PMC’s President, Bill Ryerson, wrote a report for the Post Carbon Reader. Below is an excerpt from the report and a brief video statement by Bill Ryerson.

To download the full report, visit:
http://www.postcarbon.org/Reader/PCReader-Ryerson-Population.pdf

POPULATION: The Multiplier of Everything Else

When it comes to controversial issues, population is in a class by itself.

Advocates and activists working to reduce global population growth and size are attacked by the Left for supposedly ignoring human-rights issues, glossing over Western overconsumption, or even seeking to reduce the number of people of color. They are attacked by the Right for supposedly favoring widespread abortion, promoting promiscuity via sex education, or wanting to harm economic growth. Others think the problem has been solved, or believe that the real problem is that we have a shortage of people (the so-called “birth dearth”). Still others think the population problem will solve itself, or that technological innovations will make our numbers irrelevant.
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The following article appeared on the VOV News website and talks about PMC’s program in Vietnam, Khat Vong Song (“The Desire for Life”)
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HIV/AIDS radio drama brings good social impact
http://english.vovnews.vn

A ceremony to mark the end of the two-year serial radio project ‘Desire for life’ was held at Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) headquarters on August 16.

The ceremony was co-organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Danish Government (DANIDA) and VOV.
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Earth’s Overdraft Notice: On August 21st, we exceed nature’s budget

(OAKLAND, CA, USA) – It has taken humanity less than nine months to exhaust its ecological budget for the year, according to data from Global Footprint Network, a California-based environmental research organization.

Global Footprint Network calculates nature’s supply in the form of biocapacity, the amount of resources the planet regenerates each year, and compares that to human demand: the amount it takes to produce all the living resources we consume and absorb our carbon dioxide emissions. Its data reveal that, as of August 21, humanity will have demanded all the ecological services – from filtering CO2 to producing the raw materials for food – that nature can provide this year.
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Many thanks to Moya Muller for letting me know the news that Iran was elected to be a member of the UN Commission on Women’s Rights (CSW). According to its charter, the CSW is dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. As Moya pointed out, to let Iran be a party to it, allowing it to influence its decision making, is outrageous. Below is the letter Moya sent to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. Below the letter is a link to the office of the Ambassador to the United Nations.
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Many thanks to Bob Walker and Population Online for the following article. To subscribe to Population Online, visit www.populationinstitute.org.
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It is a good week to be thinking about gender equality and women’s rights. International Women’s Day, which was on Monday, was celebrated around the world. At the United Nations this week over 700 government officials, thousands NGO leaders, and even a few celebrities have assembled for the 54th meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women. Across town, The Daily Beast’s inaugural Women in the World conference kicks off this weekend.

With appearances at the UN by the likes of Meryl Streep and Hillary Clinton, public attention to women’s rights and gender equality has been intense. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, there is an effort underway to make sure that attention to gender issues does not wane when the stars retreat to Hollywood and top government officials return to their capitals. Indeed, many of the same government officials and civil leaders meeting in New York this week are seeking to promote gender equality and women’s rights as a core UN mission, akin to universal human rights and global development.

For full article, visit:
http://www.undispatch.com/node/9659

This news comes via the Indian Committee of Youth Organizations.
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United Nations, New York, 2 July 2010 – In an historic move, the United Nations General Assembly voted unanimously today to create a new entity to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.

The establishment of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – to be known as UN Women – is a result of years of negotiations between UN Member States and advocacy by the global women’s movement. It is part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact.
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Leyla W. couldn’t figure out where her birth control pills kept going. One day a few tablets would be missing; the next, the whole container. Her then-boyfriend shrugged and said he hadn’t seen them. She believed him – until she found them in his drawer. When she confronted him, he hit her. “That was his way of shutting me up,” says Leyla, who is in her mid-20s and living in Northern California. (For her safety, Leyla wishes to withhold her last name and hometown.) He also raped her and, most days, left her locked in a bedroom with a bit of food and water while he went to work. (A roommate took pity and let her out until he came home.) Thanks to the missed pills, she got pregnant twice, the second time deciding against abortion.

For full article, visit:
http://www.thenation.com/article/when-teen-pregnancy-no-accident

From the Family Violence Prevention Fund’s newsletter.
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Reproductive control – when a partner imposes his reproductive intentions through intimidation, threats or actual violence – is a common problem for women who experience intimate partner violence, according to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute on April 6.

Three in four respondents (74 percent) in the new study – of 71 domestic violence victims seeking services at a family planning clinic, an abortion clinic and a domestic violence shelter – reported that their partners had threatened to get them pregnant, forced them to have unprotected sex, sabotaged or interfered with their contraception, threatened them with sexual intercourse, tried to control the outcome of their pregnancies if they became pregnant, or in other ways tried to coerce their reproductive outcomes. These abusive behaviors can lead to unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and a host of other problems.

For full article, visit:
http://www.endabuse.org/content/news/detail/1495/

Thanks to Marianne Ward for this article.
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About a decade ago, Elizabeth Miller remembers seeing a certain teenage girl at a hospital clinic for adolescents in Boston. The patient thought she might be pregnant and asked for a test. When it came out negative, Miller started asking the standard questions, inquiring as to whether her patient wanted to be pregnant (she didn’t) and whether she was using contraceptives (she wasn’t). So Miller explained all of the birth-control options and, as she describes it, “sent her on her merry way with a brown bag of condoms.” It was, by most measures, a pretty routine appointment.

Except that, two weeks later, the same patient was back at the hospital, in the emergency room after her partner pushed her down the stairs. “That was the wake-up call where I started thinking there might be a relationship between the two situations,” says Miller, now an assistant professor of pediatrics at University of California, Davis.

For full article, visit:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232542

Thanks to Fred Meyerson for this article from the New York Times.
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When Nirupama Pathak left this remote mining region for graduate school in New Delhi, she seemed to be leaving the old India for the new. Her parents paid her tuition and did not resist when she wanted to choose her own career. But choosing a husband was another matter.

Her family was Brahmin, the highest Hindu caste, and when Ms. Pathak, 22, announced she was secretly engaged to a young man from a caste lower than hers, her family began pressing her to change her mind. They warned of social ostracism and accused her of defiling their religion.

For full article, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/world/asia/10honor.html?_r=1&emc=eta1