Moderate and Determined

After reading the two responses to Henry Barbaro's letter in the Jamaica Plain Gazette, perhaps readers can now appreciate both the difficulty and absolute necessity of the mission New England Coalition for Sustainable Population has set for itself: to raise awareness of and promote action on the ways to achieve sustainable population for the region, the nation and the international community. With 225,000 net people added each day to a planet in ecological crisis, this issue is not going away anytime soon.

Both writers agreed that lowered birth rates and stabilized population were worthy and admirable “ends” that must be achieved if our human communities have any real chance at attaining sustainable living scenarios. In this, they are surely correct. Talking “sustainable development” is just a pie-in-the-sky pipe dream -- unless it involves a stabilized population.

But the “means” each author suggested couldn’t have been more divergent. One warned against state-mandated, involuntary human population management and advocated for robust access to voluntary means of birth control and increased education to lower birth rates. The other called for enforcement of strict policies on procreation to alleviate the occurrence of poverty.

The good news is that both have realized that stabilizing human population is a core-component of the urgent need to implement sustainable development regionally, nationally and internationally. On this point, NECSP strongly agrees with them – and its our job to encourage this dialog and provide New Englanders the tools necessary to be activists on sustainable population issues.

As to the “means” each author was suggesting, Glenn Ingrham is right to note the power a government of, by and for the people can wield – when so motivated, our democratically elected officials can marshall profound influence on the choices citizens make (think seatbelts and smoking). On the other hand, Rene Ruiz is right to warn against the very real potential of grevious human rights abuses when government acts mindlessly or with excessive, myopic urgency.

The middle ground is “we the people” identifying stabilized population as fundamental to the path towards a peaceful, ecologically sustainable future and then turning the positive power of our self-government towards that goal. Afterall, it’s the power of our government that is best positioned to ensure the education, literacy and access to family planning that will allow people to make voluntary decisions about reducing their fertility.

In closing, here are two examples of the type of democratic self-government that would do wonders for attaining sustainable population. One: Taking birth control pills off prescription and providing easy access to modern contraceptive methods with subsidies and sliding scale charges. Two: Requiring pre-marital counseling regarding family planning, the economic benefits of small family size and the environmental consequences of population growth –before any marriage licenses are issued.

Please visit the NECSP website, www.necsp.org, to become a member and get involved in this most interesting and crucial of issues.