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We want to publish information about what you are doing locally in your community about overpopulation - either on a local level, a government-wide level or on a world-wide level. Let us hear about your efforts. Email Karen Gaia at gaia@calweb.com.

   Carry a Green Umbrella in a parade! 

   Media Tips from the Green Room 

NGOs: New Kid in the Global Arena  Nongovernmental organizations take social and political battles across national boundaries Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), made up of individuals and private groups around the world working together, are having a major impact on governments, corporations, and official international organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank. They also benefit the lives of people and the health of the planet. There now are more than 26,000 international NGOs - more than four times as many as existed just 10 years ago, the growth due to a) governments around the world becoming more democratic and less authoritarian, and b) advancing means of communication allowing citizens and activists around the world to share information and strategies. February 3, 2000 Christian Science Monitor

Earth Day 2000 searchable Calendar. Look up an event. Add your own event. Can be any date. Possibly any environmental activity

Over 1500 groups in 146 countries have joined in the Earth Day 2000 Worldwide Campaign. Over 30 leading world organizations, such as CARE, Friends of the Earth, and the World Conservation Unionwill participate in Earth Day 2000.

A simple and effective step you can take today to help slow rapid population growth and protect the environment is to urge your three members of Congress to support the President's request for $425 million for Population Assistance.

Sustainability Education Project from the Izaak Walton League of America. Focuses on helping grassroots efforts.

The Innovation Diffusion Game

Develop Educational Programs  Check out WOA!!s Educational Materials section. Many of these activities are suitable for a population committee program or a public conference or seminar on population.

US in the World: Connecting People and Communities by Population Research Bureau. This is the sister city concept, linking states in the US with (mostly developing) 'sister' countries having similarities or contrasts.

Arizona/Egypt California/South Africa Colorado/Nepal Connecticut/Jamaica DC/Comoros Florida/Mexico Georgia/Senegal Hawaii/Madagascar Illinois/Zimbabwe Indiana/Azerbaijan Kansas/Paraguay Maryland/Malaysia Massachusetts/Venezuela Michigan/Malawi Minnesota/Philippines Montana/Mongolia

Nebrask/Mali New Jersey/Indonesia New Mexico/ Pakistan New York/Brazil North Carolina/Tanzania Ohio/Ecuador Oregon/Costa Rica Pennsylvania/Turkey Tennessee/Honduras Texas/India Utah/Jordan Vermont/Haiti Virginia/Guatemala Washington/El Salvador Wisconsin/Uganda

Sacramento Calif. WOA's Paul Storey presents a television special:

For World Population Awareness Week, Oct 26-30, 1998 the Sacramento-based WOA! arranged to have a population presentation for two Interdisciplinary classes at Sierra College. Paul Storey of ZPG presented his world overpopulation slide show. Mike Sellors of the Audubon Society spoke. Populating the World                $50 caption contest winner: When the bough breaks.. ...Brian Kepner ... Folsom, CA, USA Runners-up: Reduce population: the species you save may be your own Overthrow the human overflow Children are the fruits of our labor and the work is killing us Overpopulation is like runaway inflation and the value of the individual is plummeting The Environmentally Concerned Organization of Students at Sierra College put up a population display on the campus throughout the week. WOA! provided the students with a couple of props: a world globe and about 500 little baby dollys (about 3/4" each) to be attached to the globe. We also handed out materials to ECOS participants from ZPG, Audubon, the WOA! web page, and two population videos.

Population Committee Meetings Tips From Todd Daniel, Population Issue Leader - Georgia Chapter, Sierra Club Postcard reminders work better than e-mail. Ask people to take little parts in the program -- give a report, help set up a display, write a letter. They'll come. Follow the Georgia Chapter motto: "If it ain't fun, it's not sustainable." Try to make your meetings fun and interesting by piggybacking with other groups, bringing in visual displays, and having activities. ALWAYS have refreshments if your meeting facility allows it. Also, we've had two field trips to family planning clinics -- fun, fun, fun! Build cohesion in your group. Encourage them to exchange e-mails, pair people up in Task Forces, go to dinner or coffee after a meeting. After a while, people become friends and the steel bonds are formed. Educate your members by having one training event a year. Training gives your members a sense of confidence, and fills them with ideas on what to do on their own. Pad events in BETWEEN regular meetings. I encourage members to participate in allied events, such as Planned Parenthood Letter Writings and meetings of the Faith-Environment group. Show members that "everything is connected" by encouraging them to participate in other, local environmental issues. For instance, several of our members participated in a recycling demonstration last week. Work on consumption issues as well. Population work tends to get a little negative at times, and consumption is more of an upbeat, positive issue. Intertwine the two for balance. Have quality programs and interesting guest speakers. If a speaker is talking on a certain topic, invite guests AND OTHER GROUPS who would enjoy hearing it. Stay in contact with other groups! I stay in regular communication with the Ohio and Austin population groups. This gives me a flow of excellent ideas, and I hope I am helping them as well. With GOOD COMMUNICATION all Sierra Pop Committees grow stronger, which is why I strongly believe in this forum. If your attendance is poor, don't get discouraged. At my second meeting, I only had one person show up. I have spent a year experimenting with different times and locations to find what's best for the majority of members. We have finally decided on the third Monday of the month in Decatur, Ga. More suggestions from Alan Kuper from Ohio: To hold volunteers' interest, give them responsibility. Maybe ask for a volunteer to plan and conduct the next meeting. When volunteers mention an article or book read or a presentation heard, ask them to give a full report, to be the program for the next meeting. Ask for a volunteer to be the PopCom rep to another group or activity and report back. In particular, the PopCom ought to have a member on the Political Com, that person asks the population question and leaves literature with each candidate to educate them. Do "try outs" for the a Speakers Bureau, role play. A volunteer to solicit speaking opportunities. A volunteer to survey the Pop collection in a local library, a school library. You may decide to donate State of the World Annual. Plan fund-raising. Create table displays. Study the issues. It's a rich area for study of the history, politics, economics, etc. of the subject. More suggestions from Carole Wilmoth of the Sierra Club Global Population Stabilization Program Committee Develop a lending library of videos/audio cassettes on population. Many videos can often serve as a program on their own. *Include a list of these in your informational letter to other organizations. Charge a small rental fee if you like to go towards the purchase of more videos. Another excellent handout would be a list of population websites and a bibliography of books/publications. Send out an email "newsletter" on pop updates, etc. for those who have email is a simple way to keep in touch. Hopefully, each pop committee has a budget for mailing costs to those who are not on email.

REPORT- Y2001 EARTH DAY POPULATION-ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE, 
 SIERRA CLUB NORTHEAST OHIO GROUP
Alan Kuper

Some 30,000 were estimated to have attended Earth Day at the Cleveland
Metorparks Zoo, Sunday, April 22.   My guesstimate, perhaps 2,000 walked by
our table.

DISPLAY  (Douglas/Kuper)
On the wall behind us hung the Sierra Club banner, the 10-foot J-Curve, and
the giant "Sierra Club Supports  Empowerment of Women" poster.

At the table, blow-ups of three famous cartoons were displayed.: Herblock
on US international family planning assistance, Toles on US highway
congestion, and Mauldin on too many US kids.
        A sign said,  "Human overpopulation !  Which cartoon hits it best ?"

On the table were three vertical transparent tubes labelled A,B,C,
referring to the cartoon pictures.

When the big cartoons drew visitors, they were invited to "vote a stone".
In this way, the tubes were filling with pebbles during the 10 - 5 day.

On the table was a loose-leaf notebook collection of other population
cartoons (Campbell).

The other draw was the ZPG "World Population" 7-minute video playing
continually.  (The new version is aimed a bit more at a  youthful audience.)

EDUCATING
        Some 25  population information sheets were available in quantity
for distribution.   Douglas obtained these from Sierra Club as well as from
Audubon, Balance, NPG, NWF, UCC  and ZPG.    A slotted kiosk on the table
made it handy for visitors to make their selection.
         Douglas had prepared additional selected materials for teachers
who might identify themselves.
        A small number of "Plan It for the Planet" Sierra Club bumper
stickers were available for the taking.
        The PRB World Population Data Sheet was available for discussion of
foreign aid, particularly of short doubling times (not including the effect
of AIDS, migration and war which may have a 15% effect.).

LOBBYING
        All visitors were asked to sign form letters headed "Repeal the
Global Gag Rule" to their Representative in support of the repeal bill,
H.R. 755 and to both Ohio Senators in support of the repeal bill, S. 367.
(The sheet of three similar short letters was derived from a sheet mailed
from ZPG.)
        We had four clipboards to pass around.  Response was good, in part
because of discussion of the Herblock cartoon.  We garnered 93 letters to
area Representatives and 83 to each Senator for a total of 259.
        Since letters included signers' addresses, we expect letters to be
answered, an important consciousness-raising experience connected with the
gag rule issue.
        As usual, most signers had to be told who represented them in the
House.

RESULT TO PONDER        About 150 voted a stone.
        On a scale of 0-100,  they gave,
International Family Planning           63 %
Highway Congestion                     100
Too many US kids                        81

Assuming the vote was for issues rather than for favorite cartoon (the
Herblock is strong.  Cartoons were equal size.) and that social pressure
was not a factor (voters could see the prior votes),

CONCLUSION:
* self-interest is the first concern of most people.  (Focus groups
questioned on environmental issues in a Pew study confirm this.)
* Int'l Family Planning., our main work, comes in last behind US concerns.

An Example Presentation to a Trade Association (in this example, oil drilling engineers) by Nan Hildreth, of the Sierra Club chapter in Houston, Texas Nan started off by showing a five minute ZPG video with a map of the globe and one light for each million people. Says Nan: "It starts at the birth of Christ and goes to this century. At the end, even Texas is lit up. One of our crew said the audience tensed up. Then I talked for 25 minutes with slides." Nan has Office 97 which includes Microsoft Powerpoint. It allows you draw up slides on text. Nan said: "Then I borrowed a friend's scanner. I clipped graphics from the internet (most pictures on the net are not security protected), scanned in pictures/graphs from books. 4 of the 16 visuals were specific to the oil industry." For example, "BP Amoco stating our worldview that massive change is needed and time's a wasting ... The new hybrid electric cars that get twice the gas mileage that the Toyota will have for sale here this summer - $16,000 and nice little compacts." Nan suggested that the output can be through a laptop with an expensive projector gaget. "One of our environmental community has one to share. Or you can print to acetate and use an overhead projector. Or a graphics shop can make regular slides out of them for $4 to $6 each." Nan's slides included: Donella Meadows' exponential pop growth charts, which includes "her graphic about the four possible relationships to carrying capacity. (we overshoot but catch ourselves, we limit ourselves, we overshoot and crash)." Exponential growth in weird weather from http://www.shell.com/values/content/0,1240,1215-2755,00.html A picture of the sphinx and a 20 word summary of Green History of the World. "Civilizations fell due to resource depletion. This time the system is more global so resource depletion is more global. The sphinx was built on fertile black land but now it's desert. 3 statistics from a MiT survey: roughly 90% of Americans are for the environment and 78% agreed it's God's world so trashing it is wrong and 93% say global climate change would be nasty.

Become a ZPG activist Please tell everyone you know who might be interested about the ZPG Action Network. They can sign up at www.actionnetwork.org/zpgaction. You might find the following resources helpful in your future activism: *IN LATE MARCH our Earth Day Activist Kit will be available both as a .pdf document on the web and in print. Email kerry@zpg.org to get involved in ZPG's Earth Day 2000 activities. *Preven is still banned at Wal-Mart! Emergency contraception is safe, effective and prohibited at all Wal- Mart pharmacies. Go to www.zpg.org/Action_Alerts/alert28.html to learn more. *If you're not already a member, maybe it's time to consider joining ZPG to help us continue our important work advocating women's empowerment, education, family planning, and the environment. To join or learn more about ZPG's activist programs, go to www.zpg.org/Get_Involved/ *Also, check out ZPG's Catalog at www.zpg.org/Catalog/ for great population education materials and great gift ideas. *For more detailed information about legislative issues, read ZPG's Legislative Update at www.zpg.org/Action_Alerts/alert26.html. The most recent issue includes new information on international family planning cuts and the Global Gag Rule, parental consent for family planning and a recent Roe v. Wade Resolution. *If you are a student or professor, be sure to get involved with ZPG's Campus Outreach Program at www.zpg.org/Reports_Publications/Publications/publication81. html or email sarahjoy@zpg.org.

January 29, 2000 New England Winter meeting of the New England Coalition for Sustainable Population, Northampton, MA. 11 am to 3 pm. Smith College, Dewey Building Common Room (NEW LOCATION). For more information or directions, contact Annie Faulkner, NECSP Coordinator, at 603-847-9798 or d9cat@cheshire.net. Back-up snow-date is February 5, 2000.

February 4, 2000 Vermont Teacher's workshop, Brattleboro Environmental Education Center, Vermont. 9 AM to 3 PM. Contact Barbara Duncan for more information: (802) 649 5168 or e-mail barbara.duncan@valley.net.

February 12, 2000 Amherst Massachusetts Earth Connection: Annual Conference for High School Students, at University of Massachusetts. Population presentation will be given by Anita King and Henry Barbaro. For more information contact Anita at 413-268-9212.

March 8, 2000 Worcester, Mass. Massachusetts Environmental Educators Association meeting. Anita King and other presenting on population.

March TBA Capitol Hills Days. This is an annual four-day event including training activities followed by direct lobbying on Capitol Hill. Join ZPG, Sierra Club, Audubon and other groups for excellent training and practice influencing your legislators on crucial population issues. Some stipends are usually available to offset travel and lodging costs. To get more information about Capitol Hill Days contact ZPG's Government Relations Department at 1-800-767-1956 or by e-mail at lobbydays@zpg.org.

Saturday March 27, 1999 - Sacramento Area 9:30 to 10:30 A.M. Sierra Community College 5000 Rocklin Road Rocklin, CA Five Years After Cairo: Celebrating Women's Lives In 1994 in Cairo, Egypt, the global community approved a Programme of Action that plans to reduce population growth by addressing the health and well-being of women throughout the world. During the week of March 22, governments and non-governmental organizations will gather in New York for the second of a series of three meetings to measure progress towards the goals. Cairo+5 is the title given to these meetings. You have the opportunity to participate in the New York meeting via satellite. The Center for Development and Population Activities is bringing together a group of women who will be telling their stories on a live broadcast. Observe women from around the world discussing their triumphs, discouragements, joys and sadnesses. Hear what has changed in their lives since Cairo. For further information call: Mike Sellors 916.481.5332 Sponsored by the National Audubon Society in cooperation with CEDPA and with the generous financial support of The Turner Foundation.

Please mark your calendar, send in your reservation and join us for this exciting conference. Since October 12th marks the arrival of the six billionth person on the planet, of course we will be acknowledging that unprecedented event, as well.

Dr. Albert Bartlett, professor emeritus of the University of Colorado, will return to Minnesota to present his compelling talk which Dr. Bartlett has given over 1300 times to audiences from coast to coast.

The conference will be from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm in the Christensen Center at Augsburg College (2211 Riverside Avenue South, Minneapolis). Parking will be readily available in the area.

World Population Balance, Box 23472
Minneapolis, MN 55423
For more information: please contact David Paxson, President. Phone 612-869-1640

Sacramento California:

Powder Springs, Georgia: