GINK
-
![]()
![]()
Want to join the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement?
Art: Nina PaleyLes U. Knight (get it?) is the face and the force behind the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT, pronounced vehement). Motto: “May we live long and die out.” It might sound like a strident or mean-spirited campaign, but Knight is certainly not a strident or mean-spirited guy. He’s hit on a creative way […]
-
Population trends as you’ve never seen them before [VIDEO]
As part of my GINK and population coverage, I’ll be bringing you a video each Saturday with a different take on these issues. Check out the previous installment, and stay tuned for more. Hans Rosling uses “colorful new data display technology” (ahem) to show you population trends over the last half century and the half […]
-
Women who can’t get birth control spotlighted in new short film — watch it here
The new short film Empty Handed: Responding to the Demand for Contraceptives showcases the plight of women in Uganda who want birth control but are being failed by a dysfunctional distribution system. The average Ugandan woman will give birth to 6.7 children — that’s the second-highest fertility rate in the world, behind only Niger. The […]
-
![]()
![]()
Nearly a fifth of American women skip childbearing
Almost 20 percent of American women end up going childfree, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center. In 2008, 18 percent of women reached ages 40 to 44 without having borne a child, compared to just 10 percent in 1976. “The fact that nearly one of five women does not have a […]
-
![]()
![]()
Women’s rights are the right way to approach the population issue
Suzanne Ehlers, president of Population Action International.Suzanne Ehlers, the new 36-year-old president of Population Action International, likes to talk about “the magic of family planning.” If you give women around the world contraceptive tools and information, they’ll limit the size of their families of their own free choice, and that makes their families healthier, wealthier, […]
-
![]()
![]()
‘Sex and the City 2’ is the greenest movie of the year
Forget earnest documentaries about corporatized food and natural-gas fracking and climate refugees. The greenest movie of 2010 chronicles the latest exploits of none other than Carrie Bradshaw. Yes, even though she’s a clotheshorse who once calculated she’d spent $40,000 on shoes. Even though, in the latest installment of the blockbuster franchise, Carrie and her trio […]
-
![]()
![]()
Why is India the poster child for the population problem?
A market street in Chennai, India.Photo: mckaysavage via FlickrJulia Whitty has written a smart, nuanced cover story on population for Mother Jones. She addresses the important issues, she connects the dots, she knows her stuff. But I have a bone to pick. About half of the article explores the wide-ranging set of issues associated with […]
-
![]()
![]()
How green are the ‘childless by choice’?
Laura S. Scott has surveyed and interviewed more than 170 people for her Childless by Choice Project. “I’m keenly interested in the process of decision-making,” she says. “How do we get from assuming parenthood for ourselves to the point where we’re saying, ‘No kids, thank you!’?” She shares what she’s learned in a new book, […]
-
![]()
![]()
Birth-control opponents greenwash their message
Even opponents of birth control are “going green” these days. The uber-right-wing American Life League, founded by Catholic activists in 1979, launched a “The Pill Kills” campaign in 2008, and this year shifted its message to “The Pill Kills the Environment.” “Study after study has shown how the chemicals from the pill discharge into our […]
