Dear Friends,
If you feel that scientists’ concern about human population growth is
outside the scope of this newsgroup, please ignore this message.
Otherwise please read on. Signatures from all types and levels of
scientists on a letter urging world leader to control human population
growth are being collected. Please submit signed copies of this letter
by post to: Resources and Human Population, P.O. Box 381, Manhattan, KS
66505-0381 USA. By 1 Feb 1999. Please circulate this letter to
colleagues, staff and students for as many signatures as possible before
mailing. A copy of the letter is found below, feel free to reproduce it
by any means. The letter is available at
http://climate.konza.ksu.edu/~popres/ in English, Mandarin Chinese,
Spanish, Russian or Hindi. All interested scientists are encouraged to
visit this website or email popres at climate.konza.ksu.edu for more
information
Open letter to world leaders:
We, scientists of the world, are deeply concerned about trends in global
population growth and related environmental degradation. Increasing
consumption of goods in developed countries, plus rapid growth in the
number of humans world wide, threatens to outstrip the resources of our
planet and the ability of our technology to support people with a decent
standard of living. It is becoming more difficult to feed, clothe,
house, and provide health care for all people because the amount of
natural resources that is potentially available for each individual is
decreasing. Population increase is the root cause of much disease,
malnutrition, social inequity, loss of biodiversity, and environmental
destruction. These problems are inescapable despite our efforts as
scientists to help solve the world's problems with new technologies.
Land, water, and energy resources must be sustainably managed,
consumption reduced, and a significant reduction in
the quarter million people added to the population daily must occur.
Clearly, we all are a part of one world and the people of each nation,
along with their leaders, should develop a population policy for their
nation. We hope that you will provide the leadership to initiate
incentives to reduce family size and conserve natural resources in order
to achieve a high standard of living for everyone.
Please send letters with signatures by 1 February 1999 to:
Resources and Human Population
P.O. Box 381
Manhattan, KS 66505-0381
Signed,
Name Title Country
