EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 4, 1980 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS WORLD POPULATION PROBLEMS cause the overall growth rate appears to popµlation and family planning programs, · AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY have peaked. Yet, even projecting a continu- and for biomedical research in contracep­ ing decline in this growth rate, the fact · is tion has, to be sure, grown over the past that in-absolute numbers more people will decade. B.ut it is at derisory levels in com­ HON. JOHN F. SEIBERLING be added- to the world's population in the parison with total foreign aid and total or omo year 2000 than were added last year. This is medical research· expenditures. In less devel­ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES so because of the built-in demographic mo­ oped countries, there is all too often lip­ mentum: tomorrow's parents are already service to the importance of population in Tuesday, March 4, 1980 born-45-50 percent of the curr~nt popula- development, but no real integration of pop­ tion of developing countries is under 15 ulation programs into development strategy; • Mr. SEIBERLING. Mr. Speaker, as years of age, still to enter their reproductive a modest family planning program is tucked president of the Peace Through Law years. Even if these. future parents sharply away somewhere in the health ministry, Education Furid, I take great pleasure reduce their fertility, the sheer numbers of reaching only a relatively insignificant pro­ in inserting into the RECORD the re- this generation ensure a continuing growth portion of the populace. At UN meetings, marks of Ambassador Richard Elliot momentum for several decades. there is perhaps a passing reference to pop­ Benedick at the January meeting of Let me illustrate in concrete terms the ef· ulation in conferences on development or the food and population series spon- fects of this momentum: A given population food or environment, but many Third World sored by the fund. - does not begin to stabilize until · it has politicians seem far more interested in pre­ Ambassador Benedick is the coordi- reached what is known as a replacement senting lists of demands than in acknowl­ nator of population affairs at the De- level of fertility, which means, for practical edging the need for common efforts in re­ purposes, an average of one daughter born ducing fertility. Even our own President's partment of State. Recent travels to each woman. When this is achieved, the Commission on World Hunger, in its pre­ throughout Europe and Asia and ex- demographic momentum continues to fuel limipary report, somehow relegated the tensive interviews with health and population growth for several decades <50-. population factor to a position of such inex­ population officials in those regions 70 years> before the population ultimately plicable obscurity that even the Washington qualify him to speak on international stabilizes. Let us look at Mexico, with a 1975 Post felt constrained to comment on this trends in population policy. His ad- population of 62·. million. If replacement treatment in a recent editorial. dress underscores the need to coordi- level of fertility is reached by the year 2000, which would require strenuous efforts, The numbers I have described above have­ nate population policy with· develop- Mexico's population would eventually stabi- profound implications for our national in­ ment policy. lize 60-70 years later at approximp.tely 175 terests on a planet which, we increasingly I commend his remarks to the atten- million. If there were a delay of only 20 recognize, iS a finite one. A few years ago, tion of my colleagues: _ more years in reaching the replacement the Rockefeller Commission concluded that there is hardly a problem we face which I am delighted and honored to be asked to level of fertility, that is, by 2020, Mexico's would not be easier to resolve if population join you this mornillg, particularly in view population ~o~d not stabilize until it problems were lessened. It is worth under­ of the traditional leading role of the U.S. reaches 270 million. scoring the fact that there are no energy or Congress, for more than a decade, in forcing Looking· at the global picture, where will resource problems per se, but only in refa.­ oftentimes timid Adnlinistrations to focus this planet's populatio~ eventually stabilize? tion to numbers of people. If the world does on population issues. I would like to share Optimists say somewhere over 8 billion, ii r..ot address the underlying cause, our ef­ with you today some personal impressions the one-daughter-per-woman norm is forts wm continually lag behind gr owing im­ of the relevance of population· to U.S. for- reached by the end of this century. The balances and strains. Let us look at some of eign polic~-. I do this with some diffidence, United Nations estimates 11-12 billion, because so much has been said and written others foresee 15 billion or more. Thus, at these subjects individually. on population by professionals, and I am least a doubling of the planet's current pop­ POPULATION AND OTHER GLOBAL ISSUES neither a demographer nor a population ulation is inevitable, built into the demo­ Food and Hunger: World Bank President expert. However, my experience in foreign graphic dynamics. At issue fs whether the McNamara and FAO Director-General affairs has made it clear to me for many world's inhabitants will triple-to 12 bil­ Saouma h ave recently tried to call the years that population growth vitally affects lion-or more, a result which will depend on world's attention to the fact that food pro­ U.S. foreign poJicy objectives of global peace hundreds of millions of family decisions duction is not keeping pace with population and security, economic and political stabil- over the coming decades. growth in most part.s of the world. From ity, and human rights and dignity. For global population will eventually sta- 1970 through 197'7, per capita fcod output Simply put, the proposition I would Uke to bilize-one way or another. The relevant in the market-economy developing countries offer you is that there is no other single question is: under what conditions of rose at an annual rate of only 0.2 percent, issue which will s9 much influence the kind human life will this take place? Many ob­ and dependence by these countries on food of world which our nation will face, and the servers seriously question the abiUty of our imports trebled. Norman Borlaug, pioneer kind of life which our children and their planet to support much more than six bil­ of the "Green Revolution," has cautioned children will have to cope with, as this lion at anything near current standards of that innovations in agricultural technology factor of population growth. There is no living. can only buy limited time to cont:r.ol popula­ precedent for this phenomenon in the histo­ INTERNATIONAL COMPLACENCY tion increases. According to UNICEF, tens ry of our planet. This simple fact cannot be of millions of children are dying annually of overstated, it cannot be ignored. It is a fallacy to consider population as a long-term problem: it is an urgent problem, malnutrition and related causes. THE DEMOGRAPHIC SITUATION because delays in achieving the replacement Health: WHO studies indicate that preg­ It took the human race hundreds of thou­ level of fertility are portentous. I submit to nancies during teenage and after thirty, sands of years to reach, early in the last you that the reality of this situation, the close spacing of children, and numbers of century, the first billion in number. The gravity and urgency of the problem facing children <above three> all have demonstra­ fourth billion was added in only 15 years, our generation, has not sufficiently pene­ ble adverse effects on the health of both from 1960 to 1975, and nearly two billion trated and permeated either public con­ mothers and children. In many countries, a more will be added by the end of this cen­ sciousness or the councils of national lead­ leading cause of death among young women tury, just two decades away. There is no dis­ ers. There is a recognition in the abstract, is complications from primitive abortions to pute among demographers about the num­ but an unwillingness to accord top priority prevent the birth of unwanted children. In bers; barring natural disaster or holocaust, to fertility-reducing programs and policies. some parts of the world, mortality rates the current world population of about 4.3 This is so because the effects of population appear to be rising as a result of malnutri· billion will grow to over six billion by the' growth are so gradual that they are beyond tion, diseases related to crowded living con­ year 2000. This is the equivalent of more the time horizon of most political leaders. ditions, and effects of frequent pregnancies than twenty new countries the size of Ban­ Other pre$Sing problems crowd in for their in weakening both mothers and infants. gladesh-and just about as poor, since 90 attention-the immediate takes priority Illiteracy: UNESCO estimates that the percent of the growth will take place in the over the essential. numbers of illiterate are rising from the world's poorest countries. So, I see a certain complacency in the current 700 million to approximately one The news media have made much fanfare world's attitude toward population growth. billion by the year 2000; there is evidence about the "end of the population crisis,'' be- In industrialized countries, assistance ·for that female illiteracy may rise to over 60 e This .