Below is an excerpt of Chapter 8 of Dr. Stephen Mumford’s 1984 book, “American Democracy and the Vatican”. See: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2012/03/the-vaticans-infiltration-and-cooptation-of-american-population-organizations/

The Vatican’s infiltration and cooptation of American population organizations

Since the days of Margaret Sanger, the Church has ordered members to infiltrate population organizations to collect intelligence and under­mine them from within.

Editor’s note: Given this November’s US presidential election and the Catholic Church’s immense stake in the outcome, we are publishing a series of excerpts from N4CM Chairman Dr Stephen D. Mumford’s book, “American Democracy and the Vatican”. In the following chapter, Dr Mumford documents the Vatican’s infiltration and cooptation of American population organizations. This chapter is as relevant and revealing today as it was when the book was first published in 1984: A powerful US force fostering domestic and international family planning services has languished as world population has needlessly risen from 3.9 billion in 1972 to 7 billion in 2011.

Chapter 8: The Catholic Hierarchy’s Cooptation of the American Population Establishment

Since the days of Margaret Sanger, the Church has ordered members to infiltrate population organizations to collect intelligence and under­mine them from within. Documented cases of this in Planned Parent­hood organizations across the country probably number in the hun­dreds. For example, while I was working at Planned Parenthood of Houston, a recently hired Catholic woman was caught photocopying the clinic’s foundation contributor list which she had no reason to have in her possession. She admitted that she had been asked to get the list by local leadership of the Catholic hierarchy.

However, by far the most significant example of infiltration and cooptation occurred during the 1970s. The target was the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Population, which provides international population assistance. Dr. Reimert T. Ravenholt, that office’s first and only director until 1980, is unquestionably the most important leader in the international population field, a man of great courage and intelligence. From the very creation of this office in 1966, Ravenholt was the subject of intensive personal and professional attacks, some of them prompted by the Church, which often used unsuspecting non-Catholics to criticize his tactics and judgment. A few non-Catholics sought personal gain in return for their attacks. Despite the intense Catholic hostility directed at the program, successes of the program were considerable, a reflection largely of Ravenholt’s considerable courage and inner strength but also because the people of recipient nations greatly desired what this program offered.

To read the full chapter, please click here: http://churchandstate.org.uk/2012/03/the-vaticans-infiltration-and-cooptation-of-american-population-organizations/

The following article was penned by the economics editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Ross Gittins.  Population size and growth are major political issues in Australia. In fact, a 2011 survey of nearly 16,000 people revealed that 64% of the Sydney community would not like an increased population, 9% would like it and 27% did not know or did not care. (Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation:Planning, Zoning and Development Assessments, Productivity Commission Research Report Volume 1, p.28, April 2011; Source. Available from http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/108840/planning-volume1.pdf [accessed 6 March 2012]).

If you click on this link you can also watch a 2-minute commentary from Gittins regarding his opinion piece:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/human-cost-of-inaction-incalculable-20120320-1vhrv.html

Human cost of inaction incalculable

March 21, 2012

Opinion

Do you ever wonder how the environment – the global ecosystem – will cope with the continuing growth in the world population plus the rapid economic development of China, India and various other ”emerging economies”? I do. And it’s not a comforting thought.

But now that reputable and highly orthodox outfit the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has attempted to think it through systematically. In its report Environmental Outlook to 2050, it projects existing socio-economic trends for 40 years, assuming no new policies to counter environmental problems.

It’s not possible to know what the future holds, of course, and such modelling – economic or scientific – is a highly imperfect way of making predictions. Even so, some idea is better than no idea. It’s possible the organisation’s projections are unduly pessimistic, but it’s just as likely they understate the problem because they don’t adequately capture the way various problems could interact and compound.

Then there’s the problem of ”tipping points”. We know natural systems have tipping points, beyond which damaging change becomes irreversible. There are likely to be tipping points in climate change, species loss, groundwater depletion and land degradation.

”However, these thresholds are in many cases not yet fully understood, nor are the environmental, social and economic consequences of crossing them,” the report admits. In which case, they’re not allowed for in the projections.

Over the past four decades, human endeavour has unleashed unprecedented economic growth in the pursuit of higher living standards. While the world’s population has increased by more than 3 billion people since 1970, the size of the world economy has more than tripled.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/human-cost-of-inaction-incalculable-20120320-1vhrv.html

Edmund Levering sent me this article, published by Guttmacher Institute. See: http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2012/03/15/index.html

MORE THAN HALF OF ALL REPRODUCTIVE-AGE U.S. WOMEN NOW LIVE IN STATES HOSTILE TO ABORTION RIGHTS

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Significant Increase Seen Over Past Decade As Many “Middle Ground” States Shift To “Hostile;” Little Change Among “Supportive” States

Fifty-five percent of all reproductive-age U.S. women lived in a state hostile to abortion rights in 2011, up significantly from 31% in 2000, according to a new Guttmacher Institute policy analysis. The increase is the result of a dramatic shift in the abortion policy landscape at the state level over the past decade, including a record number of abortion restrictions that were enacted in 2011.

“In 2000, the country was more evenly divided: nearly a third of women lived in states solidly hostile to abortion rights, slightly more than a third in states supportive of abortion rights and close to a third in middle-ground states,” says Rachel Benson Gold, Guttmacher’s director of policy analysis. “By 2011, however, more than half of women of reproductive age lived in hostile states. This growth came largely at the expense of the states in the middle. Only one in 10 women lived in a middle-ground state by 2011.”

The analysis finds that most states-35 in total-remained in the same category in all three years (see above). However, of the 15 states whose abortion policy landscape changed substantially, all became more restrictive. Two formerly supportive states had moved to the middle-ground category by 2011, and one had become hostile. And 12 states that had been middle-ground in 2000 had become hostile by 2011. In 2000, 19 states were middle-ground and only 13 were hostile. By 2011, 26 states were hostile to abortion rights, and the number of middle-ground states had been cut in half, to nine ( click here for a map illustrating the change over time).

“The regional differences are striking,” says Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher’s state issues manager.

“West Coast and Northeastern states remained consistently supportive of abortion rights. But a swath of states in the middle of the country moved from being middle-ground states in 2000 to hostile in 2011. And of the 13 states in the South, half were hostile in 2000-but all had become so by 2011.”

The authors conclude that shoring up the remaining states in the middle-ground group may be key to stopping the further national erosion of abortion rights-and that efforts to do so may well be successful. They also argue that these states may be ripe for progress on related reproductive and sexual health issues such as contraception and sex education.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2012/03/15/index.html

The following article was penned by a student writer, reporting on a seminar held at the Earth Institute and titled, ““The Population Bomb: Defused or Still Ticking?” The author is named Emily Thibodeaux, and she is a writing student and MFA candidate in the School of the Arts, a Columbia Teaching Fellow and an intern in the Office of Academic and Research Programs at the Earth Institute. She resides in Manhattan.

See: http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/03/08/populationbomb/

“The Population Bomb: Defused or Still Ticking?”
Emily Thibodeaux

“Thank you for coming on this gorgeous day, to sit in an airless, lightless room and discuss how to save the world,” said John Mutter, director of Columbia’s PhD in Sustainable Development and a member of the Earth Institute faculty, in welcoming the audience of the Sustainable Development Seminar, “The Population Bomb: Defused or Still Ticking?” The seminar brought together a panel of demography and population experts, who, Mutter calculated, shared a total of 121 years’ experience in the field.

Panelists included John Bongaarts, vice president and distinguished scholar of the Population Council; Joel E. Cohen, director of the Lab of Populations at Rockefeller University and Earth Institute faculty member; Mark R. Montgomery, professor of Economics at SUNY Stony Brook and senior associate with the Population Council’s Poverty, Gender, and Youth program; and Hania Zlotnik, recently retired Director of the Population Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations.

It became apparent, upon the beginning of the discussion, that the population bomb was not so much ticking, as exploding. “We are going through a period of extraordinary demographic change,” Bongaarts said, as he projected a graph showing a steep rise in the population growth rate from 1900 to 2100. The current world population, which is estimated to be 7 billion, is projected to reach 10.2 billion by 2100. Most of the added population will take place in Africa.

The world population remained under 1 billion and relatively stable until the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, when the population began a “super exponential ascent,” as Cohen put it.

To read the full article, please click here: http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/03/08/populationbomb/

Here is an interesting article about the travails of the island nation of Kiribati. They are considering buying roughly 10 square miles of Fiji as a back-up plan against sea-level increase (many of their atolls are only a couple of feet above current sea level). Their current population is about 103,000 people, though they are growing at a 1.5% rate. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/kiribati-global-warming-fiji_n_1334228.html

Kiribati Global Warming Fears: Entire Nation May Move To Fiji By NICK PERRY 03/ 9/12 07:06 AM ET

– Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.

Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could be insurance for Kiribati’s entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave.

“We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it,” Tong said. “It wouldn’t be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won’t be a matter of choice. It’s basically going to be a matter of survival.”

Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the international date line, has found itself at the leading edge of the debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/09/kiribati-global-warming-fiji_n_1334228.html

Craig Dilworth sent me the following essay of his, titled “Overpopulation and the Vicious Circle Principle”. The essay summarizes the treatment that population growth in receives in Mr. Dilworth’s book, Too Smart for Our Own Good. You can read a several short reviews on the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Too-Smart-our-Own-Good/dp/052176436X

Overpopulation and the Vicious Circle Principle

In my book Too Smart for Our Own Good, I present an ecological theory intended to explain human evolution and development, and I apply that theory to all major aspects of our actual evolution and development over the past 7 million years. In this paper, I shall summarise the treatment that population growth in particular receives in Too Smart.

The most fundamental determinants of a population’s behaviour are its species’ instincts. These instincts evolve with the species; and the species’ environment at the time the species first comes into existence is probably the one best suited to the species. It is on the basis of its instinctual behaviour that a species avoids extinction. When operating properly, instincts see to it that the species’ population stays in dynamic equilibrium with the other physical and biological systems making up its surroundings. Doing this will mean the species’ populations’ not becoming either too small or too large.

The earlier in a species’ evolution a type of instinct appears, the more basic instincts of that type are. Along these lines I distinguish three kinds of instinct: survival, sexual and social. The more sophisticated the species, the greater the number and sophistication of its instincts.

The most primitive instincts are the survival, which exist in all animals, and include consuming food, and avoiding being consumed. The ‘fight or flight’ response falls under the survival instincts.

Next are the sexual instincts, found in all sexually reproducing animals, first among them being to impregnate or get impregnated. In more-developed species they include the maternal and other parental instincts. The influence of parental instincts increases with the relative brain size of the members of the species, since infants will be progressively less mature when born and thus need more care. Both the survival and sexual instincts support the individual’s gene line (its genetic fitness); and it is in the context of sexual instincts in particular that individual territoriality arises.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Ryerson sent me this Christian Science Monitor article from March 2, 2012, which was also reprinted by the Center for Biological Diversity. You can read the full article and watch a related 2 minute video here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0302/Ocean-acidification-worst-in-300-million-years-study-finds-video

Ocean acidification worst in 300 million years, study finds (+video)
By Wynne Parry

Researchers at Columbia University have found that carbon dioxide emissions have lowered the pH at a rate unparalleled in at least the last 300 million years of our planet’s history.

The oceans are becoming more acidic faster than they have in the past 300 million years, a period that includes four mass extinctions, researchers have found.

Then, as is happening now, increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warmed the planet and made the oceans more acidic. These changes are associated with major shifts in climate and mass extinctions.

But while past increases in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide levels resulted from volcanoes and other natural causes, today that spike is due to human activities, the scientists note.

“What we’re doing today really stands out,” lead researcher Bärbel Hönisch, a paleoceanographer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in a news release. “We know that life during past ocean acidification events was not wiped out – new species evolved to replace those that died off. But if industrial carbon emissions continue at the current pace, we may lose organisms we care about – coral reefs, oysters, salmon.” [Humans Causing 6th Mass Extinction]

As the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, oceans absorb that carbon dioxide, which turns into a carbon acid. As a result the pH – a measure of acidity – drops, meaning the water has become more acidic. This dissolves the carbonates needed by some organisms, like corals, oysters or the tiny snails salmon eat.

To read the rest of the article, click here: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0302/Ocean-acidification-worst-in-300-million-years-study-finds-video

Please see this Letter to the Editor, written by Kathleen Parker and published in the Green Fire Times. See: http://greenfiretimes.com/2012/03/letter-to-the-editor-water-acequias-population-and-development/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=letter-to-the-editor-water-acequias-population-and-development

Letter to the Editor: Water, Acequias, Population and Development

Kudos for focus (January 2012) on acequias, a topic I covered for years for a major New Mexico daily. Based on that and a lifetime centered around water-from watching a family well dry up, to fighting two Colorado water projects-I share former NM Acequia Commissioner Wilfred Guttierez’ apprehensions about the threat to acequias in the early 21st century.

As warned by the Scripps Institute, the Pacific Institute, the National Academy of Sciences, the University of Colorado, author William deBuys and others, the Southwest is in the crosshairs of mushrooming population, drought and global warming. DeBuys writes: “If you live in the Southwest or just about anywhere in the American West, you or your children and grandchildren could soon enough be facing the Age of Thirst, which may also prove to be the greatest water crisis in the history of civilization.” I fear he understates the situation a bit!

The United States is the world’s third most populated nation behind only China and India, and despite Census Bureau efforts to obfuscate the fact, it grows-70 percent from immigration-by a whopping 1.1 percent a year, or a doubling time of 65 years or less. The Southwest is the fastest-growing region of that high-growth nation, and often experiences growth rates-between 2 and 3 percent per annum-matched only in Africa! We are almost identical in geographic size and climate to China, which was at roughly our current population of 314 million just one hundred years ago. We can anticipate a China-like population of one billion, possible by next century if current trends hold!

The Southwest is mostly dependent on the waters of just one river, the Colorado and its tributaries. It is today more an elaborate plumbing system than a river system. When the river was allocated-legally divided between Upper and Lower basin states in 1922-16.4 million acre-feet of water was allocated before it was determined only about 14.2 million acre feet flow in the river. Further studies showed the average more likely to be 13.5 million acre feet even as, since 1922, the region’s population has exploded, with towns experiencing a thousand-fold increase in population to become mega-cities resting in the midst of five deserts with a population of 60 million, up from about two million or three million 100 years ago.

To read the rest of this Letter to the Editor, please click here: http://greenfiretimes.com/2012/03/letter-to-the-editor-water-acequias-population-and-development/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=letter-to-the-editor-water-acequias-population-and-development

I first saw this report on the revamped All Africa site; it quotes Kavita Ramdas, executive director of Stanford University’s social entrepreneurship program, as saying that the population and climate connection need to be made “…in a place where we can talk thoughtfully about the fact that yes, more people on this planet – and we’ve just crossed 7 billion – does actually put pressure on the planet. And no, it is not just black women or brown women or Chinese women who create that problem.”

You can also watch a webcast of the event being reported on here:

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/womens-health-key-to-climate-adaptation-strategies

See here for the article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201202291096.html

Time to Tackle ‘Last Taboo’ of Contraception and Climate – Experts

New York – Finding a way to put the environmental impact of population and women’s reproductive health more prominently on the climate change agenda is increasingly urgent, experts said in Washington this week.

Suggesting a strong connection between family planning and the environment often risks an explosion in the highly charged political landscape of climate talks, meaning the word “population” is rarely heard, observed speakers on a panel assembled by the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP).

Kavita Ramdas, executive director of Stanford University’s social entrepreneurship program, calls making the link between population and the environment “the last taboo”.

“This connection … needs to be in a place where we can talk thoughtfully about the fact that yes, more people on this planet – and we’ve just crossed 7 billion – does actually put pressure on the planet. And no, it is not just black women or brown women or Chinese women who create that problem,” she told a session on women’s health and climate adaptation strategies.

“In fact, the issues around consumption in the more developed part of the world are profoundly significant. And when you know that every American baby born consumes 40 times as much as every Indian baby born, clearly there is a need to be able to tie those issues together,” she added.

Daniel Schensul, a technical specialist in the climate change, population and development branch of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), noted that adapting to a shifting climate amounts to building resilience in the face of change. “Women’s ability to control fertility, I think, is at the very centre of this,” he said.

To read the rest of the article, click here: http://allafrica.com/stories/201202291096.html

I am happy to share two articles on PMC’s work in Sierra Leone. The first reports on the opening of a new radio station, and the second on the efforts of PMC program advisory board member and Hollywood actress Alexandra Paul to help train local actors.

As a reminder, Sierra Leone is a country of approximately 6 million people with a population doubling time of 32 years. The total fertility rate of 5 children per woman is among the highest in the world. This high fertility rate is compounded by low use and knowledge of modern contraceptive methods by men and women throughout the country.

The fertility rate is, in part, a reflection of the ideal number of children among married women (5.3) and among married men (6.8). Only 7% of married women (15-49 years of age) in Sierra Leone use a modern method of contraception. Among non-users of modern contraception, the reasons given for non-use are partner opposition (14.4%), fear of side effects or health concerns (14.2%), personal opposition (13.5%), lack of knowledge of methods or sources (12%), wanting as many children as possible (10.8%), and religious opposition (9.3%). Cost was cited by only 1.3%, and lack of access was cited by only 0.3%.

See: http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200519774.shtml

In order to complement government efforts in the health sector, the Population Media Center (PMC) has opened a new radio studio in Sierra Leone to help entertain and educate the people on health issues. This was disclosed to pressmen during an open house press conference at PMC office in Freetown.

In his statement, the country director PMC Mr. Victor Massaquoi said they now have a brand new studio that was state of the art, with all sophisticated and advanced modern equipment. He informed that, they had experts who will soon start to train people to disseminate pertinent messages that are relevant to health issues, adding that, PMC will be producing serial radio drama in episodes that will focus on changing the behavior of people especially rural residents who do not have ideas about basic and domestic well beings.

He said, every Sunday and Wednesday around 7pm to 9pm, they in the Western Area will link with Radios in the Southern, Eastern and Northern Provinces of the country to entertain and educate the people. He went on to explain how essential family planning is and why they should educate the people on it.

Kriss Barker who doubles as vice president PLC International said, they were looking for new talents to help educate them in the art of disseminating messages that are relevant on health issues. She informed that, research conducted by UNFPA has revealed that a lot of health education is essential for Sierra Leone.

To read the rest of the article, click here: http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200519774.shtml

PMC team up with Hollywood actress to train local actors

See: http://www.awoko.org/2012/02/27/pmc-team-up-with-hollywood-actress-to-train-local-actors/

An International Non Governmental Organisation, Population Media Center (PMC) has teamed up with Hollywood actress Alexandra Paul to train local actors and actresses for PMC’s newest series in the country.

Alexandra Paul is best known for her role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in TV series “Baywatch”. She has been a long time advocate of population issues.

The training which started on 25th February will end on March 1st 2012. Alexandra will help PMC create highly engaging drama that will help empower women and promote the use of family planning.

Addressing guests on Friday at the official opening of their state of the art recording studio at their Congo Cross office in Freetown, PMC Country Director Victor Massaquoi explained that they will produce 298 episodes on reproductive health which is supported by UNFPA and Marie Stopes. He added that the project on reproductive health rights will last for three years. The project he said will address malaria prevention, reproductive health and family planning, adolescent reproductive health and unwanted pregnancies, gender based violence, HIV/AIDS, Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) and stigma and obstetric fistula, delayed care and antenatal care.

The Country Director reiterated that the radio drama series will be aired every Wednesday and Sunday after the training of local actors and actresses and will come on at 7pm to 9pm on different radio stations across the country.

To read the rest of the article, click here: http://www.awoko.org/2012/02/27/pmc-team-up-with-hollywood-actress-to-train-local-actors/