OUR MISSION
Envisioning a sustainable, healthy and happy human population living in harmony with the natural environment.
Utah and UPEC
Utah’s beautiful, pristine, and expansive natural environment has been greatly degraded in recent years, fueled by high population growth and rapid growth of its resource extraction-based economic sectors. Utah’s leaders are actively planning to accommodate a predicted doubling of the population in the next 20 to 30 years – especially along the urban Wasatch Front.
UPEC was founded in 1997 initially to provide a data-based foundation for considering population and environment concerns and issues. It is managed and directed by board members who meet regularly (please see Who We Are).
We believe it is our responsibility as citizens of the earth to be concerned about the environment, sustainability, and population. We place special value on the unique heritage and landscape of the state of Utah.
Read UPEC’s Updated White Paper
We all face many important choices as we live our lives and form relationships with others, and with society as a whole. Many factors influence population levels, of course, but this white paper will discuss one of the most personal and important choices we face that affects our population — how many children to bring into this world — and the implications of this choice for ourselves, and our state, nation, planet. READ MORE
Hi everyone. We're seeing a ton of articles like this one nowadays ... it's almost as if the worse we all feel things are getting, the more we are told to have more kids! This NYT article is worth a read, but it lacks a proper discussion of the ethical balancing of decisions to have children with the breadth of global environmental crises -- climate change and biodiversity loss at the forefront. The article falls back to a "if it feels right for you do it" position, citing philosophers' writings decades or centuries before awareness of the crises of the Anthropocene. It is not that deciding to have a child is inherently wrong or unethical -- of course not -- but we as a global community should be having more serious discussions about the needs, costs, and consequences of continued population growth given that the Earth is already well above global human carrying capacity. Waiting until the end of the century for the human population to begin to slowly and "naturally" downtrend will have increasingly detrimental consequences for these very upcoming generations, let alone remaining non-human life.![]()
www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/opinion/baby-bust-covid-philosophy-natalism.html?smid=em-share
Opinion | Why, Despite Everything, You Should Have Kids (if You Want Them)
www.nytimes.com
In a time of Covid-19, climate change and catastrophe, having a baby i...
Do you agree that Utah’s population is growing too fast? This video highlights the many benefits we would all enjoy from slowing our population growth.
Utah, we live in a beautiful place.
utahpopulation.org
Think Utah’s population is growing too fast? You’re not alone. UPE...
We can't say this is the kind of top ten list we wanted to make ...
Top destinations for pandemic movers | LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com
Where are people relocating amid the pandemic? A new analysis by Linke...
It's not surprising that the New York Times falls in line with the exaggerated fretting about the so-called Covid "Baby Bust." And it's not surprising that the authors of this piece simply assume, with no evidence, that population growth drives economic growth (and that they fail to consider that per capita growth is the real metric that matters). Perhaps what is surprising -- and gratifying! -- is that so many of the comments call the authors out and remind them that we need not fear a slowing declining population. In any event, worthwhile reading on current trends. www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/opinion/coronavirus-baby-bust.html
Opinion | We Expect 300,000 Fewer Births Than Usual This Year
www.nytimes.com
Signs are pointing to a sizable pandemic baby bust in the United State...
It's important to consider just how much it costs to have a child nowadays. This authour found that the average cost per year of having a child is $13,186!
How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Child?
money.usnews.com
The government has said the price of one child is $233,610, but as the...Upcoming Events
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