League of
Women Voters of the Upper Valley
Hanover,
NH, Norwich, VT and neighboring towns
updated
7/29/04 Home Page
>> talks at
recent League forums
"Population,
Women & the Environment"
- A
talk by by Julie
Starr, Population and
Environment Specialist, National Wildlife Federation. Text
provided by Julie Starr
- From
the 2004 series "Coping with Population Growth: Impacts and Solutions."
sponsored by the LWVUV Natural
Resources Committee
Why
Population Matters for the Environment
More People =
Increased Demand on Resources
With the
world’s population increasing by 77 million people every year, the
choices we make have far reaching impacts on the natural world.
Unprecedented
Growth
It took from
the first recorded human until 1960 to reach a global population of 3
billion people.
In the 43
years since then, we have more than doubled that. The 6 billionth
person was born in October of 1999. We are now at 6.3 billion.
If the current
growth rate continues, the world’s population will double, to 12
billion, by 2050.
The world’s
population has grown more since 1950 than in the previous four million
years.
Consumption
I=PAT Formula:
Impact =
Population x Affluence x Technology
The U.S.,
which has less than 5% of the world’s population, consumes what
percentage of the world’s resources?
a) 5%
b) 10%
c) 25%
d) 50%
(answer = c)
The average
American has approximately how many times the environmental impact of
an average person in Laos or Uganda?
a) Twice the
impact
b) 5 times the
impact
c) 100 times
the impact
d) 300 times
the impact
(answer = d)
Population and
Wildlife
One out of
every eight plant species on earth is threatened with extinction.
In the past
200 years, the United States has lost almost 500 species of known
native plants and animals.
Population
& Biodiversity
Biodiversity
Hotspots - More than 1.1 billion people live in areas that
conservationists consider the most rich in non-human species and the
most threatened by human activities. While these areas comprise about
12 percent of the planet’s land surface, they hold nearly 20 percent of
its human population.
Major tropical
Wilderness areas- The last great expanses of tropical forest.
- Gender
& Environment
- Roles
& Responsibilities: farming, logging, fishing, mining, water and
fuelwood collection, child care, food preparation, harvesting,….
- Lack of
Access to & Control over Resources: social, economic,
institutional, and legal constraints.
- Lack of
Public Participation in Decision-making
Impacts of
Environmental Degradation on Gender
- More
Time & Energy for Tasks: increased travel time, girls kept out of
school
- Increased
Reproductive Risks: exposure to industrial & agricultural chemicals
- Higher
Exposure to Indoor Pollutants: respiratory infections due to burning of
biomass fuels affects women & children
- Decreased
Nutrition for Families: reduced soil fertility & lack of fuelwood
What portion
of all children not attending school are girls?
a) 2/3
b) 1/2
c) 1/3
d) ¼
(answer = a)
Poverty and
tradition keep 90 million school aged girls out of the classroom.
Women’s
Education and Childbearing …
The Case for
International Family Planning: Unmet Need
Over 150
million women of childbearing age and over 350 million couples want to
use contraceptives and cannot access them.
514,000 women
die each year from pregnancy or childbirth.
People,
Planning & Sustainability
- Influence
human behavior to take into account human impacts on the environment,
natural resources, and wildlife
- Address
population growth as an environmental issue on the national and
international level.
- Support
increased funding for international family planning
- Meet
commitments made at United Nations conferences
International
Conference on Population and Development (ICPD)
In 1994, 179
nations met in Cairo, Egypt
Consensus on a
comprehensive 20 year Programme of Action to achieve:
- gender
equity
- improve
reproductive health
- stabilize
world population growth
The Cairo
Revolution: ICPD Goals
- Universal
access to quality and affordable reproductive health services,
including family planning and sexual health
- Significant
reductions in infant, child, and maternal mortality
- Broad
based measures to ensure gender equity and equality and the empowerment
of women
- Universal
access to primary education
- An end
to the "gender gap" in education
- Integrated
Reproductive Health Care
Of the
approximately $17 billion needed annually to achieve universal access
to reproductive health care in the year 2000,
Countries at
ICPD agreed:
- $5.7
billion (1/3 total funding) would come from donor countries and
development banks
- $11.3
billion (2/3 total funding) would come from recipient countries
Recent
estimates show:
- $2
billion is contributed by donor countries and development banks
- $8
billion is funded by recipient countries
- Donor
countries are meeting 1/3 of their commitment, while developing
countries are meeting 2/3 of theirs. This is amazing given what we know
about the difficulty for developing country governments to meet the
needs of growing populations on over-stretched budgets. It shows that
there is political will to meet these commitments!
What % of U.S.
Federal Budget is spent on Foreign Aid?
a) 15%
b) 50%
c) 4%
d) less
than 1%
(answer = d)
… surveys show
that Americans think our government spends around 15%
How are
Population Programs Funded?
US Agency for
International Development (USAID) - bilateral aid through US State
Dept, subject to Global Gag Rule
The Global Gag
Rule policy disqualifies foreign non-governmental organizations (NGO’s)
from receiving US family planning funds if they provide - with their
own private funds – legal abortion services or provide counseling and
referral for abortion, or if they lobby to make abortion legal or more
available in their country.
United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) - multilateral aid, lost US funding in 2002
despite a bipartisan congressional appropriation of $34 million to the
Fund.
What Can
You Do?
- Learn
the Issues - fact sheets, videos, activist trainings, etc. Contact
Julie Starr at National Wildlife Federation to get materials
(802.229.0650 or jstarr@nwf.org)
- Write
Letters to the Editor and Letters to Congress
- Do
Awareness-raising events in your community or on campuses
- Start a
grassroots campaign! For more information on the national grassroots
campaign to reaffirm the commitments made at the Cairo conference,
visit www.amotherspromise.org to sign the petition and learn about how
your citizen group can pass a resolution.
People and
Nature: Our Future is in the Balance
Home
www.uppervalleyleague.org