| Population Connection | |
| Former Name: | Zero Population Growth (1968–2002) |
| Type: | 501(c)(3) |
| Founded: | 1968 |
| Founders: | Paul Ehrlich, Richard Bowers, and Charles Remington |
| Hq Location: | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Key People: | John Seager (President) |
| Revenue: | $14,925,445 (2021) |
| Owners: | --> |
Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth or ZPG) is a US-based non-profit organization that educates young people and advocates for progressive policies to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth's resources.[1]
Population Connection was founded in 1968 under the name "Zero Population Growth" or ZPG by Paul R. Ehrlich, Richard Bowers, and Charles Remington in the wake of Paul and Anne Ehrlich's influential but controversial book "The Population Bomb". The organization adopted its current name in 2002.
Betsy Hartmann, author of "Reproductive Rights and Wrongs"[3] in 1987 criticised ZPG for inciting fear of population growth that she claims led to millions of sterilizations in China, India, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and elsewhere.[4] Writing in "On The Issues" magazine in 2009, Hartmann said she received some "junk mail" from the organisation and commented that "According to ZPG, you can blame just about everything on population growth, from traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and childhood asthma to poverty, famine and global warming." In her book "The America Syndrome: Apocalypse, War, and Our Call to Greatness", Hartmann is again critical of the organization, noting that as the year 2000 millennium approached, the company launched a campaign that tried to link the birth of the world’s six billionth child to the coming Y2K global computer crash, a disaster that never materialized.[5]