Condoms: Use Them to Slow Climate Change, Or Make a Soccer Ball : TreeHugger

african condom football image

Two articles came across our radar this morning that, when put together, made us feel like we were at a tennis match, our minds bouncing back and forth between the two discordant concepts. On the one hand, we have the latest update about how the shortage of condoms in Africa is worsening the strain on areas already strapped for resources and impacted by climate change. On the other hand, we have a video from Afrigadget about how to resourcefully make a soccer ball from...a condom.

Limited Access to Condoms Means Rising Populations and Increased Environmental Impacts
Bloomberg reports that according to research to be published by the World Health Organization, "Runaway population growth in countries such as Ethiopia and Rwanda where contraceptives are in short supply is exacerbating drought and straining fresh water supplies, said Leo Bryant, lead author of the study. Of 40 nations reviewed, 37 said rapid population growth worsened environmental damage."

We talked recently about how recent studies have shown that contraception is a far cheaper solution to climate change than many of the high tech processes scientists have been working on; in fact, expanding access to family planning and contraception is about five times less expensive than low-carbon technology. According to the Bloomberg article, in Rwanda only 10% of adults have access to reproductive health-care services such as condoms, and growing populations are forcing migrations to areas that, while less populated, are more prone to desertification.

"It's time to start looking at the environmental relevance of family planning," Bryant, an advocacy manager for the London-based reproductive health-care provider Marie Stopes International, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "Reproductive health services ought to be integrated into the climate adaptation strategy... We're not in any way proposing that government should start telling people how many children to have," Bryant said. "Children should be by choice. The problem is that a majority of people in sub-Saharan Africa don't have that right because they don't have access to contraception."

Lack of Access to Both Reproductive Resources and Resources in General Can Add Up to Conflicting Use of What's Available
A shortage of and limited access to contraception in Africa is a major issue related to population growth and therefore environmental damage and even greater limited access to vital resources. However, a lack of access to resources means people will use whatever they have on hand to create what they want and need. Africa is a continent rich with people who come up with solutions using just what's around them (remember the Ugandan woman who made her own battery charger, or the solar vest idea for Boda Boda operators, or all the things that came out of Maker Faire Africa...) except this is one use of a resource that we see has a far greener application than becoming a football:

Typically, we love to see clever DIY projects that use surprising materials, but this one made us do a double take when it came on the radar immediately after reading the Bloomberg piece. We don't want to take away from the fact that this is a resourceful use of what materials are on hand; still we can't help but wonder what else could have worked as an air bladder so that the condom could have been used for, well, what it was intended to be used for. Both are green ideas and issues...but a bit at conflict with one another.

More on Climate Change and Contraception
Contraception Five Times Less Expensive Than Low-Carbon Technology in Combating Climate Change
Survey: Do We Need Population Control?
Brits Break Silence On Population-Climate Change Links