ABSTRACT
Environmental degradation derives from complex, interrelated causes. Demographic variables can have an impact on the environment, but reducing population growth will not solve the problems. In many countries, population growth rates have declined environmental conditions continue to deteriorate. Blaming global environmental degradation on population growth helps to lay the groundwork for the re-emergence and intensification of top-down, demo-graphically driven population policies and programs which are deeply disrespectful of women, particularly women of color and their children. In Southern countries, as well as in the United States and other Northern countries, family planning programs have often been the main vehicles for dissemination of modern contraceptive technologies. Demographic data from around the globe affirm that improvements in women’s social, economic and health status and in general living standards, are often keys to the declines in population growth rates.
