International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
Commemorated every year since August 9, 1995, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples celebrates the 476 million Indigenous people living across 90 countries. The people of these 5,000 unique cultures make up less than 5% of the world’s population, but they account for 15% of the world’s poorest people on earth. (UN) COVID-19 is […]
COVID-19 Lockdowns Clear Skies
People hate to take the heat. We are masters of deflection and somehow always find a way to put the blame on someone, or something, else. And then, when there’s no one else to blame, we resort to sheer denial. Take climate change, for example. On an episode of “Good Morning Britain” in 2019, Trump […]
Planet of the Humans Swings Wildly, Misses Badly
Toward the end of the recently-released, Michael Moore-produced film Planet of the Humans, the narrator blames everyone: “It’s not one thing, but everything we are doing. A human-caused apocalypse.” Does this universal condemnation apply to public health workers in besieged reproductive health clinics risking their lives to foster a safer, less-crowded world? Does it include […]
2020 World Day of Social Justice
There are three primary reasons we at Population Connection work toward population stabilization every day: improved human health and longevity environmental protection social justice The third reason is the focus of this blog post. The United Nations declared February 20 the World Day of Social Justice when its general assembly passed a resolution on November […]
We Can Save the Planet if We React Decisively: The Healing Ozone Layer Is Proof
I admit, when I heard that today was International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, my initial reaction was confusion. Wait, I thought. The ozone layer gets its own day? I thought we already fixed that. Back in the 90s, we heard a lot about the holes in the ozone layer and how […]
A Burning Desire for Beef: Amazon Wildfires and the Brazilian Cattle Industry
As fires continue to burn in the Amazon Rainforest, celebrities express concern and top government officials pledge financial support. The Amazon has an utmost importance to the planet; it’s earth’s largest rainforest and home to a fifth of the world’s plants and birds. Environmentalists worry that the fires will lead to further species extinction and […]
Oceans Are Important, and Humans Are Wrecking Them
Saturday, June 8, is World Oceans Day, and precisely because oceans aren’t my area of expertise (my usual lane is more politics, reproductive health and rights, and comic book movies), I volunteered to write the blog post about it. I wasn’t really sure where to start; I had (like, I suspect, a lot of people) […]
Human Activities Threaten Up to 1 Million Species With Extinction
The UN just presented a teaser of its most comprehensive report on biodiversity since 2005, and the central point it makes is devastating: Up to a million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, and human activity is to blame. Changes in land and sea use, direct species exploitation, climate change, pollution, and the […]
Pollinator Week 2018: Making the Population Connection
June 18-24 marks a weeklong celebration of the hardworking critters that fertilize our planet’s flowering plants! Let’s take this National Pollinator Week to recognize both the indispensable contributions of pollinators in our daily lives—and the major threats they face thanks in part to rapid population growth. Bees may be at the center of the spotlight […]
Four Ideas for Earth Day 2017 That Will Make a Statement Against Trump
1. March for Science Donald Trump is not a man of science: He believes climate change is a hoax, has proposed cuts to many different types of scientific research, and is working to undo important environmental regulations on power plants and other pollution-heavy industries. Take part in the national March for Science this weekend (you […]
