Town meeting on UN population conference

by John Izzo
t a town meeting on March 13, San Diegans will have a chance to add their two bits to the U.S. report to the 1994 United Nations conference on population and development. The UN conference will beheld in Cairo, Egypt this September.
In addition to providing input to the U.S. report, the meeting will educate attendees about the conference. Expert speakers will address population issues and how they affect our environment and the quality of life. The meeting is being sponsored by the San Diego Coalition for Cairo. The coalition is made up of numerous local organizations including the Sierra Club; Zero Population Growth; Planned Parenthood; National Organization of Women; American Association of University Women; First Unitarian Church; and San Diego Earth Day.
The Cairo conference will be the third UN conference on population, the previous having been in Mexico City in 1984. The issues to be addressed at Cairo - population, sustainable development, the status of women - were also discussed in Rio at the Earth Summit. Yet, population received little attention due to conflicts among the participants concerning how to address it. With a more sympathetic U.S. administration, the Cairo legacy could be more productive.
There is growing consensus that population is a significant driver of environmental degradation throughout the world. The population of the earth will grow by 1 billion people in the 1990s, making this the fastest decade of growth in human history. The United States is the fastest-growing industrialized nation, and uses much more of the earth's resources per person than most other countries.
Your presence at the San Diego town meeting will be informative and provide the opportunity to send a message to our government that we are concerned about this issue and want Cairo to be a success.
For more information or to offer your assistance, please call Z.P.G. at (619) 697-3728, Lori Shook at 223-4260, or John Izzo at 542-1885.