Did the UN Peace Ambassador say that all of humanity's problems would be solved if the world's population was reduced by 90%?

In February 2024, it was reported that at the World Economic Forum (WEF), primatologist Jane Goodall proposed almost completely reducing the human population to achieve the common good. We checked whether the scientist put forward such an initiative.

Jane Goodall - British ethologist, primatologist and anthropologist, UN Peace Ambassador, and honorary member Future World Council (a German non-profit foundation created with purpose pass on to the next generations a healthy planet with a just and peaceful society). February 4 author of the Telegram channel “Voice of Mordor"(41,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) especially for the TV channel"360"(72,000) published a column about the scientist's alleged proposal. Blogger in the text clarifies: Goodall made this statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which passed in mid-January 2024. “It turns out that solving the climate issue is quite simple - all you need is for the world’s population to decrease by... 90%. Of course, Jane is not directly suggesting killing 90% of the people on Earth." it says in this text, which on the 360 ​​website is still entitled “Kill 90% of the planet's population. The eco-agenda has driven the West crazy" Moreover, at the beginning of the material separately said: “Biologist Goodall is ready to kill 90% of earthlings for the sake of climate change.”

In the Telegram channel of Channel One presenter Olesya Loseva (25,000 views) given quote: “If we reduce our population by 90%, we can achieve net zero climate change.” At the same time, the post clarifies: “Even though she (Goodall – editor’s note) said this a long time ago, it doesn’t change the essence.” As evidence, Loseva cited a screenshot of the December news notes Slay News website - this ultra-conservative English-language resource systematically distributes disinformation and conspiracy theories, including fake news about the WEF. The online publication, in turn, referred to the virus that went viral in September 2023 tweet with a 15-second recording of Goodall's speech, which received almost 2 million views. Publications similar to Loseva’s post also appeared in Telegram channels “Banksta"(107,000 views), "Anatoly Nesmiyan"(64,000), "Strategic Culture Foundation" (24,000) and "Zapashny"(12,000).

However, the above-mentioned video of Goodall’s speech at the WEF was distributed earlier. For example, in May 2023, Telegram channels wrote about the scientist’s “assumption” that “all problems of humanity will be solved if the Earth’s population decreases by 90%.”Militarist"(98,000 views), "Notes from Zhirinovsky" (55,000), "What's going on?" (55,000), "Bad news"(47,000), "Freshness"(25,000), Lomovka (19,000), etc. In December 2022, businessman Elon Musk commented one of the similar posts that appeared on Twitter at the time was: “This philosophy is the death of humanity.” However, the most popular video became back in July 2022, but then in publications was given another quote: “We cannot hide from the growth of the human population, because you know that this is at the root of all problems. None of this would have happened if the population had been the same as 500 years ago.”

Such posts were posted by Telegram channels “Russia now"(248,000 views), ""Special Operation Z" | Yuri Podolyaka+"(199,000), Voblya (150,000), MediaPost (102,000), "RIA Katyusha"(92,000), "Skeptic"(92,000), "Informant"(85,000), "Buyan - What in the world is there?"(73,000), "DPR Info"(71,000), TG Team Russia (63,000), "Cartridge"(60,000), "First Kharkov" (59,000), "Andrey Fursov" (55,000), "Saffron"(24,000), "Ukraine.ru"(24,000), "Zapashny"(21,000), "Coachman"(18,000) and "Yana Poplavskaya"(11,000). Among the media, the proposal allegedly put forward by Goodall was reported “Public news service", "Morning south» (specified, that the scientist made a statement at the WEF 2022), “Constantinople", as well as "Shariy.net" Former State Duma deputy Valery Rashkin in his column on the website of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation wrotethat Goodall "publicly advocated for a 90 percent reduction in the world's population" from the WEF podium on July 28, 2022. In addition, the news became popular in “VKontakte"(examples here, here And here).

In 2022, the World Economic Forum passed not in the summer, but in the spring - from May 22 to 26, but the viral video was not filmed during this event. In fact, a video is being distributed on the Internet, recorded at the Davos summit back in January 2020. A public discussion with the participation of a British scientist was dedicated to ensuring a sustainable future for the Amazon countries. A 40-minute recording of the discussion was published on the official YouTube channel of the EEF, and at the mark 31:37 Goodall says a phrase from the viral video:

We cannot hide from population growth because it is at the root of many other problems. All of these things we're talking about wouldn't be a problem if the world's population was the same as it was 500 years ago.

Neither in this quote nor throughout the entire discussion did the scientist state or suggest that the world's population should be reduced by 90% and that this would solve all the world's problems. She only noted that along with population growth, people are faced with challenges associated with this process. The authors of most of the above publications either misunderstood Goodall's words or deliberately misinterpreted them, even when quoting her correctly.

In addition, messages misinterpreting the quote contain another error. By data UN, in November 2022, the world's population reached 8 billion people and is expected to grow until the last quarter of the 21st century. That is, 10% of today’s level is just over 800 million people. According to diverse research, 500 years ago, that is, at the beginning of the 16th century, the number of people on the planet was in the range of 400-600 million - this is about 5-7.5% of 8 billion. That is, in order to return to the population level of 500 years ago, the number must be reduced by 92.5-95%.

During the discussion journalist BBC Mishal Hussain asked scientist question about 1t.org — project to restore and grow a trillion trees, whose ambassador is stands Goodall: “How important is it that the trees planted are valuable enough to make sure that we do our best to ensure that they are not cut down by local communities or large corporations?” In his response, Goodall told about the great importance of forest conservation and the goals of the project, as well as listed The four dark things that need to be mitigated are the factors leading to deforestation:

1. poverty, as poor people need more space to grow food;
2. non-ecological lifestyle and consumer behavior of non-poor segments of society;
3. corruption that politicians must eliminate;
4. population growth as natural resources are limited.

Goodall speaks more than once about these problems, in particular about the fourth point. spoke in their earlier speeches And interview. However, she never proposed forcibly reducing humanity, but advocated measures to gradually slow down population growth. Among them, in his speech at conferences Population Matters in 2019 she called improving education, and empowering women. Note that some studies confirm relationship between improving women's education and reducing fertility in developing countries. In an interview with CBS News in July 2020, Goodall emphasizedthat changes should take place on a voluntary basis:

Population issues are politically sensitive, which is why I am talking about voluntary optimization of population size. So it's normal, it's voluntary, it's your choice. You optimize it to suit your financial situation. People are desperate to educate their children and they can no longer educate eight. That's why they love family planning, and women can space the births of their children so long that they can take care of them.

Thus, Jane Goodall never called or proposed to solve all the world's problems by destroying more than 90% of humanity. Posts containing this statement are the result of manipulation or at least misinterpretation of the scientist’s actual words, which were taken out of context. Goodall, indeed, spoke many times about the problem of overpopulation of the planet, but in fact only proposed to slow down population growth by improving women's access to education.

Cover photo: video screenshot WEF

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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