http://www.populationmatters.

org/take-action/speak-out/making-case/quotations/

Quotations Population Matters

populationmatters.org

To help you make the case, we also offer key facts and points, information about example issues and
progress made and results of opinion polls.
What thinkers have said about population through the ages:
Stasinos, poet (lived 776 580 BC)
There was a time when the countless tribes of men, though wide-dispersed, oppressed the surface of the
deep-bosomed Earth, and Zeus saw it and had pity and in his wise heart resolved to relieve the
all-nurturing Earth of men by causing the great struggle of the Ilian war, that the load of death might empty
the world. And so the heroes were slain in Troy, and the plan of Zeus came to pass.
Confucius, philosopher (lived 551 479 BC)
Excessive (population) growth may reduce output per worker, repress levels of living for the masses and
engender strife.
Aristotle, philosopher (lived 384 322 BC)
One would have thought that it was even more necessary to limit population than
propertyThe neglect of this subject, which in existing states is so common, is a never-failing
cause of poverty among the citizens; and poverty is the parent of both revolution and crime.
Aristotle

Tertullian, writer and theologian (lived 160 220)

The strongest witness is the vast population of the Earth to which we are a burden and she scarcely can
provide for our needs.
Nicolas Machiavelli, political theorist and philosopher (lived 1469 1527)
When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are
nor remove themselves elsewhere the world will purge itself in one or another of these three ways (floods,
plague and famine).
Richard Hakluyt, writer (lived 1527 1616)
Through our long peace and seldom sicknesswe are grown more populous than ever heretoforemany
thousands of idle persons are within this realm, which, having no way to be sett on work, be either
mutinous and seek alteration in the state, or at least very burdensome to the commonwealth.
Otto Diederich Lutken, clergyman and economist (lived 1719 1790)
Since the circumference of the globe is given and does not expand with the increased number of its
inhabitants, and as travel to other planets thought to be inhabitable has not yet been invented; since the
Earths fertility cannot be extended beyond a given point, and since human nature will presumably remain
unchanged, so that a given number will hereafter require the same quantity of the fruits of the Earth for their
support now, and as their rations cannot be arbitrarily reduced, it follows that the proposition that the
worlds inhabitants will be happier, the greater the number cannot be maintained, for as soon as the
number exceeds that which our planet with all its wealth of land and water can support, they must needs
starve one another out, not to mention other necessarily attendant inconveniences, to wit, a lack of the
other comforts of life, wool, flax, timber, fuel, and so on. But the wise Creator who commanded men in the
beginning to be fruitful and multiply, did not intend, since He set limits to their habitants and sustenance,
that multiplication should continue without limit.

James
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US President 1801-1809 (lived 1751 1836)

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James Madison US President 1801-1809 (lived 1751 1836)

What becomes of the surplus of human life? It is either, first, destroyed by infanticide, as among the
Chinese and Lacedaemonians; or, second, it is stifled or starved, as among other nations whose
population is commensurate to its food; or, third, it is consumed by wars and endemic diseases; or fourth, it
overflows, by emigration, to places where a surplus of food is attainable.
Thomas Malthus, clergyman and scholar (lived 1766 1832)
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio. Subsistence on the other
hand increases only in an arithmetical ratio.

Thomas
Malthus

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer (lived 1803 1882)

If government knew how, I should like to see it check not multiply the population.

John Stuart Mill, philosopher (lived 1806 1873)

There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase in population,
supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, I confess I see
very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the
greatest degree, all the advantages both of cooperation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most
populous countries, been attained. A population, may be too crowded, though all be amply supplied with
food and raiment. It is not good for man to be kept perforce at all times in the presence of his species. A
world from which solitude is extirpated, is a very poor ideal. Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is
essential to any depth of meditation or of character, and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and
grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which
society could ill do without. Nor is there much satisfaction in contemplating the world with nothing left to the
spontaneous activity of nature; with every rood of land brought into cultivation, which is capable of growing
food for human beings; every flowery waste or natural pasture ploughed up, all quadrupeds or birds which
are not domesticated for mans use exterminated as his rivals for food, every hedgerow or superfluous tree
rooted out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grow without being eradicated as a
weed in the name of improved agriculture. If the Earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness
which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the
mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger but not a better or a happier population, I sincerely hope, for
the sake of posterity, that they will content to be stationary, long before necessity compels them to it. More
>>
Arnold Toynbee, economic historian (lived 1852 1883)
We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have
been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves.
Bertrand Russell, philosopher (lived 1872 1970)
The one real remedy is birth control that is getting the people of the world to limit themselves to those
numbers which they can keep upon their own soil.
Max Born, physicist (lived 1882 1970)
Science and technology will then follow their tendency to rapid expansion in an exponential fashion, until
saturation sets in. But that does not necessarily imply an increase of wealth, still less of happiness, as long
as the number of people increases at the same rate, and with it their need for food and energy. At this
point, the technological problems of the atom touch social problems, such as birth control and the just
distribution of goods. There will be hard fighting about these problems
Albert Einstein, physicist (lived 1879 1955)
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Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the Oct

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Overpopulation in various countries has become a serious threat to the health of people and
a grave obstacle to any attempt to organize peace on this planet.
Helen Keller, author, activist and lecturer (lived 1880 1968)
Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to
Albert Einstein survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of
propagation.
John Maynard Keynes, economist (lived 1883 1946)
If only Malthus, instead of Ricardo, had been the parent stem from which nineteenth-century economics
proceeded, what a much wiser and richer place the world would be today!
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian Prime Minister 1947-1964 (lived 1889 1964)
Some of these (Asian) countries, like India, far from needing a bigger population, would be better off with
fewer people.
Aldous Huxley, writer (lived 1894 1963)
This is the force which in general terms can be called overpopulation, the mounting pressure of population
pressing upon existing resources. This, of course, is an extraordinary thing; something is happening which
has never happened in the worlds history before. I mean, lets just take a simple fact that between the time
of birth of Christ and the landing of the Mayflower, the population of the Earth doubled. It rose from 250
million to probably 500 million. Today, the population of the Earth is rising at such a rate that it will double in
half a century.
Pope Paul VI, religious leader 1963-1978 (lived 1897 1978)
There is no denying that the accelerated rate of population growth brings many added difficulties to the
problems of development where the size of the population grows more rapidly than the quantity of available
resources to such a degree that things seem to have reached an impasse. In such circumstances people
are inclined to apply drastic remedies to reduce the birth rate. There is no doubt that public authorities can
intervene in this matter, within the bounds of their competence. They can instruct citizens on this subject
and adopt appropriate measures, so long as these are in conformity with the dictates of the moral law and
the rightful freedom of married couples is preserved completely intact. When the inalienable right of
marriage and of procreation is taken away, so is human dignity. Finally, it is for parents to take a thorough
look at the matter and decide upon the number of their children. This is an obligation they take upon
themselves, before their children already born, and before the community to which they belong following
the dictates of their own consciences informed by Gods law authentically interpreted, and bolstered by
their trust in Him.
Lyndon B. Johnson, US President 1963-1969 (lived 1908 1973)
The hungry world cannot be fed until and unless growth of its resources and the growth of its population
come into balance. Each man and woman and each nation must make decisions of conscience and policy
in the face of this great problem.
U Thant, UN Secretary-General 1961-1971 (lived 1909 1974)
The problem of the growing food shortage cannot be solved without in many cases a simultaneous effort
to moderate population growth.
Sir Peter Scott, founder of WWF (lived 1909 1989)
If the human population of the world continues to increase at its current rate, there will soon
be no room for either wild life or wild placesBut I believe that sooner or later man will learn to
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limit his overpopulation. Then he will be much more concerned with optimum
rather
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limit his overpopulation. Then he will be much more concerned with optimum rather than
maximum, quality rather than quantity, and will recover the need within himself for contact with
wilderness and wild nature.
You know, when we first set up WWF, our objective was to save endangered species from
Peter Scott extinction. But we have failed completely; we havent managed to save a single one. If only we
had put all that money into condoms, we might have done some good.
Kenneth Boulding, economist and President Kennedys Environmental Advisor 1966 (lived 1910
1993)
Anyone who believes in indefinite growth of anything physical on a physically finite planet is either a
madman or an economist.
Jacques Cousteau, conservationist (lived 1910 1997)
We must alert and organise the worlds people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve
the two root causes of our environmental crises exploding population growth and wasteful consumption
of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we
face today.
Sam Levenson, humourist (lived 1911 1980)
Somewhere on this globe, every 10 seconds, there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found
and stopped.
Richard M. Nixon, US President 1969-1974 (lived 1913 1994)
One of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century will be the growth of
the population.
Norman Borlaug, scientist and father of the Green Revolution (lived 1914 2009)
The green revolution has won a temporary success in mans war against hunger and deprivation; it has
given man a breathing space. If fully implemented, the revolution can provide sufficient food for sustenance
during the next three decades. But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed;
otherwise the success of the green revolution will be ephemeral onlyMost people still fail to comprehend
the magnitude and menace of the Population Monster.
There can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for
increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort.
Robert McNamara, President of World Bank 1968-1981 (lived 1916 2009)
Short of nuclear war itself, population growth is the gravest issue the world faces. If we do not
act, the problem will be solved by famine, riots, insurrection and war.

Robert
McNamara

Christian de Duve, biologist (lived 1917 2013)

Weve come to use all the resources that are available for our use on the planetwe have to
do something about population control, if possible, by birth control.

Spike Milligan, comedian (lived 1918 2002)

Overpopulation is a serious issue. The human race will soon have to get used to 12 in a room.
James Lovelock, scientist and environmentalist (born 1919)
Those who fail to see that population growth and climate change are two sides of the same coin are either
ignorant
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Those who fail to see that population growth and climate change

are two sides of the same coin are either

ignorant or hiding from the truth. These two huge environmental problems are inseparable and to discuss
one while ignoring the other is irrational.
Pete Seeger, musician (lived 1919 2014)
The worlds only so big. If thats true, doesnt it follow that the human race is far bigger than it should be?
Some things are so big, like this population problem, that the best way to tackle them is in small ways. I can
sing a song about overpopulation and maybe touch one or two people at a time with it.
Digby McLaren, geologist (lived 1919 2004)
If an unseen intelligent being from somewhere else in our galaxy were to visit the Earth, perhaps the most
incomprehensible phenomenon it could observe would be that the planets apparently wise and competent
dominant beings are totally ignorant of the life-support system they are destined to live within. They are,
furthermore, unaware that their uncontrolled reproductive capacity has grown to the extent that it is rapidly
destroying this system, while they fight among themselves to preserve their freedom to do so.
Isaac Asimov, author (lived 1920 1992)
democracy can not survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency
cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it
disappears. It doesnt matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters.
Which is the greater danger nuclear warfare or the population explosion? The latter absolutely! To
bring about nuclear war, someone has to do something; someone has to press a button. To bring about
destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values-there
is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally and breed. And how
easy it is to do nothing.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born 1921)
The more people there are, the more food we need, the more space we occupy, the more resources and
consumer goods we wish to have and the more development has to take place in order to employ the extra
population. () Who is going to be the first to face up to the need for self-restraint in the number of children
brought into the world?
James P. Grant, UNICEF Executive Director 1980-1995 (lived 1922 1995)
Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology
now available to the human race.
Professor Albert Bartlett, physicist (lived 1923 2013)
Can you think of any problem on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term
solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted or advanced by having larger populations
at the local level, the state level, the national level, or globally?
Albert Bartlett

George H.W. Bush, US President 1989-1993 (born 1924)

Success in the population field, under United Nations leadership, maydetermine whether we can resolve
successfully the other great questions of peace, prosperity, and individual rights that face the world.
Gore Vidal, writer (lived 1925 2012)
Think of the Earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers
double every 40 years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die.
Queen Elizabeth II, British monarch 1952-present (born 1926)
One
must
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remember that (St. Vincents) resources are finite and cannot accommodate
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One must remember that (St. Vincents) resources are finite and cannot accommodate indefinite
population growth. Families must plan their families just as the Government has to plan the Nations
development. There can be no long-term stability when the rate of population growth exceeds the rate of
job creation.
Henry Way Kendall, physicist (lived 1926 1999)
If we do not voluntarily bring population growth under control in the next one or two decades, then nature
will do it for us in the most brutal way, whether we like it or not.
The destruction of our environment and resources cannot be stemmed unless the growth of the worlds
population is stemmed and ultimately reduced.
We mustguarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions.
Sir David Attenborough, naturalist (born 1926)
The human population can no longer be allowed to grow in the same old uncontrolled way. If we do not
take charge of our population size, then nature will do it for us.
As I see it, humanity needs to reduce its impact on the Earth urgently and there are three ways to achieve
this: we can stop consuming so many resources, we can change our technology and we can reduce the
growth of our population.
All our environmental problems become easier to solve with fewer people and harder and ultimately
impossible to solve with ever more people.
One thing you can say is that in places where women are in charge of their bodies, where they have the
vote, where they are allowed to dictate what they do and what they want, whether its proper medical
facilities for birth control, the birth rate falls.
Gunther Grass, author (lived 1927 2015)
We already have the statistics for the future: the growth percentages of pollution,
overpopulation, desertification. The future is already in place.
Bernard Chidzero, Economy Minister of Zimbabwe 1985 (lived 1927 2002)
Gunther Grass

Of course I know our economic growth cant match our population growth [then 3.5%] so of course I know
well all get poorer until we get that number down dont tell me, tell the other idiots!
Maurice Strong, UN Under-Secretary-General 1970-present (born 1929)
Either we reduce the worlds population voluntarily or nature will do this for us, but brutally.
Martin Luther King, clergyman and activist (lived 1929 1968)
Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague
of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking
is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and
education of the billions who are its victims.
E.O.Wilson, biologist (born 1929)
We are in a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption that could push half of Earths species
to extinction in this century.
Douglas
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Hurd, UK Foreign Secretary 1990 1995 (born 1930)

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Douglas Hurd, UK Foreign Secretary 1990 1995 (born 1930)

First, population growth is a devastating statistic. Even the best efforts to encourage growth will fail unless
Africas population growth can be brought under control. The population issue must move much further up
the African agenda. A basic shift of attitude is required. Second, and closely related to population pressure
and poverty, there is the problem of growing environmental degradation
Sir Crispin Tickell, environmentalist (born 1930)
Population was a big issue about 30 years ago, now its not, but I suspect it will come back because it has
to be discussed as one of the big environmental problems of our time, its one animal species out of
control, and the awful thing is that if we dont control it then Mother Nature will do it for us.
Professor Aubrey Manning, zoologist (born 1930)
Looking across the world at present it is obvious to anybody with even the slightest biological
knowledge that human numbers are out of balance.
Karan Singh, politician (born 1931)
In 1974, I led the Indian delegation to the World Population Conference in Bucharest, where
my statement that development is the best contraceptive became widely known and oft
quoted. I must admit that 20 years later I am inclined to reverse this, and my position now is that
contraception is the best development.
Aubrey
Manning

Paul Ehrlich, biologist (born 1932)

Overdrafts on aquifers are one reason some of our geologist colleagues are convinced that water
shortages will bring the human population explosion to a halt. There are substitutes for oil; there is no
substitute for fresh water.
Solving the population problem is not going to solve the problems of racism of sexism of religious
intolerance of war of gross economic inequality. But if you dont solve the population problem, youre not
going to solve any of those problems. Whatever problem youre interested in, youre not going to solve it
unless you also solve the population problem.
Basically, then, there are only two kinds of solutions to the population problem. One is a birth rate
solution, in which we find ways to lower the birth rate. The other is a death rate solution, in which ways to
raise the death rate war, famine, pestilence find us.
Each person we add now disproportionately impacts on the environment and life-support systems of the
planet.
Baroness Shreela Flather, politician (born 1934)
With the global population reaching the milestone of seven billion, population size is starting to get the
attention it deserves. One of the most effective contributions to solving these problems would be to enable
women worldwide to decide their own family size and timing through funding universal access to family
planning and through enabling them to exercise their social and economic rights.
Jane Goodall, conservationist (born 1934)
Its our population growth that underlies just about every single one of the problems that
weve inflicted on the planet. If there were just a few of us, then the nasty things we do
wouldnt really matter and Mother Nature would take care of it but there are so many of us.
Jane Goodall

Professor Norman Myers, environmentalist (born 1934)

Many
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Many children face a prospect of a world which has been devastated of its forest cover and lost many of
its species. Would it not be worthwhile to reinforce that enormous investment in the future, that grand
gesture of hope in the future by chipping in just a little bit more, that one penny per day for family planning
facilities? To insure that our children inherit a world worth living in. A world where population growth has
been slowed to zero, with equity and fairness for all citizens on this planet, and where our environments are
safeguarded and restored.
Gloria Steinem, feminist, journalist and activist (born 1934)
Everybody with a womb doesnt have to have a child any more than everybody with vocal chords has to
be an opera singer.
Malcolm Potts, human reproductive scientist (born 1935)
Rapid population growth is at the center of many of the worlds pressing environmental, economic and
security problems.
Without a significant slowing of population growth we face irreversible degradation of the natural
environment and continued poverty for much of the world.
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama 1950-present (born 1935)
One of the great challenges today is the population explosion. Unless we are able to tackle this issue
effectively we will be confronted with the problem of the natural resources being inadequate for all the
human beings on this Earth.
The growth in population is very much bound up with poverty, and in turn poverty plunders the Earth.
When human groups are dying of hunger, they eat everything: grass, insects, everything. They cut down
the trees, they leave the land dry and bare. All other concerns vanish. Thats why in the next 30 years the
problems we call environmental will be the hardest that humanity has to face.
George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury 1991-2002 (born 1935)
The overpopulation of this small island nation, already stricken with a mountain of debt that could blight
generations, is the gravest crisis we face.
Pope Francis, religious leader 2013- (born 1936)
Some people think that excuse my expression here that in order to be good Catholics we have to be
like rabbits. No. Parenthood is about being responsible. This is clear.
Morgan Freeman, actor (born 1937)
We have seven billion people on this planet. Its not that theres not enough room on this planet for seven
billion people, its that the energy needs for seven billion people are seven billion peoples worth of energy
needs, as opposed to, say, two billion. Imagine how much pollution would be in the air and the oceans if
there were only two billion people putting it in? So yeah, were already overpopulated.
Jane Fonda, actor and activist (born 1937)
Theres lots to worry about these days but you know what worries me most: the news I read
day before yesterday that by something like 2045 there will be 10 billion people on the planet
or more! Im scared. Ill be gone but I am scared for my grandchildren and for the wild
animals and for the whole human race.
Jane Fonda

Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General 1997-2006 (born 1938)

The idea that population growth guarantees a better life financially or otherwise is a myth that only
those
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sell nappies, prams and the like have any right to believe.

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those who sell nappies, prams and the like have any right to believe.
Population stabilisation should become a priority for sustainable development, including a strong focus on
the empowerment of women and girls.
The principle of contraction and convergence with a population base year should provide the basic
framework for global greenhouse gas emission reductions.
reproductive health (is) one of the key tools in the wider battle against poverty.
Margaret Atwood, novelist (born 1939)
The world is finite. For everybody in the world to have the same lifestyle that we [in the West] have now, at
only six billion people, would take four additional Earths [in resources].
Sir David King, UK Chief Scientific Adviser 2000-2007, Special Representative for Climate
Change 2013-present (born 1939)
The prospect of nine billion people is a very big challenge. Basically today we are using the natural
resources of the planet at a rate faster than theyre being replenished.
The massive growth of the human population through the 20th century has had more impact on
biodiversity than any other single factor.
Bill Oddie, performer and conservationist (born 1941)
There should just as likely be a restriction on the number of children that British people have because
overpopulation is what you are talking about here the big problem.
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, economist (born 1942)
Population growth, poverty and degradation of local resources often fuel one another.
Stephen Hawking, physicist (born 1942)
In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9 per cent per
year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be
standing literally shoulder to shoulder.
Michael Palin, comedian (born 1943)
The greatest politically charged challenge facing our planet? Unchecked population growth.
Helen Mirren, actor (born 1945)
I think still it is very fine not to want children. There are far too many people in the world. It is my
contribution to ecology.
Joanna Lumley, actor (born 1946)
I dont think theres any denying the fact that there are too many people in the world. I know
thats an awful thing to say, and people say youre Hitler if you say it, but the human
population is growing now so fast, and they need so much more to keep themselves alive
and indeed in developing nations, to reach a standard they would like to reach, i.e. with more
Joanna Lumley cars, more TV sets. Which is completely understandable. But if a hundred people want a new
car, thats one thing but if a million people want a new car So I think the green issues which is the
cutting down of forests to make more room to graze more cows to make into more beef burgers that
comes from the quantity of people. And weve never addressed that.
Thoraya
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Ahmed Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General 2000-2010 (born 1946)

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Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UN Under-Secretary-General 2000-2010 (born 1946)

We cannot confront the massive challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental destruction
unless we address issues of population and reproductive health.
Ian Angus, activist (born 1946)
Populationists are right that human numbers must be consideredWe cant possibly ignore population as
a factorThere is a direct relationship between the number of people on Earth and the amount of food
required to sustain them. Thats a fundamental fact of material existence, one that no society can possibly
escape.
Sara Parkin, activist and politician (born 1946)
as the soaring demand for food, water and energy is exacerbated by climate change, it is no longer
legitimate to leave policies for lowering birth rates off the policy agenda.
Michael Buerk, journalist and newsreader (born 1946)
Population is the invisible issue of the 21st centurythe exponential growth of the human populationis
already making life uncomfortable and threatens to make it impossible.
Rex Wyler, ecologist (born 1947)
The wealthy nations and wealthy consumers have, of course, the greatest impact, but sheer numbers do
count. There are ways that we can stabilize human population without unpleasantly imposed restrictions,
namely with universal womens rights, education and available contraception. We can hope that in 2014,
the United Nations adopts these policies and takes serious action.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Secretary of State 2009-2013 (born 1947)
to reach our goals in sustainable development we also have to ensure womens reproductive rights.
John Gray, philosopher (born 1948)
the root cause of mass extinction is too many people.
A world of fewer people would be far better placed to deal with climate change than the
heavily overpopulated one we are heading for now.
John Gray

Al Gore, US Vice President 1993-2001 (born 1948)

One of the things we could do about it is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to
stabilize the population, and one of the principal ways of doing that is to empower and educate girls and
women. You have to have ubiquitous availability of fertility management so women can choose how many
children to have, the spacing of the children You have to educate girls and empower women. And thats
the most powerful leveraging factor, and when that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and
societies begin to make better choices and more balanced choices.
Jeremy Irons, actor (born 1948)
One always returns to the fact that there are just too many of us, the population continues to rise and its
unsustainable.
Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of UNFPA 2010-present (born 1949)
Population growth patterns are linked to nearly every challenge confronting humanity, including poverty
reduction, urban pollution, energy production, food and water scarcity, and health.Evidence now shows

that
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reduction of unwanted fertility also helps to reduce poverty ratesEffortsto

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that the voluntary reduction of unwanted fertility also helps to reduce poverty ratesEffortsto protect
womens rights to education and reproductive healthwill create a world in which a stable population with a
balanced approach to resource use and consumption will benefit families, communities, and nations.
Richard Branson, entrepreneur (born 1950)
The truth is this: the Earth cannot provide enough food and fresh water for 10 billion people, never mind
homes, never mind roads, hospitals and schools.
John Guillebaud, medical doctor and academic (born 1950)
Should we now explain to UK couples who plan a family that stopping at two children, or at least having
one less than first intended, is the simplest and biggest contribution anyone can make to leaving a
habitable planet for our grandchildren?
Jonathon Porritt, environmentalist (born 1950)
Population raises all these questions about religion, about culture, about male dominance in
the world; and (people) get very uncomfortable about that.

Jonathon
Porritt

Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB 2001-2013 (born 1951)

it is dangerously misleading to focus solely on population growth or solely on consumption,
as we struggle to work out how we can sustain a population of nine billion people on the

planet.
Sir Bob Geldof, musician (born 1951)
I think the tipping point has been reached. There cant be more people on the Earth than we can feed.
Fred Pearce, environmental writer (born 1951)
Clearly, other things being equal, fewer people will do less damage to the planet.
Jon Shanklin, meteorologist (born 1953)
We are also likely to need to reduce our own numbers if we are to sustain a healthy planet in the long term.
How to do so is the big debate that we must urgently conduct.
Baroness Valerie Amos, UN Under-Secretary-General 2010-present (born 1954)
Population growth puts increased pressure on everything elseGirls and women must be educated. Even
a few years basic education leads to smaller families.
Bill Gates, business leader (born 1955)
The problem is that the population is growing the fastest where people are less able to deal with it. So its
in the very poorest places that youre going to have a tripling in population by 2050. () And weve got to
make sure that we help out with the tools now so that they dont have an impossible situation later.
Bill Nye, scientist, television host and educator (born 1955)
In 1750, there were about a billion humans in the world. Now, there are well over seven billion people in
the world. It more than doubled in my lifetime. So all these people trying to live the way we live in the
developed world is filling the atmosphere with a great deal more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
gases than existed a couple of centuries ago. Its the speed at which it is changing that is going to be
troublesome for so many large populations of humans around the world.
Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria 2010-2015 (born 1957)
For us to plan properly, we must manage our population
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Lionel Shriver, author (born 1957)

We need to recognise that slowing population growth is one of the most cost-effective and
reliable ways of easing pressure on our environment and securing a sustainable future for us
all.
Lionel Shriver

Kate Humble, television presenter (born 1958)

There are far too many people in the worldI think one of the most environmentally friendly things you can
do is not to have children.
Jeanette Winterson, author (born 1959)
Climate change, environmental degradation, overpopulation and war each threaten the future of our life on
Earth. They are our own man-made Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Adrian Hayes, polar explorer & adventurer (born 1959)
Ive seen melting ice caps with my own eyes and got very wet in the process, but it is pointless
campaigning against climate change or to save the Arctic without addressing the root cause behind it and
virtually every other environmental issue we face: our unsustainable numbers on this planet. That is the real
inconvenient truth.
Rupert Everett, actor (born 1959)
weve got too many children on the planet, so its good not to have more.
James Gasana, Rwandan agriculture minister 1990-1992 (born 1960)
Rapid population growth is the major driving force behind the vicious circle of environmental scarcities
and rural poverty. In Rwanda it induced the use of marginal lands on steep hillsides, shortening of fallow,
deforestation, and soil degradation and resulted in severe shortages of food.
Stephen Emmott, scientist (born 1960)
the worst thing we can continue to do globally is have children at the current rateOnly an idiot would
deny that there is a limit to how many people our Earth can supportI think weve already gone past it
well past it.
Chris Packham, naturalist (born 1961)
Theres no point bleating about the future of pandas, polar bears and tigers when were not addressing
the one single factor thats putting more pressure on the ecosystem than any other namely the
ever-increasing size of the worlds population.
I support Population Matters because theyre the only people pointing out the obvious link between ever
more people and ever less wildlife.
George Monbiot, writer (born 1963)
(Population is) an important issuemost greens will not discuss. Is this sensitivity or is it cowardice?
Perhaps a bit of both.
if we accept the UNs projection that global population will grow by roughly 50 per cent and then stop.
This means it will become 50 per cent harder to stop runaway climate change, 50 per cent harder to feed
the world, 50 per cent harder to prevent the overuse of resources.
Even if there were no environmental pressures caused by population growth, we should still support the
measures required to tackle it: universal sex education, universal access to contraceptives, better
schooling
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and opportunities for poor women. Stabilising or even reducing the human population
would
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MDT

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schooling and opportunities for poor women. Stabilising or even reducing the human population would
ameliorate almost all environmental impacts.
Dan Brown, author (born 1964)
Overpopulation is an issue so profound that all of us need to ask what should be done.
Boris Johnson, Mayor of London 2008-2015 (born 1964)
The primary challenge facing our species is the reproduction of our species itselfIt is time we had a
grown-up discussion about the optimum quantity of human beings in this country and on this planetAll the
evidence shows that we can help reduce population growth, and world poverty, by promoting literacy and
female emancipation and access to birth control.
Guy Pearce, actor (born 1967)
I dont know that the world needs any more kids in it
Ashley Judd, actress (born 1968)
Its unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished
countries.
Julia Bradbury, presenter (born 1970)
Im passionate about the world we live in and the enormous burden of the population. We cant keep using
the Earth as a bottomless pit.
Cameron Diaz, actress and model (born 1972)
I think women are afraid to say that they dont want children because theyre going to get shunned. But I
think thats changing too now. I have more girlfriends who dont have kids than those that do. And,
honestly? We dont need any more kids. We have plenty of people on this planet.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (born 1982)
(Were) thinking about having two (children).
Lily Cole, model and actress (born 1987)
It is not feasible to expect a finite planet to support infinite growth. I am most inspired by efforts to improve
sex education and contraceptive availability so women have more choice. I believe women have the right to
have more children if they wish but that shouldnt stop us from trying to better understand this issue.
Blur, band (formed 1988)
There are too many of us. Thats plain to see.
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