The Ten Million Club Foundation

The Ten Million Club Foundation (Dutch: ‘’De Club van Tien Miljoen’’) is a non-governmental organization based in the Netherlands which promotes global overpopulation awareness. For the Netherlands, it advocates to match the population size with the carrying capacity of the area. Initially, the foundation was calling for a shrinking population; later on the emphasis was put on a reduction of the ecological footprint of the inhabitants of the Netherlands. The Club was set up as a private foundation by the Dutch historian Paul Gerbrands in 1994.

10 million inhabitants

As the Ten Million Club was founded, the Netherlands counted over 15 million inhabitants. The Club argued for a target number of 10 million people instead, as was the situation in 1950. However, measurements of the ecological footprint of the Dutch revealed that this number was still far too high, given the population’s consumption and pollution level. According to recent calculations of the 88Foodprints Network]] only 4.5 million people could live in the Netherlands in a sustainable way, given their present ecological footprint. A main part of it is the carbon footprint.^[1] A rapid transition to renewable energy as well as a substantial reduction of consumption could make a higher number of inhabitants possible, without the necessity to rely on or even exploit other countries.

Overpopulation as a global problem

Calculations of the ecological footprint of all countries in the world show exactly where the biocapacity and the available global hectares of a country are exceeded. The Ten Million Club considers population pressure an essential cause of this overshoot. Given the global impact of overpopulation, the Club does not only address the Dutch; it publishes in Spanish, French, German, English, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic and Russian.

Overpopulation awareness

The Ten Million Club tries to raise public awareness of overpopulation as a national and international problem by providing information on the drawbacks of population pressure. The Club maintains an international website with several articles on overpopulation. It publishes a newsletter three times a year, distributes an information package, gives lectures and supports students writing a thesis on the subject. The foundation also maintains a presence on social media platforms. In a 10 minutes documentary titled "Overpopulation in Europe: Can we survive?" the Ten Million Club highlights different aspects of overpopulation as well as its detrimental consequences.^[2]

Weblinks

• Overpopulation awareness website of the foundation

References

Additional References

• Jos Klaassen, ‘Een boodschap met een lastig thema’ ('An inconvenient message'), de Volkskrant, 16 March 2002
• RTL 4, Chairman Paul Gerbrands in a national talk show, 7 March 2003
• Martin Sommer, 'De man van tien miljoen’ ('The ten million man'), de Volkskrant, 18 September 2003
• Jan H. van de Beek, Kennis, Macht en Moraal – De productie van wetenschappelijke kennis over de economische effecten van migratie naar Nederland 1960 – 2005 ('Knowledge, power and morality: the production of scientific knowledge on migration into the Netherlands 1960 – 2005'), Dissertation University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2010
• Rutger Bregman, ‘Hoeveel mensheid kan een aarde aan?’ ('How many humans can an earth accommodate?'), De Correspondent, 28 January 2014
• RTL Nieuws, Editie NL: Gefeliciteerd, jij bent de 17 miljoenste Nederlander ('Congrats, you're the 17 million^th Dutchman'), Commercial TV Channel, 4 March 2016
• René van Zwieten, 'Uitslag stelling: “Nederland raakt erg vol”' ('Poll results: The Netherlands are becoming overcrowded'), De Telegraaf, 7 March 2016
• Paul Gerbrands, ‘Politici, spreek je uit over dreigende overbevolking’ ('Politicians, speak out about imminent overpopulation'), Trouw, 9 March 2016
• Nieuwstrend: Nederland telt nu 17 miljoen inwoners ('The Netherlands count 17 million inhabitants right now') Dutch public broadcast, 21 March 2016
• Radio 1: De bevolking in Nederland groeit te hard ('The Dutch population is growing too fast'), Dutch public broadcast, 2 August 2016
• Paul Gerbrands, 'Mother Nature's revenge', The Oslo Times, 23 February 2017
• Daniël van Dam, 'Bevolking door het dak' ('[Dutch] population through the ceiling'), De Telegraaf, 31 October 2017
• Jeroen Haverkort, 'Geen kinderen omdat de wereld te vol raakt' ('No kids because the world gets overcrowded'), Metro, 1 November 2017
• Amarins de Boer, 'Als we zo doorgaan, is Nederland straks overspoeld' ('If we go on like this, The Netherlands will be flooded'), Metro, 19 December 2017
• Lisa Peters & Marlies Pilon, 'We moeten praten over baby's, bevolkingspolitiek en bemoeizucht' ('We have to talk about babies, population policy and meddling'), OneWorld, 29 June 2018
• Jan van Weeren, 'Er is straks veel te weinig eten voor al die mensen' ('Soon there will be far too little food for all those people'), de Volkskrant, 5 July 2018
• Remco Meijer, 'Terug op de politieke agenda: met hoeveel willen we zijn in Nederland?' ('Back on the political agenda: with how many people do we want to share The Netherlands?'), de Volkskrant, 20 September 2018
• Carl-Eric Rasch, 'Met hoeveel we in Nederland willen en kunnen zijn kan niet langer los worden gezien van immigratie' ('A discussion of a preferred and viable population of The Netherlands can no longer be separated from the immigration problem'), Trouw, 6 October 2018