Great Transition Initiative

GTI FORUM

The Population Debate Revisited

For Urgent Action

Panel 1

The Case for Action

Glen Martin

Less Is More

Eileen Crist

Herman Daly

Herman Daly

Reflections on
Population

John de Graaf

John de Graaf

The Beauty
of Degrowth

Celine Delacroix

Céline Delacroix

Ecology and
Empowerment

Riane Eisler

Riane Eisler

The Right to
Family Planning

Aaron Karp

Aaron Karp

Justice in a
World of Limits

David Korten

David Korten

Empower Women,
Protect Earth

Jane O'Sullivan

Jane O'Sullivan

In Defense of
Family Planning

William Rees

William Rees

Evolution and
Overshoot

David Samways

David Samways

Enlightened
Anthropocentrism

It's an Obfuscation

Panel 2

Why It's a
Distraction

Anantharaman

Manisha
Anantharaman

A Slippery Slope
to Ecofascism

Dauncey

Guy Dauncey

The Other
Population Bomb

Fletcher

Robert Fletcher

The Real Elephant
in the Room

Harcourt

Challenging
Scarcity

Wendy Harcourt

Hartmann

Betsy Hartmann

Resist Malthusian
Coercion

Mehta

Lyla Mehta

Against
Population
Alarmism

Murphy

Brian Murphy

An Obstacle
to Radical
Consciousness

Sterling et al

Peter Sterling & Michael Platt

Focus on Human Security

It's Complicated

Panel 3

Questions and
Complexities

Biko Agozino

Biko Agozino

What Developing
Countries Need

Gwendolyn Hallsmith

The Root Cause:
Patriarchal
Capitalism

Gwendolyn
Hallsmith

Kallis

Giorgos Kallis

Toward Policy
Specificity

Lautensach

Alexander
Lautensach

Ethics on a
Crowded Planet

Gustave Massiah

Gustave Massiah

Global Migration:
Next Phase

Patomaki

Heikki Patomäki

Economic Impacts
of Population
Reduction

Speth

Gus Speth

A Fraught History

Van Der Bly

Martha Van Der Bly

Farewell to
Patriarchy

The explosion of human numbers after World War Two triggered a passionate “population debate.” Did population growth portend a catastrophic future, or were such fears misguided? Then, the Green Revolution quelled the specter of famine, declining fertility rates tempered population growth, and the topic became rather taboo in policy circles. The old neo-Malthusian obsession with population now seems simplistic, but population remains an important contributing factor to ecological overshoot.

The forum revisits this “elephant in the room.” Environmental scholar Ian Lowe’s opening essay urges returning population to the policy foreground. Three panels join the debate: the first fleshes out the case for action, the second responds that population is a dangerous distraction, and the third dives into the issue’s vexing complexities.

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