Global Population Speak Out

Written by Dave Gardner on February 1, 2011. Posted in Blog

Our world is overpopulated. There, I said it. Lightning didn’t strike me dead. And you’re still reading. It is okay to mention the word overpopulation. It’s okay to acknowledge population growth is not a sound success strategy for civilization. In fact it’s imperative we recognize the huge role population size plays in our efforts to become a sustainable civilization. I’m raising this issue because today marks the beginning of Global Population Speak Out. During the month of February, scientists, philosophers, statesmen and all manner of people are making an extra effort to raise the volume of dialog about overpopulation.

Global Population Speak Out is the subject of the first installment of my new GrowthBusters talk show on Next Gen.

Next Gen is a new alternative arts and entertainment network launched today by energetic music business impresario Steve Zuckerman (who produced the Global Entertainment and Media Summit for several years). Steve promises, among other things, conversations with leaders, movers and shakers — artists like George Martin, Jimmy Page, Roger Corman and even Dave Gardner. It’s a work in progress, and a community you can even join.

I invite you to tune into GrowthBusters this week for an enlightening conversation with Joe Bish, coordinator of the Speak Out. I plan to do some growth-BUSTING every week on my show at Next Gen. I hope you’ll become a regular listener.

Global Population Speak Out has become necessary because for too long there has been a taboo on discussing overpopulation. And when someone does bring it up, knee-jerk reactions frequently kick in to squelch intelligent discourse on the subject. During the month of February most of the world should get a chance to learn what’s true and what’s false. And we’ll have the opportunity to get over our fear of discussing this critical subject. Let’s toss the excess baggage out the window and have some honest, open, intelligent discussion of the problems and the solutions.

There are two really big challenges we must overcome to achieve sustainability:

1. Our society’s obsessive quest for perpetual economic growth (and the over-consumption that follows)
2. Our ignorance, indifference, and avoidance of the subject of population growth (and the pursuit of population growth by cities, regions and nations hooked on growth)

This month I’ll be focusing on #2, in honor of Global Population Speak Out. But I think we should also come up with something similar for economic growth and over-consumption. I encourage you to join the Speak Out. Make the pledge to join the chorus. You can participate on Facebook, as well.

Dave Gardner
Filmmaker

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