As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Population Media Center, it is an opportune moment to reflect on the organization’s remarkable journey and its vital role in promoting social and cultural change worldwide. Headquartered in South Burlington, PMC has been a beacon of hope, using the powerful tools of entertainment-education and mass media to address pressing issues such as the full rights of women and girls.
PMC’s mission is rooted in empowering individuals to lead healthier and more prosperous lives while striving to stabilize the global population at a sustainable level compatible with Earth’s renewable resources. Trained in the art and science of storytelling for social impact, PMC collaborates with local talent and production teams across the globe to create award-winning, transformative entertainment for television, radio and the web, with a particular focus on empowering women and girls.
Operating across North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia, PMC has left an indelible mark in over 50 countries. In a world where population growth has surged from 6 billion to 8 billion since PMC’s inception in 1998, and the U.S. population has risen from 281 million to approximately 335 million, the need for organizations like PMC is more critical than ever.
Yes, that is major growth, but those figures would certainly be much larger if not for the work of the PMC. Population growth is having tremendous adverse impacts, including contributing to global warming, the sixth great extinction, wars over resources, and it being difficult for people to survive in some regions.
The big question is, “What is a sustainable population size for any given region?”
Vermonters for Sustainable Population, now BetternotbiggerVermont, published a groundbreaking report in 2013, titled “What is an Optimum/Sustainable Population for Vermont?” It used several criteria to determine that figure, including food production, greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource protection. Its conclusion was that a sustainable population size for Vermont would be about 500,000. Vermont’s population size now is about 647,000.
As a world, nations, states and communities, we need to determine what is a sustainable population size for that area.
George Plumb is a board member of BetternotbiggerVermont, and lives in the town of Washington.
