Population Matters is a British nonprofit dedicated to improvements in family planning, sex education, and girls’ and women’s’ rights worldwide.
Why am I discussing this organization on a radio program devoted to environmental issues? Because Population Matters directly links the rising world population to climate change and other environmental problems.
Our world population of 7 billion is expected to rise to about 10 billion people by 2050. That is three billion more mouths to feed, requiring us to clear more forests for agriculture. A rising population will mean more houses to heat and cool, and more cars, trucks, and motorcycles on the road. The result of all of this is more pollutants, including greenhouse gas emissions.
Organizations like Population Matters ask that we couple family planning assistance with international aid; that we let girls be girls instead of brides; and that we improve education for young women, which has been proven to reduce birth rates. They also urge parents everywhere to limit their family’s size to two or fewer children.
A study conducted by the London School of Economics concludes that it would be five times cheaper to spend money on non-coercive family planning initiatives than to spend it on technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
That makes birth control a powerful tool in the arsenal of weapons against climate change.
Web Links
http://www.populationmatters.org/
Photo, taken on September 10, 2010, courtesy of Writing on the Mall via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.