2023-08-02). "A Minnesota nonprofit's solutions to human overpopulation". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  40. ↑ Charity Navigator (2024-02-21). "Population Balance". Charity Navigator. Retrieved 2024-04-19.
  41. ↑ Candid (2024-01-15). "Population Balance". Candid (Guidestar). Retrieved 2024-04-19.
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