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The first mention of population in a Sierra Club publication was in 1961. Dan Luten, a major Club volunteer, wrote an article published in the Sierra Club Bulletin in which he asked, "[We], each of us, should be asking himself whether he is concerned for an enduring wilderness or merely for his own lifetime....It is time to ask the question: Does a wilderness program, a wilderness policy, without a population policy make any sense?" The topic began to be a part of the Club's Biennial Wilderness Conferences in the early 60's. The Sierra Club's Board of Directors first expressed its concerns in 1965, and has periodically expanded its statements to include a wide range of population issues, both domestic and international. The Club persuaded Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich to write The Population Bomb, published in 1968, and reprinted in 1969 by Sierra Club Books, which established population as a national environmental issue and triggered population as an essential component of the first Earth Day in 1970. The Club established a volunteer Population Committee at that time as the internal voice for the population issue. The Sierra Club adopted its first population policy in 1969, and began taking positions on legislation shortly thereafter. The Sierra Club hired the first Director of the Population Program in 1974, based in San Francisco. The Club's focus at that time was internal education and achieving strong Environmental Protection Agency guidelines limiting the use of inflated population projections in the sizing of sewage treatment facilities. The Club also supported federal legislation to establish a national population policy, and various federal and state measures to expand family planning programs and enhance availability of abortion. In 1982, the Club supported introduction of a national population policy bill, emphasizing foresight capability among other things. The bill was reintroduced in three consecutive Congresses, received one hearing, and was not reintroduced in 1990. Between 1986 and 1989, the Club researched and released analyses of the adverse effects of population growth in three metropolitan areas: Tucson, Arizona; the Research Triangle area of North Carolina; and Riverside/San Bernardino counties each of Los Angeles. Most striking was the calculation of a carrying capacity for the Tucson metropolitan area, based on water resources. During the same period, the Club supported expansion of U.S. international family planning programs, using its nationwide network of activists and the assistance of a Washington-based lobbyist. In 1990, the Club moved the program's base to Washington, D.C. and hired its first full-time Washington Representative, who also directs the Population Program. The Club expanded its efforts in support of increased U.S. assistance for population and family planning programs in developing countries, working to implement the recommendations of the U.N. Amsterdam Declaration on Population in the 21st Century. This blueprint for addressing population sets general goals for all countries, among them providing access to family planning for everyone, through greatly increasing funding levels of industrialized countries' international population assistance to developing countries. The Sierra Club called for reaching the goal of worldwide access by the year 2000. The specific goal of the national campaign was to urge Congress to appropriate the U.S. share of this drive for full acess to family planning. In November 1990, the Club's grassroots leaders gave population the greatest number of votes among potential new major Club national campaigns. The Board of Directors subsequently declared the international population assistance drive one of the Club's seven federal priority campaigns for 1991-1992. A full-time grassroots coordinator was hired in 1991. The volunteer population committees at the group and chapter level increased from 12 in early 1990, to 45 in early 1991, to 120 in early 1992, to 275 in 1993. In 1994, the Sierra Club attended the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in support of our national position on assuring reproductive health and family planning services for all people by the year 2000. As a result of extensive outreach and skilled national leadership, over 180 countries signed in Cairo, the Programme of Action. This document is historic in its consensus that reproductive health and family planning are essential human health and development programs to which all people should have access. The document reoriented the world's understanding of the importance of a healthy, stable population to include basic health services, infant and maternal survival programs, reproductive health and family planning, education, work opportunities and equitable access to land, credit work and political participation by women. The consensus also agreed that the international community must make the funding of these programs an immediate priority to reduce poverty, enhance the quality of life and stabilize population. The Sierra Club's Global Population and Environment Program continues to advocate for the US to meet its financial commitment set forth in the 1994 Cairo agenda. The Club also advocates for international family planning support for the work of the United Nations Population Fund. Domestically, Club staff and activists advocate for increased funding for US family planning programs and services through federal Title X programs and for improved access to complete reproductive heath care and insurance contraceptive coverage. The Sierra Club recognizes that in order to slow global population growth, US policies and funding must support comprehensive and accessible voluntary family planning programs both here and abroad. April 27, 1995 Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
