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Things You Can Do
Here are some things we can each do to help stop population growth in the world, along with brief comments about how they would help. Many of these ideas are explored elsewhere in the site.
Raise public awareness. There has been a decline in birthrates
in many parts of the world since the 1970's, part of which can be directly attributed
to the success of ecologists such as Paul Ehrlich in getting the population-reduction
message across. It's time for a new generation of activists to start talking
-- talk to their friends, talk to their representatives, write letters to the
newspapers, publish blogs.
Read your local paper to bone up on local issues such as
sprawl, development, school class size, water rights, and housing markets so
that you can discuss population growth's impact in your home area.
Fight city hall when developments threaten quality of life
in your town. Grassroots battles are being fought and won in every state of
the union – yours could be next.
Support and elect politicians who are sensitive to issues
of reproductive choice here and abroad.
When you see articles on land use and environment that gloss over
population as a cause, write letters to the editor to correct the oversight.
For example: Business Week recently published an article about the "Water for
the Poor" Act in Congress. The authors expressed some very nice sentiments about
helping assure safe drinking water for all people on the planet, but wrote not
a word about why water supply is becoming such a crisis in parts of the world.
Several forms of assistance were suggested, but there was no mention of including
birth control supplies and birth control education to go along with any other
assistance we may offer. Without such measures, we're just putting a Band-aid
on a cut while the knife is still in the wound.
Have a smaller family and encourage others to do so.
Eliminate government incentives for having children. We give
tax breaks to people for having children, and it is the people without children
who pay the lost revenue. That's the same as raising the taxes on those who
don't have children. If you believe that we already have enough people in this
country, support policies that eliminate these incentives
Introduce incentives for not having children. Rather that
paying people to have children, couldn't we introduce incentives not to have
children? Once we agree that adding 150 million people to our country by 2050
is not going to improve our lives or the lives of our children, wouldn't it
make sense to give tax breaks to people with no children? Those are the people
whose personal choices are building the future we desire.
Support fair legislation to limit migration. The United States
is receiving immigrants at a rate unprecedented in history. This is bad for
both life in the United States and abroad. Recent UN studies have shown that
a steady stream of emigrants to the U.S. actually damages
economic prospects in their country of origin by skimming the best educated
and highly motivated people from developing countries. It has been estimated
that 44 percent of America's net population growth every year comes from immigration.
In California, that number is close to 99
percent.
Lobby for protections and insurance coverage for people electing
voluntary sterilization. Most sterilizations are covered by Medicaid with a
mandatory 30-day waiting period. However, many service providers elect not to
perform such procedures, and many private insurers do not cover services.
The most effective programs that reduce birthrate worldwide are those that
give women the education and opportunities to have lives centered
around something other than childrearing. Support these programs, and vote for
politicians who will vote to support them worldwide. Make education and good
jobs available.
Support family planning and education in this country and
around the world. People should have the freedom not to have children if they
choose. We all pay the costs of adding a billion people to the planet every
12 years. Birth control is a tiny cost compared to those. It is cost effective
to provide free birth control to all people on the planet.
Support the adoption of methods of measuring public prosperity
that don't rely on economic growth. Relying on measures like Gross Domestic
Product leads politicians and economists to promote policies that are destructive
to our ongoing well-being, and do not actually increase the economic
well-being of most people. Find out more about the work of groups around the
country by visiting our resources page.
Join and support organizations that promote public awareness
of population issues. Even at this moment, you are benefiting from the efforts
of good people doing work in this field all over the globe.
These are just a start.
One of the goals of this project is to get your ideas as well, and we hope
you will contribute as well. Let us know what you think about them, and share
your own. Email us at info@ifpops.org,
or tell us in our Forum.
Fewer People - More Fun!
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:: Our Mission ::
To empower people to consider the best population size for their region and for
the planet. [ more ]
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