Thanks to Phil Thorson, former Director of Administration of the International Monetary Fund, for this article. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content

Last Friday, I met with a Vice President of the World Bank and discussed this report. She indicated that the evaluation had been made of programs that were following a previous strategy that was scrapped over a year ago. The Bank is using new strategies now. In addition, the Bank previously adopted as its indicators of success the indicators the country had adopted, whether they were realistic or not. Now the Bank will be using indicators that it believes are achievable. The family planning funding will be focused on high fertility countries.

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For a paper by Susan Gibbs on “Population and Environment: A Review of Funding Themes and Trends,” see http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/pubs/gibbs.pdf

Nearly $65 billion worth of investment is required next year for population programmes to combat poverty, promote development and slash maternal death rates, according to the United Nations Commission on Population and Development.

One-third of this sum, or $22 million, will come from international donors, while the rest will be in the form of domestic investments by developing nations.

The $64.7 billion figure for 2010 is an upwards revision of the $20.5 billion that was adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, marking the first time in 15 years that cost estimates have been reviewed.

For full article, visit:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30409&Cr=population&Cr1=mdg

Thanks to Mike Cair for this article from New Statesman.
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Who’s afraid of declining population? Only politicians, obsessed with power and prestige. The rest of us, particularly the workers, would be better off, argues Anthony Browne

It’s been a part of the ebb and flow of human society since we raised ourselves up on our two hind legs. But now, after an almost total absence since the industrial revolution, it’s threatening to come back with a vengeance across the western world. And we don’t like it one little bit.

For full article, visit:
http://www.newstatesman.com/200211040019

Thanks to Larry Jordan for reminding me of this excellent OpEd by Jack Hart, former Managing Editor of the Oregonian, which I distributed last June, but which is no longer easy to find at www.oregonlive.com
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TREADING ON A TABOO: OVERPOPULATION IN AMERICA
Sunday, June 15, 2008
JACK HART

Each Tuesday I carry the recycling to the curb and look out over a city bristling with light rail, streetcars, bicycles, eco-roofs, and little yellow bins like mine. The greenest of the green, my city styles itself, filled with good citizens leading the way to Earth’s salvation.

If only it were true. The sad fact is that unless we do something drastic, out-of-control population growth will wipe out the gains made by the most ambitious recycling and conservation programs, both here and across the planet.
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Many thanks to Chris Clugston for sending me the attached summary of his paper – “On American Sustainability.” The full paper can be downloaded from the following website: http://www.wakeupamerika.com/PDFs/On-American-Sustainability.pdf It contains the models, evidence, and references for the conclusions reached in the attached.

Chris Clugston on American Sustainability Summary (PDF, 218 KB)

Thanks to Debbi McGlauflin for this announcement.

If you have heard of the TED Talk events (www.ted.com) and wondered how to get to go to one, here’s your chance, courtesy of Jim Thompson at the State Department’s Global Partnership Center. RSVP info is on the attached flyer. They only have room for 500 and, in Washington, DC, it’s likely to fill up quickly.

Ted Conference Global Partnerships (PDF, 275 KB)

Thanks to Bob Walker for bringing my attention to the new (June) issue of National Geographic, which has a compelling special report (“The Global Food Crisis: The End of Plenty”) that looks at the “perpetual food crisis” that is emerging and concludes that:

We don’t want to think about limits. But as we approach nine billion people on the planet, all clamoring for the same opportunities, the same lifestyles, the same hamburgers, we ignore them at our risk.
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The new U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues pledged Thursday the Obama administration’s “deep commitment” to a U.N. blueprint aimed at slowing the world’s population explosion and empowering women.

At the heart of the more than 100-page action plan adopted at the U.N. population conference in Cairo, Egypt, 15 years ago is a demand for women’s equality through education, economic development, access to modern birth control and the right to choose if and when to become pregnant.

For full article, visit:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article

Thanks to Paul Ehrlich for this memo to then President-elect Obama on “What Needs to be Done.”

What Needs to be Done (Word Doc., 54 KB)