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 just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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