Zero
Population Growthof Greater Boston
Zero
Population Growth
Volume 8, Number 5 |
September/October 1998 |
Peter Kostmayer, Executive Director of ZPG National, will be the featured speaker at our September 21 meeting. Directions and related articles are on pages 2 and 5.
At the July Boston Chapter meeting Jeff Herman, Chair, proposed that this coming year's agenda be comprised of three main projects.
1. Contraceptive Insurance: A bill passed in the US House of Representatives providing contraceptive coverage for female federal employees who request such. This bill now goes to the Senate. This is excellent news!
Jeff has already contacted his state legislator in Massachusetts, Liz Malia, who has agreed to sponsor a similar bill in the state legislature. However, this bill would be for all employees in the Commonwealth who are covered with insurance. (Senator Diane Wilkerson originally sponsored this bill which died in the House Ways and Means Committee.)
Jeff wants volunteers to work with Ms. Malia to contact members of all pertinent organizations to encourage their support of this bill. This would include groups such as Planned Parenthood and CPPAX, this latter a powerful state lobby group composed of 4,000 dues-paying members.
Shannon Shurick and Mary Van Vleck volunteered to work with Ms. Malia early this fall to get the ball rolling.
2. Expanding ZPG on college campuses: Everybody agreed that they would like to see a ZPG presence on every New England college campus. A campus coordinator is needed to send out inquiries to each college/university about the logistics of getting students involved, to initiate fund-raising on campuses, etc. Brooke Lindak has written up a "job description" for this position. ZPG National is willing to train motivated students and chapter members to go out to make presentations at schools and to other groups.
Brooke Lindak volunteered to help with this, assisted by Shannon Shurick. Brooke plans to hire the campus coordinator, a student who could interface with others on other campuses. Jeff has requested funding from ZPG National so that a small stipend can be provided per semester.
3. Organizing a coalition of like-minded groups: Jeff envisions a coalition of all environmental and population groups in the Boston area. If individual groups join forces and work together to produce a demonstration or festival, the total effect will be greater than the sum of each group working separately. The objective is to create a spectacular event which would grab the attention of the media. The United Nations Fund for Population Activity expects the world population to reach six billion in the summer of 1999. The official symbolic observation will be next June. This would be a likely time for such an event.
Lee Strauss and Christina Gordon are interested in helping with this.
If you are interested in volunteering for any of these projects, please contact Jeff Herman. See the box on page 2 for contact information.
Who says that being a ZPG member doesn't have its perks? For Linda Huebner, Shannon Shurick, Jeff Townsend and Jeff Herman, it meant rocking all day at the H.O.R.D.E. Festival at Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts.
The organizers of the H.O.R.D.E. Festival (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) selectively choose a few organizations to set up tables at their concert, and ZPG receives an invitation each year. This year, alongside ZPG were tables that support the liberation of Tibet and others that advocate for human rights, the environment and the homeless. These tables are set up hours before the concert doors are open, giving a chance to the people manning the tables to exchange information. Not surprisingly, the other groups were impressed with the way the issue of overpopulation affects their specific causes.
Once the doors were opened, the concert goers maintained a steady line in front of the ZPG table. The table was adorned by a drawing of the Earth showing people falling off because of overcrowding. Many concert goers passed the table with apprehension, as they had never thought of the issue of overpopulation. But occasionally a face would light up and come over to the table to take literature, discuss matters and often sign up for membership.
This year 25 people signed up for ZPG membership at the table, as opposed to only a few last year. It was clear that the issue of overpopulation is becoming a concern to these youthful citizens. Brochures, information packets and condoms disappeared from the ZPG table.
As the night approached and the music sounded, there was nothing left to do but dance. Even Linda Huebner, who was on crutches from a horsing accident, could be found among those on the floor. Let's give a very special thanks to Shannon Shurick for organizing the table. You should have seen her rock away!
Your Aug. 22 front-page article regarding the continuing plight of fishermen along the New England coast was very enlightening ("Maine gulf cod ground said to be overfished"). However, the assertion that there are "too many fishing boats" doesn't really explain the overfishing. There are too many people; that's why there are too many boats chasing too few fish.
The last century has seen an explosive growth of the human population on Earth, having gone from about 1 billion to 6 billion people, causing global destruction. Symptoms like overfishing, global warming, ozone layer depletion, the extinction of certain animals, and contamination, are not going to be solved until the world reduces itself to a sustainable number of people.
What are we going to do in 50 years when there are twice as many of us and there are no edible fish left in the oceans: Worry about too many fishing boats?
JEFF A HERMAN
Jamaica Plain
Dear Members,
As all of us at ZPG know, overpopulation has caused and will cause more damage and human suffering than all the other problems in history combined. This includes wars and famines. So then why is it that so few people today seem concerned?
Even those of us who are concerned spend only part of our spare time trying to resolve the issue. Even those of us who are ZPG members spend little more than a few hours a month trying to stem the tide of overpopulation. Worse yet, often that time is spent arguing among ourselves over what to do first and how we should do it.
Believe it or not, we all have a terrific chance now to get this ball rolling. Peter Kostmayer, the Executive Director of ZPG, will be at our next meeting. Besides members of ZPG in the New England area, there will be others there who come from environmental and feminist groups. Legislators and the press are also expected. Even organizations that help immigrants are sending representatives. It is important that we show our invited guests our commitment to finding solutions to the global phenomenon of overpopulation by coming to this meeting with as many friends as we can call.
This is a terrific chance for ZPG to grow so that we will attract new blood to help us in getting out the message. Consider the time you invest in bringing friends and acquaintances as an investment in the future. If we can manage to show each other that there are a significant number of people willing to work on this issue, it will have a reinforcing effect. Lawmakers will see that they have our support to push for favorable legislation. The press will see that there is a market for the news, and the people who they inform will inform others.
It is important that we have a good turnout at the Community Church for this meeting. We need help to set the agenda for our work: the passage of contraceptive coverage, expansion onto university campuses and the development of an infrastructure of activist organizations.
One thousand invitations are going to go out for this meeting. ZPG National is mailing them. But the most important people at this meeting will be the ZPG members who receive this newsletter. Come yourself and bring your friends. At the very least, it will prove to be a very stimulating evening with ramifications that will last long afterwards. I hope to see you all there.
Jeff Herman
Chair, ZPG Boston Area Chapter
To the Editor:
In response to "Playing with Food" (editorial, July 25):
Although genetic engineering of the plant world may hold little risk to our biological entities, what about the price paid to our sensitivities?
I have not encountered a tomato in more than 50 years that has the characteristics of those of my youth: thin skinned, juicy, with a flavor and aroma that stood on their own. No salad dressing required! The deterioration of the apple is another example that comes vividly to mind.
I understand that these fragile delicacies of my youth are not economically viable in an expanding, urbanized population that increasingly depends on the transportation of food grown elsewhere. In this country and worldwide, if the population would stabilize or decrease, eventually we could all have a higher quality of life, living more in direct contact with the land, which would eliminate the need to produce tomatoes that more closely resemble golf balls than they do the tomatoes of my youth.
Whether it is fundamentally wrong for human beings to tamper with the natural world is a profound question we should all ask ourselves.
BARBARA CLAPP
Hanover
The Boston area chapter of ZPG will host its regular bi-monthly meeting at the Community Church at 565 Boylston Street at 7 p.m. The location is across from the north side of Trinity Church on Copley Square in downtown Boston.
Representatives from environmental, feminist and political action agencies are being invited to attend in addition to the press and legislators. It will be an open meeting with Peter Kostmayer, the Executive Director of ZPG, giving a talk entitled: "The Fight for Our Future."
Questions and answers will follow as well as a discussion of the Boston Chapter's agenda.
It is recommended that meeting participants use the MBTA system and get off at the Copley Square stop which is on Boylston Street.
Please see the meeting schedule for general information and other meeting dates.
The next morning he will be in the Massachusetts State House, meeting with various legislators regarding the contraceptive coverage bill (Senate 2270) pending in the legislature. That afternoon Mr. Kostmayer will be meeting with the Editorial Board of the Boston Globe at their office. In the evening he will meet with representatives of various immigrant organizations at the office of the Immigrant Workers' Resource Center, located in downtown Boston, to explain the mission of ZPG and its relationship to immigration.
Other meetings with environmental, feminist and educational groups are still tentative as of this publication.
In addition, Mr. Kostmayer served from 1994-1995 as Regional Administrator of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the Middle Atlantic States.
He is a graduate of Columbia University.
Dear Peter Kostmayer and ZPG Board Members,
As activists in the Boston Chapter and members of ZPG National, we would like to share our sentiments regarding certain positions taken by ZPG National. We write only because we have found that a significant majority of our most active members share these ideas. Primarily, we are concerned with the lack of focus on the level of United States population. We acknowledge and support ZPG's programs which address components of this problem, such as contra-ceptive coverage legislation and family planning funding. However, we feel that ZPG's overall position is weak and without focus. This is evident in ZPG's mission statement to "slow" population growth. Does it make sense for ZPG to acknowledge the many ways in which ongoing population growth sabotages our present and future quality of life and to NOT call for an END to this growth? Does it make sense to enter discussion or debate on this issue from an already compromised position?
True vision and leadership require us to endorse an ultimate goal, such as zero population growth, and to enact policies which work directly toward it. An example of this type of vision was recently demonstrated by the Sierra Club with regard to logging in our national forests. Two years ago, the majority of the Sierra Club agreed that there should be a moratorium on logging. However, many did not support the Club endorsing this proposal because it would be viewed as "too extreme." To their credit, the Club voted to adopt a position endorsing the moratorium, and now their effort has been rewarded by recent actions in Washington. If they had simply voted to "slow" logging, they would not have achieved the desired result. The parallel to population should be obvious.
However, ZPG has chosen weak positions without defined goals for U.S. population. It is extremely difficult to implement policies and motivate activists without clear and well-reasoned goals. Many of our core activists--those who really get things done--are frustrated. As a result they are becoming more involved with organizations which more openly address the level of U.S. population and related issues. ZPG will lose activists to these other organizations if it continues with present policy.
The issue of immigration is a very difficult one--one which we know has been discussed at length by the Board. We understand the difficult politics surrounding ZPG's immigration position. These are real and practical issues, but they are not insurmountable. ZPG knows that immigration is a major component of our present growth and will become an even greater factor without action. We find it unconscionable for ZPG to downplay and ignore this issue. At the very least there must be more open discussion to help overcome many of the myths associated with immigration policy and to explain why a majority of Americans oppose the current condition. We sincerely support greatly increased efforts to improve conditions overseas. However, it is naive to believe that we can alleviate immigration pressure in the near future solely by such actions. If we are to protect the local environment, we must also address immigration directly. This can be done, but it requires a new, more powerful vision aimed at the level of U.S. population. ZPG can either continue to be restrained by the fear of adopting meaningful policies, or can rededicate itself to the principles of zero population growth for which we have joined. Taking a meaningful stance on U.S. population will increase support for ALL population programs, domestic and international.
We call on ZPG to use its strength in gaining audiences and providing education to bring more awareness to specific issues of U.S. population. First and foremost must be establishing a goal to which we can dedicate our efforts. We hope you will take a first step by endorsing two fledging initiatives which recognize this fact and would address the subject of U.S. population through extensive and informed dialogue: the United States Sustainable Population Policy Project, and the National Optimum Population Commission. More important, however, would be to have ZPG, the most visible of all population organizations, to focus more on what the name suggests and what the constituency expects: to actively work toward zero population growth in our own backyard.
We would appreciate a response from ZPG to let us know: 1) if ZPG is truly devoted to U.S. population stabilization, and 2) how and when its current policies would be expected to bring about such stabilization. Thank you for carefully considering our views in adopting future policies.
Signed by over 12 members of ZPG/Boston
Judith Jacobsen and Peter Kostmayer responded for the Board and addressed each point in the letter.
If you would like a copy of this response, contact Jay Keller at the National office, 1-800-767-1956. Or you may pick up a copy at the next meeting.
The subtitle of this fascinating book is "5 Million Years of Human Impact." Colin Tudge begins by explaining how the forces of evolution work, including the role of catastrophes, like the comet that may have destroyed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
What will be of most interest to members of ZPG, however, is his final chapter, "The Next Million Years." In it he points out that the average species lasts about one million years, and that as Homo sapiens we are only about one hundred thousand years old as of yet. But of course if we harness our intelligence we may very well be able to survive as a species as long as the earth remains habitable, which is probably a period of about two billion years. He points out that the earth is dynamic, always changing. Climate changes, such as a new ice age (practically inevitable, but we don't know when) would necessitate tremendous movements of populations. This would require much planning if it is to happen peacefully. Ocean levels will rise and fall. Then we have to ensure that our technology, which we must rely on, will not do us in.
Tudge's comments on the next few hundred years are extremely important. Population cannot continue to expand exponentially. We must get it stabilized, and then decide what the optimum population should be. He quotes estimates ranging from a low of three hundred million to two billion. He is also insistent on our responsibility to provide space so that the other large animals, such as elephants, will be able to exist in the wild. The perspective of a man whose expertise is in the field of evolution can give much to reinforce the arguments of ZPG.
Published by Simon & Schuster, 1996
It may interest you to know that the population of the world is currently growing fast enough to produce more than a dozen new Bostons every month. Given that fact, why has there been a spate of articles and editorials lately about the “end of the population crisis?” One of our members recently wrote in a letter to me, “if this is true, then our work is done.” If only it were true.
We have fought this battle before. In 1934, Enid Charles wrote in The Twilight of Parenthood, “There is now a real danger of under-population.” The population of the world was then 2.1 billion.
In 1971, it was the “baby bust” with predictions that the United States might reach zero population growth in the 20th century. George Grier of the Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies warned that dramatic population shrinkage would “bring severe challenges” to our “physical and social environment.” The population of the world then was 3.7 billion.
Today we have a new group of free-market prognosticators using the possibility of zero population growth to conjure up the fear of “depopulation.” Now their buzz word is “birth dearth.” These demographic doomsayers, led by American Enterprise Institute Fellow Ben J. Wattenberg, have used the threat of depopulation to paint a grim picture. The population of the world is now 5.9 billion.
Thanks to a recent piece in the New York Times Magazine, Wattenberg’s dire prophesy of depopulation is getting a lot more attention than it deserves. He is trivializing an important and complicated issue that does not fit onto a bumper sticker.
End of families? Baby bust? Birth dearth? This year there will be some 140 million babies born in the world. That is more than the entire population of Japan and nearly as much as the population of Russia--and that’s just in one year!
The United Nations recently lowered its forecast of world population growth for the next 50 years. Wattenberg has been pointing to these projections as “proof” that he was right and everyone else was wrong. What the U.N. actually said was something like, “Population used to be growing at a horrendous rate. Now it is just growing at a terrible rate.” Worldwide there are couples who would like to have just two or three children but are forced to have six or eight because they lack basic family planning services. Since 1975, the world has grown by the combined populations of China, India and the United States (the three most populous countries), and it continues to grow by another 155 cities the size of Boston each year.
If the essential work being done by the United Nations Fund for Population and Development, the United States Agency for International Development and other agencies and groups continues, the world’s population growth can continue to slow. Then maybe, just maybe, we will add “only” another three or four billion to our population by the middle of the next century. That means that our finite Earth will need to feed, shelter and provide for “only” 50% more people than today (keeping in mind that 35,000 people, mostly children, starve every day). But if programs like International Family Planning continue to get held up and held hostage in congress, the grim scenario of population doubling in 50 years could become an awful reality.
Dr. Kenneth Hill, a demographer from Johns Hopkins University said it this way: “The next 50 years are likely to see an increase of world population greater than one-half its current population and greater than the increase since 1950.”
The “bottom line,” says Professor Hill, is that “the population explosion is still with us.”
ZPG Staff will be working with ZPG Boston to hold a "Population Advocacy" training the weekend of October 17-18 with a lobby day on Monday the 19th. The goal of the training is to provide local activists with the skill and tools to more effectively raise the issues involved with population growth in their communities and with their policymakers.
