Population Growth

I just read this letter from the President, John Seager, from Population Connection’s Reporter, and thought I’d share it with you. The magazine (pdf) can be downloaded at

https://www.populationconnection.org/site/DocServer/Reporter.pdf?docID=1221

Species evolve as their world
changes. So do organizations.
Founded in 1968 as ZPG, our
mission has evolved from “stop at two”
children to its present form:

Overpopulation threatens the quality of
life for people everywhere. Population
Connection is the national grassroots population
organization that educates young
people and advocates progressive action
to stabilize world population at a level
that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

As for the still-relevant goal of “zero
population growth,” will the earth be
sustainable if population stabilizes at
nine or ten billion? I think not.
ZPG played that early role urging
Americans to “stop at two” children. It
worked. Currently, our two biggest
challenges are unplanned births and net

migration.
Global population growth is different.
Unless one believes that extraterrestrials
walk among us, no one is migrating
to—or from—Planet Earth. Addressing
the unmet need for contraception of
200 million women worldwide is the
top priority these days.
How can we move toward population
stabilization? One part seems easy, in
theory. Just get 218 members of the
House and 60 members of the Senate
to pass bills addressing various aspects
of the issue with funding and programs.
President Obama signs them into law.
Mission accomplished.
Watching the Senate debate health
care provided a sense of just how excruciating
that process is these days. As
Teddy Roosevelt said, politics is “the art
of the possible.” Alas, it demands compromise
that’s often hard to swallow.
At Population Connection we work
on solutions. We reach three million
students each year. We painstakingly
correlate our curricula with thousands
of state and national standards.
We work with Congress, which is
besieged on all fronts by groups, each
convinced that its own issue—from
farms to schools, from energy to cities
—is most important.We work with prochoice
legislators who carry the banner.
We also work with legislators who
oppose abortion, but support family
planning.
All things considered, 2009 was a
very good year for our cause with the
rescission of the Global Gag Rule,
restoration of UN family planning
funds, and a remarkable 40% increase
in congressionally-appropriated international
family planning funding.
I have a certain fondness for those
early “glory days” of ZPG. Times
change, though. Today, we measure
success in terms of training 11,000
teachers annually on hundreds of campuses
and elsewhere.
We also measure it in terms of getting
legislation through the labyrinthine corridors
of Congress, where awkward
compromise lurks around every corner.
Thanks to your support, we can tell legislators
that people “back home”
expect them to take action. That matters
a great deal.
Population Connection will continue
to evolve as circumstances change and
new opportunities present themselves.
Evolution is essential.

John Seager
john@popconnect.org

—
Albert Kaufman
Portland, Oregon

Population growth affects the quality of life for everyone. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

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https://donation.populationconnection.org/form/donate.php