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An Overview
The Global Population and Environment Program's mission is to protect the global environment and preserve natural resources for future generations by advancing global reproductive health and sustainable development initiatives. Working with domestic and international coalition partners, we seek to increase universal access to voluntary family planning services and comprehensive sex education; advance women's and girls' basic rights, including access to health care, education and economic opportunity; promote youth leadership; and raise public awareness of wasteful resource consumption in the context of social and economic equity. Our program has five action objectives:
More on our Program:
These harsh environmental realities are compounded by the demographic predictions that in the next fifty years the number of people on the planet will increase to over 9 billion people (4). Sierra Club recognizes that all of our environmental successes may be short-lived if they do not include efforts to address population growth. Ensuring access to voluntary family planning services, increasing women and girls' access to basic rights, including health care, education and economic opportunity, and curbing our consumption of natural resources, is necessary if we wish to achieve a more sustainable environmental future.
We support the goals of the "Cairo Consensus", a plan of action that resulted from the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. This was the first international document to recognize the interconnections among reproductive health, and sustainable environmental and economic development. The Cairo Consensus created a 20 year plan for the planet that encouraged each participating country to work toward goals such as universal access to family planning, reproductive health services, and education for women and girls. In line with these international goals, we support the highest levels of funding without restrictions for voluntary international and domestic family planning programs, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Family Planning Programs. These programs include assistance for clinics, reproductive health services and education, contraceptives, and maternal and child health care. We also support integrated Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Projects in the field, which acknowledge and address the complex connections between humans, their health, and their environment. All of these programs address unmet need for desired, cost-effective and voluntary public health services that save women's lives. Today at least 120 million couples worldwide would like family planning and safe motherhood services, but are unable to obtain them (5). Although by far the wealthiest nation in the world, the U.S. falls behind that of its European and other allies in support for these programs. We also support a comprehensive approach to sex education for young people in the United States and around the world. One of the best ways we can slow population growth and advance sound public health policies here in the U.S. is to advocate for policies and programs that work to prevent the occurrence of teenage pregnancy. Comprehensive sex education programs can help reduce teen pregnancy rates, yet, NO federal dollars are invested in these programs.
Advancing sustainable development policies, alleviating the worst of poverty, and supporting the trend toward slower population growth cannot happen without interventions directed at those most affected by – and most able to affect – environmental degradation and poverty at the local level: women. Women make up two thirds of the world's poorest people, are more likely than men to be poor, malnourished and illiterate, usually have less access to medical care, property ownership, and employment, and are far less likely than men to be politically active (8). In developing nations, women are the first to encounter the effects of ecological stress, because they must walk farther to get wood for cooking and heating, to search for clean water and to find new sources of food. Because mothers tend to be responsible for rearing children and ensuring sufficient resources to meet their needs for nutrition, health care and schooling, women's lives are often inextricably linked to natural resource use. Therefore, advancing women and girls' access to quality health care, education and economic opportunity is crucial to alleviating poverty and advancing sustainable development. When women are healthy, they are better able to care for the needs of their families and local environments. And when girls have access to education, they are more likely to delay marriage and childbearing, and instead acquire skills to improve economic prospects for themselves and their families. This reduces poverty, maternal and infant mortality, and child malnutrition rates.
Through our campus campaign we advocate for sustainable development solutions, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and information for young people in 6 target states (California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington). With our annual National Training in Washington D.C. and bi-annual state-wide youth summits, we collaborate with coalition partners to recruit student leaders, and train them with the information and skills necessary to advance population solutions. Throughout the year, we also deliver interactive "Sex and the Environment" workshops to college campuses, led by international and U.S. youth leaders. By providing campuses with the resources necessary to publicize these events-including interactive tabling materials, posters, fact-sheets and tool-kits-we help students to truly make a difference on their campuses and in their communities.
In a world that is increasingly impacted by the effects of globalization, consumption and waste production patterns in the U.S. are far-reaching, affecting environmental and human health locally and globally. Our unsustainable practices, whether it be water use, deforestation, or greenhouse gas emissions, impact many of our world neighbors. As consumers in a nation full of choices, we have an opportunity to invest in a more sustainable future, rather than perpetuate consumption patterns that exacerbate the destruction of the environment and the social inequalities around the world. The purchases we make directly impact the global environment. We have the power to influence a more sustainable use of the world's resources, ensure a more equitable distribution among the world's citizens, and curb our ecological footprint.
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If we are to achieve a more sustainable future, addressing the root causes of environmental degradation — including overconsumption of natural resources, poverty, and population growth — is paramount.
Make the Population-Environment Connection
Promote Voluntary Family Planning Around the World and in the U.S.
Advance Sustainable Development Solutions that Address Poverty and Gender Inequity
Empower Young People with our "Youth Action for the Global Environment" Campaign
Curb Our Ecological Footprint