OMNI's War and Warming Anthologies: OVERPOPULATION NEWSLETTER #8

OMNI

OVER-POPULATION, GROWTH, SPECIES EXTINCTIONS, HUNGER, CLIMATE CHANGE NEWSLETTER #9, March 17, 2016.

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

(#1 July 8, 2010; #2 April 23, 2012; #3 April 4, 2014; #4 June 28, 2014; #5, June 5, 2015; #6, July 16, 2015; #7, Nov. 5, 2015; #8 Jan. 8, 2016).

See UN World Population DAY, July 11, 2014 http://omnicenter.org/newsletters/2014/2014-07-11.pdf, and 2015

http://omnicenter.org/donate/

What’s at stake: Reducing or at least stabilizing population growth and its catastrophic increase of the human footprint: CO2, biodiversity loss/6^th extinction, conflict over resources, wars, deforestation, soil erosion, desertification, shrinking water supplies, depletion of safe fresh water, diminishing aquifers, air pollution, hunger, meat consumption, affluent overconsumption, CO2, warming, climate change, melting glaciers, rising seas, weather extremes, droughts, fires, floods, CO2.

Contents: Population Growth Newsletter #9

Nourish Network: Stopping Habitable Ecosystem Collapse

Population Stabilization Helps the Economy

Population Connection, Capitol Hill Days for Students

Pathfinder’s Purnima Mane: Jailata a Model for Women of the World

Anderson: Population Growth, Carnivorism, and Chaos of Climate Change:
Universal eschewal of meat wouldn’t single-handedly stave off global
warming, but it would go a long way toward mitigating climate change.

UUA Support of Family Planning: safe, healthy, and culturally sensitive family
planning (and UUA opposes meat consumption: the two goals are
inseparable for significant restraint on CO2 emissions)

SPECIAL SECTION ON UNITED NATIONS POPULATION FUND

UN Population Fund

UN Population Fund 2016

Biography of Dr. Nafis Sadik, Former Director of the UN Population Fund

Ashley Judd Named Good-Will Ambassador

NOURISH NETWORK

“Whether the tide of human and ecological nutrition affairs can be turned in the diminishing time-frame available before habitable ecosystem collapse occurs, depends above all on four factors. One is slowing, stopping and reversing population growth. Two is arresting ecosystem destruction, particularly that caused by energy production at the cost of food and water security. Three is better strategies to resolve conflict, including agreement to meet basic needs in less materialistic ways. Four is providing satisfying and productive livelihoods in all populations and communities.” Nourish Network news.nourishnet@gmail.com 2-16-16

THE GOOD CRISIS: HOW POPULATION STABILIZATION CAN FOSTER A HEALTHY U.S. ECONOMY

http://www.populationconnection.org/pathways/the-good-crisis/

The Good Crisis: How Population Stabilization Can Foster a Healthy U.S. Economy features contributions by leading experts in aging, demography, public health, environment, and steady state economics.

The Good Crisis proposes that initiating progressive social and economic changes alongside population stabilization can promote economic prosperity—increased birth rates are not required. Since the 1970s, Americans have had small families on average. Our national fertility rate is now just below replacement rate, at 1.9 children per woman. Ben Wattenberg, Phillip Longman, and Jonathan Last have all argued that a low birth rate spells economic and social disaster.

Our book stands as a counterpoint to this “birth dearth” myth. It demonstrates how the United States can leverage population stabilization by ensuring that Americans gain access to better education and healthcare, by preventing teen pregnancy, and by welcoming marginal groups into the workforce. The Good Crisis shows that we can foster a healthy economy while protecting our natural resources from unsustainable population growth.

Population Connection’s Capitol Hill Days and Arkansas Students

By the way, our field department is editing the Capitol Hill Days flyer so that it’s specific to Arkansas students, but here’s the link to our website with the information, just in case! You might want to share this information, too, because the event is open to all: http://www.populationconnection.org/advocate/capitol-hill-days-2016/.

PATHFINDER and JAILATA

Purnima Mane, Pathfinder International via mta-bbcspool.convio.net

8:46 AM (10 hours ago)

to me 1-8-16

The power to change a life

Dear James,

In these early days of 2016, I want to take a minute to say thanks – for all the lives you helped change in the past year and all the possibilities ahead. You'll be hearing from me soon about more ways to make a difference, but before then I wanted to show you one of the real people whose future is already brighter because of Pathfinder supporters like you. Her name is Jailata.

Jailata came to Pathfinder when she was just 15. Her path – an arranged marriage, moving in with her husband's family, and quickly beginning to have children – seemed set, and it wasn't one she wanted.

And then, it all changed. Jailata joined a Pathfinder program in India, and found a world of possibilities and the power to change her entire future.

She learned about reproduction, contraception, and safe pregnancies. She found the courage to ask her family to delay her marriage. And then she did something profound: Jailata explained to her parents how being in charge of her own destiny would improve her whole family's future.

Jailata, Pathfinder program participant, at age 22

I'm declaring 2016 the year of Jailata. She is, in every way, the kind of person Pathfinder exists to serve. She is, in every way, a model and beacon of hope for women around the world who desperately need her inspiration, her light, and her courage.

"Community people used to put pressure on us," Jailata says. "They’d ask why I'm not getting married… their children are getting married now. But in time, my parents came to say, 'She's our daughter. She's studying. There is no problem.'"

Seven years after joining Pathfinder's programs, Jailata finished school and now works at a non-profit – and she's planning to get married in her own time, when she finds someone worthy of the bright future she has planned.

James, as we begin a new year, full of the promise and hope that Jailata represents, I want to take a minute to give a heartfelt thanks for all the change you made possible in 2015, and ask you to stay involved and help us reach more people in 2016.

The truth is, being a part of Pathfinder's program in India transformed Jailata's future – and she's not alone. In more than 25 countries, Pathfinder is reaching new communities with life-changing programs – engaging communities about gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and so much more. What starts as an invitation to a class can change the course of a woman's life – Jailata is living proof.Thanks

Purnima Mane, President
Pathfinder International

PS: Want to get all the breaking news and powerful stories about our work in action? Join the Pathfinder community on Facebook and Twitter!

Donate Now

PATHFINDER INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
9 Galen Street, Suite 217
Watertown, MA 02472
Contact Us »

What if Everyone in the World Became a Vegetarian?

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/05/meat_eating_and_climate_change_vegetarians_impact_on_the_economy_antibiotics.html

Calculating the chaos and the changed climate.

By L.V. Anderson

Treating yourself to vegan burgers with sweet potato and chickpeas isn't just a delicious indulgence; it could help save the planet.
The meat industry is one of the top contributors to climate change, directly and indirectly producing about 14.5 percent of the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and global meat consumption is on the rise. People generally like eating meat—when poor people start making more money, they almost invariably start buying more meat. As the population grows and eats more animal products, the consequences for climate change, pollution, and land use could be catastrophic.

Attempts to reduce meat consumption usually focus on baby steps—Meatless Monday and “vegan before 6,” passable fake chicken, and in vitro burgers. If the world is going to eat less meat, it’s going to have to be coaxed and cajoled into doing it, according to conventional wisdom.

But what if the convincing were the easy part? Suppose everyone in the world voluntarily stopped eating meat, en masse. I know it’s not actually going to happen. But the best-case scenario from a climate perspective would be if all 7 billion of us woke up one day and realized that PETA was right all along. If this collective change of spirit came to pass, like Peter Singer’s dearest fantasy come true, what would the ramifications be?

At least one research team has run the numbers on what global veganism would mean for the planet. In 2009 researchers from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency published their projections of the greenhouse gas consequences if humanity came to eat less meat, no meat, or no animal products at all. The researchers predicted that universal veganism would reduce agriculture-related carbon emissions by 17 percent, methane emissions by 24 percent, and nitrous oxide emissions by 21 percent by 2050. Universal vegetarianism would result in similarly impressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. What’s more, the Dutch researchers found that worldwide vegetarianism or veganism would achieve these gains at a much lower cost than a purely energy-focused intervention involving carbon taxes and renewable energy technology. The upshot: Universal eschewal of meat wouldn’t single-handedly stave off global warming, but it would go a long way toward mitigating climate change. MORE http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/05/meat_eating_and_climate_change_vegetarians_impact_on_the_economy_antibiotics.html

UUA FAMILY PLANNING, Google Search, Jan. 9, 2016

Reproductive Justice - Unitarian Universalist Association

www.uua.org/reproductive

Unitarian Universalist Association

We advocate not only for the freedom of those choices in each person's life ... for just and compassionate laws for family planning, reproductive health, and ...

Reproductive Justice - Unitarian Universalist Association

www.uua.org/.../reproductive-justice

Unitarian Universalist Association

The reproductive justice movement was founded at a time when the unique ... that support everyone's freedom of reproductive choice and expression of gender ... and family planning, and safe, healthy, and culturally sensitive reproductive ...

Reproductive Justice Resources and Links | UUA.org

www.uua.org/reproductive/281206.shtml

Unitarian Universalist Association

An advocacy guide for increasing US support of international family planning ...Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) Resolutions on Reproductive Choice

And see UUA’s opposition to meat consumption: “ANIMAL AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST DESTRUCTVE INDUSTRY FACING THE PLANET TODAY” (www.uuam.org ). Industrial animal agriculture increasing because of demand from increasing population.

Probably my favorite population organization is PCI Media Impact, http://mediaimpact.org/ They do radio drama, similar to soap opera, which gets large audiences and gets people talking about family planning and resources. Wanda

SPECIAL SECTION ON UNITED NATIONS

United Nations. “11.2 Billion People Projected by 2100.” AD-G (July 30, 2015).

“The world’s population is expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050.”

Stabilizing and reducing population will slow CO2/global warming/cc, poverty, and hunger, particularly if combined with reduced consumption in the US and other developed nations.

UN POPULATION FUND

Contents

UN Population Fund

UN Population Fund 2016

Biography of Dr. Nafis Sadik

Ashley Judd Named Good-Will Ambassador

UN POPULATION FUND/UNFPA

· Mission Statement

· Executive Leadership

· UNFPA in the UN System

· Executive Board

· New Strategic Direction

· Resources and Management

· Audit and Investigations

· Evaluation

· Employment

· Procurement

· Partners and Links

· UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors

· UN Population Award

· Frequently Asked Questions

· NGO Advisory Panel

ABOUT UNFPA

Français | Español

Our Mission

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, strives for a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person's potential is fulfilled.

UNFPA - because everyone counts

Meeting Development Goals

UNFPA partners with governments, other agencies and civil society to advance UNFPA's mission. Two frameworks guide its efforts: the Programme of Action adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development and the Millennium Development Goals, eight targets to reduce extreme poverty by 2015. Since the date for achieving these goals and targets is fast approaching, work is being accelerated to analyze successes, to galvanize support and to redouble efforts.

UNFPA Goals

The goals of UNFPA - achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health (including family planning), promoting reproductive rights, reducing maternal mortality and accelerating progress on the ICPD agenda and MDG 5 - are inextricably linked. UNFPA also focuses on improving the lives of youths and women by advocating for human rights and gender equality and by promoting the understanding of population dynamics. Population dynamics, including growth rates, age structure, fertility and mortality and migration have an effect on every aspect of human, social and economic progress. And sexual and reproductive health and women's empowerment all powerfully affect and are influenced by population trends.

Population and development strategies

As the world population edged to 7 billion people in 2011 (up from 2.5 billion in 1950), it has had profound implications for development. Governments need to gather adequate information about population dynamics and trends to create and manage sound policies and generate the political will to address both current and future human needs. UNFPA supports governments in these tasks, including censuses, surveys and population and development-related research and analysis. Key areas of focus include migration, ageing,climate change and urbanization. The 7 Billion Actions campaign, led by UNFPA and partners, engages people from all walks of life in these issues.

Sexual and reproductive health

Working with a range of partners, UNFPA assists governments in delivering sexual and reproductive health care throughout the life cycle of women and youths. These areas include:

Voluntary family planning
Antenatal, safe delivery and post-natal care
Prevention of abortion and management of its consequences
Treatment of reproductive-tract infections
Prevention, care and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV
Information, education and counselling, as appropriate, on human sexuality and reproductive health
Prevention of violence against women, care for survivors of violence and other actions to eliminate traditional harmful practices
Appropriate referrals for further diagnosis and management of the above.

Improving maternal health, MDG5, is a key UNFPA priority and the MDG target lagging the most. Important UNFPA initiatives include the Maternal Health Thematic Fund, the Campaign to End Fistula and numerouspartnerships. The importance of universal access to reproductive health is underscored by the fact that it was added as an MDG target by the international community in 2005.

Access to reproductive health care also demands what UNFPA calls reproductive health commodity security, the ability for all individuals to obtain and use quality reproductive health supplies of their choice whenever they need them. This is the aim of the UNFPA-led Global Programme on Reproductive Health Commodity Security. Expanding access to reproductive health care also relies on skilled midwives and other health-care workers.

Family Planning

Some 215 million women worldwide who would like to avoid or delay a pregnancy lack access to effective contraception. Fulfilling this unmet need for modern family planning in the developing world would reduce unintended pregnancies to 22 million from 75 million. UNFPA advocates for the right of all people to voluntarily decide the number and timing of their children. It supports programmes that improve access to and affordability of family planning services, offer a broad selection of choices, reflect high standards of care, are sensitive to cultural conditions, provide sufficient information about their use and address other reproductive health needs of women.

Gender equality and women's empowerment

The importance of gender equality and women's empowerment to development progress is underscored by its inclusion as one of the Millennium Development Goals. In fact, gender equality drives all the MDGs and is intimately linked and connected to goals to improve maternal and newborn health and reduce the spread of HIV.

UNFPA's gender framework incorporates four strategies that address critical factors behind inequalities and rights violations: girls' education, women's economic empowerment, women's political participation and balancing reproductive and productive roles.

UNFPA also brings gender issues to wider attention and promotes legal and policy reforms and gender-sensitive data collection. It works to end gender-based violence, including traditional practices that harm women, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting as well as pre-natal sex selection. UNFPA also raises awareness of women's strengths, vulnerabilities and needs in a variety of situations and issues, such as humanitarian emergencies, climate change and migration. It recognizes the rights, perspectives and influences of men and boys and seeks to involve them in promoting gender equality and improving reproductive health.

Broader Concerns

Promoting and protecting fundamental human rights, including reproductive rights, lie at the core of UNFPA activities. That is why the Fund places priority on reaching those with the greatest needs, whether it be related to poverty, marginalization, emergencies, age, sex, ethnicity or health.

Culturally sensitive human rights-based approaches

A strong emphasis on the human rights, including reproductive rights, of individual women and men underpins all of UNFPA's work. Promoting and protecting human rights, including reproductive rights, of women and men requires considerable cultural fluency as UNFPA works in some of the most sensitive and intimate spheres of human existence, including sexuality, gender relations and population issues. Since 2002, UNFPA has emphasized the integration of culturally sensitive approaches into its programmes. In doing so, it has worked closely within communities and with local agents of change, including religious leaders and faith-based organizations.

Supporting adolescents and youth

About one-quarter of the world's people is between 10 to 24 years old. UNFPA promotes and protects the rights of this important generation, particularly adolescent girls, and strives to achieve a world in which girls and boys have the best opportunities to develop their full potential, to express themselves freely, to have their views respected and to live free of HIV, poverty, discrimination and violence.

UNFPA's four keys to ensuring opportunities for young people include incorporating youth issues into national development and poverty-reduction strategies; expanding access to gender-sensitive sexual and reproductive health education that encourages the development of life skills; promoting a core package of health services and commodities for young people; and encouraging youth leadership and participation.

Responding to the AIDS epidemic

UNFPA's contribution to the global response to AIDS reflects its mandate to reduce poverty, eliminate gender inequality and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health. As a co-sponsor of UNAIDS and under the UNAIDS division of labour, UNFPA focuses its response on HIV prevention among young people, women and marginalized groups, including within the context of sex work. It supports comprehensive programming for male and female condoms and advocates the linking and integration of sexual and reproductive health and HIV policies, programmes and services. UNFPA ensures that family planning and maternal health services meet the needs of women living with HIV. This includes interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission and support for confidential voluntary HIV testing and counselling.

UNFPA also works in many contexts, including humanitarian and post-conflict situations, toward the elimination of gender-based violence and prevention of HIV.

Assisting in emergencies

In times of upheaval and conflicts, pregnancy-related deaths and sexual violence soar. Reproductive healthand obstetric services often become unavailable. Young people become more vulnerable to HIV infection and sexual exploitation. Too often, the special needs of women and young people are overlooked in humanitarian emergencies.

Within the coordinated interagency response to disasters, UNFPA takes the lead in providing supplies and services to protect reproductive health, emphasizing the special needs and vulnerabilities of women and young people. Both groups can figure prominently in rebuilding peace or communities.

UNFPA supports various data collection activities, including censuses to provide detailed information for planning and rapid health assessments to allow for appropriate, effective and efficient relief. It also assistsstricken communities as they move beyond the acute crisis stage and enter the reconstruction phase.

How We Work

UNFPA partners with governments, other United Nations agencies, communities, NGOs, foundations and the private sector to raise awareness and mobilize the support and resources to achieve its mission. The Fund is fully committed to a more effective, coherent and better coordinated UN system that 'delivers as one,' the essence of the UN reform process.

Starting in 2007, UNFPA decentralized its operations to become a more field-centred, efficient and strategic partner to the countries it serves. To do so, it established five regional and six subregional offices in the field that help coordinate work in about 150 countries, areas and territories through 129 country offices.

Donor contributions to UNFPA and other income in 2010 reached a record $870 million, up from $783 million a year earlier. Twenty-one donors each made contributions exceeding $1 million. The contribution from the Netherlands—UNFPA’s largest donor in 2010—totaled more than $119 million.

UNFPA 2016 http://www.unfpa.org/

United Nations Population Fund

UNFPA: Delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe, and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

State of World Population 2015

Shelter From The Storm - A transformative agenda for women and girls in a crisis-prone world. http://www.unfpa.org/

Honour roll

Child brides return to school in Niger

Zika virus and family planning

Statement by UNFPA Executive Director, Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin

Supporting women in conflict zones

Global leaders launch a new program

Passage to change

Empowering adolescent girls in India

Rebuilding Nepal

Youth take the lead in post-earthquake sexual and reproductive health outreach

Gender-based violence affects 1 in 3women globally.

UNFPA works with men and boys in over 80countries to promote gender equality.

In 2014, UNFPA helped young people in 53countries advocate on a national level for their rights and needs. *

In 2014, UNFPA advocated in 42countries to allow young people to access reproductive health care. *

8 March 2016

5000th baby born at a UNFPA-supported clinic for refugees in Jordan.

When Mohammad and Kholoud Suliman were told that their infant daughter was the 5000th baby born at the UNFPA-supported women’s clinic in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, they immediately knew how they would mark the... http://www.unfpa.org/

1 March 2016

On the move: A new mobile clinic reaches refugee women in the BalkansOn a bleak, cold day in late February, hundreds of refugees, bundled in winter coats and carrying bulging bags and baskets, stream into the Tebanovce transit centre, stationed on the border between the former Yugoslav... http://www.unfpa.org/

26 February 2016

Zika outbreak: Ensuring that sexual and reproductive health services are part of the response.

Daniela Souza Batista, age 32, was in her third month of pregnancy when she first noticed she had symptoms of Zika virus. It was late spring 2015, early in the Zika outbreak and months before the possible link between...

23 February 2016

The chain of hope: Treating obstetric fistula in Cameroon.

Due to complications during the birth of her 11th child, Zandelé Colette, now 56, underwent an emergency caesarean section. However, the procedure occurred too late to save the child, who died shortly after birth, and,...

More News

Videos http://www.unfpa.org/

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