From the Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ website.
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In an op-ed published in The Washington Post on January 4, Neil Howe and Richard Jackson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) sound the alarm about the “massive disruption” the world may face in the 2020s due to population aging. Howe and Jackson co-authored The Graying of the Great Powers (see New Security Beat review), a 2008 CSIS report that elaborates on the supposed “political warfare” that will break out as a result of aging in the developed world, accompanied by turmoil in developing countries with young populations.

For full article, visit:
http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com

On April 14, 2009, PMC’s Director of Communications, Katie Elmore was featured on Analysis, a radio program on BBC Radio that gives an in-depth look on certain issues in the news.

Thanks to Lester Brown for this book bite.
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As land and water become scarce, competition for these vital resources intensifies within societies, particularly between the wealthy and those who are poor and dispossessed. The shrinkage of life-supporting resources per person that comes with population growth is threatening to drop the living standards of millions of people below the survival level, leading to potentially unmanageable social tensions.
Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Bob Fireovid for sending me this short piece by Professor Herman Daly on the current financial crisis.
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The current financial debacle is really not a “liquidity” crisis as it is often euphemistically called. It is a crisis of overgrowth of financial assets relative to growth of real wealth – pretty much the opposite of too little liquidity. Financial assets have grown by a large multiple of the real economy – paper exchanging for paper is now 20 times greater than exchanges of paper for real commodities. It should be no surprise that the relative value of the vastly more abundant financial assets has fallen in terms of real assets. Real wealth is concrete; financial assets are abstractions – existing real wealth carries a lien on it in the amount of future debt.

For full article, visit:
http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11053.aspx

Thanks to John Meyer for this article.
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Jeffrey Sachs, a development economist, writes in his book “The End of Poverty” of a telling phrase by Gro Harlem Brundtland, then the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO). “If you want to get someone’s attention about the health crises in Africa, ‘show them the money’,” she once remarked to him. This is something that governments and international agencies have long known: emphasising that an idea is good for economic growth makes it easier to sell. The WHO has used the same argument to press for more investment in health.

For full article, visit:
http://www.economist.com/research

Thanks to Wolfger Schneider for this article from Mother Earth News.
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I think it’s time for us to start visualizing the future we desire. I’m not pretending it will be easy to get there.

I believe we have three tall mountains to climb.

Conservation is, indeed, the first – if smallest – mountain. We need to forestall the effects of global warming as much as possible while we get our act together. We’re on the lower slopes of the first mountain.

For full article, visit:
http://www.motherearthnews.com

Many thanks to Colin Butler, Associate Professor, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at Australian National University, for this article.

Population Globalization Ecology and Conflict (PDF, 129 KB)

Many thanks to MP Richard Ottaway for sending me the transcript of the 4 February debate in the British Parliament on population issues.

The original can be found at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090204/halltext/90204h0004.htm#09020462000002
continuing at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090204/halltext/90204h0005.htm
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4 Feb 2009 : Column 253WH
Global Population Growth

11 am
Mr. David Kidney (Stafford) (Lab): It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr. Illsley, and I know that as usual you will be firm but fair in chairing the proceedings. It is also a pleasure to see the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Lewis), in his place to respond to the debate. I have followed his career with great pride and joy and am pleased that he has been so successful. I wish him well in his new job in Government, which is an exciting but difficult one.
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Call for Abstracts: Due 4/24
2009 Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference
November 15-18, 2009,
Marriott Wardman Park, Washington, D.C.
www.BECCconference.org

The Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference focuses on understanding the behavior and decision-making of individuals and organizations and on using that knowledge to accelerate our transition to a more energy-efficient and low-carbon future. It brings together a diverse group of policymakers, social scientists, energy experts, and communicators to discuss the social and behavioral basis for energy use and behavioral strategies for reducing consumption through improved technologies, programs, and practices. 2009 BECC builds on the sell-out success of last year’s conference that included 190 presentations and panels, 40 topic/plenary sessions and 700 participants. Deadline for abstracts for oral and poster presentations is April 24, 2009. See website for details. www.BECCconference.org.
2009 BECC is co-convened Stanford University’s Precourt Energy Efficiency Center (PEEC), the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) at the University of California and the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy.

Source: The Buck Blog http://jillbuck.blogspot.com

Think about your favorite ABC Afterschool special, and chances are, my guest on Go Green Radio either wrote it or produced it. Virginia Carter began her career as a physicist in the aerospace industry and in the Air Force. But thanks to a serendipitous friendship with the wife of Norman Lear, Virginia has become an incredible force for good and social change through media. She was awarded an Emmy and two Peabody Awards for her work on the immensely popular American situation comedies All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time, The Facts of Life, and Diff’rent Strokes. She assisted in the production of the top five most highly rated television shows in the United States during the 1980s. Virginia now does pro bono work for Population Media Center, which aims to improve the health and well-being of people around the world. http://www.populationmedia.org/

This was one of my favorite interviews in the past year of Go Green Radio. It was truly an honor to talk to Virginia, and we’ll have her on again soon. In the meantime, check out the podcast of our conversation at: http://www.modavox.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=37510