On 10 Sep 2013 Gloucester Area Meeting, meeting at Painswick, issued the following Minute.

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.

Suggested 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