 For a healthy planet promote women's health rights
Let's celebrate summer by advocating for a healthy planet. This is the message of the Sierra Club promotes in "The Sierra Club Goes Green and Pink,"the Future Choices video being aired in Westchester County during July and August 2011.
Sandeep Bathala, Sierra Club’s Global Population and Environment Program Director, informs us that Sierra Club has for the last 35+ years pursued an agenda which acknowledges that the long-term health of our planet Earth — our environment — is closely tied to ensuring of the reproductive health care and rights for all people.
This summer it is projected that the earth's population will soar to 7 billion people -- that's 7,000,000,000 -- and will continue to spiral to 9 billion or more by mid-century unless we undertake a smart agenda to save the planet. The past 50 years have seen the most rapid population growth in the course of human history. This at a time when
- rivers are drying up,
- forests are disappearing,
- soil is eroding, glaciers are melting,
- fish stocks are vanishing, and
- nearly a billion people are going hungry every day.
How will the planet work with two billion more of us?
Sandeep informs us that Sierra Club's Global Population and Environment Program's mission is to protect the global environment and preserve natural resources for future generations by advancing global reproductive health and sustainable development initiatives. Sierra Club works with domestic and international coalition partners, in order to
- increase universal access to voluntary family planning services and comprehensive sex education;
- advance women's and girls' basic rights, including access to health care, education and economic opportunity;
- promote youth leadership; and
- raise public awareness of wasteful resource consumption in the context of social and economic equity.
In the video interview, “The Sierra Club Goes Green and Pink” Sandeep urges us all to become advocates for the Earth by taking advantage of the treasure trove of resources on the Sierra Club's website.
1. Give a Green-Pink Party 
You don't have to be an expert on these issues in order to host a party. All it takes is a desire to make a difference! When you sign up to host a Green-Pink Party, Sierra Club will send you a FREE Green-Pink Party Kit that includes everything you'll need to organize a fun and successful event: a step-by-step party-planning guide, fact sheets, invitations, fliers, two short DVDs, green & pink condoms, and more!
Both DVDs are riveting. Both are based around the concept that big change can occur in small steps if concerned individuals -- like you!! -- have access to the right resources, are given adequate guidance, and are given the freedom to educate, empower and organize their own communities around issues that mattered to them.
 "Love, Labor, Loss" tells the story of young women in Niger afflicted with obstetric fistula.
 "Finding the Balance - Forests and Family Planning in Madagascar" is a short documentary which brings the links between population growth and environmental destruction into sharp focus – and explores what one innovative local organization is doing about it.
"Poverty and rapid population growth have driven the destruction of almost 90 percent of Madagascar’s rainforest, home to thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. This award-winning documentary journeys to the edge of a rapidly disappearing world, where population growth continues to fuel the cycle of poverty and deforestation. Rare interviews with local women reveal their desire to have fewer children and underscore the critical need for family planning services in remote areas."
2. Check out Sierra Club's Excellent Activist Resources, as per:
 Learn how horribly water scarcity and contamination impact low-income women and girls.
3. Get Connected!
Subscribe to the Global Population and Environment monthly e- newsletter, PopNews, to stay updated on global population and environment issues. As an online activist, you'll join the fight to advance global health and sustainable development solutions.
4. Get Sierra Club's Activist Guide for ideas about what you and your friends can do to save the Earth. 
When is Future Choices aired in your community?
See Local TV schedule for time and channel in each participating community in Westchester County.
| The Sierra Club Goes Green and Pink |
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Sandeep Bathala began her work as Sierra Club’s Global Population and Environment Program Director in March 2009 but has been involved with the Global Population and Environment Program since 2003.
She has conducted numerous presentations and visited legislators with Sierra Club - highlighting advocacy partnerships she spearheaded with family planning agencies in Albania and Mali through her previous role at Planned Parenthood. Articles she has written about her past advocacy travels have been featured in Sierra Club’s Global Population and the Environment Report and New Jersey Sierran.
In March 2008, Sandeep had the privilege of traveling with Sierra Club to the Philippines to receive first hand exposure to population, health and environment programs. She collaborates with Attie & Goldwater Productions on documentaries on international reproductive health issues.
Sandeep has extensive knowledge of the connections among global health, women’s rights and the environment. She is dedicated to mobilizing youth activists, Sierra Club members and the general public around sustainable development solutions, including universal access to reproductive health information and services and education and economic opportunity for women and girls.
She can be reached at 202- 548-4587 or Sandeep.bathala@sierraclub.org.
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