The elephant in the conservationist's room: human population
Today is Earth Day - a time to take a step back and celebrate how awesome the world is and the fabulous things that environmentalists are doing to help save the planet. It's a day filled with happiness, inspiration and compassion towards other living things. So what better day for our article to be released on conservationists' incessant failure to talk about the devastating effects of human population growth, density and size than on Earth Day?! Laura Kehoe and I write in the latest Journal of Population and Sustainability (pages 53-67) about the curious lack of research conducted on how human population size, growth and density can affect biodiversity. We note that the topic of human population and its adverse effects is not shunned by economics, politics or health researchers, so we find it strange that conservationists would avoid studying this crucial area. We suggest that possibly one reason for this dearth of research by conservationists is because ...
