Jack Parson's Archive

Jack Parson's Archive was "created by the Optimum Population Trust to publicise and preserve Jack Parsons' unique published monographs and articles, which cover a period of more than 40 years, and earned him a sound international reputation.

"Jack died at the age of 85, in the autumn of 2006, after spending the last 30 years of his life in the peaceful Welsh farmhouse pictured above.

"He had an unusual and wide-ranging career. Following an engineering apprenticeship until World War II, in which he served as an RAF pilot, he worked in civil-engineering, before exploring Western Europe on foot. After winning a Mature State Scholarship, he graduated in philosophy and politics, and later lectured on social relations and cybernetics at the then new Brunel University, where his interest in human population issues grew strongly.

"In 1967 he helped found the Conservation Society and, as hon Education Officer, gave many public lectures and broadcasts on the population problem. He served on the Liberal Party's Optimum Population and Economic Growth panels, and was a member of the Independent Commission on Transport. His last full-time post was that of Deputy Director, Sir David Owen Population Centre, then at Car diff and more recently divided between Keele University and the IPPF. From 1991 onwards, he provided much essential assistance to David and Yvette Willey as they were setting up the Optimum Population Trust

"He was a consultant to the IPPF, OXFAM, the IUCN (for which he helped draft the Supplement to The World Conservation Strategy ) and other bodies – and had many publications in this field. His first two books: Population Versus Liberty (1971) & Population Fallacies (1977) were well received originally, re-reviewed in the USA some years later - and remain in print. His 1998 opus: Human Population Competition received critical acclaim and the 4 th edition (2002) is also available in interactive form on CD ROM.

"His last book (2006) The Treason of the BBC, based on his 50 year plus experience in contact with the BBC, demonstrated how this important public body had systematically and over many years refused to publish any serious discussion of basic human population problems.

"He gave the keynote address to the 1993 World Congress on the Optimum Population – at Cambridge – and later completed a computer database (CO-ORD) on the problems of social control in complex societies. He was a Patron of the Optimum Population Trust, an hon Associate of the Rationalist Press Association, and an hon life-member of the Centre for Alternative Technology, CAT.

"In 2002 he launched the Population Policy Press, a non-profit attempt to help lift the near-universal Hardinian Taboo on discussion of the population problem.

"This website continues that work, and makes printable electronic copies of Jack's monographs and articles freely available to all those with a growing interest in the serious population problems we now face – and a half-century of historical perspective on the tragic difficulty of getting enough people to listen, and to get legislators to take appropriate action on population education and policy, in accordance with the strong recommendations of the Report of the Royal Commission on Population which was published in 1949."

Contact

 * Web: http://www.jackparsonsarchive.org