Thanks to Brian Czech for his article.
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Ecological economics arose in the final decades of the 20th century out of concerns for
environmental protection and economic sustainability. It was largely a response to a real or
perceived lack of physical and biological underpinnings in neoclassical economics. It was also
intended to infuse economics with a moral philosophy, in contrast with the amoral implications of
neoclassical models portraying man as a rational, utility-maximizing automaton.

Ecological economics is a transdisciplinary endeavor, incorporating and synthesizing concepts and
findings from an array of natural and social sciences. Of particular importance are the laws of
thermodynamics and basic principles of ecology. Limits to economic growth are thoroughly
understood only via the first two laws of thermodynamics. The first law establishes that there is a
limit to the inputs required for economic production, and the second law establishes that there
are limits to the efficiency with which those inputs may be transformed into goods and services.

For full article, visit:
http://steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/Czech_Ecological_Economics.pdf

Brian responded to an article, “Key Issues for Attention by Ecological Economists” by Paul Ehrlich with the following email:

I heartily disagree with the way he classified ecological economics vis-a-vis environmental and natural resources economics/economists. This is an issue I have not only studied and thought about a lot (and wrote about in Shoveling Fuel and elsewhere), but have had much first-hand experience with as a member of ISEE, USSEE, AEA, etc. Therefore, I ask you to post the following UNESCO encyclopedia chapter to your group, preferably including this email as preface: http://steadystate.org/Files/Czech_Ecological_Economics.pdf

There are very good, political and policy-relevant reasons for illuminating the distinction between ecological and env/nr econ, as should be evident in the encyclopedia chapter.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 24, 2010

Contact: Katie Elmore
Director of Communications
Tel: 802-985-8156 ext. 205
elmore@populationmedia.org

Colgate-Palmolive Sponsors UN MDGs Radio Drama Campaign in Papua New Guinea

Port Moresby, PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The United Nations in Papua New Guinea in cooperation with the Population Media Center (PMC) is pleased to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Colgate-Palmolive. Colgate-Palmolive has signed on as a private sector sponsor of two social change radio serial dramas to be developed for public broadcast in Papua New Guinea in Pidgin and English.
Continue Reading »

Many thanks to Shiv Khare for this article.
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Every year in India, shanty towns mushroom in the cities, cities sprawl into farmland and the country increases by the population of Australia.

Every day, every minute, on trains and buses, on footpaths and streets, the country squeezes and shrinks and sucks in its breath to push too many people into too little space.

India has fallen behind in the race to meet the Millennium Development Goals for reducing its birth rate by 2015. Only about half of India’s 26 states have reached the targeted level of two children per mother.

For full article, visit:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/india/100713

Thanks to Fred Stanback, Alexandra Paul, and several others for this New York Times article.

When I first went to India in 1975, they were giving men free radios in return for having a vasectomy. The problem with incentive programs is that paying people to do what they don’t otherwise want to do is less effective than making small family norms popular, and it is far more expensive to take to scale than mass media programs that motivate them to delay and limit childbearing.
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Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you.

It also will pay you.

For full article, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/world/asia/22india.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Thanks to Gabriela Kaplan for notifying me about this article. You may want to post a response. It’s not surprising this comes from a real estate writer.
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Shrinking Societies: The Other Population Crisis

The earth’s population is growing at an alarming rate, but in some countries the lack of growth is the biggest problem

A Japanese woman’s role in society is to give birth, and “all we can do is ask them to do their best per head,” said Hakuo Yanagisawa, Japan’s former health minister. His remark, as reported by Bloomberg in 2007, drew criticism for being sexist, but it touches on one of Japan’s most pressing issues: its rapidly aging and shrinking population.

For full article, visit:
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/aug2010/bw20100812_825983.htm

Thanks to Kent Welton for this story.
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Reporting from Abibe, Colombia

Think of the 10 women who just had their fallopian tubes tied at a clinic in northern Colombia as foot soldiers in Erwin Goggel’s lonely war on overpopulation and poverty.

A film producer and heir to a dairy fortune, Goggel is offering nine-acre plots rent-free to poor men and women who agree to have vasectomies and tubal ligations. He pays for all the surgical procedures, including the 10 operations performed late last month in Monteria, the capital of Cordoba state, about 30 miles south of here.

For full article, visit:
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nu-birth-control

I’m thinking the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican are a bit clueless. How else, truly, to describe this?

Pam Spaulding, writing at Pandagon about a story first reported by CNN, reports that Roman Catholic Bishops in Connecticut are fighting a bill aimed at rescinding the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. The Connecticut Bishops released a letter to their parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the change in law.

Breathtaking.

For full article, visit:
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/04/15

Mexican educators and officials defended the country’s public school sex education Friday from criticism by a Roman Catholic bishop who said such teachings make celibacy vows more difficult for priests to keep.

Education Secretary Alonso Lujambio told reporters that public-school sexual education texts “seek to make our boys and girls responsible, to take responsibility for their actions, and for that they need information.”

Lujambio said the programs are careful to avoid “hurting any social sensitivities.”

For full article, visit:
http://www.awid.org/eng

Thanks to Joe Bish for this article.
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From the window of the house in Pasay where she was born and has lived for more than 80 years, Dr. Mercedes B. Concepcion has witnessed firsthand the burgeoning growth of the country’s population.

Once upon a time, this was a genteel neighborhood, the suburbs to which prominent families
moved to escape the congestion of the city. Now it has been engulfed by the sea of teeming humanity that is Metro Manila.

“Look at all the side streets and see how many children are on them,” she says.

It is both appropriate and ironic, since Concepcion is the country’s foremost demographer. (Demography is the statistical study of human populations.) Last February, she was conferred the rank and title of National Scientist in recognition of her achievements in the field of demographics and population, which include several landmark studies on population growth in the Philippines and Asia, and the establishment of the UP Population Institute.

For full article, visit:
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view

Thanks to Joe Bish for this article.
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Ibrahim Issa, a jovial Syrian taxi-driver who wears a blue robe over an ample belly, has nine children from two wives. He plans to marry a third wife soon.

He says it is up to Allah whether more children arrive, and not for him to interfere, say, by using contraception. Like all Damascus taxi-drivers, he complains about the cost of living and how hard it is to make ends meet on the $300 a month he earns.

Issa, 43, shrugs when asked if all those mouths to feed don’t make life harder for him. “No, I’m delighted,” he grins.

For full article, visit:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6522FS20100603