Population 7 Billion: Time to Talk

Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/">James Cridland</a> via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810/">Flickr</a>.

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Yesterday I joined a lively webchat called Population 7 Billion: It’s Time to Talk, along with Bill Ryerson and Bob Walker, and moderated by Asher Miller of the Post Carbon Institute (their creds here). You can see the archive here.

This issue, which doesn’t get enough attention (notable exception: my epic, for me, MoJo article last year, The Last Taboo) is creeping towards the front pages now as we approach the 7th billion person on Earth. The UN predicts he or she will be born sometime this month.

I’ll be writing more on population, consumption, and global change next week—including the controversy over whether we really have hit 7 billion, plus the UN’s latest prediction that population growth might continue through the 21st century and beyond (no plateau in sight). I’ll follow-up on the hopeful convergence between science, environmentalism, human rights, and womens’ rights—an alliance unimaginable in the 20th century, now a hallmark of 21st-century sustainability thinking.

So check back. And join in. It’s time to talk.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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