World Population Day 2024 Special

Welcome to PGAP’s “World Population Day 2024” special, where your co-hosts Mark Allen and Michael Bayliss share their recent musings on sustainable population. World Population Day (https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-population-day) is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. Our ‘manifesto’ on the population debate can be read on the PGAP blog: “To populate or not to populate? How we can come together around the eternal debate of everyone’s favourite vexed issue (https://pgap.fireside.fm/articles/population).” Mark’s article “A Holistic Activism Approach to the Population Issue” was published in MEDIUM (https://medium.com/@bayliss.michael/a-holistic-activism-approach-to-the-population-issue-f1c5d7d80624)and the Sustainable Population Australia newsletter May 2024 edition (https://population.org.au/newsletters/spa-newsletter-155-may-2024/). Want to find out more about Holistic Activism? The booklet can be Downloaded HERE (https://holisticactivism.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/holistic-activism-booklet-2024-edition-10.pdf), or accessed at the Holistic Activism website (https://holisticactivism.net/). Michael’s article “Population growth and wealth inequality are more entwined than we thought: here’s why (https://www.populationmedia.org/the-latest/population-growth-and-wealth-inequality)” was originally published on the Population Media Center blog. An audio summary of the themes may be listened to at the ‘Rethinking Sustainability’ podcast, to which Michael was a guest for the short episode: “Growth and the Parasitic Economy (https://sustainablecivilisation.com/growth-and-the-parasitic-economy/)”. We believe that population sustainability is one essential component of transitioning to a post-growth society and we trust that this episode and our written contributions make for convincing arguments. Kelvin Thomson, former Australian Federal MP and a huge influence on the population sustainability movement, has released an EP of original music. The track ‘Break Away’, that ends this episode, may be watched on YouTube here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcdri2HdO3k). Sustainable Population Australia has launched a media release for World Population Day: “A population may survive but not thrive if it grows rapidly (https://population.org.au/media-releases/world-population-day-a-population-may-survive-but-not-thrive-if-it-grows-rapidly/)”. We have been told that this has had some positive response from the media, including interviews with SPA’s national president on mainstream radio. You can add your name to SPA’s position statement HERE (https://population.org.au/sign-the-spa-position-statement/)(already at 15,000 signatures) or find out more about how you can make a difference HERE (https://population.org.au/how-you-can-make-a-difference/). SPA’s contributions to the population debate are also discussed in this episode. You can rate and review PGAP at Apple Podcast HERE (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/post-growth-australia-podcast/id1522194099). Feel free to contact us HERE (https://pgap.fireside.fm/contact) with your feedback and suggestions, including ideas for future episodes.