New NPG Forum Paper Asks Why Overpopulation Is Widely Ignored

• NPG
• June 25, 2019
• Press Releases
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New NPG Forum Paper Asks Why Overpopulation Is Widely Ignored

as Climate Change Activists Discuss Major Issues Threatening the Planet.

Telling and Selling the Overpopulation Issue: Why Climate Change Gets So Much More Attention, the most recent addition to the wide-ranging NPG Forum series, has been released by Negative Population Growth, Inc.  Authored by Dr. Karen I. Shragg, an environmental author and activist, the paper posits overpopulation needs a seat at the table during discussions about major issues facing the planet.  Shragg states: “When the best so-called scientific experts in the world don’t mention overpopulation in their reports, it is hard for overpopulation activists to get credibility from the public, journalists and politicians.”

Delving deeper to the root of the problem, Shragg writes: “I have long assumed that the only reason that overpopulation is such a hard sell is that it is surrounded by fear and misunderstanding. The fear is huge. The misunderstandings are monumental. No politician wants to step into this potential quicksand. The potential solutions to the overpopulation issue make people uncomfortable, so uncomfortable that it is ignored, denied and discounted to the peril of us all.”

Shragg shares many examples of climate change concerns that are linked to overpopulation, including:

“America’s population today is not sustainable. At double the size it should be, we often talk about loss of natural resources but we also lose our freedom to move about at a normal speed on freeways.”

“We lose our rights to own property on the lake when it is all taken and very expensive.”

“We lose our rights to purchase event tickets when they are all gone because the demand has become too high for the supply.”

“We must be subjected to lotteries to get permits to enter wildernesses and yet we somehow do not see that overpopulation is to blame for our loss of agency.”

NPG Executive Vice President Craig Lewis praised author Dr. Karen Shragg by stating: “Karen’s careful analysis of the troubling pattern of disassociation between overpopulation and climate change is a much-needed call to action. If climate change activists add overpopulation to their arsenal of reasons and resources it would impact the discussion of protecting our planet significantly. In the interest of preserving a sustainable way of life for all we must begin to slow, halt, and eventually reverse population growth. Without support from climate change activists, overpopulation will continue to be woefully swept aside.”  Lewis continued to say: “I am proud to call Karen a friend and long-time supporter of NPG and I am grateful she lent her time and expertise in writing this paper for us.”

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