By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. You can have no influence over those for whom you have underlying contempt. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of us involved in efforts for a more just and sustainable world generally have strong opinions on issues that get people excited, such as climate change and reproductive rights. If
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By Suzanne York. “Can the world get richer forever?” asks a recent article in the BBC News. If you ask a politician, mainstream economist or the 1%, the answer is likely to be “yes.”    As noted in the BBC piece, growth “is almost universally seen as a Good Thing.”  If you ask most environmentalists, scientists
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By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. After looking at sexual education challenges in South Africa and in the U.K., it seems appropriate to examine our sexual education picture in the United States. Currently there are no national standards for sexual education. Instead, the width and breadth of what students learn is determined on a state
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org. If you’re an American, you might be pleased to hear how your taxpayer dollars are being used at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), especially in support of women.  On this International Women’s Day, here is a brief look at what our international aid agency is doing. Gender and Empowerment
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org In the U.S., almost all the weather news seems to be fixated on the snow storms back East.  Yet despite the cold and snow, more records for heat have been broken than for cold.  The winter of 2014-15 has been so warm across much of the West that more than 20
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By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. My last post discussed sexual education in South Africa, and this week I am in the United Kingdom, where sexual education is a hot topic. I recently spoke with Simon Ross, Chief Executive of Population Matters, an organization promoting small family size and mindful consumption. They are part of
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By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. In many parts of South Africa, condoms are free and widely available, and local clinics offer free birth control, HIV tests and treatment. Brochures and signs can be seen throughout the country encouraging safe sex. Despite these public health efforts, survey after survey indicates high numbers of unprotected sex,
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China’s population growth has been popping up in the news recently.  It seems the government’s concern about too much population growth has now swung in the other direction – today the issue is a shrinking labor pool. The Chinese labor force has already peaked and its population will shrink after 2030, though some experts  think
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By Suzanne York. “In fact, person for person, reducing birth rates in industrialized nations has a bigger impact on greenhouse gas emissions because affluent people use more of the Earth’s resources and depend more heavily on fossil fuels.” Thus wrote the editorial board of the Los Angeles Timesover the weekend. Word is getting out that
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By Kimberly Absher, guest youth blogger, www.howmany.org. Promoting women’s health is my passion. My first exposure occurred in a community college class probably not titled Feminism 101, but it could have been. It blew my mind. I started volunteering at a YWCA day shelter for homeless and low-income women, set in an affluent corporate suburb
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