Family Planning Brings Immense Benefits

Family Planning Brings Immense Benefits

(This week this section is hosting a guest presenter. If you wish to present here, please email me: ianrwhyte at gmail etc.)

Many organizations in Canada are concerned with the environment or human well-being, but very few concern themselves with the impact of human population growth.

Yet human population growth is the cause of or a contributing factor of every environmental problem. If we don’t address the issue of population growth, all our efforts to preserve natural habitat, save species, reduce greenhouse gas production, and provide every person the opportunity to have a decent quality of life, will fail. At the turn of this century, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that 60% of the ecosystems examined were being degraded or used unsustainably. Since then, the human population has increased by one billion and is now 7.6 billion.

Human population growth is treated as an inevitability, but we can do something about it. Since 1992, Population Institute Canada has been striving to inform our leaders and the general public about the importance of addressing human population growth. We can promote the use of contraceptives and encourage governments to make contraceptives affordable and available to all and educate people about the benefits of smaller families. We believe that support for reproductive health services and contraception should be an integral part of Canada’s development assistance. We agree with the United Nations that “Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology available to the human race”.

Here in Canada, most people do have access to contraceptives, and at the current fertility rate of less than two children per woman, our population would quickly stabilize. Yet the government drives our population growth through high immigration levels. This growth confers no economic benefit on working Canadians, yet negatively impacts the ecosystems and farmland of the densely populated southern part of our country. PIC believes that Canada should strive to stabilize its own population and direct its foreign aid to those countries that are seeking to reduce their own growth through ethical and effective programs.

To learn more about Population Institute Canada and support our efforts, please visit our website at www.populationinstitutecanada.ca.