By Suzanne York, HowMany.org. Over half the world’s population of 7 billion people is age 25 or under. The opportunities we provide these youths, and the choices they make – especially in terms of health, education, and jobs – will make a huge difference in our future, including whether global population rises to 10 billion
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, May 30, 2012 During a week spent ensconced in the depths of the concept of degrowth at the Degrowth in the Americas conference, it was encouraging to find that population issues were interwoven  into plenaries and workshops throughout the week.  The issue is often viewed as taboo and/or the elephant in
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By Suzanne York, May 15, 2012 A full agenda was on tap here at the first main day of the Degrowth in the Americas conference. Below is some of what was discussed at the morning session, which set the stage for this week-long event. It kicked off with a showing of the film Journey of
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, April 9, 2012 Happiness is back in the news, at least at the United Nations. If you paid close attention, you were reminded that the UN unanimously adopted a resolution last year based on the concept of Gross National Happiness. Officially called UN Resolution 65/309, “Happiness: towards a holistic approach to
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, Feb. 29, 2012 Economic growth is virtually always in the news. Stories about the economy and individual companies often focus on successful growth or bemoan it’s absence. Our politicians repeatedly promise more economic growth. The reality is that we live in a world of finite resources, many of which are becoming
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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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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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Admin note: This article first appeared on the CASSE blog (Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy) by Brian Czech Could President Obama be the one who leads Americans to recognize the ever-growing conflict between GDP and the health of the nation? Could Obama be the first to hearken the steady state economy
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, Dec. 8, 2011  As global talks on climate change proceed at  the UN conference in Durban, South Africa,  it’s a pretty sure bet that population growth  won’t figure in any serious discussion.  Always the elephant in the room, we ignore  it at great cost to our communities and  environment. Our numbers
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, November 17, 2011 This week was the local premiere of the documentary film Growthbusters: Hooked on Growth. I have been anticipating this movie for awhile now, having been researching and writing on the world’s obsession with endless economic growth on a planet with finite resources. Growthbusters did a good job of
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