6.7 Billion Elephants in the Room and Counting

Friday, August 29, 2008
Posted in Sustainability | Tagged Sustainability

Washington, D.C.- World population growth-a trend intrinsically linked to issues of poverty, development, equity, and the environment-remains a taboo subject in many circles and is conspicuously absent from the public discourse. A special issue of World Watch magazine focused on population reveals that empowering women to make their own family size choices through education, economic opportunity, and family planning services is the best strategy to tackle population growth and the many problems connected to it. “The planet faces a range of grave and interlinked challenges. None of these problems becomes more tractable if population is ignored,” says World Watch Editor Tom Prugh. “Fortunately, a goal that is valid on its moral merits-fairness to women-also turns out to be pragmatic.”

According to recent United Nations figures, over 1 billion people worldwide live on less than US$1 per day. Such grinding poverty is associated with higher rates of fertility, and the vast majority of the world’s near-term population growth is anticipated in the most disadvantaged regions, writes Lori Hunter, author of “Population, Health, and Environment Through a ‘Gendered Lens.’”

Growing populations also contribute to deteriorating environmental conditions, such as water and food shortages and human-induced climate change. As the effects of climate change begin to take hold, the number of environmental refugees is expected to grow. One estimate cited by Elizabeth Leahy and Sean Peoples in “Population and Security” estimates that 200 million people will be displaced by the impacts of climate change by 2050.

Recent data have shown that women with at least a secondary level of education eventually give birth to one-third to one-half as many children as women with no formal education. Hunter points to countries like Ethiopia where women with no education have an average of 6.1 children while women with secondary or higher education average just 2.0 children, a figure slightly below replacement-level fertility.

Despite these and similar studies, attitudes on population remain mixed at best. Although 60 percent of Americans aged 18-24 understand that there is a strong link between a growing global population and climate change, only 35 percent believe that having fewer children themselves would help protect the environment. Public opinion is further confused by countries that are concerned with their own populations’ aging and decline. Some governments in Europe and East Asia have recently offered prospective parents incentives such as financial bonuses and subsidized daycare to encourage childbearing.

Currently estimated at 6.7 billion, the global population is expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050. In an excerpt from his new book More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, Robert Engelman discusses what lies ahead for an expanding human race:

“Unless governments focus on creating the conditions by which births result from the conscious decisions of women and their partners to parent a child, there’s no reason to be confident that global family size will fall to a two-child average. Even if it does, the grand, one-time-only experiment-how many of us can the Earth and we ourselves sustain?-will continue, for a few decades at least, in the only available laboratory, the only available home.”

- END -

Inside the Population Forum

Editors Introduction, by Tom Prugh

Unnatural Increase? by Robert Engelman

A short history of population trends and influences.

Population, Health, and Environment Through a “Gendered” Lens, by Lori M. Hunter

When women are better off, so are populations.

U.S. Attitudes on Population, by Scott Connolly, Katie Elmore, and William Ryerson

A mixed picture reflecting confusing media messages.

Of Butterflies, Birds, and Bees, by Bernard O. Orimbo

A program that gets it about eduction, opportunity, and population.

Population, Urbanization, and the Environment, by Leiwen Jiang, Malea Hoepf Young, and Karen Hardee

Growing cities both stress and benefit the environment.

Population and Security, by Elizabeth Leahy and Sean Peoples

Risks from growth, youth, migration, and environmental strain.

Also in the September/October Issue

Matters of Scale: Carbon Tracks

Estimated carbon emissions per passenger mile traveled (grams of CO₂):

Automobile…………………………………………………………..130-390

Commercial jetliner…………………………………………………180-280

Bus……………………………………………………………………110-190

Train…………………………………………………………………..100-180

Walking (if all calories came from top sirloin)…………………..900-1,600

(from ground beef)……………………………………….500-1,500

(from 2% milk)………………………………………………200-400

(from apple)…………………………………………………..50-100

(from typical U.S. diet)…………………………………………..160

(from vegan diet)………………………………………………….50

For more information or a digital copy of the magazine, please contact:

Julia Tier, Tel: (+1) 202.452.1999 x594, e-mail:

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About World Watch magazine: This bimonthly magazine is published by the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1988, the magazine has won the Alternative Press Award for investigative journalism, the Project Censored Award, and a number of Utne Reader awards. Please visit: www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/.

Subscription Information: One-year subscriptions (6 issues) within the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are $33 for individuals, $50 for institutions, and $25 for students. International subscriptions are $51 for individuals, $63 for institutions, and $40 for students. Purchase subscriptions through the Worldwatch website: www.worldwatch.org or call 1.888.544.2303 (in U.S.) or 1.570.320.2076 (from overseas).

Prism Webcast News