A bunch of stuff from overpopulation.org
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U.S.: The Rise in Teen Moms. March 20, 2009 Christian Science Monitor
After dropping for 14 years, the birth rate among 15-to 19-year-olds went up in 2006 and, rose again in 2007. Ways to curb teen pregnancy have become a topic for debate.
President Obama and Congress have cut aid to sexual-abstinence programs and plan to do more.
There are no easy answers. Even the most effective programs only reduce risky sexual behavior among teens by about one-third. Teens may not take any type of sex education seriously if adults fight over it.
Communities need to send clear, consistent messages about appropriate sexual behavior. It is important that organizations avoid sending conflicting messages to young people.
What is needed is that all those concerned unite in dealing with the many factors causing teen pregnancy. These include poverty, drugs, fatherless homes, and domestic abuse. The yearly cost in public services for a teen mother is about $4,080.
America's sexualized culture - reflected by the teen births by Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears, or the film "Juno." Another influence is the role model they see in single women having or adopting babies. Four out of 10 births are now to unwed mothers. One overlooked issue is that the male in a "teen pregnancy" is usually more than 20 years old. Why aren't prosecutors going after these statutory rapists?
Parents need to find better ways to talk about sex and make better efforts to instill high values. One study found teen moms can earn more in later life and eventually obtain a high school education but that doesn't take into account the effects on children of being raised without a father.
An unconditional love for each teen, even with a pregnancy, will help them gain control and maturity - and help America reverse this trend. rw
Pope Faces Backlash for Condom Remarks; Spain to Send One Million Contraceptive Devices to Africa. March 19, 2009 National Post
The Pope faced criticism as scientists, activists and countries, called his opposition to condoms to stop the spread of AIDS as unrealistic and dangerous.
Pope Benedict, said condoms "increase the problem" of AIDS.
This represents a major step backwards in terms of global health education, is counterproductive, and is likely to lead to increases in HIV infection said a professor of immunology at Oxford University.
Evidence demonstrates that condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection, but does not lead to increased sexual activity.
Germany argued that condoms played a decisive role in saving lives in the fight against AIDS. France expressed "very strong concern," saying the remarks "put in danger public health policy". Belgium called the Pope's comments "dangerous doctrinaire vision," while the Dutch government said they were "extremely harmful." Spain announced it was sending one million condoms to Africa.
The Catholic Church teaches fidelity within heterosexual marriage and abstinence are the best ways to stop AIDS.
HIV, infects 33 million people globally, two-thirds in Africa and has killed 25 million. Anything that reduces AIDS on a depressed continent like Africa should be welcomed. rw
New York Times Population Debate. March 17, 2009 Bill Ryerson
The New York Times is publishing a series of articles on the impact immigrants are having on American institutions, with the first article focusing on educating new immigrants.
It appears The New York Times is attempting to separate the population issue from US immigration and make them into two unrelated issues.
Any discussion of immigration into the US already the world's third most populous nation, is incomplete without addressing its impact on domestic population growth and sustainability.
On average, over 1 million foreign born people are granted permanent residence status each year. By adding 133 million people, the US is set to add into its borders the equivalent of all the current citizens of Mexico and Canada combined by 2050. This will result in:
US population sky-rocketing by over 130 million people.
Demand for the ground-water, open-space and farm-land dramatically surging.
Wages for lower-skilled, less-educated Americans plummeting as excess service labor swamps the market.
Roads, schools, subways and grocery stores becoming even more crowded.
Representative democracy weakening as each elected official serves a drastically inflated constituency.
If Congress were to set immigration policy to allow for 300,000 people to be invited into the nation per year US population would be 80 million less than is it currently projected to be at mid-century. rw Karen Gaia says: just as every family should be able to set its size according to its social and economic limitations, so should a nation be able to limit its size by governing its borders. Up to now the US has been a rich nation, but the strain on its resources (and that on other countries it takes from) is beginning to show. Its footprint is far larger than the country's size itself.
A U.S. Energy Policy; a Realistic Way for the United States to Meet Its Global Obligation Toward Greenhouse Gas Reduction.. March 17, 2009 Fred Brown
President Obama has proposed that 25% of our electrical energy be from renewable sources by 2025. We need at least 75% in 8 years, and this is quite doable.
Nationwide peak summertime electrical consumption is now 783,000 megawatts. 75% of this would be 587,000 megawatts. So we would need 587,000 one-megawatt wind generators by 2017. President Obama proposes "clean coal technology". There is no way to burn coal without producing greenhouse gases. Coal is mostly carbon and carbon is the problem.
T. Boone Pickens has proposed an increase in wind generators with the natural gas savings to be diverted to fuel for cars and trucks. His plan is feasible and would reduce air pollution.
But if we are going to run our vehicles on compressed gas it should be hydrogen, not natural gas. Honda is manufacturing hydrogen powered cars. And whereas electrical energy can be economically transmitted only about 300 miles, hydrogen can be sent thousands of miles through pipelines.
The best way to finance the conversion to a wind power/hydrogen economy is to raise the federal gasoline tax to a dollar a gallon from the present 15 cents. A raise in the gas tax would require political courage but would encourage conservation, alternative and public transportation, reduction of pollution and traffic congestion, and the saving of lives. rw
Mexico City Braces for Water Rationing. March 2009
Mexico City is launching a rationing plan in an effort to conserve water after development, mismanagement and reduced rainfall caused supplies to drop. Water will be cut or reduced in 10 boroughs in Mexico City plus 11 other municipalities in the state. This affects an estimated 5.5 million people and includes neighborhoods ranging from affluent Lomas de Chapultepec on the western edge of the city to poor, densely populated Iztapalapa in the southeast.
Similar cuts will be carried out every month until the rainy season begins, usually around May. "We are running out of water," a senior official with the National Water Commission, told Mexican radio.
The level at the main reservoir has dipped below 60% of capacity, the lowest in 16 years.
Experts say Mexico has failed to take actions needed to upgrade aqueducts, pipes and treatment plants and has allowed construction projects in areas that should be used for catching runoff and replenishing aquifers.
By one study, 10 million people nationwide do not have access to potable water; many must buy it from water trucks at exorbitant prices. Many Mexico City residents were filling buckets, cisterns and bathtubs to spell them through the weekend.
Polanco is a district where a building boom has stretched municipal resources.
Water is getting more complicated with all the people arriving. Water pressure is good at night, but in the day it gets very low.
Mexico City's population increased sixfold in the last half of the 20th century. Officials said rationing was a stop-gap measure and conservation and investment in water-delivery systems were necessary. rw
Overloading Australia : How Governments and Media Dither and Deny on Population. March 2009 Overloading Australia
Denialist claims have changed remarkably little in 35 years. Almost all the arguments and tactics were in 1973 when the famous Australian economist Colin Clark published a pamphlet with the British Catholic Truth Society, Putting the 'Population Explosion' in 'perspective'. He followed this with a small book, The Myth of Over-Population. Conservative think-tanks and rightwing church groups remain fond of recycling its pungent assertions. Unfortunately, this exposed his errors and muddled predictions.
Clark assures his readers that carbon dioxide is harmless so long as it can be ˜discharged into the atmosphere.' and as for greenhouse effects, it is clear that recent fluctuations in the Earth's climate 'are not due to the burning of fuel.'
Clark was sure that world food production "could easily be increased to 50 times its present level" if all suitable land "was properly farmed or grazed". He argues that most of resources, like wood pulp or fish are products of human labor. Clark could not grasp that fish-catches and lumber-extraction depend on nature's fecundity. He assures us that fish supplies are increasing faster than population.
Clark also assured his readers that serious energy problems will come only when world population is "over a million times what it is now". Clark's disciples overlook these embarrassing errors. But Clark's ignorance was not what it seems.
In Australia if the nature of our economy ensures a doubling of total consumption every 20 years or so forever, then most hopes of saving the environment and warding off climate change are lost. The present population of the Earth, plus the increases in per capita consumption, is enough to doom the Earth.
If we are serious about fighting runaway growth, then population and per capita consumption must be kept as low as possible. The larger the number of individuals to be supplied and fed, the less chance there will be of them agreeing to do so.
B.A. Santamaria informed his readers that for Australia's population not to fall rapidly the average woman must have 2 surviving children. Such view often lead to a false belief that population is falling or about to fall. When the Pope visited Sydney, Australia's Cardinal Pell told the media that Western nations faced a population crisis fuelled by "ruthless" commercial forces, and that "No country in the Western world is producing enough children to keep the population stable."
Australian women are having far too many babies to keep the population stable. Almost twice as many. In fact to just replace itself, a relatively young population like Australia's would currently need around only 1.3 children per completed family. And that's without immigration!
The replacement rate was a useful, concept when couples were having 4 and 5 children. Demographers would point out that all a couple need do to replace itself, was to have 2 children. But basically, if women in their reproductive years average two surviving children, a generation will simply replace itself, won't it?
But children don't replace parents, or even grandparents more often they replace great-grandparents. Hence if a generation of parents were to produce an equal-sized generation of children this would not mean the population had stabilized. For instance, if India achieved so-called "replacement fertility" now, with all its couples in future averaging just 2.05 children, its population would still double, adding an extra 1 billion people.
Demographers need to explain the difference between the Theoretical Long-Term Replacement Rate (TLTRR) and the Current Replacement Birth Rate (CRBR). The latter is the birth-rate that would currently produce as many births as deaths. The only replacement rate that Australia could claim to be safely below is the Theoretical Long-Term Replacement Rate (TLTRR) of just over two children per completed family. But that is the replacement rate of an already stabilized Australia, a society in which there would be equal numbers in each generation.
By rights we should distinguish birthrate from fertility rate. The birthrate is the number of babies born per thousand people per year. Replacement birthrate is that at which births per year would equal deaths. The "fertility rate" is the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime. This is the demographers' justification for speaking of 2.05 children per woman as 'replacement fertility'.
Since fertility rates are always below 10, and birthrates may be nearer to 100, the two terms must not be confused. When you take Australia's current fertility rate of around 1.8 children per couple and factor in even a low net migration gain of just 80,000 per year, it is still the equivalent of having a total fertility of around 2.4 children per woman. That of course is well above any estimate of the long-term replacement rate. And our current net migration gain is now some 178,000 per year.
Some of the groups who try to create concern about "falling population" may be aware from their own research that population is in fact rising rapidly (1.6%), one of the fastest rates in Asia.)
Anyone who drives around Australian cities ought to be aware that population growth is extremely high! rw Karen Gaia says: Of course, it is always important to mention carrying capacity - what is unsustainable about Australia's current and projected population? I understand that it is not, but it would be helpful to have this in the article.
U.K.: Population Growth Not Climate Change is the Real Danger. March 25, 2009 The Express
Britain hosts the G20, the annual get-together of the world's richest nations. Topics include the current economic crisis, international development and climate change. But the most serious problem facing the world today - overpopulation - will not be on the agenda.
Overpopulation has been described as the "elephant in the room", the one issue world leaders refuse to discuss. But it's high time they did. Professor John Beddington, warns that a "perfect storm" will occur in 2030, with simultaneous shortages of energy, food and fresh water devastating an overpopulated planet.
Demand for food and energy will jump 50% by 2030 and for fresh water by 30%, as the world's population leaps to 8.3 billion.
There will be those who argue that we've heard such doom-laden predictions before. But this time the warnings come from the World Bank, the International Energy Authority and the United Nations Environment Programme, which predicts widespread water shortages across Africa, Europe and Asia by 2025.
Population is rising by six million a month and is totally unsustainable. Put simply, there won't be enough food, water and energy to go round.
But instead of getting to grips with the most serious environmental problem we face, politicians prefer to concentrate on climate change.
This gives them an excuse to introduce new "green" taxes and the chance to fine us for putting the wrong sort of rubbish out on the wrong day of the week.
But to tackle global warming without addressing the underlying problem of overpopulation is like prescribing Alka-Selzter to a patient with a serious drink problem.
Political correctness plays its part in politicians' reluctance to discuss overpopulation.
Population growth is fastest in developing countries. In developed countries it is immigrant groups and ethnic minorities whose numbers are growing fastest.
Seeking to control population growth is construed by some as racist. But if we really cared about the Third World we would be championing internationally agreed controls [I would substitute the word 'programs' for 'controls'. It is all voluntary ..Karen Gaia] as overpopulation is the root cause of many of the problems affecting poorer countries.
The UK population, fuelled by immigration, has risen by over two million since Labour came to power in 1997 to about 61 million.
The surge in population has led to transport and public services coming under increasing strain while the Green Belt is under serious threat due to this Government's commitment to build three million new houses to cater for the rising head count.
The Government seems perfectly relaxed for the numbers to carry on rising.
The UK population is projected to rise by 10 million by 2030 and 77 million in 2050. It will reach 100 million before the end of the century, passing 200 million soon after 2200.
Yet anybody who calls for action to stabilise or reduce this trend runs the risk of being labelled a racist.
Politicians, seem unwilling to state the simple truth that Britain, like the world in general, is overcrowded.
Overpopulation is one of the gravest problems which confront us. Our basic problem is whether the human race, expanding as rapidly as it is doing now, can survive in any decent condition, commented Aldous Huxley 50 years ago.
Wise words which the leaders meeting at the G20 summit would do well to heed. rw Karen Gaia says: Using words like 'population control' gives the wrong impression. In 1994 the Cairo Convention agreed on voluntary family planning. This has worked well, like it has in the U.S. since the 1960s. There is no 'control' about it.
Snow Study Shows California Faces Historic Drought. January 29, 2009
A survey of California winter snows shows it is facing one of the worst droughts in its history. The state, is in its third year of drought and its main system supplying water to cities and farms may only be able to fulfill 15% of requests.
"The snowpack is carrying only 61% of the water of normal years. California is headed toward one of the worst water crises in its history, underscoring the need to upgrade the water infrastructure by increasing water storage, improving conveyance, protecting the ecosystem and promoting greater water conservation".
Schwarzenegger said.
The Sierra snowpack alone provides two thirds of California's water supply.
December through January tend to be the wettest months but thus far the Sierra has only received one third of its expected annual snowfall.
This could be a crisis situation, in addition to conservation and rationing it could cause higher prices for produce. Twenty-five local water agencies are mandating rationing. The state Department of Water Resources is arranging water transfers through its Drought Water Bank program and expects to release a full snowpack runoff forecast in two weeks. rw Karen Gaia says: California has received much unexpected rain since this survey. Still, with climate change, the problem is likely to come up again next year.
U.S.: Take Realistic Approach Toward Contraception. March 26, 2009 Des Moines Register
America's teenage birth rate is among the highest in the developed world. So it is good news that a federal judge's order that the FDA make the Plan B morning-after birth-control pill available without a prescription to women as young as 17.
The FDA must review whether to make the emergency contraceptive available without a prescription for women of all ages.
Critics claim making Plan B available will promote promiscuity. Yet many teenagers have sex before they are mature enough to make such a decision. What's needed is to better educate them about how this can affect their lives so they wait until they are older.
The Centers for Disease Control says it's not that U.S. teens have more sex than teens in other countries; it's that they are less likely to use contraception. In 2002, French officials allowed minors to obtain emergency contraceptives - with counseling - from a pharmacy at no cost, and without a parent's permission. rw
U.S.: Why Do Teen Birthrates Keep Rising?. March 20, 2009 Salon.com
Teen birthrates rates rose in the U.S. for the second consecutive year. The pro-abstinence camp considers the statistics evidence that their approach is essential. Others said that if you spend $1.5 billion to teach this to young people and then pass laws that limit their access to good information, contraception, emergency contraception and abortion, you shouldn't be surprised at the outcomes.
The evidence has been mounting for those who consider abstinence-only a failure. After a decade and 1.5 billion federal dollars spent promoting abstinence-only, a scientific study authorized by Congress reported no real difference in when program participants first had sex, or whether they had sex before marriage, or in their number of sexual partners.
But the numbers are compiled from birth certificate statistics; all they show is an increase in birth rates among young women. They don't tell the pregnancy rates, or whether or not the pregnancies were intended, or what information these women had ever received about contraception.
It takes a while for a trend to reverse itself, but there is evidence linking HIV education, change in teen sexual behaviors, and the declines in teen pregnancy between 1991 and 2004.
C. Everett Koop's promotion of HIV education during the years following the first reported cases of the virus in 1981 had an impact among teens: they reported a big upswing in condom use and fewer sexual partners. Then, HIV education dropped while abstinence-only programs came into vogue.
And voila. Now recent behavioral data from 2003-2007 suggests declines in teen condom and contraceptive behavior and little change in sexual activity. Those data are consistent with the shift to abstinence-only approaches.
Evidence suggests that sexuality education works. And the abstinence-only camp hasn't produced any compelling evidence to support the notion that keeping teens sexually ignorant will prevent them being sexually active. rw
Vatican Changes Pope's Mind on Condoms and AIDS in Africa; Contraceptives Only 'Risk' Aggravating Epidemic. March 19, 2009 The Times
The Pope told reporters on his trip to Africa that AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and the distribution of condoms aggravates the problems. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the remark to read that condoms "risked" aggravating the problem.
By introducing the word "risks" the message was softened. In addition he had not said that reliance on condoms "risked" aggravating the problem, as the amended version had it, but rather that it "even aggravated it" or, as some media translated it, "increased" it.
The papal spokesman, continued to defend the Pope's remarks saying that he was continuing the line taken by his predecessors. He said the Pope maintained that the distribution of condoms was "not in reality the best way" to tackle AIDS.
The Pope's speeches and homilies as released by the Vatican are normally regarded as sacrosanct. The US-based Catholics for Choice welcomed the change as an admission that the Pope was not infallible on the issue and was willing to acknowledge his mistakes.
The vast majority of Catholics use condoms to protect themselves and their partners against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. rw Karen Gaia says: Two Catholic countries, Spain and Italy, have birth rates of around 1.5. I doubt if they are using abstinence.
UN Official Urges More Investment, Efforts on Issues of Population Amid Financial Crisis. March 30, 2009 Xinhua General News Service
A senior UN official urged countries to increase social investment and redouble efforts for an international population agenda. The financial crisis threatens to push 200 million people back into poverty. The financial crisis is threatening to wipe out progress in improving health and reducing poverty.
Countries must put people first and the long- term well-being of the majority over the short-term interests of a few.
Increase social investment and redouble efforts for the ICPD agenda by investing in women, youth and migrants.
Established in 1946, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) is an international agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. rw
Vasectomies Spike as Economy Sours. March 30, 2009 RH Reality Check
When the stock market fell, the bad economy increased the number of requests for vasectomies by 30% in January.
Sales of over-the-counter contraceptives jumped 10.2% in the first two months of 2009. Condom sales jumped 5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 6% in January, compared with last year. Sales of a non-invasive, irreversible birth control method for women were up 28% over last year.
Planned Parenthood clinics report increased traffic over the past several months.
If recent trends show that contraception is a great form of protection against uncertain times and many are opting for the permanent form. A vasectomy will cost between $500-$1000.
Family planning is a foundation on which many Americans build responsible lives. Those who have lost their jobs and health insurance are in great need of family planning. Family planning is an American value and, something we rely on in our times of need. rw Karen Gaia says: Right on! I run this webpage because I care about people's right and capability to control their family's future. It has been difficult to make this point without sounding racist, because Americans have been relatively well off, up to now, but the same holds true the world over. People and governments who feel they suffer bad economic times benefit by cutting down their planned family size or delaying a pregnancy. Resources are not without limit!
U.S.: Twisted Treaty Shafts Women. February 04, 2009 RH Reality Check
American women enjoy a higher standard of rights than do most people in the world, but these rights arise from a patchwork of statutes. It was not until the 1970s that the US Supreme Court acknowledged that women have constitutional rights to nondiscrimination.
Unfortunately, women's equality rights have since developed in a way that excludes from protection the vast majority of sex discriminatory laws, based on physical differences between men and women, including abortion and other pregnancy-related laws.
CEDAW, the international treaty for women now ratified by 185 countries, defines equality, requires all laws be examined for their impact on women and imposes affirmative obligations on governments to dismantle systemic gender discrimination.
By requiring scrutiny of all laws that have a differential impact on women, we could invalidate discriminatory abortion restrictions and maternity-
related insurance costs. We could sue the government to address the fact that there is only one woman on the Supreme Court, no women running the Pentagon and a Congress with only 16 percent women.
Not only has the U.S. not ratified CEDAW, but most supporters of ratification take pains to reassure the public that ratification would not impose any new burdens on the government. The version pending in the U.S. Senate has been gutted to the core by some eleven reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs). The most deceptive RUD, states: Nothing in this convention shall be construed to reflect or create any right to abortion and in no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning.
Without the right to govern decisions about their own bodies and health, women will never achieve full equality. The Senate should consent to the ratification of a clean CEDAW unencumbered by reservations. rw
More U.S. Babies Born in 2007 Than Any Other Year. March 19, 2009 Chattanooga Times Free Press
More U.S. babies entered the world in 2007 than any other year in the nation's history and represents a 1% increase over the prior year. Some are concerned about another year's rise in teen births, after hitting an all-time low in 2005, and a record number of births to unwed mothers.
The U.S. birth rate for teenagers 15 to 17 years old rose in 2007 by about 1%, to 22.2 births per 1,000 girls. Our population is at an all-time high with an increase in the number of women of childbearing age
.
An influx of immigrants and a growing minority of groups that tend to have higher fertility rates contributed to a higher birth rate.
In 2007, fertility rates increased in all racial groups by 1% percent, to 69.5 births per 1,000 women age 15 to 44, the highest level since 1990.
The year's total fertility rate is 2.1 children per mother, only slightly higher than past years, and the increase cannot compare to the impact of the post-World War II baby boom. Some of this boom is from single mothers.
In 2007, births to unwed mothers hit a record high of nearly 40%, continuing a trend fueled by a lessening of the stigma on single parenthood. More than three-
quarters of those unmarried mothers were over 20.
As the economic recession continues, the rising birth rates may not last. The lowest birth rates in the US occurred during the Great Depression before modern contraception. rw Karen Gaia says: there are signs that the current economic crisis may result in a lower birth rate.
Over 30,000 Women Die Every Year of Pregnancy Complications. March 20, 2009 Pakistan Newswire
A recent study suggested there is a small drop in maternal death rate in Pakistan. About 375,000 women suffer every year from pregnancy related complications. Inflammatory diseases are the major concerns, which make womens' lives miserable.
The conditions are preventable and no women should suffer them. More than 80% are delivered at home with unskilled birth attendants. In a majority of healthcare centres, emergency obstetrical care is not available on twenty-four hour basis. Delay in medical treatment in emergency cases is the major contributory factor to cause womens' death and pregnancy related morbidity.
More than seventy five thousand villages all over the country have no proper road network. People living in mountains, forest areas and small islands have no access to available emergency obstetrical care. A majority of Basic Health Units (BHUs) and Rural Health Centres (RHCs) are not functional. With a few exception EmOC is not available on a twenty-four hour basis in tertiary care centres. The health of the women was never considered an important issue. In the name of culture, tradition and religion they were never given equal status.
A system based on gender inequality will not adopt policies for the well-being of women who are poor, powerless, pregnant (most of the time without their consent) and weak as a class. It is disturbing to note that religious political parties and traditional political parties have little time for women.
Political institutes have a great number of women but most of them are not interested on the issues related to women's health and rights.
The health of the nation was never a priority for our governments and the country has no health care structure. This is one of the unhealthiest nations with a very poor healthcare system. rw Karen Gaia says: Reproductive health care, along with availability to contraception, is the number one key to lowering fertility rates. As has been shown in Bangladesh.
The Five Year Ban: Because a Billion Less People is a Great Place to Start. February 08, 2009 The Playing Field
Some think that Nadya Suleman, who had octuplets, for a total of 14 children is being very irresponsible. She's unmarried, unemployed, unable to convince herself that she's not Angelina Jolie.
We are running out of resources and time. The International Committee on Climate Change has said we have 3 to 5 years to curb our ways or environmental disaster is irreversible. You think the economy is bad now. Wait until we're almost completely out of oil and food and water and available land and really I could go on listing everything we're running out of. So how long do you have to wait to be starving,
thirsty, and all the rest?
The main reason it shouldn't be long is because there are already way too many of us. The earth is close to holding 7 billion people. If things don't stop soon, by 2050, conservative estimates put the number at 9.2 billion.
Scientists studying the carrying capacity of the earth have fluctuated. Wild-eyed optimists believe it's close to 2 billion. Dour pessimists say 300 million. We need to lose 4.4 billion people fast.
Here's my simple solution: stop having children for the next five years. All of us. I mean a grassroots movement of responsible adults voluntarily behaving like responsible adults. I mean a populist moratorium on childbirth.
If everyone living on the planet today were really serious about there being a planet left to live on we would all be using birth control.
Here's my answer: A grassroots movement means people having children feel shame and embarrassment at their unbelievable selfishness.
If you are having children right now you are being selfish. You're stealing from the future, from the rest of humanity, from every living thing on the earth right now.
The current planetary die off rate of species is a 1000 times greater than ever before in history. Because humans have stolen the food, water, and space.
And every time we bring more life into this world we're increasing that theft exponentially.
There are tons of kids who need parents right now. A lot of them come from parts of the world where the main employment opportunities they'll be offered in the future are criminal, soldier or terrorist, or some combination of the three.
So we can adopt these kids now or fight them later. We are soon going to be killing each other over resources, over something to put in our belly. It'll be a global catastrophe.
That's what happens if we don't stop having children. In fact, if we don't stop having children then we're going to get to meet Pestilence, War, Famine, Death.
You don't need to ask what you need to do for the world. You already know.
Stop having children. It's that easy. rw Karen Gaia says: I am in Egypt, and it's population is growing 3% a year, and, out of a population of 78 million, there are 5 million street children!!! Yes, by all means, adopt them instead of having more. But who is going to convince the religions parents in Egypt?
Population: the Elephant in the Room. March 2009 BBC News
Uncontrolled population growth threatens to undermine efforts to save the planet, and the environmental movement must stop running scared of this controversial topic.
The size and growth of the human population has a profound impact on all life on Earth, yet for decades it has been conspicuously absent from public debate.
Most natural scientists agree the need to address population has become desperate.
Yet many environmentalists avoid the subject, a few objecting strongly to any focus on our numbers.
Some activists insist acting to influence population growth infringes on human rights. There have been past abuses in the name of "population control".
We can learn from past abuses, reducing the likelihood of fresh problems arising in the future.
Today, those working on population issues recognise that the methods with the best track records of reducing population growth are respectful and promoting human rights.
They include educating girls and women in developing countries and using media strategies to make them aware of alternatives regarding family sizes and family planning.
Those who oppose talking about the world's population are obstructing the further provision of such services and resources.
We need to ask what is the greater threat to human welfare: the possibility that humane efforts to address population growth might be abused, or our ongoing failure to act to prevent hundreds of millions, even billions, dying as a result of global ecological collapse?
We have overshot the Earth's carrying capacity. Our inability to live as we do, at our current numbers, without causing pervasive environmental degradation is the very definition of carrying capacity overshoot.
Overshoot is followed by population decline. As we have learned this manifests itself initially with a crash.
For humanity, this portends a potential cataclysm. Our chance to avert such an outcome depends on our ability to address our numbers before nature reduces them. There's no other way out, reducing per capita consumption, won't do it.
We must bring population back to the centre of public discussion.
We need to break through the taboo to encourage all those with relevant expertise to speak out on the subject loudly and often.
Many recognise the urgency with which we need to halt the human-caused degradation of Earth's natural environment.
Can we break down a taboo that has for years blocked the path toward that goal? rw
U.K.: Why Are We So Afraid of Condoms?. March 30, 2009 The York Dispatch
Why are we frightened that our children might find out what a condom is and handle one before they graduate from high school.
Condoms have been used for 400 years or more and are not newfangled technology.
Every time the conversation turns to teen pregnancy, people seem more comfortable pushing abstinence than other forms of birth control.
Abstinence is the only perfect solution to the problem of pregnancy. If you don't want to get pregnant, don't have sexual intercourse.
This is not a perfect world? Teens rarely listen, and even when they do, they don't take seriously what they're being told. They're young and stupid, and have to learn life's lessons the hard way.
And that includes sex. They'd almost rather die than have an intelligent discussion on the subject with an older person -- say a parent.
I'm dumbfounded that officials in the York City School District, serving teenagers living in one of the five highest-ranked cities for teen birth rate in the state, selected a new sex education curriculum for middle school students that does not include any mention of condoms.
Of the five cities participating in the new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Pilot program, only York chose a program that didn't include a condom-use lesson.
Their choice is "Draw the Line, Respect the Line," which emphasizes making good choices and avoiding high-risk situations.
It encourages boys to delay sexual activity and teaches girls decision-making skills. But it does so to the exclusion of an honest discussion about the proper and intelligent use of contraceptives.
We don't want our teens to touch condoms, to use condoms. We apparently don't even want them to know that condoms exist, and what purpose they serve.
What are we afraid of? rw
Papua New Guinea Hotels to Provide Free Condoms. March 20, 2009 ABC Premium News
Hotel guests in Papua New Guinea will soon find complimentary condoms in their rooms.
The HIV/AIDS education group BAHA has reached an agreement with more than 90 hotels and guest houses to distribute 2 million free condoms.
In Papua 2% of people are believed to be infected with AIDS.
In some areas the figure could be 10%.
Hotels have been targeted because that is where many people are infected.
The BAHA will also provide training to hotel staff.
A lot of them are scared. They say, 'We see them and we are going to be infected'.
BAHA is putting the condoms into new packages featuring the work of a local artist. rw
Letters to Editors of Inaccurate Reports on Population. April 2, 2009 Bill Ryerson
Population Media Center and Population Institute are collaborating in implementing a project to help notable figures write letters to editors and producers of news programs in response to inaccurate or inadequate coverage of the population component of events covered in specific news stories (such as climate change, water shortages, etc.). We would welcome your help. Please email Bob Walker at Population Institute (rwalker@populationinstitute.org) when you see an article or broadcast news story that failed to mention population when it should have, or that gave misleading information about the impact of population growth on the issue being covered. The same is true for opinion pieces by papers and broadcasters that need a response.
As you know, there are many examples of journalists that fail to mention population growth when it is obviously a key factor in the subject being discussed. There are also journalists and editorial writers who celebrate population growth or who bemoan stabilization of population numbers in some developed countries, when it is clear to the ecologically minded that endless population growth is impossible.
Conservation Through Having Smaller Famlies. 2005 Sustainable Population Australia
This delightful children's book (follow the link) explains the global economy in a way Samuelson never did. Then it covers ecology and population. You may want to give this to a young person you know - and to a few adults as well.
Mother Nature's Dow. March 28, 2009 New York Times*
Mother Nature doesn't tell us how she's feeling. But scientists have been warning that climate change is happening faster and will bring bigger changes quicker than we anticipated.
The pace of global warming is likely to be faster than predicted, because industrial emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering feedback in global ecosystems. The Program on the Science of Global Change updated its projection that with current carbon-dioxide emissions, average surface temperatures on Earth by 2100 will hit levels beyond anything humans have experienced.
Ocean heat-uptake is slower than previously estimated, the ocean uptake of carbon is weaker, feedbacks from the land system as temperature rises are stronger, cumulative emissions of greenhouse gases over the century are higher, and offsetting cooling from aerosol emissions is lower. Not one of these effects is very strong on its own. Rather than interacting additively, these effects appear to interact multiplicatively, with feedbacks among the contributing factors, leading to the large increase in the chance of much higher temperatures.
We have to change the economics to affect the Dow (stock market indicator) and the chemistry, biology and physics to affect Mother Nature.
We need a climate bailout along with our economic bailout. There are five policies that can help us win the energy-climate battle. Energy-efficient building and appliance codes now save Californians $6 billion per year. Better vehicle fuel-efficiency standards: The European Union's fuel-efficiency fleet average for new cars now stands at 41 miles per gallon, and is rising steadily. We need a national renewable standard, mandating that power utilities produce 15 or 20% of their energy from renewables by 2020.
Whenever utilities are required to purchase electricity from renewable sources, clean energy booms.
Under decoupling, power utilities make money by helping homeowners save energy rather than by encouraging them to consume it. Finally we need a price on carbon. Polluting the atmosphere can't be free.
Some of these have upfront costs, but all would foster innovation in new clean technologies that would stimulate the real Dow and much lower emissions. rw
The Population Debate is Screwed Up. March 28, 2009 Alternet
According to the combatants, population growth is either the biggest problem facing humanity, or it is a non-issue.
An argument that has raged for decades. At one extreme: "Overpopulation" is the root cause of environmental problems and calls for "vigorous population control."
In 1968, for example, Paul Ehrlich warned that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death in the 1970s and over the years, that chorus has included a diverse array, including feminists, neoclassical economists, Marxists and the religious right.
For some population denial springs from legitimate fears that the Malthusians will trample human rights in their pursuit of lower birthrates, or that a focus on population growth will distract us from bigger issues, like inequality and unsustainable consumption.
The fact is, we now have a much more sophisticated understanding of population dynamics and their environmental impact than we did in 1968.
While the rate of population growth has slowed in most parts of the world, rapid growth is hardly a thing of the past. Our numbers still increase by 75 million to 80 million every year, the equivalent of adding another U.S. to the world every four years or so. We know that a certain amount of future growth is inevitable. But choices made and services available today will determine whether human numbers climb to 8 to 11 billion by midcentury.
Population growth has an impact on the environment, but that impact is shaped by technology, consumption patterns, economic policies and political choices.
The industrialized countries use about 32 times the resources and emit 32 times as much waste as our counterparts in the developing world.
Still, we all share an inalienable right to food, water, shelter and the makings of a good life.
It becomes clear that it would be easier to provide a good life for 8 billion rather than 11 billion people.
Slowing population growth is one of the things we must do to address the current environmental crisis. For example an analysis of climate studies shows that slower population growth could make a significant contribution to solving the climate problem.
Stabilizing world population at 8 billion, rather than 9 billion or more, would reduce emissions.
Continued reliance on fossil fuels could easily overwhelm the carbon reductions from slower growth.
Changing our systems of production and consumption must be the top priority. Slowing population growth will require rethinking development, trade and economic policies.
But slower population growth could help give us a fighting chance to meet these challenges. And it could give a chance to make investments in education, health care and sustainable economic development.
We now know that the best way to slow population growth is by ensuring that all people are able to make real choices about sexuality and reproduction.
That means access to voluntary family planning and other reproductive-health information and services. It means education and employment opportunities,
especially for women. And it means tackling the deep inequities that prevent people from making meaningful choices about childbearing.
The developed countries' share of the cost to provide reproductive health services for every woman on earth is $20 billion. It's time to have a new conversation about population and the environment, that is a shared commitment to environmental sustainability, human rights and social justice. rw Karen Gaia says: it should be alarming to all that we are adding another U.S. to the world every four years or so. Common sense tells us that available resources cannot keep sustaining such a fast growing population.
Zero-Sum Game. February 12, 2009 Bill Ryerson
California taxpayers will have to pay most of the costs for raising the famous octuplets born recently. This is provoking indignation about the right to reproduce ad infinitum.
This when the State of California is laying off teachers and other state workers, highlights a shift taking place in our collective awareness.
For most of the last century economic growth has temporarily increased Earth's effective carrying capacity. Every year there were more jobs, more opportunities, new careers. The fact that there were more people at the table was perceived as a plus.
Now the pie has stopped getting bigger. As more people arrive at the table, everyone nervously eyes the remaining crumbs. A lot is going to change as we have reached the end of economic growth as we've known it.
Environmentalists have for years been pointing out that the Earth can support only so many humans, and that the more of us there are, the more likely we are to undermine our planetary life-support systems - perhaps triggering a humanitarian and ecological crisis of apocalyptic dimensions.
Efforts were made world-wide to reduce fertility through family planning. However, on the whole our species continued to grow to the current 6.7 billion.
Feelings are changing. Fewer people will want to bring a large family into the world knowing that economic opportunities are dwindling. Attitudes toward parenthood are deep-seated, culturally sensitive, and controversial. But they are not immutable.
Unless previous beliefs about the sacredness of unlimited fertility can be openly questioned and honestly discussed the cognitive dissonance between long-held beliefs and deep-seated biological urges on one hand, and the awareness of ecological and economic limits on the other, is likely to lead to demographic competition and intercultural violence.
It doesn't have to be that way. The discussion about the octuplets now taking place in the popular media is a good thing if it can help us collectively process new information and let go of old thinking. The point is to use this current news as a mirror to see ourselves and reassess and change what we observe. rw Karen Gaia says: there is nothing wrong with our individual attitudes concerning family size. The vast majority want a family size to fit the family wallet. All we have to do is change those desires into reality by making contraception and education available, and advancing gender equality. It has been done since the 1960s, bringing fertility rates down from 4 to 2. This success story is being repeated the world over - just not fast enough due to insufficient funding. The cost is surprising low - we MUST do it!
UK Population Must Fall to 30 Million, Says Porritt. Times Online
One of Gordon Brown's leading green advisers is to warn that Britain must reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society.
Research suggests that UK population must be cut to 30 million if the country wants to feed itself sustainably.
Population and economic growth is putting the world under terrible pressure.
Each person in Britain has more impact on the environment than those in developing countries. Population growth is one of the most politically sensitive environmental problems. The issues including religion, culture and immigration policy, have proved too toxic for most green groups.
Humanity was emitting the equivalent of 50 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year and we have to cut this by 80%, and population growth is going to make that much harder.
Such views on population have split the green movement. A prominent writer on green issues has criticised population campaigners, arguing that economic growth is a greater threat.
Many experts believe that Europeans and Americans have a lopsided impact on the environment, and the world would benefit more from reducing their populations rather than in developing countries.
This is part of the thinking behind the call for Britain to cut population to 30m, roughly what it was in late Victorian times.
Britain's population is expected to grow from 61 million now to 71 million by 2031. Some politicians support a reduction.
Government and Conservative spokesmen this weekend both distanced themselves from any population policy. rw
U.S.: New Government Rule Could Limit Your Access to Birth Control. December 18, 2008 USNEWS.com
At the end of the Bush term, The Department of Health and Human Services published its "conscience rights" rule designed to protect healthcare providers from being denied employment or fired if they refuse to administer abortions, emergency contraception, or certain forms of birth control because of their religious or moral beliefs.
Dozens of health organizations voiced their opposition, saying that this would deny women access to reproductive care. One of the concerns was whether patients would be informed of their doctor's refusal to administer certain procedures.
In the final rule patients and healthcare providers should have open and honest conversations about the services. There is no regulation forcing doctors to be fully transparent with patients. If the regulation had been filed after December 20, President-elect Obama could have simply canceled it with a stroke of his pen, which he has promised to do.
There are a couple of different ways to reverse it. Sens. Clinton and Murray have filed legislation to block federal funding to implement the rule. A Congressional Review Act provision in which both the House and Senate would pass resolutions of disapproval would strike it permanently from the books. The new Congress would need to do it within its first 75 working days.
The incoming head of HHS, Tom Daschle, could propose a new rule that negates the language of the conscience regulation. This would take at least six months for the rule to be issued as a final regulation. The best approach may be a blocking of congressional funding until a new regulation can be implemented. rw
Girl Guides Enthuse Street Kids with Life Skills. January 23, 2008 Arusha Times
Twenty six Girl Guides of the Christ Church Student Center in Tanzania visited the Kaloleni Street Children Centre to impart life skills and knowledge to the kids.
The Girl Guides taught the kids matters pertaining to HIV/AIDS. They also had time to rap and exchange songs and games. Before closing girls and boys were divided into three groups and had talks on different issues.
The Girl Guides contributed exercise books and money to the centre.
The programs of Tanzania Girl Guides Association provide girls and young women with opportunities of self-training in the development of character,
responsible citizenship and service in their own and world communities.
The association strives to encourage friendship among girls and young women of all nations. rw Karen Gaia says: If you are interested in helping street children, here is one, at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, that I have visited in Tanzania:
http://amanikids.org/ Vietnam: Today's Teenagers Need Schooling in Sex Ed. January 23, 2008 Vietnam News Agency
According to the Family Planning Faculty of Ha Noi Obstetrics Hospital, there were 15,000 abortions performed at the hospital in 2007, of which 3% were for teenagers.
Meanwhile, at the National Obstetrics Hospital, there are about 5,000 abortions performed every year, of which teenage cases make up 2/3%.
Of the girls between 14 to 17 years old coming for abortions, many were beyond the first trimester which could make the abortion more dangerous.
Many of these girls don't even know they are pregnant.
Many others don't know enough about contraceptive measures. They feel ashamed to discuss it.
When these girls find out they are pregnant, they often come to private clinics or an abortion, which is a very dangerous choice. Private clinics do not have adequate equipment for emergency aid.
Young people lack knowledge and awareness about the issue.
Some 20 out of 50 calls per day are from girls and boys from 18 to 22 years old, all of whom know almost nothing about reproductive health.
Gender education has still not been included in the school curriculum. Students are taught mainly about theory and moral aspects, but not life skills to deal with practical situations.
As the society develops, having sex before marriage among young people will be more popular and adults find it difficult to prevent that from happening. What we can do is to prepare children with adequate knowledge to protect themselves. rw
Niger's Traditional Chiefs Condemn Child Marriage. March 16, 2007 Reuters
Niger's traditional chiefs have urged the government to draw up legislation which would stop girls being married off as young children, breaking ranks with Islamic groups in the mostly Muslim nation.
Family matters are decided according to strict Islamic laws in the impoverished West African country and girls, sometimes under the age of 10, are commonly married off by families seeking wealth and social status.
The girls are expected to have children, sometimes as many as 20, boosting the influence of their family.
Niger's population is growing quickly, with each woman having on average 7.1 children. An estimated seven women in every 1,000 die during childbirth.
The traditional chiefs urged the government to outlaw underage marriage.
Given the strong demographic growth which has been aggravating economic, environmental and social problems for decades, we recommend the government block underage marriage, the chiefs said in a declaration broadcast on state television.
They also called on the government to help educate rural populations about reproductive health. Muslim leaders have in the past fought against such campaigns, including those encouraging people to use condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
The country is one of the world's poorest, with many living as subsistence farmers on the edge of the Sahara.
Some 95% of its nearly 13 million people are Muslims; Islamic law and tradition govern family life.
Muslim traditionalists staged a protest against plans to ratify Africa's Maputo Protocol on women's rights, agreed in 2003 by African heads of state and aiming to enshrine women's equality in marriage and public life. rw
Church Denounces Moves in Spain to Legalise Abortion. February 21, 2009 Telegraph
Spain is preparing to allow women to have terminations on demand in the early stages of pregnancy.
This has put the Socialist government on a collision course with the Roman Catholic Church. A Spanish committee presented recommendations that included legalising early-stage abortions, while imposing more restrictions as pregnancies progressed.
The proposals will form the basis of a draft bill that will bring the abortion law into line with most other European countries.
The move is in an ambitious programme of social change under the prime minister, that has led to him clashing repeatedly with the Church. Since winning power his government has legalised homosexual marriage, eased divorce laws and dropped religious education from the curriculum in public schools.
Abortion in Spain is offered under restricted circumstances and rarely in a public hospital. Terminations are allowed only until the 12th week of pregnancy in cases of rape or until the 22nd week in cases of severe fetal malformation.
Last year, 25 women and doctors were accused of falsifying doctors' certificates after being arrested in raids on abortion clinics. Supporters said it was about treating women with respect, allowing them to make their own decisions rather than seeking a doctor's approval.
The Spanish Bishops reiterated the Church's stance on those who had abortions or performed them. "They face automatic excommunication,". rw
HIV Rate Among Women in Swaziland Now 42 Percent. February 20, 2009 Associated Press Worldstream
About 42% of pregnant women in Swaziland are infected with HIV, a 3% jump in a year.
The small African nation has the highest AIDS rate in the world and average life expectancy of 37 years. The increase in 2008 was partly because more women were taking antiretroviral medication.
An estimated 185,000 of Swaziland's 1 million people are HIV positive, and about 30,000 are receiving antiretrovirals.
AIDS activists blame King Mswati III for doing too little to promote condom usage and HIV testing, and he sets a bad example by having 13 wives.
The king, Africa's last absolute monarch, is revered. But he
