The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 ing world since the 1960s, and contra- ceptive use has increased from under 10 percent to over 50 percent. Yet while all these programs affect population growth, none has popula- tion reduction as an explicit goal. In fact, over the past decade serious dis- cussion of these issues has been con- spicuously lacking in the United States, in both the foreign and domestic policy debates. Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Incon- venient Truth,” gave much of the world a wake-up call on global warming. In my opinion, however, he missed an op- portunity to link these problems to population growth. Take a simple example. Even if half the world switched to hybrid cars, that would help only marginally with global warming, urban growth and conges- tion, habitat loss, and other key prob- lems. This is because rapidly growing populations in the developing world are demanding more and more auto- mobiles. (China and India are already mass-producing large numbers of ve- hicles for their own needs.) Yes, perhaps the economic crisis has slowed that process down. But let’s not believe that the trend won’t resume once economic conditions are more fa- vorable —unless we promote a differ- ent perspective. In fact, the global economic slowdown presents us with a unique opportunity, a golden moment in which we must rethink the meaning of community and the means to achieve this new vision. Fortunately, Washington’s status as the largest bilateral donor in the field of population assistance gives us a plat- form to exert global leadership in fram- ing the issue. The Obama administra- tion’s Fiscal Year 2010 request for State and USAID’s family planning and re- productive health programs totals $593 million. America As a Role Model As Erlich wrote four decades ago, addressing population growth is the key to the big-picture issues in the de- veloping and developed world. We need to ask ourselves what kind of communities we want to live in — and then ask the same question of the citi- zens of other countries. In an era of dwindling oil supplies and rising energy costs, the need for low-energy lifestyles has never been greater. In fact, energy efficiency is one of the top priorities for many of our host-country government counter- parts. New Urbanism design princi- ples and practices bring together the ideas and plans to create enjoyable places in which to live and work, while greatly reducing energy use. Designing away the need for cars is the most important step in creating sustainable communities. This has the triple effect of lowering our energy use (especially imported energy), reducing global warming and raising our quality of life in cities by increasing mobility and convenience. Yet for most on the cutting edge of New Urbanism, population, which should be an obvious factor, is not even mentioned. The world simply cannot afford for everyone to consume as we have in recent years, even though that is largely what the rest of the world as- pires to do. We in the West are bad role mod- els. We must change our own behav- ior at the same time that we are asking others to change theirs. In a March New York Times column, Thomas Friedman suggested that we are all part of a gigantic Ponzi scheme where we are living beyond our financial and economic means. Perhaps, Friedman opined, in our journey down the road of continuous growth we have hit the proverbial wall. Population growth underscores the danger of a worldview that considers continuous growth a worthy goal in and of itself, without regard to its con- sequences. Light at the End of the Tunnel? There are signs that the population bomb is beginning to attract serious at- tention again. In 2008, Time magazine published a commentary in which General Michael Hayden, a former di- S P E A K I N G O U T Our status as the largest bilateral donor in the field of population assistance gives us a platform to exert leadership in how the issue is framed. State and USAID Funding for Family Planning and Reproductive Health FY 2006 $430 million FY 2007 $451 million FY 2008 $471 million FY 2009 $572 million FY 2010 request $593 million Source: Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and Administrator of USAID, Department of State