In 2013, Roger Plenty of Nailsworth Meeting managed to convince local Quakers that his 50 year-long anxiety about the global population was indeed a Concern. This opened many doors to him, such as support in holding a well-attended Special Interest Group at Bath Yearly Meeting in 2014. One of the outcomes of that Yearly Meeting was setting up QCOP. Working with other Quakers showed we are not alone. The Quaker Meeting community is our strength.
Here are some of the steps in QCOP's journey.
13/89 Population on Earth
Roger Plenty (Nailsworth) presented a paper on his concern regarding the exponential growth of population on the earth.
Nailsworth Meeting ask that the following Minute be forwarded to BYM Agenda Committee, BYMG Planning Committee and Meeting for Sufferings.
Minute from Gloucestershire Area Quaker Meeting to Britain Yearly Meeting.
We have heard about the strong concern of Roger Plenty on Global Population and feel that this is of growing interest to Friends in general as part of the Quaker commitment to sustainability. He is supported by a local group of Friends based in Nailsworth, and they ask that a Special Interest Meeting on the topic be held at Britain Yearly Meeting in 2014. They have been discussing the format, speakers and materials for such a meeting, and have offer of help from Lewes Meeting Population Group also. A possible title might be: “Overpopulation: Change without Coercion”
Area meeting appreciates this concern and agrees to forward the Nailsworth Minute to the bodies listed above.
Friends expressed their support for this Minute because of the impossibility of continuing as we are if we are to reach the goal of giving every individual the value they deserve. We also thank the group who have supported our friend Roger in his work on this very complex topic. We need, however to think carefully about the issues we as Quakers take on, so that we do not duplicate the work of other bodies.
The writer Pam Lunn commented on the need for change as to how we think culturally about complex issues. Cultural change takes a long time. The objective of the Population Group is that we should seek to raise awareness of this issue of over population, which is fundamental and allied to the drive towards sustainability. This can be broadened to remind us that sustainability is a worldwide issue, and we as Quakers are a worldwide movement. Therefore increased awareness needs to be a worldwide awareness.
We thank Roger and the Population Group for all their work
In 2015 an inaugural meeting of six Quakers was held in Birmingham to formalize a group. It was decided to adopt the name Quaker Concern Over Population (QCOP), and a simple structure was agreed. Various plans made including developing a website, posters, and applying to Friends House to become a Listed Informal Group. The aims of the group are:-
1. To remind Friends of the dangers of population growth, and the means by which growth can be addressed without coercion.
2. To encourage Friends to overcome their reticence and to explain this difficult and topical subject in a reflective way.
3. To communicate informally with various bodies within the Society of Friends, providing information as needed.
In 2016, several QCOP members approached their Meetings and Area Meetings to hold discussions on overpopulation with some success. Two QCOP steering group members gave presentations and ran discussions for the Hampshire and Islands Regional meeting in October 2016. A presentation was given in Sedburgh, two in Cambridge and one in Muswell Hill.
Also in 2016, all Area Meetings were sent a letter entitled Why Population for consideration.
A comprehensive website was developed, with help from a Quaker in Wales.
A poster with cartoon was made available on the website to offer to Meetings. (For a more recent poster, see here.)
At the 2017 Yearly Meeting Gathering at Warwick, Anne le Mare, a retired lecturer and QCOP member, addressed a Special Interest Meeting attended by about 50 Friends on the subject of Global Population Issues with particular focus on why people have large families and on the different ways countries have reduced their birth rate. QCOP also ran a stall at the Groups Fair, discussed issues and distributed information.
The Canterbury Commitment was written in 2011 (Yearly Meeting 2011, Minute 36 ). It states that “The action we are ready to take at this time is to make a strong corporate commitment to become a low-carbon, sustainable community. Sustainability is an urgent matter for our Quaker Witness. It is rooted in Quaker testimony and must be integral to all we do corporately and individually.”
In November 2017, Woodbrooke ran a course: “Costing Not Less Than Everything. This was a re-visit of the 2011 Swarthmore lecture “Costing Not Less Than Everything” by Pam Lunn. This lecture concerning human sustainability on Earth, inspired and affirmed many feelings about how we live in the world and the footprint we leave behind. 14 Quakers attended the course including QCOP members Jonathan Riddell, Cherry Foster, June New and Nick Chetwood. On behalf of QCOP, Nick Chetwood gave a 40 minute presentation on the current population situation and Cherry Foster briefed attendees on some examples of countries which had had outstanding success in reducing their fertility rate. In the following discussion, the presentations were received with mixed feelings ranging from anxiety as to what to do, anger at the situation and relief at understanding the Global Population picture better.
In February 2018, 18 Quakers attended an event organised by QCOP the Friends Meeting House in Gloucester. Friends were drawn from the Area Meeting and from as far as Charlbury, Hereford and South Wales, as well as three of the QCOP organisers from the north of England. The aim was firstly to introduce participants to the issues caused by global overpopulation in the context of the Canterbury Commitment on living sustainably. The second aim was to show how the solutions to the issues are close to Quakerly thinking, involving the education and equality of women and the provision of family planning facilities. The third was to familiarise Friends with the subject so that they find it easier to consider and discuss it with others.
The same theme was presented at Cambridge in June 2018, with similar encouraging feedback. Further meetings were held in Bull Street Meeting House, Birmingham.
The Canterbury Commitment, sadly, does not mention population as a major contributor to increases in carbon production. QCOP recognises that resource depletion, inequality, climate emergency and biodiversity loss are four factors which contribute to a very uncertain future for humankind, but believe population growth is a significant contributor which should not be ignored. Global population continues to grow by around nearly one billion every 12 years, to well over 8 billion in 2024. This staggering figure is the largest ever rise and is clearly unsustainable.
In July 2018, QCOP became a Quaker Recognised Body, set up to inform Friends about these facts. This led to a flurry of activity, such as becoming a signatory of the 2015 Shared Statement on Climate Change by Quaker Groups. In line with the Alliance of World Scientists – A Warning to Humanity, QCOP members were urged to write to organisations they belong to, such as political parties, pressure groups urging them to read and sign up to the statement.
Quaker Registered Bodies receive automatic invitations to hold Special Interest Meetings and to run a table at the Groups Fair at Yearly Meetings. In May 2019, Simon Beard, a Quaker demographer at Cambridge University researching Population Ethics and the future, gave a very well received Special Interest Meeting talk at London Yearly Meeting on the subject Quakers, Population and the Future of Humanity.
QCOP's booklet, sent free to members, was about two years in the making, and was finally published in November 2020. A collaborative effort with contributions from Roger Plenty and others, this aims to be a readable resource with plenty of graphics, examples, quotations and illustrations. For more details see here.