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Escalating population puts planet at risk

Friday, September 29, 2000

By JIM BAIRD
Guest columnist

Members of the U.S. Congress will soon have the chance to make a major contribution to resource conservation. At stake is funding -- not for wilderness areas or clean water regulations, but for international family planning.

How is family planning a conservation issue? Ask people who fish, hunt and participate in other forms of outdoor recreation. Population and consumption dynamics are standard fare in campfire conversations. We know, for example, that white-tailed deer will outstrip available food supplies when their numbers grow too large for their habitat to support. We also observe the impacts on natural areas when unrestrained human populations encroach upon them.

Izaak Walton League of America members recognized as early as 1948 that there is no greater threat to the natural resources that we are pledged to protect than the demands of growing human populations. Escalating population and consumption levels pose significant risks to us and to the planet. Access to clean water, air and productive land is causing conflict in many parts of the globe. Oceans are overfished and forests are often overutilized. Wildlife habitat is shrinking everywhere.

League members understand that population is a conservation issue. In a 1970 policy resolution, they called on governments and private agencies to support international family planning programs as an effective way to stabilize world population. U.S. support for these programs makes sense for several reasons:

  • They work. Data from the United Nations and the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that the global rate of population growth is slowing, due in large part to the family planning and reproductive health programs implemented during the past 30 years. More women are delaying child bearing and having fewer children. As a result, the U.N.'s upper projections for the 2050 population have been lowered by 10 percent. This trend could significantly reduce the stress on our environment if, and only if, it continues and increases.

  • They are desired. Surveys estimate that 150 million women in developing countries want to limit childbearing or increase the time between births but they lack access to the basic services they need to do so. U.S.-funded programs offer options, not coercion and control.

  • They are cost-effective. The Clinton administration has requested a $169 million increase in funding for family planning assistance. This would merely restore the total program to its 1995 level. Projections based on previous performance indicate that this increase could result in 1.5 million fewer unintended births, 15,000 fewer women dying from pregnancy and abortion complications, 92,000 fewer infant deaths and, perhaps most significant, 2.2 million fewer abortions.

    The cost is 3 cents per taxpayer per week -- just $1.56 a year.

    It's unfortunate that support for international family planning has become part of the Washington budget tug-of-war. Although these programs represent less than half of 1 percent of the federal budget, they are the focus of an annualdebate on largely extraneous issues. As funding has declined since 1995, it is mothers and children who are losing out.

    In a matter of days, congressional leaders and the administration will debate these issues once again. The league urges support for the administration's request for a $169 million increase in funding levels. Even this amount is insufficient to the need but it is far better than the current Senate and House alternatives.

    Our society must come to terms with the fact that we cannot sustain endless growth in a world of finite resources. Unlike the white-tailed deer that have no knowledge of the future, we are capable of anticipating and averting catastrophe. We urge lawmakers and the president not to get caught in the headlights of extraneous issues. It is time do what is practical and what is right. It is time to move ahead.

    Jim Baird is director of the Izaak Walton League's Sustainability Education Project.

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