Zero
Population Growthof Greater Boston
Zero
Population Growth
Volume 8, Number 6 |
November/December 1998 |
On Saturday, October 16, ten ZPG Boston members met at the Immigrant Workers Resource Center at 25 West Street in Boston with four staff members of ZPG National for a day of training for political activists. We spent much of the first two hours becoming acquainted, practicing our listening skills by interviewing each other, and discussing population issues and the problems of approaching legislators. We also thoroughly discussed the concepts and history behind the contraceptive coverage bills, both federal and state, learning that Maryland has already passed a successful bill and that federal employees will now be covered. We learned how the contraceptive coverage bill might be watered down and how to lobby to prevent such from occurring. After two hours we took a break for lunch, then continued with sessions on specific ways to approach our legislators.
Our training was supplemented by an inspiring talk by Kate Bourne of Pathfinder International, a 65 million dollar international family agency based in Watertown. She presented a fascinating picture of her experiences in Third World countries, and how they have worked to set up community-based clinics where the local people are trained to tend to their own citizens by dispensing medical advice, medications, and contraceptives. She had just returned from eight years in Vietnam and after that, China, and we asked her many questions including her impressions of how the dynamics in these countries have contributed to their view of the issue of overpopulation.
Our training as activists continued after she left, as we took turns practicing our newly learned techniques, having mock interviews with our "legislators", Jay Keller, Ingrid Flory, Stacey Young and Vidya Setty from the Washington office. We were told ahead who would be anti, neutral, or in favor of the contraceptive coverage bill, and in groups of three we planned the questions we would ask them and tried to anticipate what they might ask of us. After each five to ten minute skit, we discussed the best parts of each and how each could be improved. We finished our training around 7 p.m.
On Monday, October 19th, we met at the Curious Liquids coffee house near the State House to begin our meetings with our legislators. Jay, Ingrid, Stacey, and Vidya encouraged us as we prepared for our interviews and passed out printed information to give to our representatives and senators. We each were assigned two or more appointments and went in groups of three or four which included someone from the Washington staff. The legislators listened carefully as we, their constituents and fledgling activists, spoke and added comments when more information was requested.
The legislators were for the most part very receptive to our position in favor of a strong contraceptive coverage bill. They promised us their support and gave us valuable advice as to what else could be done to improve the chances that this legislation would pass this coming year. It was suggested that we continue our work adding more organizations to our coalition and encouraging constituents to get behind our efforts. When we could, we met again back at the Curious Liquids coffee house to review and exchange information. All in all it was a very productive experience (and exciting in direct proportion to the nervousness beforehand of speaking to the legislators). I, for one, am very glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of promoting this valuable legislation and am grateful for the support provided by ZPG National. More work needs to be done. The days ahead are critical, but, with the support still to come by adding to this activists network, we can change the availability of contraceptives available in Massachusetts. Activism works!
From the VHEMT Web Page
When the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Rapanui on Easter day 1722, there were about 2,000 people, no trees or bushes over ten feet high. No bats, birds, lizards, or land snails. They did have chickens, their only domestic animal. Their boats were so leaky that they had to bail as much as paddle. It was not always this bad on the island.
Pollen analysis of cores taken back to England for study, and analysis of kitchen middens, is revealing a drama which is being played out on a global scale. Just as we can't leave Earth, they couldn't leave Rapanui. Around 400 CE (AD) a few Polynesians landed on a tropical paradise. Within a century they were constructing the familiar stone statues which Erich Von Daniken figured must have been carved by visitors from space -- the people sure couldn't have done it with their lack of materials.
For at least 30,000 years before the arrival of the exotic invader, Rapanui was a thriving, diverse ecosystem. Huge palm trees were perfect for canoes, which they used to hunt porpoises. By 800, destruction of the forests was well underway, and by 1400 the palm was extinct. There may have been as many as 20,000 humans. I can imagine the last tree being cut for a canoe and some radical environmentalist spouting doom and gloom about there being no canoes for future generations. Porpoise was about half their diet, and couldn't be hunted without the large canoes. Trees were also used to roll the statues from quarries, and each clan wanted to get ahead.
It appears that society broke down quickly, with tools in the quarries abandoned and statues half-finished. The picture is still being filled in. Debate continues on cannibalism. An insult from modern times translates as "Your grandmother's flesh sticks in my teeth."
by Brooke Lindak
This meeting was held on September 21, 1998 at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston Street. Around 40 people were present.
Jeff Herman, Chair, called the meeting to order and introduced Peter Kostmayer, National Director of Zero Population Growth. Peter spoke for some time, briefly touching on a variety of topics, emphasizing what he considers to be key issues and strategies for advancing our goals. Zero Population Growth is a non-profit organization using the avenues of education and advocacy to raise awareness that population growth is a problem.
Peter began by describing a little of his background and how he came to realize that population growth is a critical global issue. He realized several decades ago that handing out birth control, for example, is almost like treating a symptom rather than a problem; it is more important to empower women to make choices for their own lives. Empowerment then leads to better decision-making with regard to consumption, family planning, and other issues. Population stabilization and environmentally conscious living will be a direct result of this empowerment.
Peter has observed that most of the public agree, when prompted, that population growth is connected to all other environmental and social problems. The challenge is getting society to make that connection, and until this takes place on a mass scale, we will not be able to reduce population growth nationally or globally. Peter reminded us that most U.S. citizens, at least, prefer small families.
The most effective method for addressing population issues, according to Peter, is through politics. As we all know, there have been governmental initiatives such as Title X, which provides funding for sex education, community programs, and the like. Peter stressed that even with $218 million allocated for Title X, not enough is being done, either in this country or internationally. Unfortunately, even more programs may be in jeopardy after this fall's elections.
Following are some general questions asked of Kostmayer by audience members:
Writing to local newspapers, staffing ZPG tables, speaking at schools, and planning or participating in other environmental events are also effective ways to assist ZPG's efforts in this area.
Jeff Herman and the rest of the audience applauded and warmly thanked Peter Kostmayer for his inspiring visit.
LONDON (Reuters) - Humans have destroyed more than 30% of the natural world since 1970, according to a report published Thursday. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) gave details of its Living Planet Index, which analyzes the deterioration of the world's forest, freshwater and marine ecosystems between 1970 and 1995. The LPI has declined by 30% since 1970, which means the earth has lost nearly a third of its natural wealth in that time, the report said.
We will meet at the home of Mary Van Vleck, 146 Chestnut Circle in Lincoln.
DIRECTIONS: Rt. 2 West from Boston, cross 128/95 and continue for 31/2 miles where Rt. 2 makes a very sharp left by a Mobil Station. In another mile turn left again at the light onto Rt. 126 South. Drive by Walden Pond; in 3.2 miles you will come to a light where Rt. 117 intersects. Stay on Rt. 126 for another 0.4 mile and turn right onto Farrar Road. Travel 0.6 mile, keeping to the right, and turn right again onto Kettle Hole Drive which takes you into the condominium complex. Bear right at the Y and go over a speed bump. Take the first left onto Chestnut Circle and the next right at the “141-146” sign. Mary is at the end of the block on the right.
PARKING IS LIMITED. Be prepared for a three minute walk. CAR POOL if you can or call Mary for directions by train; it's very simple and someone will pick you up at the station. Call Mary with any questions. Her phone is 781/259-9828.
Please see the meeting schedule for general information and other meeting dates.
Many of us have become interested in, or even passionate about, the population issue because it causes so many other problems or symptoms. We see the need to stabilize population levels in order to reduce pollution, preserve open space, mitigate traffic gridlock as well as ease the effects of population on schools, species diversity, taxes, social equity and our climate. These are some of the reasons why I see population as an "overarching issue". However, it's not the only one!
In Massachusetts there was a referendum question on the November 3 ballot, Question 2, to pass the "Clean Elections Initiative".
The referendum, if passed, will become law which will:
Impose spending limits and provide for public campaign financing with designated amounts for each office,
Close the soft money loophole by limiting transfers of such funds from national parties, and
Require electronic disclosure of all campaign contributions to candidates and political committees.
I have been working as a volunteer for Mass Voters for Clean Elections to help assure this referendum passes. I believe that campaign finance reform is another "overarching issue", probably even necessary to pass meaningful population related legislation. Similar laws have been introduced in Vermont, Maine and 20 other states. Hopefully, such local pressure will also result in legislation at the Federal level.
John Bonifax, director of the National Voting Rights Institute, said it well: "We don't have a healthy democracy in America. What we really have is a plutocracy dominated by wealthy interests. Voters who are denied access to wealth are effectively denied an ability to elect a candidate of their choice." Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice added: "Campaign contributions are a primary cause of air pollution in Texas". Where politics is concerned, we don't have free speech, we have very expensive speech.
Candidates are working for campaign money (aka bribery) rather than for the voters. And did you know that just one percent of the population gives 80 percent of that money! Usually these are the large business interests, not common citizens who just want a better life for themselves, their children and the other critters on the planet.
I believe that any individual or organization concerned with environmental, social or population issues must also back campaign finance reform. For instance, the just rejected UN Population Fund, UNFPA, funding in the federal budget can be linked to such campaign funding pressures. If you want more information, generally Common Cause or the League of Women Voters in your state can point you in the right direction.
Assuming Massachusetts Question 2 passed, we still need your help to assure that the legislature funds the "Clean Elections Initiative". Please give me (781/862-5927) or Mass Voters for Clean Elections (617/451-0399) a call. Nothing you do can help population causes more. Thanks.
Turner told developers at a real estate conference in Atlanta, sponsored by environmental agencies, that the only way to improve the quality of life is to reduce the planet's population from the current six billion to two billion people, a goal he said could be reached in 100 years if everyone stopped reproducing after a first child.
"If you have two billion people you could have automobiles, and everybody could have a good standard of living," he said.
Turner, now vice chairman of Time Warner Inc, after selling Cable News Network and the rest of his Turner Broadcasting holdings last year, said he considers it his personal responsibility to worry about overpopulation.
Turner, 59, said the United States would ultimately feel the impact of the world's population, which has tripled in his lifetime.
"I've got to worry about the totality of the planet because there are some people who think we can build a wall around the United States and keep the misery out," he said.
They think we can just let Africa and Central and South America and parts of Asia stew in their own juices. "I don't agree with that at all," he said.
"A lot of people will stay in India and Bangladesh and Africa and El Salvador," Turner said. "A lot of them will stay there and starve. There's no question about that. But a lot of them won't. They're going to come where the prosperity is -- and they know where the prosperity is, baby."
"We need to have a one-child family (policy) globally, not enforced by governments, but democratically. We should work to try to convince everybody that they should have one child like China has," Turner said. "People who abhor the China one-child policy are dumb-dumbs, because if China hadn't had that policy, there would be 300 million more people in China right now."
Peter Bahouth, Executive Director of Turner Enterprises, will soon be speaking at the University of Massachusetts, with ZPG co-sponsorship. This event will be on the Boston Campus. Stay alert!
Lamar Alexander’s seemingly endless proposals for bestowing tax breaks upon families with children (“A family-friendly tax code,” op ed, Sept. 28) would, if adopted, not only return us to the era of enormous budget deficits, they would further exacerbate the fundamental unfairness of the tax code.
While it is difficult to argue with Alexander’s apparent view that families with children are somehow ethically superior to the rest of us, it is undeniably true that large families use more of the government's resources than others while contributing less to the support of the government because of the tax breaks for families that already exist.
Does this seem fair?
Is expansion of those tax breaks appropriate in an era of a rapidly growing US population and the associated steady decline in quality of life that we are experiencing?
If anything, the subsidization of childbearing already inherent in the tax code should be reduced or eliminated, and the savings should be used to lower tax rates across the board.
WALTER BRANSON
Norfolk
Dear Members,
The news is good news. The ZPG Boston chapter is receiving accolades from the national office for work well done. Peter Kostmayer was very grateful for our chapter's work in setting up his schedule during his recent three day visit to Boston when he met with legislators, the press, students, immigrants and officers of activist organizations. ZPG staff has expressed their appreciation with our local chapter for the work we are doing to enhance the passage of contraceptive coverage legislation. Many of our members are very busy meeting with environmental groups, politicians, the press, college students and grass roots lobbyists, promoting ZPG's mission which, we all know, is to stop the runaway growth of the world's population.
The bad news is that the world's population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Notwithstanding the distortion of the facts perpetrated by brownlash (anti-science) media, the world's environment is steadily losing the battle against the onslaught of continued population growth. As an example, one year after the "historic agreement" at Kyoto requiring a reduction of greenhouse gases, energy consumption is up and continuing to grow everywhere but in the few countries which are the ones suffering economic collapse. This year, 1998, is the warmest on record. Icebergs the sizes of small countries are breaking off of Antarctica. Hurricanes, floods, droughts and ozone depletion are accelerating, while conservative Congressmen pass legislation prohibiting family planning and abortions for poor women. And what does the media report? Monica Lewinsky!
Notwithstanding, let's continue to wage the noble fight. Our work is more important now than ever. Here in Boston we are showing that we can make a difference. Our campaign for greater contraceptive coverage is off the ground. Peter Bahouth, the executive director of Turner Enterprises, will soon be here to support us. We are receiving invitations to speak at college campuses more regularly, and more organizations are allying themselves with us. Talking with people, I really am gaining a sense that overpopulation is being understood for the gravity it should have. This next year should see a rapid expansion in our membership.
Be a part of this change. Those of you who are already involved know that we can make a difference. Those of you who are not yet involved certainly have a place in this movement. Let's get involved. There's never been a better time.
