Event: Carrying Capacity

Please join the Environmental Change and Security Program for a discussion of

Carrying Capacity: Should We Be Aiming To Survive or Flourish?

featuring

Sir John E. Sulston FRS, Chair, People and the Planet Working Group, Royal Society; Chair, Institute for Science, Ethics, & Innovation, University of Manchester; and 2002 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine Laureate

Martha Campbell, President, Venture Strategies for Health and Development

Parfait Eloundou-Enyegue, Associate Professor, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University; and Associate Director, Cornell Population Program

Tuesday, February 22, 2011
3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
6th Floor Flom Auditorium
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004 USA Webcast live at http://www.wilsoncenter.org

A reception will immediately follow the program.

Please RSVP to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.

The UK-based Royal Society is undertaking a new study entitled People and the Planet, focusing on the roles population dynamics play in sustainable development. The working group effort, chaired by Nobel laureate Sir John Sulston, aims to take a fresh look at the factors affecting and affected by changing populations.

Some countries in Africa, Asia, and Central America continue to have rapidly growing populations while many others have transitioned to slower or even negative population growth. This diversity of demographic growth profiles is accompanied by a wide spectrum of views on population’s importance in sustainable development debates. Some see population questions as a distraction from the urgent imperative of reducing resource consumption in the wealthiest countries. Others argue population growth is an issue that will solve itself, as global population size is projected to peak and then fall from the middle of the 21st century. Still others argue stabilizing population is a key to achieving sustainable development.

To be completed in early 2012, the Royal Society’s People and the Planet study will speak directly to these debates by analyzing how population variables will affect and be affected by economies, environments, societies, and cultures over the next forty years and beyond. The aims of the study are to provide policy guidance to decision makers and inform interested members of the public based on a dispassionate assessment of the best available evidence.

While the scope of the study is global, it explicitly acknowledges regional variations in population dynamics. It looks at the implications of population decreases and increases that are observed and predicted in different parts of the world. It considers how scientific and technological developments might alter the rate and impact of population changes and affect human well-being. And it examines what population levels are likely to affect quality of life regionally and globally - should we be aiming to survive or flourish?

If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast at www.wilsoncenter.org. The live webcast will begin approximately 10 minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.

Location: Woodrow Wilson Center at the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 6th Floor Flom Auditorium. A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions. Note: Due to heightened security, entrance to the building will be restricted and photo identification is required. Please allow additional time to pass through security.