Optimum Population Trust appoints new patron

The broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of a group seeking to cut the growth in human population. 

On joining the Optimum Population Trust, Sir David said growth in human numbers was ‘frightening’, BBC News Online reports.

Sir David has been increasingly vocal about the need to reduce the number of people on Earth to protect wildlife. One of the BBC’s longest-standing presenters, Sir David has been making documentaries on the natural world and conservation for more than half a century.

In a statement issued by the Optimum Population Trust he is quoted as saying: ‘I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.’

The Trust, which was founded in 1991, campaigns for the UK population to decrease voluntarily by not less than 0.25% a year. It has launched a ‘Stop at Two’ online pledge to encourage couples to limit their family’s size.

Other patrons include Jonathan Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, and Dame Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall institute.

BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said population was a fraught area of debate, with libertarians and some religious groups vehemently opposing measures by governments to influence individual fertility. In turn, the Trust accuses policy makers and environmentalists of conspiring in a ‘silent lie’ that human numbers can grow forever with no ill-effects.

Attenborough warns on population. BBC News Online, 13 April 2009

Also read:

Stick to two children, warns the government’s green adviser. Abortion Review, 2 February 2009

Enough, population doom merchants. By Dominic Lawson. The Sunday Times, 29 March 2009

Stop the tired overpopulation hysteria. By Betsy Hartmann. Alternet, 14 March 2009