By Geoffrey Holland, guest writer for Transition Earth. Humans have been a distinct species for at least 200,000 years.  For most of those years, we were stone age nomads. Humans are omnivores, which mean we are able and willing to eat almost anything. During the Neolithic era, generally speaking, men hunted animals to eat, while
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By Suzanne York. A light went off for many conservationists attending the African Great Lakes Conference (AGLC) this past week. They learned that there is an integrated development model that can help make their environmental efforts successful for the long-term. It’s simple, really. By connecting population, health and environment issues, people will be empowered with
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Everywhere you turn today there is talk of economic growth.  A growing economy is the gold standard and main policy goal of just about every nation. There is not much talk about growth in sustainable livelihoods or well-being.  Yet a mantra of continued economic growth is what we hear from mainstream
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Interconnectedness.  Community.  Cooperation. Creating narratives.  Social justice.  Sustainability for all.  These are just some of the themes that came up over and over again at the recent U.S. Society for Ecological Economics 7th Biennial Conference. The official theme was “Building Local, Scaling Global: Implementing Solutions for Sustainability.”  For the most part,
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Ethiopia is the cradle of humankind.  It is also home to an array of animal species.  Yet both people and nature are under threat, mainly due to environmental degradation, poaching, and human population growth. Today there are close to 90 million people in Ethiopia (it is the 2nd most populous nation
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org If you are concerned at all about world population growth, human rights (and especially women’s rights), and protecting the environment, then you should know about how PHE (Population, Health and Environment) programs can effectively address these issues. PHE projects are relatively new in the development sector, but this holistic approach recognizes
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org A recent story on BBC News epitomizes some of the challenges for balancing conservation efforts and the needs of people. The news article of note addressed wildlife, endangered species, development, and population growth in Nepal. Titled Attacks Prompt Nepal to Cap Wildlife Growth, the BBC reports that “Officials in Nepal have
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, March 22, 2012  A study just released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is warning that climate change could exacerbate environmental disasters in Asia and result in a surge of migration by people fleeing crises. In its report, Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific, the ADB observed
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By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, March 7, 2012 In the midst of all the political attacks on contraceptive coverage and women’s rights here in the U.S., it is more important than ever that we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th. It’s hard to believe that in the U.S., a country which has the highest rates
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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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