Malcolm Potts sees family planning as the most cost-effective way of reducing the human carbon footprint. As the first Medical Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Potts introduced family planning methods into scores of developing countries. He went on to become the founding director of the Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. He continues to be a Professor of Public Health and is currently working on solutions to problems in global health and development in the Sahel.

Potts is the author of Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World. As CEO of Family Health International, he launched the first large scale studies of maternal mortality, which helped start the worldwide Safe Motherhood Initiative.