By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, February 14, 2012 Is it possible to talk about sustainable development without talking about population, in a world of 7 billion people and growing? Apparently the policymakers involved with the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) conference (Rio+20) think so, from the dearth of the words “population growth” appearing in
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, Feb. 10, 2012 The University of California, Berkeley hosted a gathering February 4th of globally-respected experts in the fields of population, sustainability, and global health. Some 450 participants heard why it is critical that the world addresses these issues today. Malcom Potts, director and founder of the Bixby Center for Population,
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, February 2, 2012 This past January 24th the Santa Monica City Council unanimously approved a progressive sustainability bill of rights, building on the Santa Monica City Sustainability Plan first established back in 1994. The resolution calls on the city to “recognize the rights of people, natural communities, and ecosystems to exist,
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, January 26, 2012 Most of the news we get about Afghanistan is negative and depressing. This is especially true where womens’ rights and reproductive health are concerned. But if we look hard, there are signs of hope. First, some cold hard facts. The population of Afghanistan today is 31 million
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There has been a lot of news in the past week on teen pregnancy. Shockingly, a report by the Center for Disease Control found that one-third of teen mothers didn’t use birth control because they didn’t believe they could get pregnant. And for some good news on family planning, the Obama Administration announced it would
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, January 17, 2012 photo: Creative Commons / Chin tin tin article.wn.com Some top thinkers recently gathered in Washington, DC to strategize on population, women’s rights and environment issues. Experts met at the Aspen Institute on January 12th to discuss “The Road to Rio: Climate Change, Population and Sustainability” and find
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, January 12, 2012 A new study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology predicts climate change will disrupt the delicate ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species. It will lead to reduced biodiversity and adversely affect the Earth’s water, energy, carbon and other
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The sobering Global Risks Report 2012 was just released in advance of the World Economic Forum taking place later this month in Davos, Switzerland – an annual gathering of some of the top leaders in business, economics and politics. The report is based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia, and civil
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, January 10, 2012 In a country that has one of the highest birthrates in South East Asia, a proposal to provide citizens free contraception sounds like a smart move. But in the Philippines, smart bumps up against culture and religion. With a population of over 95 million and a total fertility
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Japan’s economy stronger than USA’s This is usually obfuscated by using total GDP to measure growth, but per-capita GDP growth in Japan for the past decade has been stronger in Japan than in the U.S. or the Euro Zone. We find it encouraging that even The Economist is noticing one of the pitfalls of relying
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