Chapter News
Meeting Dates 2002 — Mark Your Calendar Now!
March 28
April 25
June 27
August 22
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September 26
October 24
December 5
January 23 (2003)
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We need your help and involvement. Meetings usually include potluck dinners. Call Robbin Anderson at 423-6293 for time, location and what to bring.
Campus Outreach
Tabling and educational outreach on overpopulation continues at Cabrillo College. Contact Robbin at 423-6293 for information on how you can help.
Election Results Year 2002
Officers and Board Members
Chair Linda Brodman
Vice Chair Royce Fincher
Secretary Robbin Anderson
Treasurer Pat Smith
Bruce Bridgeman, Jeannine Cutter, Louise and Dan Doxtator, Keresha Durham, and Len Rorer
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CHAPTER ACTION SINCE OCTOBER
World Population Awareness Week Events
October 21–27
The Population Institute, sponsors of the annual World Population Awareness Week (WPAW) throughout the world, acknowledged our local chapter’s efforts, especially our presentation by William Ryerson and our library display.
WPAW aims to provide information to the broadest possible audiences on the consequences of rapid population growth.
October 15
Tabling at Cabrillo College: Robbin Anderson and Linda Brodman worked the ZPG booth.
October 18
UCSC Volunteer Outreach: We were visible at the University thanks to Robbin Anderson.
October 21
United Nations Day Parade: John and Vicki Pearse, Bruce Bridgeman and Linda Brodman marched up Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz carrying the ZPG banner and signs conveying our population message.
October 23
Annual General Membership Meeting: Guest Speaker Bill Ryerson, President and Founder of Population Media Center.
UCSC Campus Talk: Bruce Bridgeman arranged for Bill Ryerson to speak on the campus — a very informative talk.
October 27
Make a Difference Day: Sponsored by the Volunteer Centers of Santa Cruz County, our booth at the Capitola Mall gave us an opportunity to reach people with our urgent message. Thanks to Jeannine Cutter, Dan Miller and Linda Brodman for staffing the booth.
Library Display in Santa Cruz
During World Population Awareness Week, we had a population display at the main library in Santa Cruz. A journal was maintained for the public to comment. We hope to rotate our booth to other libraries in the county. Thanks to Royce Fincher and Linda Brodman for their help in organizing the display.
November 7
Meeting with Reed Addis, District Director for Sam Farr.
November 18
Article in Santa Cruz Sentinel: Many members were shocked to read an article called “Eight Isn’t Enough” in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, November 18. The paper called Robbin Anderson to ask for ZPG’s opinion regarding “bigger is better.” Robbin’s comments were included in the article. Thank you Robbin! Read rebuttal to “Eight Isn’t Enough.” ZPG members are encourged to write letters to local newspaper editors.
Web sites to explore
ZPG Monterey Bay Chapter
Updates to our web site continue with the help of Stephen Pollard and Linda Brodman. Visit us at: www.zpgmb.org
ZPG National
Excellent and informative: www.zpg.org
United Nations Population Fund
State Of World Population 2001
Implementing, and adequately funding, internationally agreed actions to reduce poverty, empower women and promote social development will be essential, says The State of World Population 2001 report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Go to their web site to see this report: www.unfpa.org
Population Coalition
The Population Coalition has a new and exciting interactive population web site: www.popco.org.
Bill Ryerson Talk
Soap Operas Teach Population Control
by Lindsay Fortado
Staff writer, Cabrillo College Newspaper, The Voice
November 2, 2001
Lindsay was assigned to cover this event and her article was published in The Voice.
Thank you, Lindsay.
TV soap operas are an effective teaching tool to help control population growth in developing countries, according to Bill Ryerson, president of the Population Media Center (PMC).
Ryerson, who spoke last week at a Zero Population Growth meeting in Santa Cruz, discussed the necessity for population control and the methods PMC is using to achieve it in countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, India and Ethiopia. PMC, he said, uses a technique called “Sabido methodology.” Their primary means are television and radio programs, where the characters’ actions promote choices that involve various social change issues.
“The programs are highly entertaining and long-running,” Ryerson said. “They show positive and negative behavior and their outcomes provide an emotional connection to the actors and actresses.”
PMC’s goal is to “work worldwide with broadcast and print media to promote population stabilization by encouraging the use of family planning, safe sexual practices, and elevation of women’s status.”
The Center recognizes the broadcast media as one of the most effective outlets for conveying messages to invoke social change, yet it has not been able to break into the United States television and radio programming with the effectiveness that they are experiencing abroad, Ryerson said.
He stressed that population growth is an impending social problem of the twenty-first century, a problem that many environmental organizations have turned away from because of its difficulty to correct, taking it out of the public eye. “The chances of Congress passing any population growth laws in our lifetime is minimal. People often think that it is too intertwined with abortion,” Ryerson said.
There is no doubt that our world population is rapidly expanding; statistics indicate that in 64 years, the current global population will double. Since 1970, California’s population alone has expanded, 75% according to the PMC.
Ryerson believes that in order to effectively curb population growth, government should be promoting education for women and girls, increase acceptance of females in the work force, an end to child slavery, and increase family planning.
One of his and the PMC’s main goals is to increase the use of contraceptives. According to Ryerson, over half the population now uses contraceptives. Their research indicates that the mostcommon reasons for not using contraceptives is not because of a lack of access. Instead, Ryerson said, people want a family and they fear the side effects of contraceptives.
Also, people are ignorant about the possibilities of becoming pregnant, and there is male opposition to family planning. Additionally, Ryerson said there is the “idea of fatalism — that you cannot control your life and shouldn’t attempt to do so.”
Ryerson also discussed his beliefs that many people in this country have not grasped the direct link between population growth and poverty. He believes that in larger families, there is less money to divide between each child, so those children as a result have fewer resources to lead better lives. Lower populations mean that employment is higher, and there is more of a chance of political stability, according to Ryerson.
“All economies which improved from developing nations to developed nations after World War II such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea, have also had a decrease in population growth,” he said.
Laws to control population growth are extremely difficult to pass and enforce for a significant number of reasons; even China has now repealed the one-child law. It is now using the PMC’s method of public persuasion through radio and TV soap operas to control social issues, as many other countries are also doing.
Ryerson and the PMC plan to cash into the United States media market in the near future with their Sabido-style soaps, as they are now doing successfully in several other countries. “With the population growing at such rapid rates, it is crucial that we make changes in our behavior before it is too late.”
Legislative Action
Meeting with Reed Addis
by Royce Fincher
Dan Doxtator and I met with Reed Addis, District Director for Sam Farr, and thanked him for Farr’s support in signing on as a cosponsor of House Concurrent Resolution 70. The resolution would express the sense of Congress that the United States should develop, promote and implement policies to slow global population growth. We emphasized that this measure, although largely symbolic and subject to being lost in the morass of other problems including national security, is nonetheless important.
We also explained that a woman’s right to choice is very important in slowing population growth. We noted that ZPG is silent on the immigration component of domestic population.
Dan explained that we are a grass-roots organization of 500 to 700 dues paying members in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, noting our activities and the events we have hosted. Addis joined Farr’s staff as District Director in September, 2001 after having served Fred Keeley in essentially the same role. An environmental studies and politics major at UCSC, we can expect him to be sympathetic to our approach to dealing with overpopulation.
Editor note: Royce Fincher is the Legislative Chair for our chapter. He plans to meet with our legislators to let them know our position, and also keep us informed about how we can take action.
Eight Is Enough
Letter to the Editor, Santa Cruz Sentinel
by Pat Kittle, Santa Cruz, 12/8/01
“Eight Isn’t Enough,” proclaim the fruitful parents of your Nov. 18 story. “We might . . . have two or three more . . . God provides for our family.”
When someone pointed out the obvious “as the population expands, there will not be enough for everyone. . . . God made human beings to be responsible and take responsibility for their actions,” the father got angry. “God . . . knows best how to populate the world,” he grumbled. (Hey, God might be your co-pilot, but that doesn’t mean you take your hands off the steering wheel, does it? Do you wait for God to put his foot on the brakes?)
As an investment counselor, you’d think this fellow could do the arithmetic — if we all behaved like him, our population would multiply four (or more) times every generation!
Let’s say he maxes out at 10 kids. Suppose each of these kids has 10 kids, and so on, for 10 generations. How many kids will be in their tenth generation?
A thousand?
A hundred thousand, maybe?
Try a hundred thousand, squared! That’s 10 billion!
Just from one couple, in just 10 generations. Seriously. Do the math.
This family schedules a daily event they call “Wisdom Search. ”May I suggest a topic —“Why did God give us a mind capable of simple arithmetic, if he didn’t want us to use it?”
These seem like well-intended folks, doing their best to take care of their kids, and they seem like good kids. Folks, please focus on the eight you have.
Duplicity Reigns
by Royce Fincher
In a carefully worked out compromise, Congress in December appropriated increased support for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) as part of the Fiscal Year 2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. President Bush signed it in mid-January. A week later, having gotten the larger bill, he suspended funding for UNFPA.
The action was “covered” by a letter from Representative Christopher Smith (R–NJ, www.house.gov/chrissmith), an abortion rights opponent, asking Bush to withdraw the funds because UNFPA “condones forced abortions and involuntary sterilization in China” through its support of family planning programs there. Provisions of the Kemp-Kasten amendment prohibit funding to any organization that the President determines “supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.”
Congressional leaders negotiated with the administration for weeks last fall to arrive at a final funding level for UNFPA of 34 million dollars, up from a prior 21.5 million dollars. But, of course, Smith’s allegations were nothing new, just justification for Bush’s action following the Congressional compromise. “I think it’s outrageous to appease extremists in Congress on the backs of the poorest, most vulnerable women and children in the world,” said Representative Nita Lowey (D–NY, www.house.gov/lowey.)
Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA (www.unfpa.org, 212 297-5279) had praised the legislation for its return by the United States to funding levels of a decade ago. “The United States has traditionally stood in the forefront of international donors in the population field.”
Now Obaid was forced into meeting with State Department officials and Elliot Abrams, a member of the National Security Council staff, to discuss (beg?) releasing the funds. UNFPA pointed out that it works only in provinces where China’s one-child policy has been lifted, and uses its funds for contraception, never for abortion services or referral.
Judith DeSarno, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (www.nfprha.org), feared that “President Bush will try to capitalize on his popularity from the war on terrorism to press a conservative agenda” that boosts funds for abstinence-only education and restricts access to contraception and abortion services. Congress spent 100 million dollars this year on school abstinence-only education programs, but Bush has said that he would like to increase this funding to match the approximately 135 million dollars spent every year on programs that dispense contraceptives to teens at public health clinics. In contrast, Representative Barbara Lee (D–Oakland, www.house.gov/lee, 202 225-2661) has recently introduced a bill to provide 100 million dollars annually for comprehensive sex education in schools.
The President will officially outline his legislative agenda for 2002 in his State of the Union address on January 29, and anti-abortion groups have said they “do not know exactly what issues are on the president’s agenda.”
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