Center for Biological Diversity. 7 billion people on Earth Plants and Animals Effected by this
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Dear Dean,
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Today, for the first time in history, there are 7 billion people on Earth.
This scary milestone for the globe -- falling on Halloween, of all days -- means greater threats to the animals, plants and wildlands we're all working hard to save.
Our planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction crisis, with plants and animals going extinct at 100 to 1,000 times the normal rate. And this one's being driven by us -- people.
The population crisis is why the Center for Biological Diversity has broken new ground over the past two years, creating our human overpopulation and endangered species campaign and sparking nationwide conversations about the impacts of skyrocketing population with our award-winning Endangered Species Condoms.
In fact, The New York Times today credited the Center for "breaking the taboo by directly tying population growth to environmental problems." Other groups, the Times said, "have dodged the subject" for decades.
The momentum had been building as today's milestone approached; we launched a new, national 7 Billion and Counting campaign this month that raised public awareness and distributed 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms in all 50 states.
On Friday, we also released a major new report highlighting the top 10 U.S. species that are threatened by habitat loss, water loss and other direct effects of overpopulation. They include the Florida panther, polar bear, San Joaquin kit fox and Lange's metalmark butterfly.
With the world's attention turned to the 7 billionth person, being born today, we must press on in this ambitious and necessary public-education campaign.
In my lifetime alone, the world's human population has doubled. By 2050, another 4 billion people are expected to be added. As the human population grows and rich countries continue to consume resources at voracious rates, we are crowding out, poisoning, killing and consuming Earth's species into extinction.
The Center's the only national environmental group with a full-time campaign focusing solely on human overpopulation and the effect it's having on imperiled species.
The cost of doing nothing -- of ignoring the population explosion -- is frightening to contemplate. Think what it would be like if polar bears, panthers and thousands of other species were crowded off our planet and into oblivion forever.
Today, as you think about the impact of the world's population hitting 7 billion people, I hope you'll commit to contact your representatives, write letters to the editor, take action online and support this critical work to address the impacts of human overpopulation.
You can use our Take-Action Toolbox to start making change today and subscribe to the Center's Pop X e-newsletter to get the latest population news.
For a livable world,
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P.S. You can read today's story in The New York Times here and learn more about how we're leading the environmental movement on this issue and urging action. Stay tuned on how you can help and keep speaking up.
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