A round-up of 2019 population news
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POPULATION MATTERS END OF YEAR UPDATE
DECEMBER 2019
Director's message
To steal Ervin Drake’s Christmas song made famous by Frank Sinatra, ‘It
was a very good year’ for Population Matters, as the Annual Report [3]
shows. For me, key events and activities were our increased focus and
developing partnerships with fellow campaigners in Africa. Exemplified by
our event in Lagos for World Population Day, co-hosted with the Nigerian
Conservation Foundation – notable for unequivocal statements from the
government ministers and public officials present as to the pressing need
to reduce population growth if Nigeria is to avoid societal, economic and
ecological breakdown.
Travelling to Kenya later in the year to attend the UN International
Conference on Population and Development, I took the opportunity to meet
young women in Nairobi’s slums denied choice or access to safe, modern
family planning as well as visiting subsistence farmers in rural
communities directly affected by climate change. Those trips bore out the
value of PM’s Empower to Plan [4] initiative in supporting grassroots
groups like Dandelion Africa and closer to home, Northamptonshire-based,
You Before Two in delivering vital healthcare and associated conservation
work.
But it wasn’t ‘a very good year’ for our planet; with wild fires
raging across the Arctic, through California, on the Yorkshire Moors, and
currently turning parts of Australia into an uninhabitable inferno. So is
PM some morbid ‘ambulance-chaser’, benefitting from ‘better media
coverage’ as the world burns, using other people’s tragedies to crow,
‘we told you so’? Absolutely not. Those tragic events do add
credibility to the concerns PM has sought to raise over the past three
decades, but more so that has been due to the growing body of science
affirming our agenda. As the science states, time and space for action is
tight but, as we know from Project Drawdown and Empower to Plan, positive
solutions and effective technologies exist.
To sum up the year with another piece of plagiarism, ‘It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times’ – the counter-intuitive, but most
conducive conditions for any campaigning organisation. Not a traditional
‘Happy New Year’ sign-off, heavy with hope, light on reality – rather
one seasoned with a strong sprinkle of the challenges and opportunities
ahead!
- Robin Maynard, Director, Population Matters
2019 HIGHLIGHTS
[5]
Our biodiversity conference
Our public conference in London this year left attendees feeling
enlightened and inspired. Following a successful first conference in 2018
on human population and climate change, this year’s theme was the crucial
link between population growth and biodiversity loss. With an incredibly
knowledgeable international panel of speakers from diverse backgrounds, it
was a fantastic event that highlighted the interconnectedness of
environmental and social issues and the urgent need for the conservation
community to address this.
Read more [5]
[6]
Going global on World Population Day
This World Population Day, 11 July 2019, Population Matters went global by
running events in three continents. Thanks to our supporters and allies, we
had a very successful day in Lagos, Nigeria, London, UK and New York, USA,
developing new partnerships, raising awareness of population issues, and
pushing them up the international agenda. We received more media coverage
[7] than ever before, with articles published in influential outlets around
the world
Read more [6]
[8]
PM at the Nairobi Summit
We were grateful to attend the key Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 in November, a
follow-up from the International Conference on Population and Development
which took place in Cairo 25 years ago and pledged to put reproductive
health and rights at the heart of development efforts. Unfortunately,
progress has been much too slow. Read Robin's summary of the event, as well
as his experience of talking to young women and their families in Kibera,
Africa's largest slum, and surrounding rural communities.
Read more [8]
TOP 3 STORIES OF 2019
[9]
Landmark report on feeding the world
January saw the publication of the EAT-Lancet Commission's report on diet
and food systems, which concluded that profound changes could allow a
global human population of 10 billion to be fed without causing devastating
damage to the environment. Crucially, it warned that if population exceeds
10 bn people, this is “increasingly unlikely”. The most recent UN
projections [10] show our numbers surpassing 10 bn early in the second half
of the century.
Read more [9]
[11]
One million species threatened with extinction
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES) released a major report on the state of the world's
biodiversity in May this year, concluding that 1 million species are now
threatened with extinction due to human activity. The report explicitly
identifies human population growth as an "indirect driver", fuelling the
direct causes, and clearly states that it must be tackled to halt the
ongoing decline of wild species.
Read more [11]
[12]
Scientists declare Climate Emergency
November marked the publication of the _Scientists’ Warning of a Climate
Emergency_ – a paper signed by more than 11,000 scientists from around
the world warning of “untold human suffering” unless governments take
urgent action to tackle the climate crisis, including ending and reversing
population growth through women's empowerment, education and removing
barriers to family planning.
Read more [12]
PLEASE SHARE THIS EMAIL WITH ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THE WORK WE
DO.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT IN 2019, AND SEE YOU IN 2020!
135-137 Station Road, London E4 6AG, UK
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© 2019 Population Matters
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