The Earth is One ~ The World Not Yet

Marilyn Hempel

"The Earth is one but the world is not," begins Our Common Future, the famous Brundtland report on sustainable development. What goes up one nation's chimneys or down its drains may come to rest on the trees or beaches of another. That report, written in 1987, continues, "We all depend upon one Earth, one biosphere, for sustaining our lives. Yet each community, each country, strives for survival and prosperity with little regard for its impact on others. Some consume Earth's resources at a rate that would leave little for future generations. Others ... live with the prospect of hunger, squalor, disease and early death."

Population

Add to that litany overpopulation, mostly in the poorest regions and in countries that have dwindling natural resources, countries such as Yemen and Somalia and Pakistan and Afghanistan. The world now faces the specter of a growing list of 'Failed States', countries that cannot adequately care for their people, places that are a perfect breeding ground for violent unrest and terrorist organizations.

According to the most recent United Nations Population Prospects, fertility in the least developed countries is projected to drop from 4.39 children per woman in 2005-2010 to 2.41 in 2045-2050. To achieve this reduction, it is essential that access to family planning expand quickly. In 2005, the use of modern contraceptive methods in the least developed countries was only 23% of women of reproductive age. The urgency of realizing the projected reductions of fertility is huge. If fertility remains constant at the levels of 2005-2010, the population of the less developed regions will increase to 9.8 billion in 2050 instead of the 7.9 billion projected by assuming that fertility declines. The reality: without further reductions of fertility, world population could increase by nearly twice as much as currently expected!

Climate Disruption

The connection between population growth and climate disruption is complex and controversial. There is no doubt that adding more people to the planet only exacerbates the great problems we now face. And there is no doubt that increased investment in voluntary family planning services is cheap compared to the price of war or of coping with climate disaster. But climate change is largely being driven by the industrialized consumption habits of developed nations—led by the U.S. Let's face it: as long as the U.S. is not seriously reducing its carbon emissions, advocating family planning elsewhere appears to blame climate change on "those other people". We must change our own society while at the same time helping others, if we are to achieve a more stable world. And we must do all this within the life-support system of one planet—while leaving habitat for non-human lives.

That means, put simply, fewer people demanding less stuff. Saying it is easy; doing it is hard; not doing it has consequences many of us do not yet comprehend. As Lester Brown exhorts us: "First we need to decide what needs to be done. Then we do it. And then we ask if it is possible."

As a new decade begins in 2010, The Population Press examines the state of the world—climate disruption, war, failed states, economic woes, the status of women—and what we need to do to become One—with each other and with the beautiful blue planet, Earth.