View source for Organization:Population Matters

{{short description|UK-based charity}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Population Matters
| image = 
| image_size = 150px
| type = {{plainlist|
*Environmental charity
*Sustainability organisation
*[[Social:Advocacy group|Advocacy group]]
*Think tank}}
| tax_id = <!-- or | vat_id = -->
| registration_id = 
| formerly = Optimum Population Trust
| founded_date = {{start date and age|1991}}
| founder = David Willey
| location = {{wipe|United Kingdom}}
| origins = 
| key_people = {{plainlist|
*Jonathon Porritt ([[Social:President (corporate title)|president]])
*Sara Parkin ([[Social:Chairman|chair]]) }}
| area_served = 
| product = 
| focus = Promotion of smaller families<ref>{{cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/smaller-families/|title=Smaller families|author=|date=|work=populationmatters.org}}</ref> and sustainable consumption<ref>{{cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/what-else|title=Consume mindfully|author=|date=|work=populationmatters.org}}</ref>
| mission = 
| method = Campaigning, education, lobbying and research
| revenue = 
| expenses = 
| endowment = 
| num_volunteers = 
| num_employees = 
| num_members = 
| subsid = 
| owner = 
| homepage = {{URL|populationmatters.org/}}
}}
'''Population Matters''', formerly known as the '''Optimum Population Trust''', is a UK-based charity that addresses population size and its effects on [[Earth:Sustainability|environmental sustainability]]. It considers population growth as a major contributor to environmental degradation, [[Biology:Biodiversity loss|biodiversity loss]], resource depletion and [[Earth:Climate change|climate change]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/population-growth-climate-change/|title=Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?|website=Scientific American|language=en|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/02/28/climate-change-and-population-growth-are-making-the-worlds-water-woes-more-urgent|title=Climate change and population growth are making the world's water woes more urgent|date=2019-02-28|work=The Economist|access-date=2019-04-05|issn=0013-0613}}</ref> The group promotes ethical, choice-based solutions through lobbying, campaigning and awareness-raising.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/solutions|title=Solutions|date=2018-09-11|website=Population Matters {{!}} Sustainable World Population {{!}} Every Choice Counts|language=en|access-date=2019-11-04}}</ref>

==History and background==
Population Matters was launched as the Optimum Population Trust following a meeting on 24 July 1991 by the late David Willey and others concerned about population numbers and sustainability. They were impelled to act by the failure of United Kingdom governments to respond to population growth and threats to sustainability.

The Optimum Population Trust prepared analyses and lobbied on issues affected by population growth. It was granted charitable status on 9 May 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityFramework.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1114109&SubsidiaryNumber=0|title=Charity framework|website=Charity Commission|access-date=2019-04-05}}</ref> Population Matters was adopted as its new name in 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/governance|title=Governance|date=2018-09-13|website=Population Matters|language=en|access-date=2019-03-25}}</ref>

== Views and aims ==
Population Matters highlights how rapid human population growth has fueled the destruction of nature and natural resource depletion.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> The charity promotes positive, voluntary measures to achieve a sustainable human population size that enables everyone to have a decent quality of life while safeguarding our natural environment.

The United Nations projects that global population size will reach 9.7&nbsp;billion in the year 2050 and 10.9 in 2100,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_10KeyFindings.pdf|title=World Population Prospects 2019 (Key findings)|last=|first=|date=|website=|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> which illustrates the urgency of the matter, according to the organisation.

=== Vision ===
Population Matters' vision<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/about-us|title=About us|date=2018-09-18|website=Population Matters {{!}} Every Choice Counts {{!}} Sustainable World Population|language=en|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref> is of a future in which our population co-exists in harmony with nature and prospers on a healthy planet, to the benefit of all.

===Mission===
Population Matters' mission is to drive positive, large-scale action through fostering choices that help achieve a sustainable human population and regenerate our environment.

=== Solutions ===
Population Matters promotes five solutions to slow and ultimately reverse population growth:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/solutions|title=Solutions|date=2018-09-11|website=Population Matters {{!}} Every Choice Counts {{!}} Sustainable World Population|language=en|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref>

* Achieve global gender equality
* Remove all barriers to modern family planning
* Quality education for all
* End poverty
* Encourage small family size

In addition, recognising the disproportionately large environmental footprint of wealthy nations, the charity calls for reducing consumption in high-income countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/what-else|title=What else can I do?|date=2018-09-13|website=Population Matters {{!}} Every Choice Counts {{!}} Sustainable World Population|language=en|access-date=2020-02-20}}</ref>

== Activities ==
Population Matters campaigns to stabilise population at a sustainable level through encouraging a culture shift towards smaller family sizes worldwide and improving funding for women's empowerment and family planning in lower income countries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.meetup.com/Central-London-Humanists/events/61135812/|title=Central London Humanists|website=Meetup|access-date=2016-06-02}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/oct/23/why-population-growth-costs-the-earth-roger|title=Why current population growth is costing us the Earth |last=Martin|first=Roger|date=2011-10-23|website=the Guardian|access-date=2016-06-02}}</ref> Over the years, the organisation has supported various campaigns, including Caroline Lucas' Bill to make Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (''PSHE'') a statutory requirement in state-funded schools.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.carolinelucas.com/latest/pshe-briefing-for-mps|title=PSHE briefing for MPs |first=Caroline |last=Lucas |access-date=2016-06-02}}</ref> It also informs the public on overpopulation and positive solutions through its communications, events and outreach activities. Finally, the charity commissions research to examine some issues in depth, for example, analysing the latest UN population projections, or exploring the impacts of UK population growth on biodiversity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/what-we-do|title=What we do|last=|first=|date=|website=Population Matters|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-04-25}}</ref>

Population Matters publishes the Journal of Population and Sustainability, an open access, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal exploring all aspects of the relationship between human numbers and environmental issues.

The charity runs Empower to Plan, a crowdfunding' project that offers members of the public the opportunity to donate directly towards family planning and women's empowerment projects around the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.populationmatters.org/empower-to-plan/|title=Empower to Plan|access-date=2018-03-05}}</ref> This project superseded the carbon offsetting project called PopOffsets.

== Organisational structure ==
Population Matters consists of patrons, an advisory council, a board, a team of staff, volunteers and members.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/our-team|title=Our team - Population Matters|website=Population Matters|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref> It relies on members and donors for its funding.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/governance|title=Governance|date=2018-09-13|website=Population Matters|language=en|access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref>

=== Patrons ===
Population Matters' patrons include prominent public figures such as [[Biography:David Attenborough|Sir David Attenborough]], Chris Packham, [[Biography:Jane Goodall|Dr Jane Goodall]], Leilani Münter, Jonathon Porritt, Sir Partha Dasgupta, [[Biography:Paul R. Ehrlich|Professor Paul Ehrlich]], Lionel Shriver and Professor John Guillebaud.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.populationmatters.org/about/people-and-story/patrons/|title=Patrons - Population Matters|website=Population Matters|language=en-GB|access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref>

== Criticism ==
In 2015, Population Matters was criticized for a blog post disagreeing with an Amnesty International call on the UK and other EU countries to "significantly increase the number of resettlement and humanitarian admission places for refugees from Syria" while saying that these "countries should continue to support migrants from the Syrian civil war and other conflicts in the countries adjacent to those conflicts".<ref name=":0" /> The organization subsequently confirmed that this had never been official Population Matters policy and had been repudiated and withdrawn.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/past-policies|title=Population Matters’ past policies|date=2020-01-31|website=Population Matters {{!}} Every Choice Counts {{!}} Sustainable World Population|language=en|access-date=2020-02-21}}</ref> The Optimum Population Trust had called for numerically balanced or "zero-net" migration to the UK, but did not continue to support this policy as Population Matters. In 2015, Population Matters advocated stopping child benefit and tax credits for third and subsequent children.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/charity-which-campaigned-to-ban-syrian-refugees-from-britain|title=The charity which campaigned to ban Syrian refugees from Britain|date=2015-09-23|website=openDemocracy|access-date=2016-06-09}}</ref> In 2017, the organization stopped advocating for specific policy changes, replacing them with a call for a Sustainable Population Policy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://populationmatters.org/campaigns/sustainable-population-policy|title=Sustainable population policy |publisher=Population Matters|access-date=24 January 2019}}</ref>

==See also==
{{colbegin}}
*[[Futures studies]]
*List of countries by population
*List of countries by population growth rate
*List of population concern organizations
*List of sovereign states and dependent territories by birth rate
*List of sovereign states and dependent territories by population density
*Optimum population
*Over-consumption
*[[Earth:Overexploitation|Overexploitation]]
*[[Social:Political demography|Political demography]]
*Population ageing
*[[Earth:Population density|Population density]]
*[[Population pyramid]]
*Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
*[[Tragedy of the commons]]
*World population
*Zero population growth
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.populationmatters.org Official website]

{{Population country lists}}
{{biological organisation}}
{{Extinction}}


[[Category:Conservation organizations]]

{{Sourceattribution|Population Matters|1}}