Sir David Attenborough, the well-known natural history documentary film-maker, has become a patron of the Optimum Population Trust. The 82-year-old finds the growth in human population "frightening".

"I’ve seen wildlife under mounting human pressure all over the world and it’s not just from human economy or technology -- behind every threat is the frightening explosion in human numbers. I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more. That’s why I support the OPT, and I wish the environmental NGOs would follow their lead, and spell out this central problem loud and clear.”

The Optimum Population Trust describes itself as the leading think tank in the UK concerned with the impact of population growth on the environment. Its chair, Roger Martin, said in an accompanying press release that " a bizarre coalition of the religious right and the liberal left" is pressuring governments and environmental NGOs to ignore the need to limit population growth humanely through contraception rather than inhumanely through famine, disease and war. ~ Optimum Population Trust press release, Apr 13