Groups urging Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to recommend smaller families.
A coalition of child protection, animal rights, and environmental organizations are coming together for World Population Day on July 11th. They hope to urge U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to issue a statement on the need for smaller families and sustainable family planning as a vital step toward attaining the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. Activists will also gather at the U.N. for a peaceful demonstration to mark the day and to raise awareness on the issue. The event will take place from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
Read the Secretary-General Guterres letter here.
The groups led by Having Kids and U.K.- based Population Matters also include OneProtest, World Population Balance, Earth Overshoot, Population Institute Canada, Sustainable Population Australia, In Defense of Animals, 34 Million Friends of UNFPA, Wilderness Watch, New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets, and Seeding Sovereignty,
The facts are clear:
- Several studies show that small changes in average fertility rates will have massive impacts on population growth, and that smaller families are the best way to confront climate change and other related environmental crises.
- Several new studies have confirmed the dire threat posed by climate change, including its impact on the increasing threat of pestilence and crop losses, the severity of hurricanes and other weather threats and the degradation of every ecosystem on earth
- By 2100, world population could vary by billions of people depending on whether the average woman in the world has one child more or one child fewer.
- Simply stated, the current family planning model used by United Nations was developed prior to awareness of climate change, the disproportionate impact of early childhood development on human well being, how birth conditions and early development exacerbate inequality and other factors. This old model makes our future less secure, healthy and equitable.
“Our world leaders have failed to recognize the greatest driver of climate and other anthropogenic impacts – unsustainable family planning. We’re working hard to change that by bringing organizations together representing a range of global issues. It’s time for those causes and the media to talk about the most effective way we can protect the future for the next generation,” said Ashley Berke, Director of Communications at Having Kids.
Robin Maynard of Population Matters says, “There’s an ever-growing scientific consensus that population growth is a primary driver of climate change and biodiversity loss. The equation is simple: too many of us, taking too much (especially, but not uniquely in rich, developed countries) from a finite planet. This is a global problem, demanding global action. The Sustainable Development Goals are the mechanism through which the international community seeks to achieve a sustainable future – but unless the SDGs incorporate the goal of achieving a sustainable population through people choosing smaller families, they will not succeed in that noble mission.”
TAKE ACTION:
Add your name to our letter.
And if you’re near NYC, join us at the U.N. on Thursday, July 11th for World Population Day. RSVP here
