IN THE MEDIA

Media Coverage

Our team works hard to stay active in our media advocacy efforts to shift the mainstream cultural narrative to inspire behavioral and system change towards substantially downscaling human impact to enable natural ecosystems, nonhuman animals, and humanity to flourish together.

Media inquiries for our executive director Nandita Bajaj can be sent to media@populationbalance.org.

Slow the growth, save the world? Why declining birth rates need not mean an end to prosperity
Pronatalism, Population Denialism, Human Supremacy Feat. Nandita Bajaj Pronatalism, Population Denialism, Human Supremacy Feat. Nandita Bajaj

Slow the growth, save the world? Why declining birth rates need not mean an end to prosperity

The world’s population is, at this point, still growing. Nandita Bajaj, the executive director of the US non-profit Population Balance, says there’s a taboo around discussing population among those who oppose eternal growth. She told a forum this week that population and consumption (and therefore emissions) go hand in hand but there are reasons the left and the degrowth movement duck the conversation.

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The Unbearable Anthropocentrism of Our World in Data

The Unbearable Anthropocentrism of Our World in Data

Crist would have us ask whether human supremacism constitutes the most ignorant prejudice of all, as it operates under the demonstrably false belief that the only measure of progress is that of Homo sapiens’ well-being. Subordinate to human ends, the living planet is reduced to a resource for the aggrandizement of the one chosen species.

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Our goal should be a planet with fewer humans
Pronatalism, Social Justice, Population Denialism Kirsten Stade Pronatalism, Social Justice, Population Denialism Kirsten Stade

Our goal should be a planet with fewer humans

The Post’s editorial on birthrates is just the latest in an unending — and unnecessary — series of alarms sounded on this subject in recent years. Outside of briefly acknowledging the many upsides of declining fertility rates, the editorial assumes as given the dire consequences should we fail to convince women to reverse them.

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How patriarchal pronatalism dominates the conversation about the human future

How patriarchal pronatalism dominates the conversation about the human future

While scientists warn that human numbers are a key driver of ecological and social crises, the subject of overpopulation gets short shrift by policymakers, think tanks, and even environmental groups. We are told that numbers don’t matter; what matters is solely the level of per capita consumption.

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Too much? Too little? Too late?

Too much? Too little? Too late?

In a panel discussion spanning the worlds of math, physics and chemistry, investigative journalist Christopher Ketcham chats with Dr. Bill Rees, Prof. Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, Rex Weyler, Co-founder of Greenpeace International, and Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of Population Balance to discuss where humanity is heading in an overcrowded, over-consuming world.

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Technology won't save us from global warming, but this just might
Population Denialism, Ecological Overshoot Kirsten Stade Population Denialism, Ecological Overshoot Kirsten Stade

Technology won't save us from global warming, but this just might

After the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer on record, with record high temperatures around the world, Pope Francis recently exhorted the developed world to act faster on climate change. An overhaul of wealthy lifestyles is in order, he said, and technological fixes are not the answer.

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Pronatalism on the rise to counter growing push for gender equality

Pronatalism on the rise to counter growing push for gender equality

There’s an insidious new tactic emerging for selling right-wing ideology to wider audiences, evident in last month’s Budapest Demographic Summit for “family-friendly thinkers and decision-makers,” the upcoming pro-birth Natal conference in Austin, Texas, and the recent film “Birthgap.”

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Reproductive rights are under threat

Reproductive rights are under threat

Coercive pronatalism – pressures to compel women to have more children – inspired by nationalism, xenophobia, militarism or market fundamentalism is at an all-time high, and is a threat to reproductive rights everywhere. On a planet facing numerous ecological and social catastrophes, bemoaning a decline in national fertility rates is a reprehensible distraction.

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Population denialism is reminiscent of climate denialism
Population Denialism, Pronatalism Kirsten Stade Population Denialism, Pronatalism Kirsten Stade

Population denialism is reminiscent of climate denialism

A new study estimates that global heating will push billions of people outside the comfortable range of temperature and weather in which we have evolved. While coverage of the study notes that rapid emissions cuts could greatly reduce the number of people forced to live amid unprecedented extremes, it fails to mention the obvious: that reducing our population would have the same effect.

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‘Isn’t journalism about finding new stories?’: The climate news the media ignores
Population Denialism, Ecological Overshoot Feat. Nandita Bajaj Population Denialism, Ecological Overshoot Feat. Nandita Bajaj

‘Isn’t journalism about finding new stories?’: The climate news the media ignores

“It is difficult to compete for air time in a landscape so dominated by well-funded neoliberal institutions,” Bajaj explained, saying the organization produces op-eds, letters and press releases to counter “pro-growth propaganda”, which editors refuse to publish.

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Population growth is not good for people or the planet

Population growth is not good for people or the planet

India’s population has just reached 1.4 billion people, surpassing China as the world’s most populous nation four years earlier than projected. Spurring this growth is a traditional patriarchal culture in which women’s identity is constrained by the social expectation they bear children.

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Coercive pro-birth policies have devastating impacts on people and the planet

Coercive pro-birth policies have devastating impacts on people and the planet

In the end, alarmism about population decline is a distraction from the real crisis demanding attention: the human enterprise in overshoot, overwhelming the natural systems that enable life on Earth. Norms need to shift so that having fewer or no children is understood as a legitimate, positive choice and lower fertility is recognized as a path to a positive future.

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Dismissal of “population alarmism” is rooted in pronatalist ideology

Dismissal of “population alarmism” is rooted in pronatalist ideology

Pronatalism is a globally pervasive form of reproductive coercion, that reduces people to reproductive vessels for external agendas. In addition to being a source of reproductive injustice, it fuels population growth and has propelled the global population toward the 8 billion milestone. It’s time to confront the pernicious influence of pronatalism on population growth, human rights, and the planet.

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The baby bust is good for the planet
Pronatalism, Social Justice, Population Denialism Nandita Bajaj Pronatalism, Social Justice, Population Denialism Nandita Bajaj

The baby bust is good for the planet

Pronatalism and baby-bust alarmism ignore the gains in women’s empowerment and reproductive autonomy that lead to lower fertility rates. Pronatalism commodifies women, babies, and immigrants as economic inputs that benefit only the corporations that rely on a never-ending supply of workers and consumers for their products.

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