Testimonials

Discussions of population and climate change are often lacking in nuance and precision. Population Balance’s Executive Director, Nandita Bajaj, provided a carefully reasoned and thoughtful talk on the topic as part of our recurring For Our Common Home lecture series. She modeled how it is possible to speak to a general audience without resorting to gross simplification or sound bites. In this age of political polarization and ecological collapse, Population Balance is doing important work. 

Brian G. Henning, Ph.D., Director, Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment 

My students and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from and hosting Executive Director Nandita Bajaj in our graduate level course Social-Ecological Systems: Connecting Human and Environmental Well-Being. In a course with such a title, the confounding issues of human population and consumption are a recurring theme. Something few people are aware of is pronatalism and its impact on individuals, families, and local to global society. Nandita compassionately and meticulously shared her expertise of pronatalism and its impacts with us and we walked away with profound insights on how the psychology of pronatalism causes harm and injustices and planted seeds of inquiry into how to protect clients and communities from pronatalist policies and practices.

Sarah M. Bexell, PhD, Graduate School of Social Work I Clinical Associate Professor, University of Denver, US

Nandita's presentation had a powerful impact on my grade 8 Geography students. They left the class with new ways of understanding their relationship to other living beings, and a new sense of the kind of radical transformation needed to tackle the ecological crisis that confronts us. She shared a wealth of fascinating data that helped concretize concepts like ecological overshoot, and equipped students with practical knowledge about the impacts of various individual actions they can take. Perhaps the best testament to how engaging and compelling Nandita's presentation was is that, when offered a break midway through an 85 minute class, students said no!

Rebecca Levere, Geography, History, & Law Teacher, University of Toronto Schools, Canada

Having prior familiarity with Nandita and her work, I felt confident her guest talk would prove successful! She did not disappoint! Nandita and Population Balance tackle the important topic of overpopulation and pronatalism so delicately, yet boldly. There is deep respect and wisdom running through the talk. I'm especially grateful for the focus on the animal welfare impacts of overpopulation and pronatalism. Our MSc students seemingly concurred, with comments such as: 'this was the best lecture I've ever been to!' and 'I could listen to you all day'. Heartily recommended to everyone. Thanks so very much once again!

Jenny Mace, Associate Lecturer in Animal Welfare, University of Winchester, UK

Balancing human population has long been considered the "third rail" when discussing sustainability - quietly acknowledged but rarely openly spoken about. I appreciated Nandita Bajaj's dispassionate and well-researched presentation on "Challenging Pronatalism". Her thought-provoking presentation was excellent - well-supported with evidence, very well-designed slides, and an effective delivery. I could not have asked for more from a speaker on this important topic! Thanks for bringing this subject out into the open in such an engaging way.

Marian M. Brown, Director, Center for Sustainability and the Environment, Wells College, US

Thank you very much for your informative session! I cover the topic of overpopulation in my World Issues class and run into many examples of pronatalism in my students' thinking but was unaware there was a word to define it so precisely. I have learned much that I can take back to the classroom. Thanks again for the great session!

David Scott, Environmental Science Teacher, Huntsville High School, Canada