December 2, 2002
$1 Can Make a Difference
The Thirty-four Million Friends Campaign
encourages Americans to send $1 each to the United Nations Population Fund to make up for the fact that
President Bush canceled the entire $34 million U.S. contribution to UNFPA, the funding which had been approved
by both houses of Congress. The $34 million is 12.5% of the UNFPA budget and without it, there will be cutbacks
in family planning, reduction in the number of safe-birth kits distributed in rural areas of poor countries, and
generally more misery the world's most vulnerable women and children. Without it, the resulting population growth
will cause even more conflicts over resources, particularly water, and more environmental stress. The total received
is now above $100,000, and at least $2,000 is arriving every day in hundreds of envelopes. The grass-roots effort
to raise money was independently conceived by Jane Roberts and Lois Abraham. Ms. Roberts said: "Population
stabilization is the most effective way to leave a peaceful world to our grandchildren." Send $1 to the United
Nations Population Fund, in care of the U.S. Committee for UNFPA, 220 E. 42nd St., Suite 2800, New York,
NY, 10017.
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Article:
Do we Need Growth?
No matter how smart the growth or how good the planning, a rapid increase in population can overwhelm a community's best efforts.. Smart Growth strategies - redevelopment, in-fill, public transit, mixed use development, and green space - are not sufficient. Oregon, for example, is forced to grow urban growth boundaries to accomodate population growth.
Vanished Open Space = Population X per capita Developed Land. 63% of the 47% increase of the greater Washington (D.C.) area between 1982 and 1997 was due to population growth. Reducing per capita land use alone will not accomodate the increase of the 1.6 million people expected in the Washington area in the next 25 years.
Traffic Congestion = Population X per capita VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled). The Washington area Metrorail sees 650,000 Metrorail trips per day while the number of vehicle trips per day is 15.6 million - which will grow by 5.5 million over the next twenty years. Congested lane miles are projected to increase from 7.1% in 1998 to 10-12% in 2025.
Water Demand = Population X per capita Water Consumption. South Florida's Everglades is buckling under pressure from pollution and water diversions to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. According to a spokesperson for Everglades National Park, the stressed out system "could ecologically fail within the next 20 years."
Sewage = Plant and animal-killing nitrogen discharged from municipal sewage treatment plants has declined with nitrogen reduction techonology (NRT), but population growth will soon reverse the NRT gains. In the Chesapeake Bay, "If no further actions are taken, we anticipate increased [nitrogen] discharges after 2010 due to population growth."
While the national population grows rapidly, curbing sprawl in one region pushes sprawl into other regions. The Census Bureau says we may reach 571 million by 2100. A stable U.S. population can be achieved through a modest reduction in U.S. fertility - by attaining fertility rates of other industrialized countries. (I.e. Norway-1.85 Spain-1.15). Even keeping current immigration levels!
Economic Growth Comparing 13 faster growing areas to 13 slower growing areas showed a big difference in the rate of job growth, but a negligible difference in the unemployment rate. The more jobs lured into an urban area, the more people will move in to fill them, increasing congestion, and decreasing quality of life for those that live there. Population growth increases total economic growth but not per capita economic growth. In a study of 15 western European countries with relatively low population growth, compared to the U.S., with high population growth, the per capita Gross Domestic Product was not shown to significantly correlate to population growth.
Restraining the Growth Machine. Metropolitan area population growth can be slowed by ending subsidies that promote local population growth. Unfortunately the land speculators, developers, and real estate brokers profit from local growth are rich and powerful.
Restrain new business recruitment
Make development pay its way
Elect public officials whose campaign funding is not dominated by Growth Machine money
Slowing National Population Growth
Decrease the number of dropouts
Reduce poverty
Family planning services for low-income women
Educating and influencing attitudes of teens and young women
Providing family planning and development in countries where migration orginates
· .Excerpted from 'In Growth We Trust: Sprawl, Smart Growth, and Rapid Population Growth', by Edwin Stennett. I have copies of this 136-page book available.
