Oct. 4th, 2016.

Population Institute Canada is endorsing a new, “hard-shooting kick of a thriller” which raises awareness about the rapid growth of human population.

“Disguising a heart of pure poetry,” the novel Patriarch Run, by Colorado author Benjamin Dancer, has been described as “a literary meditation clutching a straight razor behind its back.”

That straight razor is the truth, says Benjamin:

“It is my intention to use the platform of my thriller to promote organizations like Population Institute Canada and real-world solutions to overpopulation.”

Population Media Center, an international leader in entertainment-education, knows that for media outreach to be effective, a story must be a thrill for the audience—otherwise, it won’t work.

That’s the approach Benjamin took with Patriarch Run. The story is “bold, beautifully written, and surprising page-by-page.”
Colorado author Benjamin Dancer’s eco-thriller is “a gripping exploration of our gendered culture and the poignant moments entailed in coming of age.”

It has been endorsed by a number of leaders in the sustainability movement, including Bill Ryerson, Paul Ehrlich, and Alan Weisman. It is set for release on October 4th, 2016.
Image granted by Benjamin Dancer
Praise from Population Institute Canada:
“Patriarch Run is the engrossing story of a man driven to save humanity from itself and the horrors of overpopulation he has witnessed. As Jack says to a journalist naïf amidst the starvation in Somalia, ‘If you want to help these people, write about the math.’
But we are doing precisely the opposite—avoiding the math while focusing our efforts on everything but, much to the detriment of humanity and the planet. May Benjamin Dancer’s dramatic novel help the world overcome its willful blindness to what is becoming more obvious every day: “It’s the numbers, Stupid!” Numbers which may force us into having to make horrible choices as the world hurtles toward the dystopia that Jack was determined to prevent.”
—MADELINE WELD, President of Population Institute Canada
“Overpopulation is the greatest danger confronting our species and the planet. The multiplier of our most serious global challenges, it is the major obstacle to overcoming them. That Patriarch Run has woven this critically important issue into such an engaging, action-packed and compelling piece of fiction is to be greatly applauded.”
—CLIFFORD GARRARD, Vice President/Executive Director, Population Institute Canada
You can read more endorsements and learn more about Patriarch Run at Benjamin’s website.

Spreading the Word on Overpopulation
How do you leverage an “unsparing” thriller to raise awareness about the most important issue of our time? Benjamin answers that question with an impressive list of outreach activities:

  • Population Media Center and Benjamin will be engaged in a media tour in which he will use the platform of his book to direct attention to sustainability issues, namely the unintended effects of population growth.
  •  Benjamin is also partnering with journalist Alan Weisman and filmmaker Dave Gardner of GrowthBusters fame in the first episode of a webinar series about the human population.
  • Journalist Ted Koppel’s recent book, Lights Out, has opened the door for Benjamin to connect the issue of population growth to national security by revealing just how vulnerable America is. The “bad guy” in Patriarch Runintends to cripple the country by taking down the power grid—a threat that had no teeth until the country’s growing population outstripped the land’s “pre-electrical” carrying capacity. Prominent national security experts have endorsed Patriarch Run’s realistic portrayal of this threat.
  • Ethicist Travis Rieder, recently profiled on NPR, and Benjamin will be discussing the ethics of population based on Jack’s world view. “Jack” is one of the major characters in the book who must decide how to use a powerful technology he has acquired.
  • Benjamin is also directing readers to a rich set of resources about these issues in the Discussion Guide at his website.

“There is no more important issue for us to tackle than population growth. Almost every other global concern stems from this root cause. Patriarch Run is meticulously researched and realistic. I wrote it to sell; my calculation was that the better the story does in the marketplace, the larger the platform I will have to bring attention to organizations like Population Institute Canada.”
—Patriarch Run author Benjamin Dancer

About Patriarch Run
Nine years ago, Jack Erikson was deployed to China to protect the United States from a cyberattack. Now, suffering from a drug-induced amnesia, he is unable to recognize his own son. What Jack knows for sure is that an elite group of operators is determined to kill him. What he does not yet remember is that he controls a cyber-weapon powerful enough to return human civilization to the Stone Age. If Jack lives long enough to piece together his mission and his identity, he will be forced to choose between the fate of humankind and that of his own family.

Readers of Cormac McCarthy and Peter Heller will appreciate both the suspense and the Western setting. In his thrilling literary debut, Benjamin Dancer also explores the timeless themes of fatherhood, sustainability and the fraying fabric of global stability.

Patriarch Run is available starting October 4th at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Conundrum Press and many other retailers.
Contact: Madeline Weld, PhD
President, Population Institute Canada
Tel: (613)-833-3668
Email: [email protected]
www.populationinstitutecanada.ca
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PIC is the voice of Canadians concerned with overpopulation and its negative human and environmental impact. Founded in 1992, it campaigns to increase support for reproductive health and education and for universal, voluntary access to family planning, which the UN notes “…could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology available to the human race.”Fact: Continued global population growth, together with overconsumption, is incompatible with a healthy, sustainable future for humanity and our planet.
Patrons: Sir David Attenborough; Robert Bateman; Margaret Catley-Carlson; Drs. Paul & Anne Ehrlich; Robert Fowler; Dr. William Rees; Dr. David Schindler; Ronald Wright. See Patron bios.

www.populationinstitutecanada.caOur mailing address is:

Population Institute Canada

PO Box 59045

Ottawa, ON

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