Zero Population
Growthof Greater Boston
Zero Population
Growth
| Volume 7, Number 3 | May/June 1997 |
If you can attend only one meeting this year, do make it this one as we will be "stepping out" for a Chinese Banquet at Joyce Chen Restaurant in Cambridge. This will be an opportunity for you to learn more about how the Third World views the population explosion, to become better acquainted with members of our dedicated group, and, for those of you who are members, to participate in our annual elections.
There will be an abbreviated business meeting after the banquet when the elections will take place. At this time the floor will be open for nominations so be thinking if you would like to place a member's name up for Chairman, Vice Chairman, Treasurer or Secretary. After the elections, we will welcome Jeff Herman, United Nations researcher and author, who will be our keynote speaker. Jeff has just recently joined our Chapter.
The social "business" of the evening will be that of getting better acquainted. This activity will begin upon your arrival. It's important for us to know one another so we can work together more effectively, make new friends and have some fun!
Please make an extra special effort to come and meet the faces behind the wide range of effectively written articles, reports and letters that you have been reading in our newsletters over the past two years. And meet those folks, too, who have sent in cartoons and jokes which keep us in good humor, or incensed, depending on your point of view!. And if you haven't contributed to the newsletter hopefully you may become inspired to reach out and do so.
Cost: $15 per person. Drinks extra. Send your check made out to ZPG/Boston by May 15 to: Dan Bloom, 2 Oriole Drive, Andover, MA 01810. If you can't get your check in the mail to arrive by this date, give Dan a call at 508/475-3227. INCENTIVE: If you are one of the first 20 ZPG members to get a check to Dan, he will give you $5 back at the door. One rebate per membership!
When: Arrive between 6 and 6:30 p.m. to socialize. Dinner will be at 7.
DIRECTIONS to Joyce Chen Restaurant: This restaurant is on Rindge Avenue at Alewife Brook Parkway (also Route 2) in Cambridge. It is within walking distance of the redline Alewife T Station. Driving north or south on Route 128/95 take Exit 29A (Rt 2 Arlington/Cambridge) and drive toward Boston for approximately 7 miles. At the light near the "T" turn left onto Rindge Avenue and the restaurant is on your right. You can't miss! If you do have questions about location, call Joyce Chen at 492-7373.
Please see the meeting schedule for general information and other meeting dates.
As another Earth Day approaches, many of us are considering how we can live our lives in a more environment-friendly manner in the year to come. Perhaps we will resolve to become more conscientious about recycling household waste. We may organize a neighborhood cleanup, or decide to make a contribution to an environmental charity. We may even resolve to cut down on unnecessary trips in our car in order to improve air quality.
While all these endeavors are worthy, there is one thing that many of us can do that will have a far greater positive impact on the environment than all of the above combined. Those of us of childbearing age may choose to plan for a small family, with two children or less.
When a couple decides to plan to have two children, they have chosen "replacement level" reproduction: The next generation of the family will be the same size as the previous generation, and long-term adverse impacts on the environment will not increase. However, when a couple decides to have a third child, they have decided that the next generation will be 50-percent larger than the previous one, which inevitably results in a large increase in the pressure exerted on the environment.
No matter how much we try to live our lives in an environmentally sensitive manner, all of us will drive our cars, heat our homes, eat good food and live in a house or apartment. The result of these activities is increased global warming from the burning of fossil fuels, increased degradation of the agricultural lands needed to feed us, including soil erosion and aquifer depletion, and increased loss of open space and wildlife habitat from the wildlife habitat from the construction of homes. The growth of the human population inevitably damages the environment and the only way we can stop the damage is to halt the growth.
The U.S. population is currently growing by approximately 2.5. million people a year. Forty percent of that growth results from immigration. The rest results from the excess of births over deaths among those already here. In our own towns, we see the impact of that growth as forests are felled to make way for subdivisions, schools become overcrowded, traffic congestion increases and taxes rise.
People often ask me, "Are you advocating abortion?", or "Do you think government should tell people how many children to have, like China?" When I hear these questions, it sounds as if the questioners are trying to find an excuse to band me a radical so they can dismiss the message. The answers are no and no.
Abortion is a very personal decision that can only be made by a woman and her partner. It is no more acceptable to tell a woman that she should have an abortion than it is to tell her that she may not.
Instead, the emphasis must be on planning for a small family whatever size family ultimately results. Fortunately, contraception methods are very effective when used properly, especially the permanent contraception methods. Any couple that has already had all the children they plan to have should strongly consider the simple and effective option of vasectomy, in order to eliminate the possibility of future unplanned pregnancies.
As far as government telling people how many children to have, the U.S. population problem is fortunately not severe enough yet to require consideration of this draconian measure. However, when population growth puts survival itself in jeopardy, such a measure is bound to be considered. If we don't want to end up like China, we need to voluntarily control our growth today.
Other questions I sometimes hear include: "Isn't immigration the real problem?" and "Isn't the problem in the minority community?" I call these the "evade responsibility responses."
As I have mentioned, only 40 percent of our growth results from immigration. While many of us in the population stabilization movement believe that legal immigration levels need to be reduced, others with a focus primarily on world population growth do not emphasize the immigration issue.
As far as the racial breakdown of internal population growth goes, it is largely irrelevant, as any woman or couple that has a third child is contributing to population growth, regardless of race.
We can all do our part in this struggle. Those of you who have had your children, no matter how many you had, can do your part by educating your children or grandchildren on the dangers of population growth. Those of you who have chosen to remain childless can know that you are not "selfish," as some have alleged, but in fact have made a positive contribution toward the welfare of all people.
We make no judgments of people, based on their childbearing decisions. Everyone is entitled to a family of the size they choose, and we think no less of people who choose large families for reasons of their own. We ask only that people consider the consequences for all of us when planning their family. Hopefully, enough people will opt for a small family to give the children we do have a brighter future.
Walter Branson is a Norfolk resident and vice chair of Zero Population Growth of Greater Boston.
(reprinted from Country Gazette, 4/16/97, circulation 32,000)
I wish to express my appreciation to everyone who has contributed to this newsletter over the last two years, The variety of writing styles, wide range of ideas expressed, the many notices mailed to me as well as cartoons, jokes and comments regarding content has continued to keep me motivated and excited about this job.
Let me remind you again, and especially to new readers, that I always welcome contributions. I again encourage you to send me articles, interviews, copies of letters or articles you have had published, other forms of writing, reports of past events and notices of upcoming events. Jokes and cartoons add variety and are also welcome.
The deadline for the forthcoming newsletter always appears on this page with the permanent box. If you cannot meet a deadline, please let me know and I will do my best to work out an arrangement that fits into your time frame.
My home and e-mail addresses, as well as my phone-fax number, are always in the box which appears on page 2 of every newsletter. Since I have moved, I will repeat this information to emphasize the fact that I am now at this new location:
Newsletter Editor Barbara S. Clapp P.O. Box 5404 Hanover, NH 03755 603/643-6517 - phone & fax email: b.clapp@worldnet.att.net
Occasionally, because of space or other restrictions, I hold some materials in reserve. Each one of you has the opportunity to help me create a viable and informative newsletter of which we can be very proud. All contributions and submissions are appreciated. You can make a difference!
Zero Population Growth of Greater Boston617/862-5927 Home Page on the World Wide Web:
We are dedicated to the idea that tackling any environmental problem
without a population program is like mopping the floor with the water still
running. Local ZPG/Boston activists work at raising awareness that population
growth is a vital common piece of many of our problems.
Meetings held the third Monday of every other month. See notice in this newsletter for location and directions. Barbara Clapp, Editor ZPG Boston Chapter Newsletter P.O. Box 5404 Hanover, NH 03755 603/643-6517 (phone & fax) b.clapp@worldnet.att.net
Newsletter is published bimonthly. Submissions are welcome and should be sent to Barbara Clapp, Editor or to Mike Hanauer at his above e-mail address. Opinions expressed herein are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of ZPG Inc. or the Greater Boston Chapter. Articles may be reprinted with credit to the author and the ZPG Boston Chapter. We are a fully affiliated chapter of ZPG, 1400 16th St. NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036 202/332-2200. Email: zpg@igc.org |
DEADLINE for the July/August issue is Wednesday, June 25
During the weekend of Feb. 7 through 10, I traveled to Washington D.C. in order to participate in the Sierra Club and ZPG co-sponsored "population lobby days." About sixty activists came from all around the nation to lobby their representatives and senators to vote affirmatively on a bill put forth by the President which would release family planning funds on March 1 rather than July 1. This vote was solely about the date for the release of the funding: an affirmative vote would not change the amount of funding allocated for family planning. Since the two other Massachusetts attendees left before the lobbying began, I had to visit the offices of all the reps and senators by myself. Spending a day in the huge office buildings of our government, I tried to make a positive difference and learned about the art of lobbying on the way.
My morning began at around quarter-of-nine with a visit to the office of Edward Kennedy. I ended up waiting nearly half-an-hour for the environmental issues expert only to find out she had a meeting at the same time. Not achieving success with Kennedy, I continued to John Kerry's office. The secretary quickly informed me of Kerry's diehard support, so I wrote the senator a thank you note. By ten o'clock I had obtained from Richard Neal's aide a guarantee that my district's congressmen would vote "yes" on the bill. Next, I took the special train from the senate side of Capitol Hill to the buildings housing the offices of the congressmen. Here, I met with nearly universal success. From around ten to two, with a break for lunch, I went from office to office meeting with the aides of the Massachusetts representatives. First, I would explain to the secretary what I represented and then I would wait for the aide who handled family-planning issues to come and talk with me. I began the conversation by explaining that a delay in the release of family-planning would mean more clinics will be forced to shut down permanently. This shutdown would cause the number of unwanted babies, abortions, and deaths of women during pregnancy to increase. All the congressmen whose offices I visited were, in principle, favoring family planning; thus, the arguments I used were generally received with an guarantee to vote affirmatively or even an agreement to speak on the congress floor about the issue.
As it turned out, even the congressmen who were undecided voted affirmatively: indeed every Massachusetts representative and senator voted in favor. In both the house and the senate, a majority voted in favor of releasing funding for family funding clinics on March 1. I'm glad I had the opportunity to take part in helping to achieve another victory toward the final resolution of the overpopulation problem.
Nels Frye is a high school student, citizen lobbyist and will be intening with ZPG Field Department this summer in Washington, D.C.
There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase in population, supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, confess I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the greatest degree, all the advantages both of cooperation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most populous countries, been attained.
A population may be too crowded, though all be amply provided with food and raiment. It is not good for man to be kept perforce at all times in the presence of his species. A world from which solitude is extirpated, is a very poor ideal. Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could do ill without. Nor is there much satisfaction in contemplating the world with nothing left to the spontaneous activity of nature; with every rood of land brought into cultivation, which is capable of growing food for human beings; every flowery waste of natural pasture plowed up, all quadrupeds or birds which are not domesticated for man's use exterminated as his rivals for food, every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grow without being eradicated as a weed in the name of improved agriculture.
If the earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger, but not a better or happier population, I sincerely hope, for the sake of posterity, that they will be content to be stationary, long before necessity compels them to it.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the Art of Living, and much more likelihood of its being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on. Even the industrial arts might be as earnestly as successfully cultivated, with the sole difference, that instead of serving no purpose but the increase of wealth, industrial improvements would produce their legitimate effect, that of abridging labor.
Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being. They have enabled a greater population to live the same life of drudgery and imprisonment, and an increased number of manufacturers and other to make fortunes. They have increased the comforts of the middle classes. But they have not yet begun to effect those great changes in human destiny, which it is in their nature and in their futurity to accomplish. Only when, in addition to just institutions, the increase of mankind shall be under the deliberate guidance of judicious foresight, can the conquests made from the powers of nature by the intellect and energy of scientific discoverers, become the common property of the species, and the means of improving and elevating the universal lot.
-from John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy, Book 1V, Chapter V1, Section 11, as it first appeared in 1848. Submitted by Frances Cameron.
The world we live in has never been more accessible nor vulnerable. As I near my fiftieth birthday, I have been fortunate enough to have lived more than 80% of my adult life traveling outside the United States. I have been within 180 miles of the North Pole and across the Sahara desert. I have crossed the Alps, the Andes and, recently, the Appalachians. I have now settled in the Boston area and have joined ZPG because I am convinced that the greatest problem ever having faced humanity is the enormous growth of the numbers of members of the human race.
Flying to the U.S. from Central America one only has to look out the airplane window to see that more than 95% of the land has been deforested. I was fortunate enough to have been employed by the United Nations in Central America for the previous sixteen years. For nine of those years, I worked in the refugee camps. Later, when I was given a desk job we studied some of the worst problems facing humanity on the planet. I was the most published writer in English living in Central America and held various appointive and elective positions including acting as host for two radio programs, one in Spanish and one in English. We studied the problems of economic disparity between the developed world and the underdeveloped world. We studied the drug problem, energy concerns, climate changes, deforestation, contamination, government corruption, the arms race and educational systems. Every one of these problems is interrelated, some more so than others. But, and this is a big but, I believe the problem of the explosive growth of the numbers of people on Earth overshadows all the other problems combined by many times. One hundred and fifty years ago there were a little over a billion people living on this planet. Chances were only three out of five that a child born would live to age five. Chances were less than one in twenty of living past age sixty. Today, almost six times as many people live on the planet. If current rates continue, the world will double in 47 years.
The $385 million that was recently approved by the United States Congress for family planning in the Third World needs to be spent effectively. In order to get the most out of money for family planning it needs to be distributed to local clinics that understand the cultual nuances of the country, and this distribution network needs to cross all the borders of the world. The UN's population division and statistical division have figures that clearly show that educating women results in smaller families. Access to family planning and education are fundamental to population stabilization and a sustainable environment.
I believe that those of us alive today in the US are fortunate enough to have lived during the best of times. Those who are as old as I am will have gotten away with the consumption of the Earth's resources. I often feel sorry for those who will be left behind. In another 20 years, if we can't or won't change our habits, life will no longer be sacred on this planet. I believe that current improvements in the ecology picture are blips in a downward slide. While the picture I have painted is a bleak one, I still believe there is hope. The hope lies in an open discussion of those issues before any more time goes by. The planet needs universal access to family planning and an electorate who will vote for politicians who speak the truth.
I have seen in my lifetime how quickly public opinions and world events can change. Nations that were former enemies are now trading partners. The Berlin wall has fallen. We have landed on the moon. Change can happen. We cannot afford to give up.
Jeff Herman is a new ZPG member who has worked with the U.N. High Commission on Refugeee Affairs in Central America.
When Peter Kostmeyer, Executive Director of Zero Population Growth, spoke to the Boston Chapter last fall, his main request to individuals was for us to get out and talk to our elected officials and show them that there was an organization with strong and logical concerns about population.
On Thursday, March 27, following these suggestions, I met with my U.S. Representative, William Delahunt, along with three others from his district who may be members of ZPG National, but not the Boston Chapter.
Delahunt is a most personable politician and voted to release funds for family planning. I mentioned that I represented the ZPG/Boston Chapter with over 100 active members. The others in the group live farther from Boston, but are interested in getting the newsletter and contributing to the cause.
We used the ZPG flyer with the nine concerns for population growth, going over it point by point. Delahunt is conscious of his predecessor, Gerry Studds, who was a great supporter of our interests. Studds worked hard for his district, and Delahunt seems to be doing the same. He referred to Studds' "stature" several times.
Delahunt seems to be a politician we can work with. He said he would like to receive our newsletter, as did the others in my group.
