Thanks to Steve Kurtz and Kenn Kaufmann for this article.
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Women of all ages, some clutching small children, sit in the waiting room of the Happy Childhood Association in Zeinhom, a poor district of Cairo. The only thing to look at as they await their turn to see the doctor, a family planning volunteer, is a big board with colourful drawings of the female reproductive organs.

Like most of the younger women in the room, Maha Abdelaziz, 29, insists she only wants two children. The working mother of a five-year old, she says that she and her husband have agreed to keep their family small. “I managed to get a bachelor’s degree in nursing,” she says. “But I want my children to go further. Language schools are expensive and state education keeps on deteriorating.”

For full article, visit:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s

Thanks to Kathleen Mogelgaard, Senior Program Manager for Population and Climate Change at Population Action International for this article from PAI’s blog.
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“We farmers don’t have access to family planning and we are moving more and more into poverty.”

As the world focuses on the outcomes of the meeting on climate change that just concluded in Poznan, Poland, I am sitting in a workshop in Nazret, Ethiopia, listening to a panel of farmers talking about the effects of climate change on their lives – less rain, lower crop yields, malaria, no milk for their children. The farmers, from Amhara Region in the Rift Valley, talked about population pressure. They are acutely aware that farm sizes shrink with each generation and speak eloquently of the need for access to family planning so they can have fewer children. Rural Ethiopians currently have an average of six children.

For full article, visit:
http://www.populationaction.org/blog/2008/12

African states lack the resources to deal alone with climate change and must share water better to feed growing populations, government ministers said at a water conference in Libya on Wednesday.

The world’s poorest continent has failed to feed a fast-growing population due to under-investment, bad farm management and more frequent droughts and floods, leaving it hooked on food imports.

The cost of those imports soared to $49.4 billion in 2008 from $10.5 billion in 2005 as world prices jumped, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

For full article, visit:
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE4BG5NV20081217

Greetings on this Martin Luther King holiday in the U.S. – a day of public service. I am attending a three day meeting on global sustainability issues on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia being hosted by Canadian environmentalist, David Suzuki.

Thanks to Tod Preston of Population Action International for the attached PAI “white paper” that details the reasons why the U.S. must regain its historic leadership role on international family planning and population issues. Entitled “International Population & Family Planning Programs: An Agenda for the Obama Administration,” the white paper highlights the significant role family planning and reproductive health programs should play in the Administration’s commitment to global health and security. The white paper has been sent to key members of the Obama transition team and to key Members of Congress, accompanied by the attached transmittal letter signed by some of PAI’s Board members. These documents are also available on the Obama transition team’s website at:
http://change.gov/open_government/entry/popultion_action_international/

In addition, the documents — along with other relevant Obama transition-related material from other coalitions — are also available on PAI’s website at: http://www.populationaction.org/Issues/U.S._Policies_and_Funding/transition.shtml

Thanks to John Seager of Population Connection for the link to the just-released report, Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance, coauthored by one of Population Connection’s board members, Dr. Duff Gillespie, along with four other former directors of the Population and Reproductive Health Program at USAID – all of whom who served in that position between 1978 and 2006.

This report will be extremely helpful in making the case to Congress and to the Obama Administration for increased funding for international family planning. See http://www.popconnect.org/media/upload/MakingtheCase.pdf?referralid=585&download=MakingtheCase.pdf

Thanks to Marianne Ward for this story in USA Today.
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The newest and most detailed data on teen birth rates shows significant increases in 26 states and represents most regions of the USA.

“To see 26 states with statistically significant increases is fairly remarkable,” says Paul Sutton, a demographer with the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the data Wednesday. “We’re seeing increases in both the number of teens having births and also the rate at which they are having births. Both of them are going up.”

For full article, visit:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-07-teenbirths_N.htm

The Optimum Population Trust is one of the population organizations of which I am very proud to be a member. I serve on its Advisory Council. It is one of the most active groups in Europe. I encourage you to join, which you can do online at http://www.optimumpopulation.org/opt.join.html.
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OPTIMUM POPULATION TRUST

THINK-TANK URGES POPULATION INQUIRY BY GOVERNMENT

The Government should hold an inquiry into the number of people the UK can support who are able to enjoy a good quality of life without damaging the environment, the Optimum Population Trust says today.

In a letter to Phil Woolas, the recently appointed immigration minister, OPT says overpopulation puts Britain’s security at risk and calls for a Royal Commission to establish an environmentally sustainable level of population for the UK as part of an overall national population policy.*
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“CURRENT global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable — environmentally, economically, socially … What is needed is nothing short of an energy revolution.” I have said similar things myself, but this quote is from a new “World Energy Outlook” by the International Energy Agency.

The change is as amazing as if the Pope were to support contraception or the Business Council to call for stabilising the population. Until last year, the energy agency was still deep in denial about the problems of climate change and peak oil, and was talking about world energy use doubling and an increasing use of coal.

For full article, visit:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion

Thanks to Mark O’Connor for this article.
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The United Nation’s Population Fund is concerned population growth in Asia averages 1.1 per cent a year. Australia, as a First World country, should have a much lower growth rate. It does not. By the end of the Howard era, our annual population growth had risen to a stunning 1.5 per cent: almost off the First World scale and high even for Third World countries. (Indonesia’s, by contrast, was then 1.3 per cent, but has recently come down, with much effort, to 1.2 per cent.)

For full article, visit:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/many-in-denial-over-rising-population

Please join the Environmental Change and Security Program for a discussion of

Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity

featuring

Eric Chivian, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Michael Wright, Managing Director, Natural Capital Project
Thomas Lovejoy, Biodiversity Chair, The Heinz Center (opening remarks)

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
5th Floor Conference Room
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Webcast live at www.wilsoncenter.org

Please RSVP to ecsp@wilsoncenter.org with your name and affiliation.
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