WORLD POPULATION AWARENESS WEEK WILL FOCUS ON THE NEXT GENERATION
Today there are more young people living on Earth as all persons of all ages in 1960.
Marilyn Hempel
Nearly half of the world's current population of 6.2 billion is young people under age 25. Young people are the future of all nations. If their needs and demands of today are not addressed, they have the real potential to jeopardize that future. There is an urgent need to recognize and respond to the concerns of one-half the world's population.
To put this number in perspective, the 1.5 billion "global teens" now living on this planet outnumber the "baby boomers" fifty to one! The global teen is a new driving force in world affairs. But force for what? Global teens could be armies of consumers, legions for democracy, or waves of hungry jobless nomads.
Educated teens realize their fate is linked by technological, economic and political forces that seem wildly uncertain. Just as importantly, environmental health hangs in the balance. Many young people realize that they are inheriting an Earth that is rapidly losing its biological wealth and it's stable climate. For some that brings new resolve; for others, cynicism and anger.
Today's global teens are far more interconnected than ever before. They have already made MTV the most popular communications network worldwide. Television and radio, movies and videos have penetrated even the poorest countries. The majority of these young people live in poverty in the developing nations. Yet they know about and want Levis, Cokes, CDs, and cars-and a job-no matter where they live. If the world is to find work for them, it will have to create millions of new jobs, and keep creating millions more every year.
Since their numbers are drowning local job markets, many are migrating in search of economic opportunity. Will they find it? How will their hunger and idealism be met? What impact will they have on the already overloaded infrastructure of the world's cities? What impact on an increasingly fragile environment?
But the biggest unanswered question concerns their reproductive choices. Will these 3 billion young people-the largest number in human history-have genuine access to reproductive health services? At present, lack of education and limited access results in about 17 million young women between the ages of 15-19 giving birth every year. Will the global teens spawn, as the boomers did, an enormous echo of themselves, an even larger wave of children?
You can help disseminate the information and join in the action necessary for the stability of our shared future. Please participate in World Population Awareness Week, October 20th-26th, 2002. For program ideas, action manual, and posters, contact Sarah Wyss at the Population Institute, 1-800-787-0038, or [email protected]
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