June 12, 2023 | Articles
As the planet continues to warm, humans are destroying the largest tropical carbon sink[a] in the world due to poverty, conflict, and population growth. The forests of the Congo Basin, in west-central Africa, provide invaluable environmental services, including harboring thousands of species, increasing rainfall in drier regions that desperately need…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
John Seager’s March President’s Note was right on target. I think we (population, environment, and energy folks) need to encourage research and publication of “getting smaller” stories. When a city, town, municipality, zip code, county, state, or country gets smaller, the answer is not to import more people or to…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
More people will not solve the problem of too many people Naomi Oreskes, PhD The world reached two important milestones toward the end of last year. First, the human population passed 8 billion in November, a whopping increase of 1 billion people since 2011. Then, in December, representatives of 188…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
The Supreme Court said late Friday that the abortion pill mifepristone—a drug millions of women have used to terminate early pregnancies—would remain widely available, at least for now. The news is more cause for relief than celebration, and certainly not cause for complacency. True, a court with a conservative supermajority…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
We were pleased when we saw Harvard University Prof. Naomi Oreskes’ opinion piece, “Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement,” in Scientific American in March. I immediately contacted her for permission to reprint it, which she readily granted—it’s on page 10 of this issue. What…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
Capitol Hill Days 2023 After a year that’s seen endless assaults on reproductive rights here in the United States, we gathered (online) for our annual Capitol Hill Days advocacy event from April 5–7 to learn about what’s happening with reproductive health and rights around the world. We were joined for…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
President’s Circle members contribute annual gifts of $1,000 or more, providing the financial foundation for our educational and advocacy efforts. Development Manager Sarah Ikemoto caught up with President’s Circle member Bruce Colburn in April. We are grateful to Bruce and all of our President’s Circle members for their generosity and…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
Viewing the World Through a Lens of 8 Billion Winners of the 2022–2023 World of 8 Billion Student Video Contest Announced This year, we officially changed the name of our student video contest from World of 7 Billion to World of 8 Billion to reflect the world population hitting 8…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
India officially world’s largest population According to the latest UN projections, India has officially overtaken China (which has peaked and begun shrinking) as the world’s largest population. At the end of June, India is expected to have 1.4286 billion people, compared to China’s 1.4257 billion. Of course, demographic estimates are…...
Read MoreJune 12, 2023 | Articles
Proactive Efforts to Protect Reproductive Freedom Members of Congress call for increased support for global family planning Both the House and Senate have begun the process of determining federal funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2024, which begins on October 1, 2023. In preparation for these deliberations, 125 members of the…...
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