The Green Woman

This is the first of a series of blogs on the theme of the "The Green Woman", but first I would like to say something about a green man, Professor David Bellamy.

Some years ago, I attended a series of "Master Classes" on environmental issues run by The Conservation Foundation, a charitable organisation set up 25 years ago by Davids Bellamy and Shreeve. At one of these - I think the theme was biodiversity - I had the opportunity to speak to Professor Bellamy and during our conversation he mentioned the importance of human population management. Now I haven't a great deal of personal experience - although I have some - of less developed countries, but David Bellamy has worked throughout the world. He told me that the issue most frequently raised by women during his work in in less developed countries was that of family planning, and their ability to choose how many children they had.

Recently, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a very moving programme about illegal abortion in Ghana. Many - if not most - abortions there are illegal because there is something of a taboo about the termination of pregnancy not only in Ghana, but throughout most of Africa. Consequently many women die or suffer serious health problems as a result of abortions which are improperly carried out. The programme included interviews with a number of Ghanaian women who had endured such "back street" terminations. All these women spoke of their need to postpone pregnancy or a to limit the size of the families for economic reasons. Marie Stopes International is currently in the process of developing family planning facilities in Ghana.

The above radio programme made me revisit the subject of human population management, a theme which has been somewhat "off the air" in recent years is now, I think, returning to the mainstream environmental agenda. Some excellent work is indeed being done for individual women by organisations like Marie Stopes, as well as in the wider context by the "Population and Sustainability Network", for instance. This work has often been undertaken in spite of major political and religious power blocks, such as the United States and the Catholic Church. However, "liberals" have also fought shy on this issue, not wanting to tell people what to do, and thereby failing to support those who desperately need family planning services for individual and social, as well as economic and environmental reasons.

I was delighted, therefore, when Sian Berry, the Principal Female Speaker of the UK Green Party, responded constructively to the matter of family size and population on the radio last weekend, in the context of our own planning for the "management" of climate change.