Spring Radio Waves

Our radio Public Service Announcements (PSAs) restarted in March and ran through the end of April on Spanish radio station La Preciosa (100.7 FM). Meanwhile, radio station KDON (102.5 FM) played our English hip-hop PSA for their mostly youthful audience. If you want to reach youth, a little hip-hop goes a long way! A total of 150-plus PSAs played between the 2 stations.

Hispanic Radio Listening Habits (Source: Strategy Research Corporation, U.S. Census Bureau, 2004)

 96% of Hispanics prefer to receive their information in their first language.

 9 out of 10 Hispanics listen to Spanish language radio.

 92% of Hispanics listen to the radio everyday.

Did you know that 85% of the documented adult Hispanic market on the central coast is between 18 and 49 years of age? Coupled with the above statistics on radio listening habits, there are enormous opportunities for our population message to be heard on radio.

Do you have suggestions on new story lines for radio? We are looking for topics on the environment and relating small family size with personal responsibilities.

Bilingual Cartoon Handouts

In our last newsletter we showed you one of our handouts, Lalo and Jose. Below is Concha and Juana in English with the Spanish version on page 2. Thanks again to Jeremy Mathews. Used as educational handouts at schools and public events, they are very popular. We have one more scenario looking for a cartoonist.

Resources for Teachers

If you are a teacher, you will fi nd wonderful ideas for teaching about population and the environment. Go to Population Connection website: popconnect.org and select Resources for Teachers. Tell your teacher friends about this amazing resource and don’t forget the home-school teachers you know.

Counting on People is more than just an environmental education curriculum for young students. Counting on People is an exploratory guide to help them understand their connections to other people, all living things and the world around them. Population and environmental concepts are presented in fun, interesting ways so that even the very young can understand them. Essential for the elementary classroom, this book is filled with 30 hands-on modules, delightful poems and songs, and charming illustrations.

This elementary-level teaching kit, Counting on People, is on sale for just $1. Regularly $13, the kit includes over 40 hands-on activities for grades 1-5. Sale runs through May 31st. Shipping and handling applies.

The latest version of Population Connection’s classic secondary school activity is now fully updated and available for FREE download. Also available is a free newsletter for teachers full of hands-on activities. Just sign up! This is an exciting website so check it out.

Contact Information:

Population Connection
1400 16th Street NW, Suite 320
Washington DC 20036
Phone: 800-767-1956
popconnect.org

The Reality of Exponential Growth

AFGHANISTAN: The average woman in Afghanistan will bear about 7 children during her lifetime. If the total fertility rate (TFR) stays the same for the next three generations, the average Afghanistan woman will have:

7 children
49 grandchildren
343 great-grandchildren
2,400 great-great-grandchildren

EUROPE: In contrast, the average family size in many countries in Europe is barely more than one child. A European woman with a TFR of one will have:

1 child
1 grandchild
1–2 great-grandchildren
2–3 great-great-grandchildren

Prom Action Support

Teen advocates of Strategic Health Communications (formerly Population Services International—PSI) hold workshop meetings on Thursdays at the offi ces of Strategic Health Communications in Watsonville. All of the members are from Watsonville High School and all are Latino. On March 23, Amelia Koenig representing Population Connection Monterey Bay Chapter, went to their meeting to present a check for $250 from Population Connection. Our organization supports Strategic Health Communications and the teen advocates vital role in providing responsible and safe sex education for teens at the forthcoming prom.

Prom action plan: There is much talk among the students at the high school. It is customary for girls to lose their virginity that night, and many are making plans. Teen advocates will be present that night at the entrance before and after the prom. They will also circulate to high school hangouts after the prom where prom goers might be. Teen advocates will be passing out condoms, free telephone cards, little gift baskets, mints, etc. with messages to the students not to have unprotected sex. They hope to help students avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexual diseases. Also, they will distribute information about the morning after pill and a telephone number where teens can call for a prescription that night and the next day.

Here is what Amelia had to say about the meeting with the teen advocates from Strategic Health Communications:

“I walked in and was greeted with enthusiastic smiles and greetings. I was impressed by the cheerful and cleancut appearance of the teenage advocates. Maria Magana, Manager of Parent Education, introduced me and asked the group “Who would like to receive the check?” Everybody raised their hands. One boy was jumping up and down and waving his arms and had a big grin on his face so I chose him. I made a short comment and gave the check to him.

Many pictures were taken. All the students were yelling thank you and saying nice things. Then the boy said, “Can I hug you?” I said, OK, and he gave me a big hug. A girl stood up and said, “We have a present for you.” They gave me a T-shirt with the name of their newspaper on it, a thank you card and a key chain. As I was leaving the room, they all were yelling thank you, and a couple yelled “We love you.” The experience of being welcomed with such enthusiasm and to hear their genuine gratitude was a big morale booster for me.” When I got home my husband looked at my key chain and he said, “There is a condom inside the plastic case.”

Get Involved

The population of the U.S. will hit 300 million in 2006. We have added 100 million people in just 38 years. United States population is now increasing by 2.8 million per year. We can take positive, reasonable steps to move rapidly toward “ZPG”— zero population growth.

We need to continue our work on reducing birth rates, ensuring contraceptive availability, preventing teen pregnancy, defending reproductive rights, and finding practical solutions to migration challenges.

One With Nineveh with Paul Ehrlich

By Bruce Bridgeman

Professor Paul Ehrlich’s talk at UC Santa Cruz on Thursday March 2 was a brief (less than an hour), loosely organized look at the state of the world’s environment. Based on his recent book with Anne Ehrlich, he compared the current environmental situation with that of the Akkadians, who presided over the fi rst real empire, defined as an organized effort to steal stuff from one’s neighbors over a long term. From their capitol, Nineveh (now Mosul, Iraq), they ruled confidently for several centuries, until salinization of irrigated fields eventually turned their empire into a desert (it remained unoccupied for at least three centuries). Ehrlich imagined Akkadian ecologists warning their rulers about growing salinization and excessive population growth, and being rebuffed.

Ehrlich sees a similar scenario being played out worldwide today, not only for irrigation but for other activities from fisheries to factories, and a similar reaction by most (not all) politicians. In the United States, however, he pointed out (without naming names) that the current rulers are working about as hard as possible on environmental issues, always in the wrong direction. On global warming, the most severe emerging problem, the government perpetually calls for further research, while a docile press seeks a solution somewhere in the middle. Ehrlich pointed out, however, that throughout his long career the answers to empirical scientifi c questions have never fallen somewhere in the middle—one side is generally right, and the other wrong. Just as geographers are not asked to compromise with flat-earthers, ecologists should not be asked to compromise with business executives who have no scientific education or competence.

Whether environmental disaster can be avoided is an open question, but it can be delayed and environmental decline can be made gradual with the right policies. There is in the present atmosphere no possibility that such policies will be enacted. Instead, we are distracted by environmentally destructive empire-like activities, attempting to steal stuff (oil) from the Iraqis. No matter what the administration does, though, the world within a few years will be unable to pump enough oil to meet demand, and the next environmental crisis will engulf us.

Reduce Population!
The species you save may be your own.

Read the previous newsletter!