NPG Deputy Director Tracy Canada can be reached by email at tcanada@npg.org.

Like many others, I was recently touched by the emotional outburst of 6-year-old Henry. His full-scale meltdown was caught on cellphone camera, seen on the Internet by millions of viewers worldwide. What was Henry crying about? The state of our world’s environment. According to Henry, his teacher showed a video of a bird eating trash – and Henry just “lost it.” As he expressed his frustration about people being “rude” to the Earth, Henry explains:

“I just wish I was an adult right now. I just want to do my job right now.”

The statement caught my attention. It’s a sentiment I know is shared by many children and young adults. Even at a young age, the sense of urgency to protect our environment – and to preserve a livable future – can be significant. Luckily for Henry his parents have been fully supportive of his passion, even setting up a Facebook page (“Henry the Emotional Environmentalist“) which already has over 17,000 likes.

This enthusiasm for environmental conservation is shared by NPG. We have long encouraged young people to join the fight for America’s future. Our nation is home to millions of young environmental activists and “eco-warriors,” and we regularly invite them to participate in our popular NPG Outreach programs:

• NPG Teacher’s Packets,
• Annual Scholarship Contests,
• Our vast library of research materials,
• Fully-interactive data resources,
• National media outreach, and
• Powerful advertisements.

With your help, we encourage Americans of all ages to draw the critical link between environmental damage – species extinction, greenhouse gas emissions, water and air pollution, climate change, etc. – and population growth. This is why, thanks to your generous contributions, NPG works so hard to make sure that our valuable materials are available FREE OF CHARGE to educators nationwide. And this is why we worked to produce and promote our powerful new Short Video Series! NPG helps people like Henry see the real facts: our growing population continues to place an ever-greater strain on the environment.

It is a desperate cycle. We must ACT NOW to break it, by reducing our population size and growth.

Yet despite the obvious link between overpopulation and environmental damage, we still face an uphill battle in achieving real change. In 2015,New York City’s population reached an all-time high of 8.6 million people – growth which has been touted (yet again) as an economic saving grace. As a nation, America also continues to grow – our population a year ago was 321,346,702 and today we’re rapidly approaching 324 million.

Thankfully, it appears some Americans are awake to the dangers of overpopulation – as one concerned population activist recently wrote in to The Washington Post explaining “Virginia can’t afford its population boom.” And NPG is continuing to lead the way! With your help, we’re working harder than ever to reach a growing audience with the real facts about population growth.

We thank all of our supporters like you. Remember – NPG receives absolutely no government funding of any kind. We rely entirely on you – your loyal dedication and generous financial support – to continue our critical mission. Your contributions go directly towards our vital educational and outreach programs, getting our valuable materials into the hands of America’s students, teachers, elected officials, journalists, and the public. We appreciate your activism, and your continued support of NPG.

Thank you again for all you do!