Number: 1996-10
WHEREAS, failure to stabilize the Earth’s human population at reasonable and sustainable levels will have dangerous consequences for people, wildlife and our natural resources; and
WHEREAS, “The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite”1; and
WHEREAS, the world’s population is expected to increase from its current level of 5.8 billion to nearly ten billion in the year 2050, and to double before the end of the next century, even if the average family size continues to decline at the same rapid rate that it has done in recent decades; and
WHEREAS, the policies and technologies needed to stabilize the human population are well understood, and where applied have been extraordinarily successful; and
WHEREAS, policy interventions needed for stabilizing human population are also desirable for other reasons. Examples of policies are: provision of voluntary family planning services and information; ensuring that girls get as many years of schooling as boys; ensuring that women have the same access to economic opportunity as men; and
WHEREAS, in 1994 the United States agreed to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, held to address international action affecting sustainable development, including population, environmental preservation and overconsumption of natural resources, which Programme calls for gradually increasing U.S. contributions to reach a total of 1.8 billion dollars per annum by the year 2000 for population programs in the developing world, and which represents a total of less than seven dollars per U.S. citizen2 in the year 2000, but would benefit the United States environmentally, economically and politically; and
WHEREAS, the U.S., which gives less development assistance per person than a list of twenty industrialized countries, including Portugal, Spain and Ireland has this year elected to reduce its assistance budget by more than a third; and
WHEREAS, there are legislative proposals that would eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, the government agency charged with delivering long-term assistance for environmental protection and human development, including population assistance overseas;
NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in its Annual Meeting assembled March 1-3, 1996 in West Palm Beach, Florida, hereby calls on all political parties in this election year to affirm their support for effective, humane policies and programs to stabilize global population by the end of the next century at the lowest feasible level; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls on all parties to devise and implement a plan for meeting the internationally agreed targets for funding voluntary family planning services provisions, allied education, research and health care in the developing world.
- Excerpted from the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, April 1993, a statement signed by over 1670 scientists, including 104 Nobel Laureates in the sciences. Sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
- This figure is calculated based on population estimates from the Population Reference Bureau. U.S. population in 1995 is estimated at 263.2 million. In the year 2010 it is projected to rise to 300.4 million. This translates to an annual average increment of 2.48 million in the intervening fifteen years, which would have the population in the year 2000 at about 275 million.