Stirling Scruggs delivered a strong message, "Population: The Challenges Ahead" at our World Population Balance Lecture at Macalester College May 7th.

Scruggs, Director of Education and External Relations for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), described disparities between rich and poor nations. More than half of our fellow human beings subsist on less than $2 a day and more than a billion on less than a dollar. One fifth of humanity commands more than four fifths (86%) of the world's resources.

"A child born today in the industrial world will add more to consumption and pollution over his or her lifetime than 30 to 50 counterparts in developing nations," he said. "We all have an ecological footprint, and if we continue to consume as we do now, our collective footprint will continue to expand over the next 50 years because global population is expected to grow by another 50% between now and 2050, up to almost 9 billion."

Scruggs then went on to list some of the challenges we will face in the near future. "How will cities' municipal services be able to meet the needs of growing urban populations? How will poor countries be able to cope with so many young citizens in search of jobs? How will our natural resources hold up as population increases? These are all valid questions, and these are the very issues that the United Nations Population Fund is working on with our NGO partners, multilateral donors, and governments around the world."

He explained that the UNFPA's strategy has "moved from a fixation on the number of people on the planet to a focus on human well-being and human rights. Improving the status of women is key to that. Everything we have learned shows that when women are empowered through laws that ensure their rights, health care that ensures their well-being, and education that ensures their active participation, the benefits go far beyond the individual to the family, the village, the community, and the nation."

"When couples are given a real choice, they choose to have smaller, healthier families. Women in Bangladesh have chosen to have half as many children as they did 20 years ago. All over the world, the last two generations of women have chosen to have smaller families, and the next generation will do the same if they have access to information, services, and community support."

Scruggs emphasized the importance of medical care for pregnant women. "Every minute, one woman dies from pregnancy-related causes. That's the equivalent of four jumbo jets a day. We can prevent 75% of that with adequate resources."

Dr. Peter Vaughan of Macalester College, co-sponsor of the lecture series, also spoke briefly about a UNFPA-funded research project he helped conduct in Tanzania. They studied the effectiveness of soap opera messages to reduce desired family size resulting in lower fertility rates. Parts of the country where the program was aired saw a significant increase in the use of family planning. Scruggs praised Vaughan's study as an example of how to measure the effectiveness of communications.

Asked whether Muslim countries are receptive to population stabilization, Scruggs replied, "One of the best reproductive health programs in the world ... is in Iran. In fact, they just reached stabilization last week, and that's because they had the political will and understood the health necessity. ... Yemen is doing well. Egypt is doing well. Indonesia has one of the best programs in the world. ... UNFPA's last two leaders have been Muslim women."

In response to "What can Americans do to help?" Scruggs replied, "Write your member of Congress. Contributing personally to an organization like World Population Balance or UNFPA or USAID ... the cup is a long way from full for organizations that work in this area. Vote, stay informed, and write letters. That's the only way in a democracy."

Scruggs concluded his lecture with a call to action: "Now is the time for leadership. The costs that we are talking about are miniscule, and the benefits are too great to measure. Investing in reproductive health and women is a moral and pragmatic necessity. It is an investment we cannot afford not to make."

Awareness Campaign via Mass Media

World Population Balance is launching a major population awareness campaign using public services announcements (PSAs) and advertising, as funding allows.

"It's long been a dream of mine that we actively use media PSAs, advertising and sponsorships to reach and educate millions of people about the importance of the population stabilization issue," stated David Paxson, WPB president.

It is widely understood that an issue gains tremendous traction once it gains active support of about five percent of the public. "We want to build that five percent in Minnesota," said Paxson.

From the President

By David Paxson

These are very exciting and encouraging times for us. Several of you tell us that you are hearing "population" brought up more often than it was a few years ago. That is good news!

During the past three years we have successfully moved to a higher level of activity and financial support. This has given us a more stable base from which to expand. We are especially grateful to The World Population Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation for their tremendous generosity during this time. Also, a significantly greater number of you are responding, as well. Last year the number of you who donated increased by over 300% above the previous year. Thank you very much for demonstrating your confidence and support for our important population education efforts!

Your support allows us to strengthen all of our existing educational activities, including: school and adult presentations, speaking tours to communities throughout the region, our excellent web site, more and better newsletters, producing our own population video and republishing a book. In addition we are able to add new projects to our plate, and this has been very exciting. Our major addition for this year is to create a mass media population education campaign. Ever since 1990 when I returned to the population issue full-time (years earlier I worked at the Center for Population Studies at the University of Minnesota), I have believed that mass media would be essential to reach and educate greater numbers of people.

I am convinced that the time has arrived. I say this for several reasons. First, World Population Balance now has over a decade of experience in grassroots population education -- a "track record" of sorts. Second, we have learned much about which population messages work better with the public and which do not. Thirdly, we now have great potential to secure funding necessary for such a campaign.

No matter what your cause, it is a lost cause unless we also stabilize population growth.

Recognizing that dollars do not go far in the advertising world, we plan to produce a few succinct and catchy public service announcements for television and radio, billboard ads which will reinforce the link between population growth and several of our most critical local and global issues, and ads in local newspapers.

Our initial goal for this camaign is $40,000. We are convinced that the impact of public education through mass media will be enormous. It will accomplish several important things: (1) First and foremost, these PSAs and ads will bring population into the awareness of millions of additional people. (2) Many more people will learn of our existence as a population education organization here in the Upper Midwest. This will also give us greater presence in the public discussion about the population issue. (3) Thousands of additional people will be attracted to our organization and programs, since our web address will be included in each ad. We have long realized that many more people would support our efforts if they knew we were here.

We are seeking funding for this campaign. We envision it as an on-going effort, and we picture spending our precious dollars very judiciously. For example, rather than purchasing several billboards at one time, we probably will purchase only one or two at a time so that we can continue having one or two up for many months to come -- giving us an on-going presence rather than short-term.

Creation of this campaign is "in process." While we have many exciting ideas for messages, we very much need your creative ideas, as well. What population message would you like to see on a billboard? What would you like to see and hear on TV or radio? Please contact us with your ideas. Solving this population challenge will require all our best minds.

In addition, we need your financial support. To those of you who have already renewed your membership, I thank you once again. To those of you who have not yet renewed or who are considering increasing your support, I invite you to do it now. Believe me, your dollars do make a difference. They make "all the difference in the (highly populated) world!"

Thank you.

David Paxson

Help fund our media campaign! Make a tax-deductible donation to World Population Balance today!

Public Radio and Television Member Project

We are grateful to each of you who responded to our appeal in the April newsletter about membership in public television or radio. Thank you very much. Some of your responses include: "Great idea!" and "Hope they agree to help."

We plan to meet with staff members of both of these great organizations to discuss how we can help them to include accurate information about the population issue in their ongoing programming.

It is very clear that our success with them will be tremendously enhanced if we hear from you. We need to know that you are a member. (By the way, we will not be giving them your name. We will only be telling them how many of our supporters are also their supporters.)

If you are a TPT or MPR member and did not yet respond, would you please do so today? Either call 612-869-1640 or e-mail David Paxson and tell us which one(s) you support.

This is your opportunity to make a difference!

Thank you.

Thanks to Advisory Board Members

We greatly appreciate the support of each of the distinguished members of our Board of Advisors. We take this opportunity to publicly thank them again for all their many significant contributions to our population education efforts. Thank you!

George Archibald -- Co-founder of the International Crane Foundation
Albert Allen Bartlett -- Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of Colorado
David Bengston -- Ecological Economist and Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota
Norman Borlaug -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate and "father" of the Green Revolution
Nina Leopold Bradley -- Director, Aldo Leopold Foundation
Walter Breckenridge -- Director Emeritus of the Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota
Tessa Bridal -- Director of Public Programs, Science Museum of Minnesota
Ulf S. H. Christiansen -- Norwegian Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates
Vijoya Dasgupta, M.D. -- Physician, State of Wisconsin
Lowell Erdahl -- Bishop, St. Paul Area Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (retired)
Richard Flint -- Attorney and conservationist
Frank Graves -- Former member of the Republican National Committee and CEO of CFR Corporation (retired)
Richard Grossman, M.D. -- Practicing obstetrician/ gynecologist
Thomas Hale, M.D. -- Author and medical missionary in Nepal
Sister Marlys Jax -- Assisi Heights Catholic Community
Ed McGaa, Eagle Man -- Oglala Sioux lawyer, writer and lecturer
William G. Milliken -- Former Governor, State of Michigan
Tim Power -- Pastor, Pax Christie Catholic Community
Gretchen Quie -- Former First Lady, State of Minnesota
Arthur Rouner -- Senior Minister Emeritus, Colonial Church of Edina, United Church of Christ
Sister Mary Zirbes -- Field of Social Justice

Our Mission

World Population Balance is a non-profit, educational organization dedicated to raising awareness about the benefits of population stabilization.

We present our message through public presentations and conferences, appointments with elected officials, written articles, our newsletter, and TV, radio and newspaper interviews.

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