By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Alarmingly, food insecurity in Africa’s Sahel belt continues to worsen. This week the United Nations reported that 16 million people in the region are at risk of going hungry in the next year due to violent conflicts and rapid population growth. The Sahel encompasses a semiarid strip of land in Sub-Saharan
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org A recent report by scientists from the National Research Council states that climate change is occurring gradually over the century and that its worst effects can be avoided by keeping emissions below a critical threshold. Due to the burning of fossil fuels, industrial activity and deforestation, the scientists say the accelerating
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org For a river that is as venerated as the Ganges River (known as Ganga to Indians), it comes as a shock when people hear how polluted and imperiled the waterway is today. Roughly 3 billion liters of sewage is dumped into the river every day, and there is further contamination of
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The third annual International Conference on Family Planning ended in mid-November with a focus on successful initiatives and with momentum to enact voluntary family planning services and education for people around the world. The breadth and depth of work undertaken by professionals and activists is exciting.   From addressing maternal mortality to
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Most Americans have heard about the glitches with the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. But apparently many women haven’t heard that birth control is essentially available for free under health insurance plans.  According to the Phoenix Marketing Company, which has been tracking this topic, this is
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The 2013 International Conference on Family Planning is in full swing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, concentrated around the them of “Full Access, Full Choice.” The nearly 4,000 participants are energized around bringing family planning and reproductive rights to communities in need the world over.  Ethiopia, the second most-populous nation in Africa,
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Being in India – a country of 1.3 billion people – sort of puts the whole notion of sustainability on its head.  The poverty, pollution, chaos and shear numbers makes everything a challenge, to put it simply.  Here on the sub-continent, and globally, can a healthy, “resilient” environment be created in
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org As the United States is recovering from the government shutdown and the still-ongoing battle over the Affordable Care Act, which was legally passed by Congress, it is worthwhile to note the state of healthcare as it applies to reproduction and the rights of women. The Guttmacher Institute recently came out with
[continue reading…]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The U.S. Energy Information Administration just released a report showing that the carbon dioxide pollution emitted by Americans dropped 3.8 percent in 2012. Though U.S. CO2 emissions in 2012 amounted to 368,000 pounds of pollution per second, this is the lowest level since 1994. Ryan Koronowski of Climate Progress wrote that
[continue reading…]

Perhaps surprisingly, men often get overlooked in discussions on family planning, population growth, and empowerment. Yet men’s understanding and cooperation is essential in improving the state of families and communities, and for also reaching a stable world population.  The most recent UN (mid-range) projection on population growth is 9.6 billion people by 2050. The Need
[continue reading…]