September-October 1999
How Many People Can the Earth Sustain?
Population Experts Warn That Despite Recent Advances, Continuing Growth Will Drain Scarce Resources and Fuel Conflicts
Population today is a "good news, bad news" story. Stabilization programs over the past generation have shown remarkable success in averting the doomsday scenarios that seemed likely 30 years ago. Better education and health services, declining mortality rates, delayed childbearing, and other factors have substantially slowed the rate of population growth. Worldwide, women are now having just half the number of children their mothers did.
The problem is no longer a population explosion but population momentum -- the "youthquake" represented by 1 billion adolescents now entering their peak childbearing years and destined to drive global population as high as 10 billion before it finally levels off around 2050. More than 95 percent of this growth will occur in poor, developing nations without the housing, jobs, social or health services to support it. Even as we slow fertility rates, we will continue to experience the pressures of population growth for at least another two generations. Population pressure will further exhaust already depleted natural resources, intensify social and political conflicts, and exacerbate threats to human health.
We've made great progress in averting a population apocalypse, but demographers warn that this is no time to declare victory and dismantle the programs that made it all possible. As we pass the threshold of six billion people, how can we assure that the billions who come after will grow up in a world worth living in?
Between mid-September and the end of October 1999, the Mainstream Media Project mounted a public education campaign on population issues, featuring 41 of the country's leading authorities on population growth and the efforts to stabilize it. The campaign was timed to coincide with the Day of Six Billion, the UN-designated moment when the world's population surpassed 6 billion. MMP worked in cooperation with the Communications Consortium Media Center and major population NGOs to raise public awareness of both the successes and the challenges that remain in bringing global population within sustainable limits. In all, some 192 interviews were scheduled and completed, of which 27 were nationally or globally syndicated.
Guest Speakers by Topic
Six Going on Ten: Why Our Numbers Continue to Grow
John Bongaarts, Vice President and Director, Policy Research Division, Population Council
Sarah Clark, Director, Population Program, Packard Foundation
Linda Martin, President, Population Council
Youthquake! A Billion Adolescents and a Billion More on the Way
Carl Haub, Senior Demographer, Population Reference Bureau
Marilyn Hempel, Executive Director, Population Coalition
Henry Foster, Chairman, U.S. Population Fund Committee for the United Nations
Sonny Fox, Senior Vice President, U.S. Programs, Population Communications International
Martha Farnsworth Riche, Former Director, U.S. Census Bureau
Shrinking Forests, Polluted Water, Urban Sprawl, and Species Loss: How Many More People Can the Earth Sustain?
Linda Harrar, Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker; Producer of "Six Billion and Beyond"
Marilyn Hempel, Executive Director, Population Coalition
Rep. Peter Kostmayer (ret.), National Spokesperson, Zero Population Growth
Frederick Meyerson, Director, Global Change Policy Project, Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy
Patricia Waak, Senior Advisor to Population and Habitat Program, Audubon Society
The Learning Curve: Why Better Education Makes for Smaller Families
Kate Bourne, Director of Public Affairs, Pathfinder International
Gloria Feldt, President, Planned Parenthood Federation
Peter Purdy, President, U.S. Committee for the UN Population Fund
Daniel Pellegrom, President, Pathfinder International
Health Hazards: AIDS, STDs, Safe Motherhood, and Healthy Babies
Catherine Crone Coburn, President, Management Sciences for Health
Nils Daulaire, President, Global Health Council
Julie DaVanzo, Director, Population Matters
Ronnie Lovich, Reproductive Health Specialist, Save the Children
Amy Pollack, President, AVSC International
Mary Beth Powers, Reproductive Health Advisor, Save the Children U.S.A.
Wasting Away: Are We Americans Consuming Our Fair Share?
Robert Engelman, Vice President for Research, Population Action International
John de Graaf, Long-Time Documentary Filmmaker; Co-Producer of PBS special, "Affluenza"
Jay Keller, National Field Director, Zero Population Growth
Paying for Population Activities: Investing in Programs that Work
Sally Ethelston, Vice President for Communications, Population Council International; Co-Chair, Sustainability Communicators Network
Steven W. Sinding, Professor of Public Health and International Affairs, Columbia University
Strengthening the Role of Women and the Rights of Children
Peggy Curlin, President, Center for Development and Population Activities
Dottie Lamm, Columnist, Denver Post; U.S. Delegate to International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 1994
Anika Rahman, Director, International Program, Center for Reproductive Law and Policy
What is The Role of Men in the Population Picture?
Judith Bruce, Director, Gender, Family & Development Program, Population Council
Poverty and Overpopulation: Paths to Sustainable Economic Growth
John Hatch, Founder and Director of Research, Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA)
Rupert Scofield, Founder and Executive Director, Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA)
The Cairo Consensus on Population Policies: Have We Fulfilled Our Promise?
David Andrews, President, Population Communications International
Fighting for a Bigger Share of a Smaller Pie: Population Pressures and Social Conflicts
Tom Gardner-Outlaw, Research Associate, Population Action International
George Moffett, President, Principia College; Diplomatic Correspondent, Christian Science Monitor
The Role of Religion in Population Issues
Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, General Secretary, National Council of Churches
Daniel Maguire, Professor of Ethics, Marquette University
Additional Participants (local contacts)
Frederica Aalto, Population Expert; U.S. Delegate to Cairo Conference
Robin Corderman, Director of Community Affairs, Tri-Rivers Planned Parenthood
Steve Trombley, President and CEO, Chicago chapter, Planned Parenthood
