For the article in question, click here: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/02/top-komen-staffer-quit-over-policy-targetting-planned-parenthood-others-point-to-

Top Komen Staffer Quit Over Policy Targetting Planned Parenthood; Others Point to Politics Behind Decision

by Jodi Jacobson, Editor-in-Chief, RH Reality Check

February 2, 2012 – 11:22am (Print)

Writing in The Atlantic today, Jeffrey Goldberg provides substance to what most of us already knew: the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to eliminate breast-cancer screening grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates was politically motivated.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to put these things together:

• Komen hires Karen Handel, far-right former GOP Georgia gubernatorial candidate who campaigned in part on de-funding Planned Parenthood, Healthy Babies Initiatives and other services for poor women, and who has openly expressed hostility with Planned Parenthood’s “mission.”

• Koman puts on their board Jane Abraham, Chair of the Susan B. Anthony List, major anti-choice political organization, for which de-funding Planned Parenthood is a major goal, and which engages in misinformation campaigns about Planned Parenthood funding, services, abortion and breast cancer links, and other issues.

• Both of the above are strongly allied with groups boycotting Planned Parenthood.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/02/top-komen-staffer-quit-over-policy-targetting-planned-parenthood-others-point-to-

Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World

A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.

By Tom Jacobs

January 30, 2012

Picture an illustrated children’s book – one that has won a prestigious award – and your mind conjures up images of furry animals, puffy clouds, and eager boys and girls enjoying adventures in the wild.

In fact, our kids are entering a much different world in their earliest literary experiences – one in which nature plays an increasingly minor role. That’s the conclusion of a newly published study, which suggests these books reflect our growing estrangement from the natural environment.

A group of researchers led by University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist J. Allen Williams Jr. studied the winners of the American Library Association’s prestigious Caldecott Medal between 1938 (the year the prize was first awarded) through 2008. They looked at more than 8,000 images in the 296 volumes.

They noted whether each image depicted a natural environment (such as a forest), a built environment (such as a house), or a modified environment (such as a cornfield or manicured lawn). In addition, they observed whether the illustrations contained any animals, and if so, rated them as either domestic, wild or anthropomorphized (that is, taking on human qualities).

The results, published in the journal Sociological Inquiry, are sobering. “There have been significant declines in depictions of natural environments and animals, while built environments have become much more common,” the researchers report.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/childrens-books-increasingly-ignore-natural-world-39391/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-lacks-enough-food-fuel-as-pop

World Lacks Enough Food, Fuel as Population Soars

The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N.

By Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) – The world is running out of time to make sure there is enough food, water and energy to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and to avoid sending up to 3 billion people into poverty, a U.N. report warned on Monday.

As the world’s population looks set to grow to nearly 9 billion by 2040 from 7 billion now, and the number of middle-class consumers increases by 3 billion over the next 20 years, the demand for resources will rise exponentially.

Even by 2030, the world will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water, according to U.N. estimates, at a time when a changing environment is creating new limits to supply.

And if the world fails to tackle these problems, it risks condemning up to 3 billion people into poverty, the report said.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=world-lacks-enough-food-fuel-as-pop

January 26, 2012, 9:15 pm
Soap Operas With a Social Message

Every Sunday evening, seven million Kenyans sit in front of their television sets to watch “Makutano Junction,” a soap opera set in a fictional village. In one episode, audiences watch as a woman, Mama Mboga, holds her crying infant. “I need some money to take Joni to hospital,” she tells her husband, Erasmus, after he wakes up and takes a swig from a bottle. “I think he has malaria.” Erasmus insists that his son is healthy, that she is overreacting and that he has no money to give her.

Erasmus eventually gives her some money, but only enough for chloroquine, which is not always effective in fighting malaria. When Joni gets sicker, Mama Mboga takes him to the emergency room, but he dies even before seeing the doctor. Her friends rush to console her as she begins crying, “My baby is dead!” in the waiting room.

As with traditional soap operas, the above story line is full of emotion, conflict and suspense. Scattered cliffhangers leave the audience wondering what will happen next. As I watched it, I found myself beginning to wonder, Will Joni survive? Will Erasmus stop drinking? Will Mama Mboga stand up to her deadbeat husband?

To read the full article, please click here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/steamy-plots-with-a-social-message/#

Can Family Planning Programs Reduce High Desired Family Size in Sub-Saharan Africa?

By John Bongaarts

During the past half century, fertility declines have been pervasive in Asia and Latin America. Between the early 1950s and the early 2000s, the total fertility rate (TFR)-the average number of live births a woman would have during her lifetime, assuming constant fertility rates-dropped from 5.7 to 2.4 births per woman in Asia and from 5.9 to 2.3 births per woman in Latin America.1 Only a handful of countries in these regions still have fertility rates higher than four births per woman. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, fertility remains high in the large majority of countries.

Although some declines have occurred, the average total fertility rate in 2005-2010 exceeded 5.1 births per woman-more than double the levels observed in Asia and Latin America.

Several factors contribute to the high fertility rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Compared with populations in Asia and Latin America, the continent’s people are on average poorer, less educated and have higher child mortality. These factors contribute to a desire for large families, which in turn leads to high fertility. In addition, with few exceptions, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa have made family planning programs a low priority.2,3 Continued high fertility, combined with lower-than-expected mortality from the AIDS epidemic, are producing very rapid population growth. By 2050, Sub-Saharan Africa will have a billion more inhabitants than in 2005, according to the United Nations’ medium projections.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3720911.html

Ethiopia Gets on The Pill, and that Matters for Africa

by Jessica Mack

January 11, 2012 – 11:42pm

African countries are too often lumped together as one big composite of grave statistics and chronic epidemics. Because of this, it’s especially important that the global development and reproductive health communities recognize and amplify those success stories that can be told.  Especially when these stories are designed and driven by local efforts.

Less than 20 years ago, contraceptive use in Ethiopia among married women of reproductive age was a measly 3 percent, and maternal mortality rates were among the highest in the world. Today, contraceptive use is at 29 percent, double that of just five years ago and higher now than the level of contraceptive use in Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. It’s an exponential increase in record time. Maternal deaths have also dropped, and now occur at less than half the rate they were just a few decades ago.

“Government ownership is critical [for improving reproductive health],” says Dan Pellegrom, President of Pathfinder International, which has worked in the country since 1964.” And Ethiopia’s government took ownership.” That ownership took the form of renewed commitment to women and girls, and creative collaborations with aid agencies to make long-acting contraceptive methods in particular more available. (Injectable contraceptives are by far the most popular method countrywide). A waiver of the 2007 import tax on contraceptives also increased the flow of supplies throughout the country.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/01/11/ethiopia-gets-on-pill-and-that-matters-africa

Peter Gleick – Addressing Water and Population Dynamics

“Water is tied to everything we care about,” said MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and President of the Pacific Institute Peter Gleick in an interview with ECSP. However, “we cannot talk about water or any other resource issue…without also understanding the enormously important role of population dynamics and population growth.”
As world population passes seven billion, there is substantial pressure on natural resources. Gleick, who recently launched the seventh edition of The World’s Water at the Wilson Center, spoke previously to ECSP about “peak water,” noting that people are, and have been for some time, using groundwater faster than it can be naturally replenished.

“Unless we talk about population, and its role in all of these resource issues,” said Gleick, “then we are never going to move to sustainable solutions.”

In the short-term, we should start by integrating our discussions about natural resources, water, food, energy, and population. “That is proving to be a challenge for policymakers, but it’s a challenge we are going to have to overcome,” he concluded.

Law to control population growth needed, says DPM
By Winile Mavuso
27 January 2012

DEPUTY Prime Minister Themba Masuku has lashed out at men who have a large number of children that end up being a burden to government.
He was speaking during the launch of the second National Plan of Action (NPA) 2011-2015 at Esibayeni Lodge yesterday.  Masuku said a law was needed to control population growth in the country. He observed that children accounted for 50% of the country’s population with a majority of them being orphaned and vulnerable (OVC). The implication is that the children will grow without parental guidance and consequently have limited access to education, jobs, good health and a secure future. Masuku highlighted the importance of having a family that one can manage.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=34786

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/globalhealth/jan-june12/philippines_01-23.html

Watch Turning the Population Tide in the Philippines on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Transcript

JEFFREY BROWN: And now to the Philippines, a country struggling to cope with its rapidly growing population.

Tonight’s story is part of a new project that looks at the challenge of feeding the world in a time of social and environmental change. It’s a NewsHour partnership with the Center for Investigative Reporting, Homelands Productions and American Public Media’s “Marketplace.”

The project is called Food for 9 Billion.

The reporter for tonight’s story is Sam Eaton of Homelands Productions.

SAM EATON, Homelands Productions: The Danajon double barrier reef off of Bohol Island in the southern Philippines is one of the richest marine biodiversity hot spots had the world.

But just a short boat ride away, more than a million people depend on these fishing grounds for their food and livelihoods. Rice may be the staple food of the Philippines, but fish provide most of the protein and daily diet. And as the population of communities like this one soar, nearly tripling in the last three decades, the effect on the reef has been devastating.

Fishermen are resorting to extreme tactics to boost their declining catch.

NAZARIO AVENIDO, patrol volunteer: We capture one boat this morning.

SAM EATON: Nazario Avenido and his group of volunteers operate 24-hour patrols, trying to protect their local fishing grounds. Illegal fishing has become rampant. Many use dynamite or cyanide, indiscriminately killing everything within their reach. Avenido has confiscated more than 50 boats and hundreds of illegal nets in recent years.

Today, he seized this boat. Its owner, who escaped capture, was using a banned net that wreaks havoc on spawning grounds and sensitive corals. Avenido says the violators aren’t bad people. They’re just hungry.

NAZARIO AVENIDO: Because there is no other solution, especially when they are a very poor family.

SAM EATON: Poor in a country that has one of the highest population growth rates in all of Southeast Asia, every year adding about two million more mouths to feed.

WALDEN BELLO, Philippines: It’s a hell of a problem. I think you just need to look at the statistics.

SAM EATON: Congressman Walden Bello says the Philippines is already beyond its carrying capacity. And that’s today, with a population just shy of 100 million people.

WALDEN BELLO: And so the demographers are really worried because they feel that, most likely, at the earliest, we’ll be stabilizing at around 200 million in 2080.

SAM EATON: That eventual doubling of the population presents an existential threat to the Philippines, especially for the people who depend on its natural resources for food.

I traveled to a rural fishing village called Humayhumay to see how the issues of population growth, food and the environments are connected. And what I found was surprising.

Jason Bostero and his wife, Crisna, both grew up in large families typical of this area. But unlike the generations before them, the Bosteros made a deliberate choice to have only two children: James and Cyril Jean, ages 6 and 9.

JASON BOSTERO, Philippines (through translator): My income is just right to feed us three times a day. It’s really, really different when you have a small family.

SAM EATON: That choice to have a smaller family was motivated by memories of going hungry as young children.

CRISNA BOSTERO, Philippines (through translator): In my case, we were really hard-up before. Sometimes, we would only eat once a day because we were so poor. We couldn’t go to school. I did not finish school because there were just so many of us.

SAM EATON: The reason the Bosteros were able to have a smaller family is because they could choose to. A community-based family planning program has made birth control options like the pill accessible and affordable at about 70 cents a month for the first time in their village.

DR. JOAN CASTRO, PATH Foundation Philippines: In villages, we train and identify community-based distributors like this to be able to sell pills and condoms any time.

SAM EATON: Dr. Joan Castro started the program here.

DR. JOAN CASTRO: And this becomes as easy as buying soft drinks or matches.

SAM EATON: She’s with the PATH Foundation Philippines, a group funded mostly through USAID. And what makes her program unique is its emphasis on local partners.

DR. JOAN CASTRO (through translator): Which brand of birth control pills are you selling more of?

WOMAN (through translator): Well, they like the yellow one because it’s cheaper.

DR. JOAN CASTRO (through translator): How much is it?

MAN (through translator): It used to be 35 pesos. Then it was 38. Now it’s 41.

DR. JOAN CASTRO: The idea is to be able to bring access to the people.

SAM EATON: Access that in remote villages like Humayhumay was nonexistent before the PATH Foundation came in. In just six years since the program was first established here, family sizes have plummeted from as many as 12 children to a maximum of about four today.

This village is one of the PATH Foundation’s longest-running case studies. And what it’s showing is how closely tied family planning is with environmental conservation and putting food on the table.

Out on the Danajon double barrier reef, where Jason Bostero fishes every morning, the shift to smaller families is already paying dividends. He and his neighbors have created a marine preserve to help revive fish stocks. And it’s working. With smaller families, thinking about future generations is a luxury fishermen like Bostero can afford.

JASON BOSTERO (through translator): Family planning is helpful, because, if you control the number of your children, you don’t need as many fish to support your family. If you have many children, it’s difficult to support them.

SAM EATON: Outside of Humayhumay, where birth control remains largely out of reach, the struggle to put food on the table from one day to the next dominates life.

Down the road, the gymnasium in the region’s main town, Ubay, was filled recently with people waiting to collect government assistance checks for food. Many stood in line for up to 12 hours. For the families gathered here, these checks are a lifeline, making up for the declining catch from the sea.

This scene is one that neighboring countries like Thailand and Indonesia have largely avoided, thanks to state-sponsored family planning programs.

But Congressman Walden Bello says, in the Philippines, any efforts to do the same have faced stiff resistance.

WALDEN BELLO: What’s happening is what we have witnessed recently, which is a hard-line, scorched-earth opposition on the part of the Catholic Church hierarchy to any form of artificial contraception.

SAM EATON: And in a country that’s 80 percent Catholic, that opposition means something. For more than a decade, the church’s leadership has rallied against a reproductive health bill in Congress that would guarantee universal access to birth control.

Recently, it even threatened the president with excommunication for supporting the bill.

OSCAR CRUZ, Filipino Archbishop Emeritus: That’s why I say, don’t fool with the church, because she will bury you.

SAM EATON: Filipino Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz says the key to everyone having enough food to eat is a question of development, not population control.

OSCAR CRUZ: Once, I was asked, which would you prefer, to have less mouths to feed or to have more food to eat? And I said, is there a choice there? Come on, if you have more mouths to feed, then produce more food to eat, not the other way around.

SAM EATON: But that challenge to produce more food is already testing the limits of ecosystems, both on land and sea. Today, the Philippines imports more rice than any other nation on the planet. And according to the World Bank, every major species of fish here shows signs of severe overfishing.

Technological advances have helped boost the food supply, but they’ve failed to keep pace with the Philippine’s surging population growth.

Maternity wards like this one at a Manila hospital are overwhelmed.

Dr. Esmeraldo Ilem heads the hospital’s family planning unit, but spends most of his time these days with new mothers.

DR. ESMERALDO ILEM, Philippines: She’s only 29 years old. This is her seventh child.

SAM EATON: According to the Guttmacher Institute, more than half of all pregnancies in the Philippines are unintended. It’s the poor who come here for maternity care. But if they want to prevent pregnancies, they’re out of luck. Absent any state funding for birth control, Dr. Ilem has little to offer.

That’s a stark contrast to the Bohol Island fishing village, Humayhumay, where family planning is as close as the corner store. Here, the PATH Foundation Philippines program has taken on a life of its own. The project is now fully integrated with the local government’s rural health unit.

DR. JOAN CASTRO: The vision of the project is in this community you see more children educated who are able to become leaders and speak out for themselves in the future and be able to become stewards of their own sexuality and the future environment. This is the legacy.

SAM EATON: Dr. Castro says success stories like this one can help overcome traditional attitudes about birth control. Jason and Crisna Bostero, both practicing Catholics, don’t see a conflict between their religious beliefs and family planning.

For them, it’s about something much more immediate, like what kind of future they’re going to pass on to their two children.

CRISNA BOSTERO (through translator): I don’t want them to be like us, just to fish the sea, just to farm the land. This is not an easy way to earn a living. You are exposed to the sun. It’s better if they can finish their courses, so they can have comfortable lives.

SAM EATON: With both of their children in school, the Bosteros are hopeful about their future. But it’s a future that could easily be overwhelmed by outside forces.

After all, this is only one village in a country still deadlocked over a family planning law, in a world that’s projected to have nine billion mouths to feed by the middle of the century.

GWEN IFILL: Sam Eaton’s reporting on the Philippines food story continues tonight on American Public Media’s “Marketplace.” Listen to it on your public radio station.

You can also find an interactive map, a timeline, and many more resources at the Food for 9 Billion website. There’s a link to it on NewsHour.PBS.org.

CREDITS

Reporter/Producer: Sam Eaton

Camera: Sam Eaton

Editor: Charlotte Buchen

Local Fixer: Carlos Conde

Additional Field Translation: Mercy Butawan

Consulting Producer: Stephen Talbot

Series Producer: Cassandra Herrman

Executive Producer, Food for 9 Billion: Sharon Tiller

COMMENTARY: World must wake up to the coming crisis in the Sahel

Posted: 23 January 2012

Author: Malcolm Potts

If forecasters could draw isobars outlining human suffering, then the high pressure zone of human pain would surely be in the failed, and failing states, along the Sahel, and across to Somalia, Yemen and Afghanistan, says Professor Malcolm Potts. This powerful Commentary is a wake-up call for new strategies to avert an environmentally-induced human catastrophe.

Along the edge of the Sahara desert, rapid population growth, global warming, poor governance and a hideous mistreatment of women are combining in a perfect storm which could lead to unprecedented levels of environmental stress, starvation, escalating conflict and massive waves of migration.

The potential for human misery is colossal. The need to act is pressing. The scale of problems in the Sahel goes beyond the usual response to a potential humanitarian disaster. New international strategies need to be built about food security, family planning, gender equity and governance that have major geopolitical implications for the rest of the twenty-first century.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.peopleandplanet.net/?lid=30205&topic=27&section=33