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I hope you’ve got Tuesday November 15th marked up in your diary? According to the UN’s population wonks, that’s the day when the eight billionth human being will be born. Not sure how they know that quite so precisely, and I certainly don’t recall them being that precise back in 2011 when the seven…

It’s World Population Day on July 11th. Here’s some relevant stuff to get us going: 1. Half of all pregnancies today are unintended – and the number of women affected by this continues to rise. 2. More than 60% of these unintended pregnancies end in an abortion, and almost half of these abortions…

I’ve just taken on the role of President of Population Matters. Population Matters has been the go-to population organisation in the UK since 1991. Like all small, underfunded NGOs, it’s had its ups and downs, and has often struggled to get traction in a world that remains institutionally incapable…

Time for another loud bang on the population drum – to celebrate the arrival of a new and excellent film with the simple title, ‘Mother’. It lasts just over an hour. For You Tubers, that’s going to seem like a lifetime. But I hope they/you stick with it – not least because all the best stuff (based…

Pity poor old Ryan MacDonald, a 21-year-old Masters student from Derby. On hearing that he’d been selected as one of five Brits to go through to the next stage of selecting the team to go to Mars in 2024, Ryan MacDonald said: “The most important thing to do in life is to leave a legacy. A lot of…

I’ve been tracking the population debate for the best part of 40 years. So how come I’d never heard of Professor Albert Bartlett before? Al Bartlett died last year, at the age of 90, after a lifetime teaching Physics at the University of Colorado, and strenuously advocating zero population growth…