Colcom Foundation describes its approach as evidence-based conservation grounded in peer-reviewed science. A look at the studies it cites shows how the Pittsburgh nonprofit builds its case that population growth drives environmental harm.
Studies on Population and Species
A 2022 study in Biological Conservation by Cafaro and colleagues found that population growth is a fundamental driver of biodiversity loss and that population decrease facilitates ecological restoration. The Foundation treats this paper as confirmation of its central premise.
Earlier work by McKee and coauthors, published in 2004, analyzed 114 nations. Researchers found that human population density and species richness together explained 88 percent of the variability in threatened birds and mammals.
Colcom Foundation also draws on the WWF Living Planet Report 2022, which recorded a 69 percent decline in global vertebrate populations since 1970. Closer to home, the Foundation notes that North American bird populations fell from about 10 billion in 1970 to 7.1 billion by 2020.
Studies on Land and Habitat
Habitat loss receives attention in several sources. Kolankiewicz and colleagues reported in 2022 that areas with fast-growing populations saw consistently higher rates of habitat loss. Radeloff and coauthors documented in 2010 that housing growth near protected areas is the primary conservation threat those areas face. The Foundation pairs these findings with national figures showing human-made surfaces expanding from 133,000 square miles in 1990 to more than 187,000 square miles in 2020.
Large-scale protection also appears in the Colcom Foundation‘s reading list. Crist and colleagues, writing in Frontiers in Conservation Science in 2021, concluded that protecting half the planet and transforming human systems are complementary and mutually necessary goals.
Broader assessments round out the list. The Foundation points readers to the IPBES 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and to World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice, published in BioScience in 2017. It also links to Pew Research Center analysis on immigration and to the Global Footprint Network, its source for biocapacity data.
All of this research feeds into the I = P x A x T equation from Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, which holds that environmental impact reflects population, consumption, and technology together. Colcom Foundation, founded in 1996 by Cordelia S. May, funds public education that communicates this body of work and maintains an academic bibliography on its Extinction Crisis page. Refer to this article for more information.
Learn more about Colcom Foundation on https://www.privateequityinternational.com/institution-profiles/colcom-foundation.html