Sam Hopkins invites you to join Ted Trainer and Ruth Simmons in a discussion of

The Effect of Family Planning on Climate Change

Having one less child, especially in the developed world, does far more to reduce an individual’s impact on the rate of climate change, depletion natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and extinctions than reducing our direct consumption.  Unlike other efforts to decrease per-capita greenhouse gases production, the declining rate of children per capita over the last 50+ years has been a notable success.  These years of family planning programs have achieved a unique contribution to slowing climate change.  We believe that most people are unaware of this benefit. 

Sam, Ted, Ruth, and her late husband, George all began their work in this field about 50 years ago.  Sam Hopkins worked in Pakistan for the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health on evaluation and research on Pakistan's then new national family planning program in 1967-69.  He also did research on Population Planning Analysis in the U.S.  His related professional work ended at the USAID-supported The Law and Population Program, at Tufts Univ. in 1977.  But he later resumed related volunteer work and activism. 

Ted Trainer worked at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Policy & Mgt. and the UNC Population Center, while he got his M.P.H. and DrPH there and was a consultant to the NC state health dept. and the government of S. Korea on its family planning programs.  Then, he worked for the new UNFPA (U. N. Fund for Population Activities) in New York and as a U.N. consultant in Japan to a foundation that supported and advised family planning programs all over the world.  His work in the field ended in 1983.  

Ruth Simmons, Professor Emerita of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, is the widow of our late classmate George Simmons.  George received his PhD from UC Berkeley and was a professor in the University of Michigan Department of Economics and the School of Public Health, where he chaired the Department of Population Planning.  He did extensive fieldwork in India.  Ruth will describe his work as well as her own.  She has worked comprehensively on reproductive health policies and programs. She was instrumental in developing and implementing WHO’s strategic approach to contraceptive introduction and strengthening reproductive health programs.  She worked extensively in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and China.  Ruth is a leader in the field of “scaling up,” the development of tools and the creation of ExpandNet, a global learning community of health professionals, policymakers and scholars working to expand and institutionalize health service innovations. 

Saturday, May 22^nd from 1 to 3 pm Eastern

RSVP to Tom Blodgett  with Planning as your subject line. 
We will send you  the Zoom log-in information a few days before the event.  

Thank you.  Hope to see you there.