Bristol Palin, Amber Portwood and Maci Bookout are names we wouldn’t be so familiar with except for one fact: They are all teenage moms. Seen on the cover of tabloid magazines and on television shows, these women represent a new crop of reality stars—unmarried mothers famous for giving birth at a young age.
Today, millions of viewers watch reality shows like MTV’s 16 and Pregnant, and alarming figures are coming from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy: About three out of 10 girls get pregnant by age 20, and half of all pregnancies in the U.S.—3 million a year—are unplanned.
An even more alarming statistic: The world’s population is expected to reach 7 billion this year. Each day, 350,000-plus babies are born around the globe. How many more births can the Earth handle at this rate?
The answer to that question depends on who is asked. A September 2009 commentary by Arthur Sinodinos in The Australian reads, “One source of national power is population. On recent projection, we may hit 35 million by the middle of the century. Why stop there?” He determines: The population projection “for Australia is good news on economic, social and strategic grounds.”
On the flipside, there are those working against the wave of increased population, including the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. The organization points to evidence that our massive population growth negatively impacts the planet’s resources and pushes more plants and animals closer to extinction.
In 2010, the CBD launched a country-wide distribution of 350,000 condoms, the last distributed on New Year’s Eve, with the intent: “By choosing to take more care and responsibility for our reproductive behaviors, we humans can ensure a future in which the Earth is able to provide a living for all species, including our own.”
The condoms weren’t your run-of-the-mill Trojans. Instead, the condom packages contained original artwork of threatened or endangered species, including the polar bear, the jaguar, the American burying beetle, the snail darter and the coquí guajón rock frog. Catchy slogans were added, such as, “Wrap with care, save the polar bear.” More will be distributed this year. (Visit endangeredspeciescondoms.com for info.)
Overpopulation campaign coordinator Randy Serraglio (also a Weekly columnist) said hundreds of volunteers around the country helped distribute the condoms in various ways. Some brought them to parties; others gave them to teenagers; some condoms even made it home for the holidays.
Tucson volunteer Steve Cody distributed his supply of condoms to members of a local social group to which he belongs. When Cody heard about the endangered-species condom project, he thought it was an interesting idea and praised CBD.
“If you look at the major factors influencing environmental challenges that we have going on, the sheer number of people is a big issue,” said Cody. “A lot of people in Tucson are very concerned about the environment and our impact on the environment and how we can walk more lightly on the Earth. … I think the Center for Biological Diversity is a real jewel in Tucson.”
Serraglio points to the proposed Rosemont mine as an example of how consumption to provide for the growing masses affects the environment. “(People say), ‘Well, we need this resource. We need copper out of the ground, and we’re going to get it.’ We petitioned for five different species found in that area. … There are all kinds of species who are unable to run away.”
Serraglio said that same type of situation plays out with thousands of species in areas all over the planet.
“The evidence is clear that, at this time, the cause (of mass extinctions) is the fact that one species is procreating beyond all reasonable bounds of sustainability,” said Serraglio.
In the discussion about unplanned pregnancies and the risks involved, Serraglio queried: “You might be willing to take that risk for yourself, but is it worthwhile taking that risk for jaguars and for people born 100 years from now? … It’s going to impact everybody else who lives on the planet and all the other species.”
Considering that in the United States, we consume resources at a much greater rate than those in other countries, and we have millions of unplanned babies, it adds up to a losing proposition for the Earth. Only with increased awareness and behaviors can we turn attention away from famous teen moms and back to the planet.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.
This is an excellent article that clearly points to the most significant issue for the human species. Our Earth can only provided for a limited number of humans before overpopulation will cause a major “die off”. There are many factors that could cause this suffering to billions, including many different diseases, starvation, water and air pollution, and wars. Stabilizing and reducing the existing population should be a global priority.
By delaying births, we reduce population growth. The women who have early child births, especially prior to completion of high school which reduces their education, usually will live in poverty or near poverty unless they marry someone older and with an education. Without adequate knowledge, these immature women will suffer long-term consequences while raising their children, many times as single moms. This continues the cycle because their children may also be trapped in the lower economic brackets, as poverty begets poverty. Of course, there always are exceptions, but the poor are getting poorer.
By both delays in starting a family and reductions of the number in the family are critical for the future of our Earth! It’s one person at a time, but delaying and extending the number of years between generations, is vital for the heath of our country and all countries. This is the best way to slow population growth.
As we continue to crowd out the other species, deplete the natural minerals and resources, our Earth and our neighborhoods, shrivel up and will die. Petroleum and natural gas are limited natural resources and can not be replaced.
Developing mines for minerals, such as copper, are very destructive of our lands, as the 10 miles of copper tailings that run parallel to I-19 make so vivid (see google earth for better views of the Green Valley mines) this permanent destruction. These mines presently deplete the Santa Cruz River groundwater aquifer, this necessity of life, by permanently removing 4 to 6 feet of water per year in the Tucson aquifer. With only 0.3% of all the world’s water being potable and drinkable by humans, retention of this resource is critical for southern Arizona.
Population expansion must be contained, especially by the reduction of teenage mothers. Those teenage movie and rock star moms are a senseless aberration of prudent living without an understanding of their personal life changes. They are extremely poor role models for our junior and senior high school children! Graduating from college, or high school as a minimum, before having their first child should be a goal for all teenage girls.
In addition to the above comment I think we should also consider if families really require to have more than 2 children? What is the purpose of excessively large families? I think some countries have it right by having just 2 children and no more. Many parents cant seem to afford more than that to begin with.
It’s quite a leap from celebrity babymakers to the Rosemont Mine, but the overpopulation is a subject we seem to have forgotten even as we watch hordes of people affected in catastrophes around the world. I have two thoughts, micro and macro: When TUSD opened its special school for pregnant students, I winced. What were they thinking? Before you train teens to become mothers and fathers you have to let them grow up, even if it’s the hard way. I frankly think these girls should be forced to leave their brick-and-mortar schools, and find their education online and within their family (however they define it). It’s not the taxpayers’ problem they have no self-discipline or ambition to do more than shop for groceries. Second, the pictures of Haiti and other locations where earthquakes, tsunamis and floods have made hundreds of thousands of people homeless, also show what “teeming humanity” looks like, and it isn’t pretty. Those condoms need to go everywhere in the world, because sex fills in where there is no hope. It is the primal form of instant gratification, and leads only to more need for instant gratification where there is no vision. Let’s take money out of the pregnant classrooms and put them into shipments of condoms and pay educators to teach young men and women to handle the basics, which is to say, creating families with intention and dignity.
im amazed you and tusd want to quarintine the pregnant girls and you want to block them from a education? This isnt a virus that they carry, its a future taxpayer, and such needs to be in school preparing for the future.
The first mistake was made by the child by getting pregnent, dont make a 2nd mistake by treating it as something more than what it really is.
Wow. Um, Karen, I am not by any means a proponent of teenage motherhood, but whether they are pregnant or mothers or WHAT, all children in the state of Arizona are entitled to a free, appropriate education until high school graduation. Forcing young pregnant students to leave their “brick and mortar” schools will lead to isolation and possible lack of motivation to finish school. Many of the problems of our world stem from lack of education…and especially lack of education for females. Education is a social imperative and as a former teen mother myself, I can tell you that my Master’s Degree (along with the rest of my education, which I acquired after having two children) is what is keeping me (and my children) from being a poverty statistic.
What nonsense. Family planning is of immediate importance to the families themselves, and where women have greater rights, they have control over their fertility. Handing out condoms at the street fair has nothing to do with that, and marginalizing pregnant teens is truly brain-dead.
I totally agree that our society should not be glamorizing teenage pregnancy. Actually, we should be encouraging sex out of marriage for anyone or pregnancy outside of marriage. However, one is hard-pressed these days to find anything of a wholesome nature in entertainment. So we might want to start with that.
I taught at TUSD’s TeenAge Parent Program for six years in the ’90s. The first thing you need to know is that TUSD high school counselors did not send the “good” students to TAPP; they only sent the “non-students” there to get them off their rolls. We did get a few students (both male and female) who already knew how to be students, but they were few and far between.
For those years, the staff worked hard to fill in the educational gaps for those students who were highly at-risk even before they came to us. Add to that the care we took in giving these young parents the opportunity to learn how to be good parents. For the most part, we were successful.
AZ should be ashamed of the teen-pregnancy rate which is now 3rd highest in the nation. But shunning these young parents and their children is not the answer. Education is the answer–on all fronts. I know that TAPP does a great job in this area.
While I was there only one of the former babies came back as a parent/student, and even then it turned out he wasn’t the father of the baby. So you see, TAPP is not only educating the young parents academically, but those young parents figure out a way to keep this happening for their children. I call that success!
Finally, do some research on the ages of the fathers of babies born to teen mothers. You will find a disgusting trend. The mothers’ ages can range any where from 11 to 19, while the fathers’ ages range from 14 to 51.* Men are raping little girls. So think again with you want to place blame on the young girls who are carrying the babies of grown men. You want the girls locked out of society? Well then you’d better do the same for the men who are preditors!
*Figures taken from a NC study in 1995. http://www.epi.state.nc.us/SCHS/pdf/sb-7.p…