Presented by Nandita Bajaj

Date: 14 August, 2024 
Time: 7 to 8:30 PM

Abstract

Human expansionism – through our voracious consumptive patterns and growing population – is the leading driver of the climate crisis, the sixth mass extinction, and resource scarcity. However, over the last few decades, our exclusive focus on consumption and “green” techno-solutionism, combined with a failure to account for the rapidly growing human population and our growth-centered economic system, has only exacerbated the polycrisis. Using an anti-oppression lens, Nandita discussed the reasons behind population denialism, including past population policies, pronatalism, human exceptionalism, and technological fundamentalism. Solutions on how to hold power accountable, while embracing degrowth as a means to advance reproductive, ecological, and intergenerational justice, were discussed.

Nandita is the Executive Director of Population Balance, a US nonprofit that works to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet. She also co-hosts The Overpopulation Podcast, a popular series that delves into the nuances of the drivers and impacts of human expansionism with expert guests. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Humane Education at Antioch University, where she teaches about the combined impacts of pronatalism and human expansionism on reproductive, ecological, and intergenerational justice. In addition to a number of peer-reviewed papers and forthcoming book chapters, her work has appeared in major news outlets including Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Newsweek, Ms. Magazine, The Globe and Mail, and National Post. She has an MEd (Humane Education) from Antioch University, a BEng (Aerospace Engineering) from Toronto Metropolitan University, and a BEd from University of Toronto. She was born and raised in India and has lived in Toronto, Canada for 25 years.