PSN brings the population debate to Cheltenham Science Festival

14 June 2012

Source: PSN

Yesterday PSN’s Karen Newman engaged many of the world’s best science thinkers as part of a debate over the urgency of the population question. 

Last year the world's population hit 7 billion. Yet population debates remain polarised: some see the number as a distraction from the more urgent need to reduce consumption in wealthy countries, whilst others argue it is an issue that will solve itself as global population is projected to peak and then fall from the middle of the century.

With the Royal Society having just published one of the most comprehensive global population reviews ever undertaken, Karen joined Jonathan Porritt, Director of Forum for the Future, to share and discuss its findings and recommendations at Cheltenham Science Festival.

The event Population: How Many is Too Many? was covered in The Times in an article entitled Future survival depends on half a child less, UN claims. In the article Karen called for attention to the significance of population dynamics for the environment, warning that;

"Unless we link planning for people with planning for the environment we won’t have anything that looks remotely like sustainable development."

You can read a brief article about the event, entitled Family planning: the key to curb population growth, in the festival's daily online newspaper.