Population 7 Billion: Time to Talk

Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/">James Cridland</a> via <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810/">Flickr</a>.

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Yesterday I joined a lively webchat called Population 7 Billion: It’s Time to Talk, along with Bill Ryerson and Bob Walker, and moderated by Asher Miller of the Post Carbon Institute (their creds here). You can see the archive here.

This issue, which doesn’t get enough attention (notable exception: my epic, for me, MoJo article last year, The Last Taboo) is creeping towards the front pages now as we approach the 7th billion person on Earth. The UN predicts he or she will be born sometime this month.

I’ll be writing more on population, consumption, and global change next week—including the controversy over whether we really have hit 7 billion, plus the UN’s latest prediction that population growth might continue through the 21st century and beyond (no plateau in sight). I’ll follow-up on the hopeful convergence between science, environmentalism, human rights, and womens’ rights—an alliance unimaginable in the 20th century, now a hallmark of 21st-century sustainability thinking.

So check back. And join in. It’s time to talk.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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