Everyone knows that the UN’s 2015 Sustainable Development Goals were intended to literally make the world a better case. But a recent analysis shows how they might accomplish that in ways that may not have been expected. Based on an analysis by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI) at Shanghai University, achievement of these goals could result in a significant decrease in population growth.
While none of the 17 goals explicitly seek to reduce population growth, a number of them contribute to that result. The goals are aimed at fighting poverty, reducing inequality, hunger and sickness, as well as addressing climate change, while leaving nobody behind. They include enablers such as quality primary and secondary education for all children, improved sanitation, and reduced child mortality. While it may not be intuitively obvious that these actions would reduce population growth, according to this study, they will.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this finding in the context of challenges currently threatening our continued survival on this planet. According to IIASA World Population Program Director Wolfgang Lutz, "The future of world population growth matters for our efforts to improve the human lot and our impacts on the natural environment. The sizable effect on global population growth provides an additional rationale for vigorously pursuing the implementation of the SDGs."
(3BL Media/Justmeans) - The campaign #AddWater is a simple, but effective scheme where staff and students at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s (UWTSD) Lampeter campus are being asked to add 5p (or more) to the cost of the drinks they buy from the university’s catering outlets.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) - The avalanche of stories after the Harvey Weinstein revelations has shown that this kind of deeply inappropriate behavior is rife across other industries and culture. It’s like a social pandemic.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Globally, the current water crisis is critical. According to the UN, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water shortage. While, right now, in India 76 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water, a problem that is going to escalate if no immediate action is taken.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Hairdressing is a sector that talks to more people than any other occupation. With over 40,000 hairdressings, barbering and beauty salons in the UK generating over £70 billion every year, it is a lucrative and influential industry. It is in a unique position to influence sustainable practices in hair care habits.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – International Women’s Day on 8 March has come and gone, but the work still goes on for gender equality. It is widely acknowledged that when women achieve their full potential at work, women and communities are not the only ones that benefit, as gender equality is also good for business.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – Bangladesh’s farming sector is pivotal for the country’s growth and economy, engaging 47 percent of the labour force in 2015 and comprising 16 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. However, agriculture in this fast-growing economy is hampered by challenges from loss of arable land to population growth, from climate change to lack of quality seeds, and an absence of credit support to farmers.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – The Arctic Resilience Report warns that increasingly rapid melting in the Arctic region could trigger polar ‘tipping points’ with consequences—environmentally and economically—to be felt as far away as the Indian Ocean. This groundbreaking study scientifically concludes the Arctic Resilience Assessment, a project launched by the Swedish Chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
(3BL Media/Justmeans) – John Kerry, the US Secretary of State says the outgoing Obama administration wants to prevent the withdrawal of the US from the landmark Paris deal to prevent catastrophic climate change. “This is bigger than one person, one president,” Kerry said in Marrakech, before his last address to the UN climate summit being held here, the 