[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15072-S15073]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    WORLD POPULATION AWARENESS WEEK

  Mr. BUMPERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
following proclamation be inserted in the Record. The proclamation was 
signed by Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and designates October 21-29, 1995, as 
World Population Awareness Week in the State of Arkansas. This 
proclamation is part of a worldwide effort to implement recommendations 
of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in 
Cairo last year.
  It is clear that we are facing a population crisis. We now live in a 
world of 5.7 billion people, a population that grew by nearly 100 
million last year, the largest annual increase ever recorded. 
Unemployment in many developing countries is as high as 30 percent, and 
to accommodate their growing populations, the nations of the world will 
have to produce 500 million new jobs by the yearly 2000.
  The world's resources cannot accommodate continuing growth at the 
current rate. More than 1.7 billion people, nearly one-third of the 
world population, lack an adequate supply of drinking water, and 26 
billions tons of arable topsoil vanish from the world's croplands every 
year. At least 65 countries that depend on subsistence farming may be 
unable to feed their populations by the year 2000.
  Time is a luxury we do not enjoy. Action is required now to ensure a 
reasonable quality of life and a stable and secure world for a child 
born today. I applaud the action of Governor Tucker and other officials 
of government and private organizations who are working to increase 
awareness of this problem and encourage the actions necessary to 
resolve it.
  There being no objection, the proclamation was ordered to printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    State of Arkansas, Proclamation


          to all to whom these presents shall come--greetings

       Whereas, the world population is currently 5.7 billion and 
     increasing by nearly 100 million per year, with virtually all 
     of this growth added to the poorest countries and regions--
     those that can least afford to accommodate their current 
     populations, much less such massive infusions of human 
     numbers; and
       Whereas, the annual increment to world population is 
     projected to exceed 86 million through the year 2015, with 
     three billion people--the equivalent of the entire world 
     population as recently as 1960--reaching their reproductive 
     years within the next generation; and
       Whereas, the environmental and economic impacts of this 
     level of growth will almost certainly prevent inhabitant of 
     poorer countries from improving their quality of life, and at 
     the same time, have deleterious repercussions for the 
     standard of living in more affluent regions; and
       Whereas, the 1994 International Conference on Population 
     and Development in Cario, Egypt crafted a 20-year Program of 
     Action for achieving a more equitable balance between the 
     world's population, environment and resources that was duly 
     approved by 180 nations, including the United States;
       Now, Therefore, I, Jim Guy Tucker, Governor of the State of 
     Arkansas, do hereby proclaim October 22-29, 1995, as, World 
     Population Awareness Week, in the State of Arkansas and urge 
     all citizens of the state to support the purpose and the 
     spirit of the Cairo Program of Action, and call upon all 
     governments and private organizations to do their utmost to 
     implement that document, 

[[Page S 15073]]
     particularly the goals and objectives their in aimed at providing 
     universal access to family planning information, education 
     and services, as well as the elimination of poverty, 
     illiteracy, unemployment, social disintegration, and gender 
     discrimination that have been reinforced by the 1995 United 
     Nations International Conference on Social Development, 
     endorsed by 118 world leaders in 1995, and by the 1995 United 
     Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
       In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
     the Great Seal of the State of Arkansas to be affixed at the 
     Capitol in Little Rock on this 21st day of September in the 
     year of our Lord nineteen hundred ninety-five.

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