MEDIA ALERT / INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES
Source: Stable Planet Alliance www.stableplanetalliance.org – Contact: Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
This month, global population hitting 8 billion, the COP27 climate summit, and the International Conference on Family Planning will all happen at the same time. But it’s more than just coincidence; it’s a convergence. Population, climate change, and family planning are deeply interconnected. Leading experts are available to explain how.
WHAT? Internationally recognized experts on population and sustainability are available for comment and interviews on population growth, climate change, and family planning, which are visibly converging this month. World population is hitting the 8 billion mark, with an official UN observance on November 15. The COP27 climate conference in Egypt takes place November 6 – 18. And the International Conference on Family Planning in Thailand takes place November 14 – 17.
This is more than just a coincidence. Although population, climate change, and family planning issues have long been siloed, they are vitally interconnected. Population growth globally is driving global overshoot, overconsumption, carbon emissions, climate change, environmental degradation, and other negative impacts. Despite this, pronatalist ideologies and policies that encourage or coerce women to bear children are on the rise. Family planning and other services that empower women and girls to exercise more reproductive choice is one of the most powerful levers for slowing population growth, reducing consumption, and fighting climate change.
“Scientists’ Warning on Population” a justice-based research paper in Science of the Total Environment, finds that “stabilizing and ultimately reducing the human population size is necessary to ensure the long-term wellbeing of our species and other life on Earth.” It makes a global appeal for women and men to have at most one child and for more education, empowerment and family-planning services for girls and young women.
Leading experts listed below are raising these issues in international fora, including as presenters at COP27 and the International Conference on Family Planning. They’re available and uniquely well qualified to discuss them with your audience.
WHO? The following leading experts on population and sustainability issues are available for comment and interviews:
- Nandita Bajaj, executive director of Population Balance and cohost of the Overpopulation Podcast. She is the leading voice calling out coercive pronatalism globally and will present on the topic at the International Conference on Family Planning in Thailand on November 16.
- Phoebe Barnard, Ph.D., CEO of the Stable Planet Alliance, University of Washington professor of environmental and societal futures and author of several scientists’ warnings. She will attend COP27 and screen the trailer of her new film on climate restoration.
- Eileen Crist, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech and lead author of “Scientists Warning on Population.”
- Paul Ehrlich, Ph.D., Bing Professor of Population Studies, Emeritus, and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. He is the author of the seminal 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, and a co-author of “Scientists Warning on Population”
- Bill Rees, Ph.D., population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. He is a co-author of “Scientists Warning on Population”
- Bill Ryerson, president of the Population Media Center. He has a current oped in The Hill on the 8 billion population milestone.
- Chris Tucker, Ph.D., president of the American Geographical Society and author of A Planet of Three Billion.
WHERE & WHEN? These experts are based in the US and Canada. They are available for comment and interviews starting now.
For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
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