We’ve just entered one of the busiest times of the year for staff travel to in-person events—all of which has been cancelled due to coronavirus. But travel bans haven’t stopped our outreach efforts!

We quickly turned Capitol Hill Days last weekend into a virtual event, and reached even more people than in past years! For upcoming Earth Day, we’re challenging YOU to take small, simple steps from home to help our planet. And we’re working hard to make our PopEd teacher trainings available online. Thanks to your past support, we have been well-equipped to adapt all of our program activities to the “new normal” of physical distancing.

As our current public health emergency makes clear, your commitment to global population stabilization has never been more important. Thank you for your ongoing support—we hope you and your friends and loved ones stay safe and healthy during this unprecedented crisis.

Capitol Hill Days 2020 Goes Digital

In our first Capitol Hill Days Digital Weekend of Action, 980 members and activists used digital platforms—Twitter, YouTube, and Zoom—to learn about grassroots organizing and reproductive health and rights and to share what they learned with their members of Congress.

Co-hosted by our sister organization, Population Connection Action Fund, this year’s event kicked off on Friday, March 27, with a “Twitter Rally.” Our #Fight4HER hashtag began trending Friday afternoon as activists and those following the conversation posted 4,600 tweets, reaching a jaw-dropping 9.2 million+ people with the message that ending the Global Gag Rule forever must remain an urgent priority this year.

On Saturday and Sunday, participants tuned in to video speaker sessions. Experts from the fields of reproductive health, public health, and grassroots organizing provided informative and educational videos for our audience of dedicated activists and supporters.

The weekend culminated with a day of lobbying, with in-person visits replaced with over 3,200 phone calls, Zoom meetings, and emails to legislators.

Thank you for helping to make this year’s Capitol Hill Days Digital Weekend a success!

Join the Earth Day Challenge!

With Earth Day events cancelled across the country this April, you can join the action online by participating in Population Connection’s Earth Day Challenge! We encourage you to join members across the country in taking our 22-day challenge. We’ll offer small ways you can be more environmentally friendly every day, for each day leading up to Earth Day on April 22nd.

Sign up for the challenge here! We’ll send a special Population Connection Earth Day swag bag to everyone who provides their mailing address as our special “thank you” for taking part. (Please keep in mind, shipping will be delayed, as we “shelter in place” for the time being.)

PopEd Shifts Gear to Support Teachers During Coronavirus

Population Education staff moved quickly to support educators throughout our teacher-trainer network—and beyond—earlier this month as circumstances at schools changed quickly. You can read more about all the changes we’ve made to the program here.

We hope you’ll also be sure to take a look at (and share!) the lesson plans and activities we’ve compiled to help both educators and parents teaching their children at home over the coming months on the PopEd blog.

Pandemics and Population Growth

Though the causes of different pandemics throughout history have varied, many of the infectious disease outbreaks we’ve faced have come about through human to wildlife contact. The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is no exception. Marian Starkey, our VP for Communications, explains how human population pressures on wildlife have played a part in the crisis we’re currently facing.

Some other noteworthy recently published sources that make the link between population and pandemics:

How our environmental practices make pandemics more likely—from Vox.com

How our war on the environment is leading to pandemics—from Phys.org

A history of pandemics (with population mentioned halfway through)—from the BBC

The terrible way we treat the natural world gave us coronavirus—from The Nation

How to prevent the next outbreak—from Scientific American (**not mentioned in this article, but we are strongly urging that population stabilization be part of the “one health” approach discussed)