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>.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


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.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate