The message of Speak Out is driven by global
sustainability: Their objective is to match aggregate human
consumption to the sustainable yield of the planet’s
renewable bio-capacity. To achieve this, they stress that
“total resource extraction, production, and consumption
need overall reductions, and a restructuring within the scaled
down totals to contribute to social justice imperatives”.
The 2015/2016 Speak Out campaign partnered with The
Foundation for Deep Ecology to publish a photo book called
Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot (OVER). The
editorial team gathered the most compelling images from
around the globe that show both the human and ecological
sides of the overpopulation story.
Tom Butler, editor of OVER, shares his guiding message
for the book: “To me, the common theme is one of what
dominion looks like. Whether that desire to control is
targeted at the Earth, as viewed in a clear-cut forest or tar
sands development or sharks killed in a net of an industrial
fishing boat, or targeted at people, as in the images of young
girls given into marriages with men three times their age.
These images represent loss of beauty and potential, for
Nature and people.”
Butler admits that the book visually alludes to numerous
touchy subjects, from gender relations to abortion rights and
immigration policies. “There are pressures both from the
right and left of the political spectrum not to talk about it,”
he says. “And so, mostly, people don’t, merely talking about
the consequences of population growth and consumption.”
Butler says that while there is no shortage of data,
demographic information and policy documents on human
population and consumption, these are not targeted at
reaching the masses in any meaningful way. “We wanted
to jump over those rational arguments and go right to the
emotional part of the brain in readers of the book,” he
explains. “Can you look at these images of the Earth as
transformed by human numbers and behaviour and not feel
an emotional connection? The point is to get people to care,
and then start talking and acting to support change.”
In keeping with the campaign’s positive outlook, focusing
on a dystopian future is not the aim of OVER, although
documenting the current realities facing the planet is prudent
to raising awareness. To this end, Butler has included an
afterword by environmental author Eileen Crist that crafts
a positive vision of what the world might be – beautiful,
diverse, and filled with life.
bElow Child bride Tahani,
8, is seen with her husband
Majed, 27, and her former
classmate Ghada, 8, and her
husband in Hajjah, Yementop lEft Dede Surinaya
catches a wave in a
garbage-covered bay on Java,
Indonesia, the world’s most
populated islandbElow On Midway Island,
an albatross, dead from
ingesting too much plastic,
decays on the beachbottom lEft The Lao TsuThe
Mir Mine in Russia is the
world’s largest diamond
mineOverdevelopment, Overpopulation,
Overshoot (OVER) retails for
USD50, but as part of Speak Out,
you can request free books to
use for raising awareness. OVER
has distributed about 6,000
complimentary copies so far. Visit
http://www.populationspeakout.orgSupport the Cause
“Can you look at these images
of the Earth as transformed by human
numbers and behaviour and not feel
an emotional connection?“Doing the right thing for people in high fertility
countries – empowering women, educating girls, and making
family planning tools universally available – is morally
justified and ecologically beneficial,” Butler says. “That is a
pretty good story to tell.” agIMAGE © STEPHANIE SINCLAIR COURTESY OF OVER/SPEAK OUTIMAGE © CHRIS JORDAN COURTESY OF OVER/SPEAK OUT