- In this continuing series on overpopulation in America
by Marilyn Hempel, editor of Population Press, you, a concerned citizen,
will find more information than anything in the main stream media. In
a recent edition of Population Press, "The Earth is One ~ The
World Not Yet" byMarilyn Hempel www.populationpress.org
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- ""The Earth is one but the world is not,"
begins Our Common Future, the famous Brundtland report on sustainable development,"
said Hempel. "What goes up one nation's chimneys or down its drains
may come to rest on the trees or beaches of another. That report, written
in 1987, continues, "We all depend upon one Earth, one biosphere,
for sustaining our lives. Yet each community, each country, strives for
survival and prosperity with little regard for its impact on others. Some
consume Earth's resources at a rate that would leave little for future
generations. Others ... live with the prospect of hunger, squalor, disease
and early death.""
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- Population
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- "Add to that litany overpopulation, mostly in the
poorest regions and in countries that have dwindling natural resources,
countries such as Yemen and Somalia and Pakistan and Afghanistan,"
said Hempel. "The world now faces the specter of a growing list of
'Failed States', countries that cannot adequately care for their people,
places that are a perfect breeding ground for violent unrest and terrorist
organizations.
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- "According to the most recent United Nations Population
Prospects, fertility in the least developed countries is projected to drop
from 4.39 children per woman in 2005-2010 to 2.41 in 2045-2050. To achieve
this reduction, it is essential that access to family planning expand quickly.
In 2005, the use of modern contraceptive methods in the least developed
countries was only 23% of women of reproductive age. The urgency of realizing
the projected reductions of fertility is huge. If fertility remains constant
at the levels of 2005-2010, the population of the less developed regions
will increase to 9.8 billion in 2050 instead of the 7.9 billion projected
by assuming that fertility declines. The reality: without further
reductions of fertility, world population could increase by nearly twice
as much as currently expected!"
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- Climate Disruption
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- "The connection between population growth and climate
disruption is complex and controversial," said Hempel. "There
is no doubt that adding more people to the planet only exacerbates the
great problems we now face. And there is no doubt that increased investment
in voluntary family planning services is cheap compared to the price of
war or of coping with climate disaster. But climate change is largely being
driven by the industrialized consumption habits of developed nations-led
by the U.S. Let's face it: as long as the U.S. is not seriously reducing
its carbon emissions, advocating family planning elsewhere appears to blame
climate change on "those other people". We must change our own
society while at the same time helping others, if we are to achieve a more
stable world. And we must do all this within the life-support system of
one planet-while leaving habitat for non-human lives.
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- "That means, put simply, fewer people demanding
less stuff. Saying it is easy; doing it is hard; not doing it has consequences
many of us do not yet comprehend. As Lester Brown exhorts us: "First
we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask
if it is possible."
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- "As a new decade begins in 2010, The Population
Press examines the state of the world-climate disruption, war, failed states,
economic woes, the status of women-and what we need to do to become One-with
each other and with the beautiful blue planet, Earth."
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- You may contact Marilyn Hempel at www.populationpress.org or
- info@populationpress.org
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- _____
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- Thank the efforts of the men and women at www.NumbersUSA.com ;www.fairus.org ; www.capsweb.org ;
- www.grassfire.com ; www.alipac.com; www.firecoalition.com;
- www.thedustininmansociety.org;
- www.cairco.org and many other organizations
working to stop mass legal and illegal immigration into America.
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