Web Sites

Population Links

Visit the United Nations home page for access to the pages of all UN organizations. It takes some time and effort to navigate this site due to the sheer volume of information available, but is well worth it. For example, to explore concerns from global warming to weather-related disasters, check out the World Meteorological Organization.

For facts and figures on farming, fishing and forestry, visit the Food and Agriculture Organization. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) home page includes a "Poverty Clock" which indicates how many people around the world have dropped below the poverty level since January 1996. (The total number of people existing on less than $1 a day is currently over 1.3 billion.) The UNDP POPIN gopher site includes an incredible amount of information on population issues.

Just when did world population pass 5 billion, and when is it projected to reach 10 billion? Check out UNDP's World Population Milestones.

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) home page http://www.undp.org/ includes a "Poverty Clock" The United Nations' State of World Population 1996 from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) also takes a bit of exploring, but is loaded with current facts, figures, trends and solutions.

UNFPA's Population Briefing Kit covers a range of population-related issues, from regional and global population forecasts to migration and immigration, environmental impacts, health care and education.

Economists have long argued that "economic development is the best cure" for overpopulation. A Different View of Development from UNFPA argues that education, accessible health care, and empowering women can both stabilize human numbers and offer hope of fulfilling lives for all the world's people.

What does the future hold? UNFPA also offers a brief overview of population growth projections through 2050.

Under the auspices of the UN, the world's nations met in Cairo, Egypt to address population and development issues. What did they decide?

The Population Reference Bureau is an authoritative source for population numbers and trends. Check out world, regional or national population statistics in the World Population Data Sheet, play "Population Jeopardy," or look through on-line issues of their magazine, "Population Today."

Population Action International's Gopher site provides a range of detailed papers and summaries on population and environment issues, such as "Sustaining Water", and "Conserving Land."

Check out the Zero Population Growth home page for "Frequently Asked Population Questions," and take the "Pop" Quiz. Lots of information for students and teachers.

Web resources available from Worldwatch Institute include overviews of world grain production relative to population, facts on world fisheries, and a review of publications such as Who Will Feed China?, How Much is Enough, and Full House.

World population has grown by over two billion since 1970. What's happened to the environment since 1970?

Arguing that, "The task before us is fundamentally spiritual in nature: to discover who we humans are, how we are to relate to each other and to the whole community of life, and what we are to do, individually and collectively, here on Earth," the Millennium Institute offers an overview of our current situation and the choices ahead, and poses questions for spiritual leaders.

The Millennium Institute's Indicators of the State of the World, looks at 10 key issues from population and farmland availability, to ozone depletion and species extinction.

Mother Jones Magazine provides a steady stream of thought-provoking articles on environmental and social concerns. Check out their back issues on-line, including interviews with population biologists and authors Paul Ehrlich (The Population Bomb) and Gretchen Daily.

It's not just organizations working hard on population and environment issues. The Handbook for a Better Future is put up by MIT student Matt Howes. It includes overviews by Jeremy Rifkin and David Suzuki and Hillel Hoffman as well as pages covering personal and governmental solutions, and excellent links.

Planetkeepers is another site which provides an analytical perspective of environmental concerns, combined with practical solutions, links and inspirational quotes by thinkers from Albert Einstein to Al Gore.

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