Speaker: Fred Pearce, author of When the Rivers Run Dry

When: Friday April 16 @ 7 PM
Where: First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain

For more than two centuries there has been mounting concern that rapidly growing populations are putting an unsustainable strain on the Earth’s resources. However, much has been misunderstood about the current rate of population growth and its effect on the environment. Though the global population is four times what it was a century ago, women in nearly every country are having fewer children, people are living longer thanks to medical and technological advances, and soon global deaths will exceed global births.

In this forum, renowned science writer Fred Pearce will discuss what is in store for our changing planet, and what we can do to help build the foundation for a wiser, kinder, greener world. By exploring the sordid history of population control efforts, and emphasizing the important roles of women’s rights, migration, and conservation, Pearce shifts the argument away from over-population to instead look at the critical global threat of over-consumption.

Co-sponsored by the Beacon Press