Inside the Birthrate Plunge |
From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director |
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Births and fertility rates have been declining in the United States for decades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, since 1990 the U.S. total fertility rate has fallen to 1.62 births per woman — well below replacement level.
The drop in birthrates has garnered media attention and agitation from the right (and unfortunately prompted Donald Trump to call himself the “Fertilization President”). But many demographers see the birthrate decline as a success story. Of course, the reasons for the falling birthrate are various and complex. Access to contraception is making it easier for people to delay pregnancy; climate concerns, the cost of living, and other social and environmental factors are pushing others toward not having kids at all. Population pressure is a root cause of the crises we face, especially in the United States, where the average person consumes more than most people around the world. Family planning and the education of women and girls are top climate change solutions — and greater access to reliable contraception and reproductive freedom of choice should be celebrated, not catastrophized. Read on to learn more about our work to protect wolverines, our efforts to define a just food transition, and more. |
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Crowded Planet — A new study found that bird populations in North America are shrinking faster than ever, primarily because of intensive agriculture that drives habitat loss, high fertilizer and pesticide use, and warming temperatures. North America’s bird populations have plunged by almost 3 billion birds over the past five decades.
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Take Action: Protect Water, Wildlife, and Workers |
Factory farms and slaughterhouses pose a tremendous threat to clean air and water, people, biodiversity, and our climate — to say nothing of their own workers. Slaughterhouses dump millions of pounds of toxic waste into U.S. waterways every year and are among the most dangerous places to work.
Yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to limit commonsense restrictions on pig and poultry slaughterhouses — increasing or eliminating limits on the number of animals they can kill per minute. The proposed changes would increase the amount of wastewater and other pollutants being dumped into the environment and harming aquatic wildlife, water quality, and surrounding communities. Line-speed increases mean more worker injuries and animal suffering, as well as the spread of zoonotic diseases and foodborne pathogens.
Here’s one thing you can do: Tell the USDA to prioritize the environment, people, and animals by withdrawing these dirty and dangerous proposals. |
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Pack a Plastic-Free Easter Basket |
Many holiday traditions are at odds with efforts to reduce pollution and protect nature. For example, giving an Easter basket is a fun springtime tradition that often comes packed with plastic. But there are easy swaps you can make for a more wildlife-friendly Easter basket.
The first and easiest step is to switch out plastic baskets for those made of paper or natural materials and plastic Easter grass for paper grass. If you already have plastic Easter eggs, you can reuse them. If you don’t have plastic eggs, wooden eggs are an option — or consider skipping eggs altogether in favor of an outdoor scavenger hunt. You can replace plastic toys with seed packets, gardening tools, and other functional springtime gifts.
Here’s one thing you can do: Small holiday swaps may not seem like much, but they can start to shift unsustainable consumer culture. Check out other wildlife-friendly Easter ideas on our Simplify the Holidays website. |
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What's a "Just Food Transition"? |
The term “just transition” is increasingly used to describe how society can transition from the current destructive way of doing things to a fairer and greener model that doesn’t leave people behind. It’s clear that the global food system needs a just transition away from industrial animal agriculture — but what does that even look like?
That’s the question we — and 120 other food activists and farmers — grappled with while writing the just food transition white paper, which outlines how to shift from industrial animal production to equitable, humane, and sustainable food systems. As my coauthor and I recently explained in the newsletter Fodder, we discovered that despite the vastly different experiences of people in different parts of the world, frontline workers and agriculture-dependent communities must be in the driver's seat to design food systems that work for people, our planet, and animals.
Here’s one thing you can do: Check out the Just Food Transition Network to learn more about our vision and how we can achieve a just food transition. |
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Sexual Health Emergency Kits Hit Campus |
We took our sexual health emergency preparedness (SHEP) kits West for the first time earlier this month, distributing them at the University of Arizona. The event, in partnership with the school’s Women & Gender Student Space and the College of Public Health Southwest Center on Resilience for Climate Change and Health, was also the first SHEP distribution on a college campus. Like many western states, Arizona is regularly affected by monsoon season, wildfires, and extreme heat.
“Flash floods and wildfires can make it impossible to access family-planning and period supplies,” Senior Campaigner Kelley Dennings told Arizona Public Media. “The kits help make sure people won’t have to scramble to care for their sexual health during climate-fueled severe weather emergencies.” We’re actively recruiting partners to distribute SHEP kits across the United States. If you’d like to get involved, reach out to Kelley Dennings.
Here’s one thing you can do: Check out our Sexual Health Emergency Preparedness Scorecard to find out how your state stacks up on including sexual health in their emergency checklists. |
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President Trump’s recent executive order to increase beef imports from Argentina is receiving backlash from the U.S. cattle industry and environmentalists alike. The administration claims this massive increase in beef imports — which isn't subject to tariffs — will lower beef prices at the grocery store. But, as I recently explained to Grist, all it's really doing is exporting the climate crisis to Argentine farmers.
Farmers in the United States and around the world have experienced devastating droughts and storms that make it harder to produce food. Sacrificing more forests and grasslands to cattle in Argentina will only make the problem worse. Increasing beef imports to feed the Trump administration’s animal-protein obsession isn’t going to fix the affordability crisis people are facing every day at the grocery store. Here’s one thing you can do: Read our position statement on cattle grazing to learn more about why it’s particularly harmful to the environment. |
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Wildlife Spotlight: Wolverine |
Wolverines may be known for their ferocity, but they’re also curious, intelligent, playful, and cautious critters. North American wolverines once roamed much of the northern portion of the continent, but during the 1800s and early 1900s they were largely wiped out by trapping and poisoning. Thanks to trapping regulations, their population rebounded slightly, but now they face increasing threats from climate change — they need spring snowpack for their dens. Recent data show there may be just over 300 wolverines left in the lower 48 states.
After many years of work by the Center and allies, wolverines were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 2023 — but they still haven’t received protections for the wild places they call home. The delay threatens to push them even closer to extinction. That’s why we recently sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to designate critical habitat for wolverines.
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Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. Box 710
Tucson, AZ 85702
United States |
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