Living Well Within the Limits of Our Planet | Terry Spahr

For 7.8 billion people to live sustainably on the planet, everyone would have to be a vegetarian; never drive a car or fly in an airplane; live in a one-room apartment with minimal electricity and no heat, hot water, washing machine, dryer, or dishwasher; and have only a few sets of clothes and pairs of shoes. Sounds crazy, right? But what’s even crazier is that nobody, including environmentalists, really wants to talk about our growing population and consumption. With 7.8 billion people on the planet and a few billion more (between 9.4 and 12.7 billion people in 2100 based on UN estimates) to come, it is time we look at the elephant in the room.
Together with Terry Spahr, the environmentalist and filmmaker behind “8 Billion Angels,” we talk about:
- how population growth impacts our lives, health, and the planet
- why so few people talk about overpopulation and why some even deny it
- why having a smaller family is the most impactful thing anyone can do
- why providing access to education and family-planning methods helps both people and nature
- which countries are successfully slowing their population growth
- why reducing consumption is almost impossible
- why educating people about population is part of the solution