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
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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
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org A recent op-ed in the New York Times titled Overpopulation is not the Problem takes an “interesting” position on the topic of population growth and the environment. The author, Erle C. Ellis, a geography professor and biologist by training, wrote, “The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org If you want to have an impact on reducing carbon emissions and the effects of climate change, look no further than your kitchen. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year the world wastes a third of all food for human consumption – nearly 1.3 billion tons – equal
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Slowly but surely, economists and other experts are beginning to see the light on the need to rethink society’s obsession with growth, be it population or economic. Dean Baker, an economist with the Center for Economic & Policy Research, took the New York Times to task for celebrating fertility rates in
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org In this summer of drought in many places around the world, concern about water is growing.  Coping with water scarcity is a main topic at World Water Week, which is currently winding down in Stockholm, Sweden.  This is an annual gathering of leaders, experts, and perhaps a few activists to discuss
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Can the world improve food security in the face of rising food prices, population growth, climate change, poverty, and gender inequality? New research in the journal Climatic Change found that a changing climate will likely push food prices up 20 to 40%, regardless of cuts to future carbon emissions.  As reported
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Forget nature, as oil trumps conservation once again.  Last week, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, announced the end of an innovative plan to protect one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, opting instead to allow drilling for oil. Known as the Yasuní-ITT Initiative, the plan called for permanently leaving more
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org If there is one day that all of humanity can recognize together, it would be that of Earth Overshoot Day.  This is the day that global resource consumption for the year exceeds the planet’s ability to replenish its natural capital. Or to put it another way, it is comparable to living
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The relationship between trade and population is based on one main thing, and that is growth.  Growth of people, growth of goods and services, and growth of markets and capital. The latest population projection from the United Nations is for a world population of 8.1 billion people by 2025, and 9.6
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