Mr. Gore Goes (Back) To Washington

Washington, DC - March 19, 2007

This Wednesday, March 21, former Vice-President Al Gore will testify before both houses of Congress to discuss the growing threats posed by global warming. With top scientists and world leaders in agreement that human-induced climate change will have dire consequences if left unaddressed, Congress has an opportunity to address one element that Mr. Gore has consistently cited as a leading contributor to this crisis: rapid global population growth.

In his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, Gore wrote that “No goal is more crucial to healing the global environment than stabilizing human population” and recommended that family planning supplies be made “ubiquitously available along with culturally appropriate instruction” as a key strategy to curb population growth.

Today, fifteen years after the release of this groundbreaking book, world population has increased by 1.2 billion—the equivalent of four United States—and it is projected to add an additional 2.5 billion people by 2050. The number of women of reproductive age in the developing world has grown by 320 million and with it the demand for modern contraceptives. The two largest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria and Ethiopia, have each more than quadrupled in population since 1950. All of these countries continue to grow at rapid rates, doubling in as little as 25 years—straining natural resources.

Ironically, even though the need and demand for family planning continues to grow, U.S. funding for one of the most effective programs for addressing rapid population growth—voluntary international family planning programs—has been cut by one-third ($210 million) when accounting for inflation. To make matters worse, President Bush’s budget for 2008 proposes to drastically cut international family planning programs even more—a whopping 25% ($111 million) from current levels.

By enabling women and couples to determine for themselves when and whether to have children, voluntary family planning programs grounded in individual rights help stabilize world population growth. Tragically, this fundamental right is currently being denied to tens of millions of impoverished women in the developing world. In 1992, Mr. Gore wrote that “The U.S. should restore full funding for its share of the cost of international population stabilization programs and increase the effort to make birth control available throughout the world….” PAI calls upon Congress to heed Mr. Gore’s wise advice. Time is of the essence.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.