World Population Awareness

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Unmet Need for Contraception and Unsafe Abortion Are Widespread

On the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling from the United States Supreme Court that legalized abortion and changed the course of history for women in the U.S., we remember that women in Latin America and the Caribbean continue to struggle for this basic reproductive right.

95% of abortions in Latin America are unsafe, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Where abortion is illegal, women often turn to inadequately trained practitioners who employ unsafe techniques or attempt to self-induce abortion using dangerous methods. In Latin America and the Caribbean, complications from unsafe abortion results in the hospitalization of nearly one million women each year, and causes one in eight maternal deaths, according to the WHO. Poor and rural women are disproportionately affected.

Obtaining a safe abortions is difficult if there is fear of legal consequences, social stigma, high cost, or lack of access to trained health professionals. Banning abortion does not reduce the numbers of women who attempt it; in fact, the abortion rate is much higher where it is illegal.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, only 6 of the 34 countries -- accounting for less than 5% of the region's women ages 15-44 -- allow abortion without restriction.

In 2007 the Mexico City government lifted the ban on abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. There MEXFAM (IPPF/WHR) provides safe abortion services. Where the law is more restrictive, MEXFAM works to reduce the public health impact of unsafe abortion.

Nearly half of sexually active young women in Latin America and the Caribbean have an unmet need for contraception. Providing contraception will not only reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies, and the number of abortions, but also empower women by giving them the freedom to choose when and if they have children.

Birth Rate Plummets in Brazil

Across Latin America fertility rates plummeted, even though abortion is illegal, the Catholic Church opposes birth control and government-run family planning is rare.

Migration to the cities, the expansion of the female workforce, better health care and the example of the small, affluent families portrayed on the region's popular soap operas have contributed to such a fast demographic shift that it caught social scientists by surprise. The number of children per woman when from 6 in 1960 to 2.3 by 2010.

Brazil has been particularly fascinating for demographers, it's fertility rate falling lower than in any other Latin American country except Cuba, which has state-sponsored family planning and legalized abortion. With a population of almost 200 million, there is a great gap between rich and poor, although millions have joined the middle class during Brazil's recent economic expansion.

The country's fertility rate has fallen from 6.15 children per woman in 1960 to less than 1.9 today. That is lower than the United States, which at 2 per woman is just enough for the population to replace itself.

Brazil's fertility rate took a big drop uniformly across the country. Suzana Cavenaghi, a Brazilian census bureau demographer. "We wouldn't expect that in a country that's so diverse, with a lot of poverty in so many places and so unequal, economically speaking."

Women were empowered by a pro-democracy movement that rose up against a 1970s-era military dictatorship. That dictatorship, which wanted to populate Brazil's remote areas, inadvertently contributed to fewer births by promoting industrialization. That led rural families to crowd into cities, where a brood of children could be a financial drain.

Women began to look for means of birth control, easily obtained without a prescription. Doctors in the public health service provided sterilizations, which became common, and women sought out pills that induced abortions long before those pills became the subject of controversy in the United States.

A report, "The Battle for Female Talent in Brazil," says that 59% of Brazilian women consider themselves “very ambitious" and that 80% of college-educated women aspire to upper-echelon positions. U.S. women are far less likely to give those responses.

The country's elaborate soaps, or telenovelas, have been an important factor in the drop in Brazilian fertility, researchers say. The protagonists inhabit an appealing, affluent, highflying world, whose distinguishing features include the small family.

A Story of Hope in Mexico

As part of the Million Moms Challenge, 20/20 focused on maternal health in the developing world. There are five videos at the bottom of the page - click on the link in the headline above. Two are touted here.

Consume Less: Costa Rica Offers a Model for Living More Simply

by Richard Grossman MD, 2011

A child born in a developing country will have only a fraction of the impact that a child would have in the United States. And worldwide our numbers are increasing by 1 % per year while consumption is skyrocketing at 2 to 4 %.

Costa Rica is a good example of a nation that approaches sustainability. The income of an average Costa Rican (or "Tico", to use their nickname) is significantly less than that of an American. Our buying power is about $47,000 per person each year, but in Costa Rica it is less than a quarter of that, at $11,000. Obviously Ticos consume less than do norteamericanos.

Yet on the Satisfaction with Life Index, rates Ticos higher (13th in the world) than Americans (just 23rd).

Most Ticos do not own cars, but use their feet or public transportation to travel. On average, Ticos live a year or two longer than Americans. Tico people are physically active and fast food is uncommon.

Costa Rica is unique in the world in that it emphasizes education and health. It has no military—that's right, none! Instead it provides free health care to all citizens and free education through high school. In contrast, the USA spends a huge fraction of our finances on the military. Part of our expenditure is to support our extravagant use of petroleum, which largely comes from far away. A large portion of our military might is used to gain and protect sources of petroleum. Furthermore, our military consumes huge amounts of oil.

Contraception is free and available to all Ticos as part of their health care. Funding for family planning in the USA, however, has been shrinking when measured in real dollars, and its very existence has been jeopardized with recent political changes.

The Tico lifestyle uses much less of the planet's resources and adds less pollution to the environment. Costa Rica has also preserved a greater proportion of its land as parks than any other country in the world. Its rain and cloud forests have become a major tourist destination, and a major source of income. Almost all electricity in Costa Rica comes from renewable sources—hydro and wind—but it is affordable for all.

We cannot all move to Costa Rica. We here in the USA can, however, endeavor to reduce our consumption. People who choose "simple living" (or a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity) work less, spend less, and enjoy life more. Most important is that they are happier and have less impact on the planet.

Brazil's Girl Power: Machisma - How a Mix of Female Empowerment and Steamy Soap Operas Helped Bring Down Brazil’s Fertility Rate and Stoke Its Vibrant Economy.

Not counting the stillbirth, the 3 miscarriages, and the baby who lived less than 24 hours. Dona Maria had 16 pregnancies and said she should have more than a hundred grandchildren by now, but only had 26. Her son José Alberto Carvalho has been studying the Brazilian demographic phenomenon that lowered their fertility rate to 2.36 children per family to the national average of 1.9, which is below replacement level and lower than the U.S. fertility rate.

Brazil is dominated by the Roman Catholic Church and no official government policy has ever promoted birth control. Abortion except for special circumstances is illegal there.

The decline has occurred across every class and region of Brazil. Two children is typically the desired number. When a women is done having children, we might hear her say: "A fábrica está fechada," meaning the factory is closed.

About half the world's population lives in countries where the fertility rates have dropped to below replacement rate, about two children per family. In most of the rest of the world they've rapidly fallen except for sub-Saharan Africa.

Carvalho said "What took 120 years in England took 40 years here." Central to the reasons Brazil's fertility rate has dropped so far and so fast are tough, resilient women who set out a few decades back, without encouragement from the government and over the pronouncements of their bishops, to start shutting down the factories any way they could.

Many women under 35 have already had sterilization surgery because pregnancy accidents happen too easily, pills make you fat or sick, and children are too expensive, too much work.

Carvalho suggested a formula for quickly lowering a developing nation's fertility rate without official intervention from the government:

1. Industrialize dramatically, urgently, and late; force the country into a new kind of economy, one that has concentrated work in the cities, where the housing is cramped, the favela streets are dangerous, babies look more like new expense burdens than like future useful farmhands, and the jobs women must take for their families' survival require leaving home for ten hours at a stretch.

2. Make sure birth control is easily accessed: over-the-counter, without a doctor's prescription, if they can just come up with the money. Foster in these women a dismissive attitude toward the Catholic Church's position on artificial contraception.

3. Improve infant and child mortality statistics so there is no longer the need to have extra for insurance. Add a pension program, so that a big family is not needed to support them when they grow old.

4. Reward doctor for performing cesareans rather than waiting for natural deliveries and spread the word that a doctor who has already begun the surgery for a cesarean can probably be persuaded to throw in a discreet tubal ligation. Yes, the Catholic church would disapprove, but many women of faith felt in some matters the male clergy is perhaps not wholly equipped to discern the true will of God.

5. Introduce electricity and television. Depict the modern Brazilian family as affluent, light skinned, and small in evening soap operas, or telenovelas. One study found that the spread of televisions outpaced access to education, which has greatly improved in Brazil.

Cuba to Copy Dutch Sex Education

Mariela Castro Espín, the daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, heads Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX). Speaking at the 20th World Congress for Sexual Health held in of Glasgow, Ms Castro praised Holland's sex education, including Love Matters, Radio Netherlands Worldwide's website that informs young people on sex and sexual health in a clear and simple way.

Dutch sex education promotes the use of contraceptives, including condoms. Combined with sex education, which is offered at most schools, this model, United Nations figures show, has led to some of the world's lowest rates in teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions. In addition, youths in Holland tend to have their first sexual encounters at an older age than teenagers in countries where sex is taboo.

Ms Castro is studying Holland's sex education model as part of her efforts to introduce changes in Cuba. "Our talks with our health ministry are progressing, but things with the education ministry are slower."

One of Cuba's main problems is the high rate of unwanted teenage pregnancies.

Ms Castro hints that Cuba's Communist Party may soon be ready to recognise gay and lesbian rights, even though her father has cautioned her that the time may not yet be ripe.

"My father ...has told me one first has to create the right conditions - and Cuban society lacks them in many areas".

With socialism "we've made a lot of progress regarding women's rights. So I'd tell my father: why don't we do the same thing with these issues? But he'd say: look, some things have such deeps roots in our culture, that you'll face a lot of resistance unless you sort out some other things first."

Sex education, experts say, has three pillars: home, school and the media. Though Cuba officially instituted sex education in 1976, it is still suffering from a number of contradictions.

"Cuban families trust a lot what children are told at school," she says. “We began commemorating days against homophobia in 2008, and now people are beginning to tell their children. They didn't in the past, thinking we were only telling them how to avoid pregnancies, or telling them about infections and biological issues. But all that is proving complicated because the national media are not helping."

As the head of CENESEX, Ms Castro has made the fight against homophobia in Cuba a personal struggle, giving countless talks and interviews. At the last Communist Party Congress, held in April, President Raúl Castro launched a harsh attack on Cuba's media. Thanks to that, Ms Castro believes, the media reported on the latest day against homophobia.

"Men should be taught to be responsible, " and have vasectomies after age 50.

Cuba has no abortion law but, since 1965, abortions have been offered as a free public health care service. This led to a significant drop in the number of deaths resulting from clandestine abortions. A key role in institutionalising abortion and promoting women's rights was played by the former president of the Federation of Cuban Women, the late Vilma Espín—Ms Castro's mother.

Latin America: Families in Action Pays Mothers to Improve Health: Program Helps Poor Women Lift Families

Families in Action, an innovative social program partly funded by the World Bank pays 4,200 poor mothers in Tunja about $100 a month as long as they attend diet and hygiene classes, get their children to school and have them undergo medical exams.

Programs like Families in Action are offered in 19 Latin American countries, costing about $12 billion. Economist Ferdinando Regalia of the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington believes that the schemes are a cost-effective means of reducing poverty and delivering health and education services.

The program helped one women leave her abusive husband, after attending "empowerment" classes where she learned she didn't have to tolerate his violent attacks and that she had a right to a look for a job. She is now pursuing a career as a hairdresser.

Besides the four required medical exams a year to check their weight and vision, as well as to test for bacterial infections, children ages 7 to 18 must be present for 80% of their school days, and adolescents must receive family planning classes or their mothers don't get paid.

An encouraging part of this program is that poor women in the program have become more politically active. And the program has helped save severely undernourished children.

The programs have grown to cover 112 million people in Latin America, or 19% of the region's population, according to United Nations figures. Columbia has 10.4 million people in the program, Brazil 51.6 million, and Mexico 23.2 million.

"The objectives are to lower poverty in the short term and raise human capital in the long term," said Helena Ribe, a World Bank economist.

There are concerns that the program may be discontinued if the region, now enjoying a commodities-fueled economic boom, suffers a downturn. However, the leaders may maintain the programs which are so popular and cost-effective to avoid political backlash.

ABC - Access to Birth Control Act Reintroduced in U.S. House

On July 27 - a week after the Institute for Medicine recommended adding birth control to a list of preventative care services to be covered without co-payments in health care insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act - the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act was reintroduced in the U.S. House and Senate by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Maloney said that the institute's recommendation "marks an important first step toward near-universal contraceptive coverage in America, but if women are denied the actual contraceptives when they go to their pharmacist, having no-cost contraceptives is rendered meaningless."

The ABC Act would make it illegal for a pharmacist to refuse to return birth control prescription or for a pharmacist to intimidate, threaten or harass customers or intentionally breach or threaten to breach medical confidentiality.

NARAL Pro-Choice America said that "federal action is especially necessary since rogue pharmacists who are opposed to contraception are refusing to fill women's prescriptions, and only six states have laws that require pharmacies to fill women's birth-control prescriptions."

U.S.: House Foreign Affairs Committee Takes War on Women Global

Today, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to legislatively reinstate the notorious Global Gag Rule, which would bar U.S. funding from going to any overseas family planning organization that uses its own money to provide abortions or to offer counseling and referral for abortion, even in countries where it is legal.

Ranking Member Howard Berman (D-CA) offered an amendment to strike the Gag Rule language from the bill, but all Republican members, along with Democrat Ben Chandler (KY), voted against the Berman amendment.

The next destination for the bill would be the House floor, if it gets that far.

New Interactive Website on Adolescent Sexual Health Launches in Mexico

Over 70% of Mexican youth between the ages of 12 and 19 are using the internet, according to the National Population Council. So a new website, Sexpertos Saludables ("Healthy Sexperts"), www.sexpertos.net was launched with support from PMC and Carlos Slim Institute fo Health, Centro de Orientación para Adolescentes (CORA). It is a new interactive website in Mexico focused on improving adolescent sexual health.

The website features several interactive components geared toward youth aged 9 to 14, the centerpiece of which is several short animations featuring young Latino-style illustrated characters reminiscent of Japanese Animé. The animations follow a group of friends, three boys and three girls, navigating their way through puberty and adolescence. Segments deal with a variety of issues, including body changes, tips for surviving adolescence, gender roles, and self-examination for early detection of cancer in men and women.

The website also includes a forum and chat, the debunking of myths, games on self-esteem and responsibility, short video clips of interviews with youth leaders/role-models, an "apendisex" section where youth can get answers to commonly asked questions, and tests that look for signs that may lead to disorders or addiction. Private advice is avaiable via online chat from one of Mexico's leading psychologists.

When Averages Mislead: Effects of "Graduating" Latin America From Contraceptive Support

Looking at the broader issue of funding for sexual and reproductive health (SRH), it was found that USAID and other providers of development assistance were reallocating aid for SRH on the basis of aggregate national statistics and consequently abandoning Latin America as they turned their sights increasingly on Africa.

Latin America countries are now considered "middle-income", but the gap in distribution of wealth and income is very, very large, especially if you look at things like contraceptive prevalence and fertility rate, comparing the top 20%, and the bottom 20% of the population. Also the rural areas are very much poorer and the indicators for indigenous populations in particular compare quite unfavorably.

IPPF/WHR and UNFPA Washington investigated the impact of this withdrawal of foreign aid for SRH and the graduation of Latin American countries from USAID population funding, focusing on Peru because it is fairly representative of many countries in the region, in that it has a rapidly growing economy, such that the aggregate data look very good, but on the other hand, it's highly unequal - rapid economic growth comes with growing inequality, and very high levels of poverty.

One of the things we focused on was "contraceptive security," a standard that USAID applies for "graduation," which means that before funding is eliminated, modern methods of contraception should be widely available to whoever wants them, and they should not only be available, but also free or for an affordable price.

In the public sector, there were no condoms to be found and also shortages of all types of contraceptives. Some had been out of stock for months, and they didn't know when the next shipment would be arriving. The whole contraceptive supply chain was in fact breaking down, and the overall profile could hardly be said to resemble anything like genuine contraceptive security.

In January IPPF/WHR and UNFPA hosted an event in Washington, DC to educating members of Congress, and to some extent a wider public, about this problem.

It's not that we disagree that there are bigger needs in Africa, we just feel that precipitous cutting of funding to Latin America and the Caribbean means that the criteria and the standards that were established by USAID itself in its graduation program are not being met. They need to take another look at the timing, and think about maintaining funding levels.

For the executive summary report, see http://www.ippfwhr.org/sites/default/files/DRAFT_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY_PERU_.pdf

Mexico's New Agricultural Crisis

750,000 acres of corn crops were reported destroyed after unusually cold temperatures blanketed the north of the country in January and early February in northern Mexico. Hardest hit was the northwestern state of Sinaloa, known as the "Bread Basket of Mexico," one of Mexico's major producers of white corn, the variety of maize used to make staple tortillas.

The weather-related losses were labeled "the worst disaster" in the history of Sinaloa.

Altogether 1.5 million acres of corn, vegetable, citrus and other crops were either damaged or destroyed in Sinaloa, with a preliminary economic loss of approximately one billion dollars. Sinaloa provides about 30% of Mexico's grains and vegetables, and also exports food products to the United States.

In Sonora, more than 130,000 acres were reported lost, including 45% of the acreage planted in winter wheat. In Tamaulipas, nearly 800,000 acres in corn and sorghum were impacted, while crop losses in Chihuahua were estimated at $100 million.

Armed men reportedly robbed between 18 and 20 tons of corn seed from a truck in Sinaloa.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon said it was incumbent for government agencies to cut the red-tape and get insurance payments, credit, seeds and technical support rolling out the door and into the hands of farmers. The federal Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries will release $100 million in emergency aid, while about 150,000 farmworkers will be paid $11 per day for clearing and replanting fields.

Prices for tortillas continued rising, now more than 50% higher than the 8 peso ceiling the Calderon administration pledged in 2007.

The agricultural crisis could have important political ramifications for the 2012 presidential election.

No mention was made in the latest round of news reports on any possible links between human-caused climate change and the present disaster.

Amazon Drought Caused Huge Carbon Emissions

The 2010 1.16 million square-mile drought in the Amazon rain forest was worse than a "100-year" dry spell in 2005, according to a study conducted by a collaboration between scientists at the University of Leeds and the University of Sheffield in Britain and Brazil's Amazon Environmental Research Institute

More frequent severe droughts like those in 2005 and 2010 risk turning the world's largest rain forest from a sponge that absorbs carbon emissions into a source of the gases, accelerating global warming. Trees and other vegetation in the world's forests soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow, helping cool the planet, but release it when they die and rot. The 2010 drought was a tree killer and dried up major rivers in the Amazon and isolated thousands of people who depend on boat transportation, shocking climate scientists who had billed the 2005 drought as a once-in-a-century event.

The study predicted the Amazon forest would not absorb its usual 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in both 2010 and 2011. In addition, the dead and dying trees would release 5 billion metric tons of the gas in the coming years, making a total impact of about 8 billion metric tons, according to the study.

In comparison, the United States emitted 5.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use in 2009.

If the droughts are driven by global warming, a vicious cycle of warmer temperatures and droughts could conceivably lead to a large-scale transformation of the forest over a period of decades and large parts of the forest could turn into a savannah-like ecosystem by the middle of the century with much lower levels of animal and plant biodiversity.

Mexico's Population Tops 112 Million, Ranking 11th in World

As of June 2101, Mexico has more than 112 million people, ranking it 11th most populous country in the world, according to census results. Previous census showed 97.4 million people in 2000.

While Mexico's recent population growth is partially explained by a reluctance on the part of migrant workers to leave the country in search of work, the latest figures show an increase that is 3.6 million greater than the numbers projected by experts.

Populations worldwide are becoming too large - and humanity is running out of vital resources to sustain the daily demand. Human population globally increases by 72 people every 30 seconds, 200,000 people per day, and 78 million people every year, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

Population Media Center has been working with CORA (Centro de Orientacion para Adolescentes) to target adolescents aged 11 to 16 on issues of sexual health and education. The organization also works in many hot-spot countries, such as Nigeria, Brazil, Rwanda, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The overpopulation issue is complex and spans social, political, religious, ethnic, and cultural divides. In the Philippines, for example, there exists a resistance to the idea that overpopulation is a national challenge. "This growth rate is not high, but the real numbers continue to grow because people finally 'stopped dying like flies'.

A recent column in The Philippine Star claimed that the average worker in the Philippines is much younger than his counterpart in most of the world, giving them a long term edge that has been lost forever in so many countries. Population controllers talk about 'exploding' numbers, without looking at the age structure, when the world's most serious problem is irreversible ageing, 'de-fertilization', 'depopulation' and 'dechristianization' now changing the face of Europe".

The UN predicts that African cities will triple by 2050 - a cataclysmic prediction for a continent that is unable to provide for such growth.

While family planning, the rights of women, and the implementation of condoms are the most common solutions put forward to tackle the problem, the options may become more grim if growth figures continue unabated.

South American Transition to Low Fertility Spreads to Paraguay

Paraguay does not seem a likely candidate for rapid fertility decline: The population is poorer, more rural, and has lower educational levels than its neighboring countries. A large percentage of the population speaks Guarani, an indigenous language, rather than Spanish, the official language. Yet Paraguay recorded a remarkable increase in contraceptive use and a sharp decline in fertility over the past decade.

Paraguay's fertility transition through 2004 documented a fall in the total fertility rate (TFR), from 4.3 in 1998 to 2.9 in the 2001-2004 period, and suggested continued decline because younger women said they wanted fewer children. A new survey shows the TFR down to 2.5 children per woman by 2008, a faster decline than projected. The percentage of married women ages 15 to 44 using contraception increased from 57% to 79% between 1998 and 2008.

There is a wide gap in TFRs between the more modern and educated populations and the more traditional population groups. The TFR was down to 2.2 children per woman among urban residents, while it was still 3.0 among rural residents in 2002. Similarly, Spanish- speaking women averaged just 2.2 children, compared with 3.3 among Guarani- speaking Paraguayans. The most dramatic differences were by education: Women with less than five years of education averaged 3.6 children, while those with at least 12 years of education averaged just 2.0 children.

Paraguay has seen improvements in the education of girls in recent decades. Enrollment in elementary school is nearly universal, and data from UNESCO show the percentage enrolled in secondary school rising from 59% to 68% between 1999 and 2002, the most recent year statistics are available. This is well below the regional average of 92%, but a marked improvement in just a few years.

Recent increases in the education of women have been tied to greater contraceptive use up through 2004. The 2008 survey shows that acceptance of contraceptive use has spread among all education levels. Even among women with less than three years of formal education, 72% used a contraceptive in 2008, compared with just 36% in 1998. The gap in contraceptive use between urban and rural women disappeared by 2008. While there are still clear rural and education differences in actual childbearing, it seems likely that those differences will abate further in coming years. rw

Abortion Politics Hit Brazil Elections

The issue of abortion has turned into a weapon that threatens to take away votes in Brazil, with conservative religious groups using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for their support.

The majority of voters, who are in favour of the decriminalisation of abortion, say analysts and representatives of the women's movement, criticise the use of women's bodies as a means of electoral pressure.

The question of whether abortion, which is currently punishable by up to 10 years in prison in Brazil, should be legalised has become a flashpoint issue in the campaign between Dilma Rousseff of the governing Workers Party (PT) and her rival José Serra of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB).

Earlier indications that Rousseff favoured the legalisation of abortion were seen as the main reason she failed to win outright in the first round of voting, on October 3.

As in most of Latin America, abortion is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger.

A decisive number of voters defected from the Rousseff camp to Green Party candidate Marina Silva, an evangelical Christian.

Silva, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (no relation) former environment minister, is opposed to abortion and proposed holding a referendum on whether or not it should be legalised.

The Green candidate's strong performance was the big surprise on October 3, when she took nearly 20% of the vote, behind Rousseff, who won 47%, and Serra, who garnered close to 33%. According to a poll, Rousseff now has 48% support, compared to Serra's 40%.

In this month's campaign, Rousseff and Serra are presenting themselves as champions of the moral crusade against the decriminalisation of abortion, even though in the past both of them have expressed openness to women's right to choose.

Beatriz Galli with Ipas Brazil -- the national branch of IPAS, an international network that works for the sexual and reproductive rights of women worldwide -- told IPS she regrets that the debate has been reduced "to being against or in favour of abortion or in favour of life"...

A study by University of Brasilia professor Débora Diniz, an anthropologist and a researcher at the Institute of Bioethics, Human Rights and Gender, found that one out of five women interviewed had had an abortion before the age of 40.

And of the respondents who had undergone an abortion, 88% said they were religious -- a revealing figure in the country with the largest number of Catholics in the world, and where evangelical churches are growing at breakneck speed...

The "demonisation" of abortion in the campaign did not reflect the opinion of the majority of voters. Women resort to unsafe abortion "in order to be able to determine how many children they want and are able to have.

Oliveira and Silva both stressed that abortion has crowded out other women's issues, such as political participation, assistance for victims of violence, and equal employment opportunities. rw

The Fake Environmentalists and Their Pretend-Game

Regional planners, under the direction of their political overlords---the proxies of developers - are trying to shove tens of thousands more people into the North Vancouver Island region. And they don't want people to grasp the full implications of their devious plans. What is transpiring here is transpiring across Canada and the continent of North America--and elsewhere. New subdivisions are sprouting up all over the map in place of greenbelts, woodlands and marshes and the people have little say in the matter.

The most frustrating thing is that fake environmentalists are able to pose as resisting this imposition. But their issue is not with population growth, but with "sprawl"---even though at least half of sprawl is driven by population growth and not by poor land-use planning. They want to 'manage' growth and steer it away from farmland, while packing the unending stream of newcomers into tighter and denser lots alongside existing residents, who are encouraged to surrender their living space in the interests of food security and the environment.

Thus people are presented with a false antithesis. Either accept growth with sprawl or so-called 'smart' growth without it. The local NDP (New Democratic Party), Greens and environmentalists tell people that population growth is something not in their jurisdiction, that immigration (or child benefits) policy is a federal matter and that nothing can prevent inter-provincial migration as guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In other words, growth out of their hands.

Yet which political parties receive top marks from the Sierra Club? The federal Greens and the federal NDP. And what is their immigration policy? To increase the absurdly high immigration intake quota of the Harper Government by 25%, while matching or besting its pro-natalist programs.

This is the pretend-game that environmental NGOs play. Either population growth is not controllable, or even if it is, they have nothing to do with it--- and in any case, it has little bearing on environmental degradation, whether farmland or species loss, or GHG emissions. "It's not whether we grow", they argue, "but how we grow". Just squeeze tighter in the sardine can so that incoming migrants can snuggle up to you. And above all, feel guilty about having extra space in the backyard for your son to play in or a nature trail at the end of your block to take your dog. If it is nature that you want, well, you can get that on the Outdoor Living Channel, can't you?

Let me confess that, whether it is the white-flight "Freedom 55s" from Alberta or California, or people from across the world, I've never felt lonely enough to want them living under my nose, and neither do most of us who chose our 'low-density" lifestyle. Some may call that selfish, I call it a human right. Is it my demand for space that is unreasonable, or the demand that I accept as reasonable a human population level that is 250% higher now than when I was born? Why are we being forced to accept population growth? Because population growth is thought to be a necessary agent of economic growth, our Great God.

The myth that continued economic growth is necessary, desirable, inevitable or even possible remains our major stumbling block, the first domino of misconceptions that must fall before we can reclaim any semblance of the quality of life that we once enjoyed. We are in a foot race with Mother Nature. If we don't stop growth, she will stop us. Time is almost up. Don't let the Pied Pipers of Fake Environmentalism lead you down a futile path. Fight growth, not the symptoms of growth. rw

Preventing Teenage Pregnancy in Ecuador

Teens in Ecuador are often raped or abused, frequently resulting in pregnancy. Unfortunately there is terrible under reporting of sexual abuse.

An Ecuadorean programme for teenagers, sponsored by the Ministry of Health, explained that the high-risk groups for teenage pregnancy are often rural and poor, but that young people in large cities like Quito and Guyaquil are at equally high risk. Lack of access to condoms and other family planning methods are a serious obstacle to preventing teen pregnancies.

The UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is supporting the Ministry in establishing a nationwide network of reproductive health and information services designated especially for adolescents and young people.

Teenagers often do not seek family planning services at regular hospitals and clinics because they are afraid of gossip. "In some cases girls as young as 15 are forced to get married if they become pregnant."

The health service also provides information about reproductive health to teenagers through schools in the community.

18% of children born in Latin America and the Caribbean have teenage mothers. Having children at a young age exposes girls to greater health risks and often keeps them from continuing their education. Girls under 15 who become pregnant are five times more likely to die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth than those at 20. rw

Slavery in Haiti

As an example, a former child slave sent four of her five children into slavery because she feared they would die of hunger in her home.

There are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, according to Free the Slaves. This is more than at any time in history, even including during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In Haiti, the only nation ever to host a successful slave revolution, 225,000 to 300,000 children live in servitude in a system known as restavèk. The numbers may rise dramatically due to the hundreds of thousands of children who lost their parents or were abandoned after the earthquake. In addition to likely trauma, hunger and health problems, these children usually do unpaid labor. Unprotected girls are also at risk of what amounts to sex slavery. Parents, usually from the countryside, where poverty is unrelenting, give up their child to a better-off relative, neighbor or stranger who promises to provide care and schooling. The children are as young as three, with girls between six and 14 years old comprising 65%.

Restavèk children toil long hours and rarely go to school. They are regularly abused. They usually eat table scraps or have to scavenge in the streets for their own food, sleep on the floor and wear cast-off rags.

The children usually stay because of the threat of severe punishment if they are caught trying to escape. Another reason is that they have no other source of food and shelter. Survival and safety options for street children in Haiti are not good.

The system has long been widely socially accepted, but efforts are underway to change this.

Growing Demand for Soybeans Threatens Amazon Rainforest

In 1765, the first soybeans were planted in North America. Today the soybean occupies more U.S. cropland than wheat. And in Brazil, the soybean is invading the Amazon rainforest.

For close to two centuries the soybean languished as a curiosity crop. Then during the 1950s, the demand for meat, milk, and eggs climbed. But with little new grassland farmers turned to grain to produce not only more beef and milk but also more pork, poultry, and eggs. World consumption of meat at 44 million tons in 1950 had already started the climb that would take it to 280 million tons in 2009, a sixfold rise.

In addition, animal nutritionists found that combining one part soybean meal with four parts grain would dramatically boost the efficiency with which livestock and poultry converted grain into animal protein.

In 1970 the U.S. was producing three fourths of the world's soybeans, and by 1995 the U.S. land area planted to soybeans had eclipsed that in wheat.

When world grain and soybean prices climbed in the mid- 1970s, the United States embargoed soybean exports, and Japan discovered that Brazil was looking for new crops to export. In 2009, the area in Brazil planted to soybeans exceeded that in all grains combined.

Today the U.S., Brazil, and Argentina produce four fifths of the world's soybean crop and account for 90% of the exports.

Rising incomes enabled many of China's 1.3 billion people to move up the food chain, consuming more meat, milk, eggs, and farmed fish. By 2009 China was consuming 55 million tons of soybeans, of which 41 million tons were imported, accounting for 75% of its soaring consumption.

Today half of all soybean exports go to China. Soybean meal mixed with grain for animal feed made it possible for Chinese meat consumption to grow to double that in the United States.

One tenth the 250-million-ton world soybean crop is consumed directly as food - tofu, meat substitutes, soy sauce, and other products. Nearly one fifth is extracted as oil, making it a leading table oil. The remainder, roughly 70% of the harvest, ends up as soybean meal to be consumed by livestock and poultry.

Satisfying the global demand for soybeans, growing at nearly 6 million tons per year, poses a challenge. The soybean is a legume, fixing atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, which means it is not as fertilizer-responsive as, say, corn, which has a ravenous appetite for nitrogen. But because the soy plant uses a substantial fraction of its metabolic energy to fix nitrogen, it has less energy to devote to producing seed. This makes raising yields more difficult.

Since 1950, U.S. corn yields have quadrupled while those of soybeans have barely doubled. Although the U.S. area in corn has remained essentially unchanged since 1950, the area in soybeans has expanded fivefold. Farmers get more soybeans largely by planting more soybeans. How do we satisfy the continually expanding demand for soybeans without clearing so much of the Amazon rainforest that it dries out and becomes vulnerable to fire.

The Amazon is being cleared both by soybean growers and by ranchers, who are expanding Brazil's national herd of beef cattle. Oftentimes, soybean growers buy land from cattlemen, who have cleared the land and grazed it for a few years, pushing them ever deeper into the Amazon rainforest.

The Amazon rainforest sustains one of the richest concentrations of plant and animal biological diversity in the world. It also recycles rainfall from the coastal regions to the continental interior, ensuring an adequate water supply for Brazil's inland agriculture. And it is an enormous storehouse of carbon. Each of these three contributions is obviously of great importance. But it is the release of carbon, as deforestation progresses, that most directly affects the entire world. Continuing destruction of the Brazilian rainforest will release massive quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, helping to drive climate change.

Brazil has discussed reducing deforestation 80% by 2020 as part of its contribution to lowering global carbon emissions. Unfortunately, if soybean consumption continues to climb, the economic pressures to clear more land could make this difficult.

Although the deforestation is occurring within Brazil, it is the worldwide growth in demand for meat, milk, and eggs that is driving it. Saving the Amazon rainforest depends on curbing the growth in demand for soybeans by stabilizing population worldwide as soon as possible. And for the world's affluent population, it means moving down the food chain, eating less meat and thus lessening the growth in demand for soybeans. With food, as with energy, achieving an acceptable balance between supply and demand now means curbing growth in demand rather than just expanding supply. rw

To Protect Galápagos, Ecuador Limits a Two-legged Species

The human population of the Galápagos doubled to about 30,000 in the last decade. Environmentalists see evidence that the growth is already harming the ecosystem that allowed the islands' more famous inhabitants - among them giant tortoises and boobies with brightly colored webbed feet - to evolve in isolation before mainlanders started colonizing the islands more than a century ago.

The government, which still welcomes growth in the tourism industry, has expelled more than 1,000 poor Ecuadoreans in the past year from the area.

Unskilled migrants say they are being punished while the country continues to enjoy the many millions of dollars tourists bring to Ecuador, one of South America's poorest nations. It seems that a tortoise is worth more than an Ecuadorean citizen.

97% of the archipelago has been put aside as a park and the United Nations put the Galápagos on its list of endangered heritage sites in 2007.

Fuel spills, the poaching of giant tortoises and sharks and the introduction of invasive species - including rats, cats, cattle and fire ants are threats to the island's native flora and fauna.

Technically, residency is granted to a limited number of people, including those born here and their spouses, people who arrived before 1998 and those with temporary work permits. But the same government that oversees the expulsions also offers subsidies to people living on the islands.

Puerto Villamil, on Isabela, the largest of the islands has one of the Galápagos's highest rates of population growth, about 9% a year.

"I earn $1,200 a month here, while I could only earn $500 a month on the continent," said one resident, a construction worker. Most migrants are lured by relatively high wages they can earn as taxi drivers and hotel maids or workers in the bureaucracy.

Mexico Hit by Lowest Rainfall in 68 Years

More than 1,000 cattle have been lost due to lack of rainfall, and up to 20 million tons of crops managed by 3.5 million small farmers are at risk of being lost, and the government has been forced to slow the flow of water to the crowded capital, due to a lowest in 68 years rainfall. 80 of Mexico's 175 largest reservoirs are less than half full.

The arid northwest region of Mexico has been hardest hit, along with the central part of the country surrounding Mexico City where 20 million people live.

Trucks are delivering water to some parts of the capital where cuts have made the flow of water intermittent.

In neighboring Guatemala, the government is distributing emergency food to 56,000 families whose crops have been damaged.

"How much of this phenomenon is from El Nino? How much is from climate change? The best thing is to hope for the best but prepare for the worst," a water official said.

Birth Control Matters! Petition - One Million Voices for No-Cost Birth Control

The time has come to provide birth control at no cost to every woman who wants it.

Birth control matters. It matters to the young woman finishing college or starting a career. It matters to the family struggling to make ends meet. It matters to the woman suffering from endometriosis. It matters to mothers and fathers who treasure the children they have.

When it comes to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country, birth control really matters.

Help us raise one million voices that can say that affordable, accessible birth control matters, and must be part of health care reform.

Click on the link in the headline — then spread the word to your friends, family, co-workers, everyone you know who cares about women's health.

Amazon Deforestation Brings Economy Boom,then Bust

Chopping down forests in the Brazilian Amazon produces a boom-and-bust economy that draws poor people to newly-cleared land but ultimately leaves them no better off, according to a study published in the journal Science. The study followed 286 municipalities at varying stages along the timeline of deforestation, development and decline.

The development that occured following the deforestation was found to be transitory, not a sustained improvement in peoples' well-being.

Human prosperity, in terms of income, education and health, were measured among settlers along the Amazon's deforested areas.

Poor, often landless people from around Brazil flock to places where initial logging occurs, and soon experience an improvement in quality of life - in income and health and education. When the timber trade gives way to farming and raising livestock, the land is fertile and productive, but it soon declines. Settlers then either stay on whatever land they have managed to possess or head for the next deforestation frontier.

"What happens afterwards is a combination of population increase ... and the over-exploitation of natural resources," said lead author Ana Rodrigues.

The Amazon and other large old-growth forests are valuable as repositories of climate-warming carbon dioxide; vegetation on farm fields and pastures does not store nearly as much.

Center for Biological Diversity Overpopulation Public Service Ad in Times Square on a 520-square-foot Screen for One Month

The Center for Biological Diversity launched a new national campaign, 7 Billion and Counting, to highlight the devastating effects of the world's exploding human population on wildlife around the globe. The PSA in Times Square will reach a million people every day over the next month. Check out the powerful ad by clicking on the headline link above -- now running hourly in one of the most crowded places on the planet.

The 7 Billion and Counting campaign is timed to raise public awareness of the world hitting its 7 billionth human being at the end of October and the impacts of that benchmark on global biodiversity and endangered plant and animal species.

The money for the ad was raised from individual contributions.

Dry Taps in Mexico City: a Water Crisis Gets Worse

In one of the most serious water shortages in sprawling Mexico City in recent memory, toilets remained unflushed for the quarter of Mexico City's 20 million urban residents who are without water. Officials have had to ration water of the main reservoir system due to depleting supplies.

The Mexican capital needs to seriously overhaul its water system. The biggest metropolis in the Western hemisphere is becoming an alarming cautionary tale for other megacities. Scientists have warned us about our pumping up too much water while destroying too many forests, and inviting conflict over the precious commodity.

One housewife says "We have got no toilets, I can't wash my children, can't cook, I can't clean the mess off the floor, And the worst thing is, we have got almost nothing to drink."

The thirsty city sits on what was once a great lake, where the Aztecs founded their island citadel in 1325. As the growing population lowers the well water, Mexico City is sinking about three inches a year, putting extra pressure on water distribution pipes, which are now so leaky they lose about 40% of liquid before delivering to homes.

Mexico City relies on a network of reservoirs and treatment plants that pump in water from hundreds of miles around. But rainfall is low, so the system is low. Its main basin is only 47% full, compared 70% average for early April. "This could be caused by climate change and deforestation," says the under director of the National Water Commission. In the April action, the entire system will be shut down for 36 hours.

Poor neighborhoods seem to be affected more than rich. Fleets of water trucks have been sent out. Ramon Aguirre, director of Mexico City's water department, says says the long-term solution involves teaching people to ration their water much better. "We need to educate people from when they are children that water is valuable and needs to be used wisely," he says.

The average Mexico City resident uses 300 liters of waters per day compared to 180 per day in some European cities, "Cheap subsidized water is not helping people. It is giving them a bad service."

Peruvian Amazon Conservation

We can all agree about the importance of providing voluntary family planning to women. Please take a moment to learn about an amazing organization, Peruvian Amazon Conservation, which supplies women who live along a section of the Amazon with an exceptional contraceptive service.

PAC (www.peruvianamazon.org) is based in a small village where there are no roads'all travel is along the waterways. It was a real eye-opener for me when I visited there a few years ago. The people are universally poor - too poor to afford any medical care in most cases. Although Peru has a family planning program, people would have to go to Iquitos (the nearest city) to participate; this is a journey that few of the people in this area can afford. Although population density seems low, all people live along rivers, and they are making significant changes to the rain forest by cutting down trees and "development". PAC provides basic medical care, health and environmental education as well as family planning.

The PAC family planning program is based on depo-medroxyprogesterone (Depo Provera, or DMPA). Women come to the clinic for their shots every three months. All women receive their shots during the same week so they can "carpool". (Actually, people arrive at the clinic by dugout canoe.) If a woman wants to start contraception at a time different from the shot week, she is given enough birth control pills to last until the next time shots are given.

It has been difficult and expensive to get a reliable supply of DMPA. People from my hometown, Durango, Colorado, gave over a thousand dollars last year to help pay for the medication and to support PAC. (Please note that PAC is not a slick organization with paid staff. You need to mail them a check rather than making a donation by internet). PAC is a nonprofit 501c3 tax-exempt organization, so all donations are tax deductible. The contact information is:

Peruvian Amazon Conservation 1759 Dyson Drive NE Atlanta, GA 30307 Phone: 404-378-9800 www.peruvianamazon.org

The organization is run out of the home of Eleanor Smithwick, the founder and executive director. She is often in Peru, so her husband, Ron, will answer the phone if she is not at home. Note that none of the contributions go to support Eleanor or the other USA staff.

Activist Yellowpages

White House: 202-456-1111, http://www.whitehouse.gov

Congress: 202-224-3121

Senators: http://www.senate.gov

Representatives: http://www.house.gov

The Future of the International Family Planning Movement

The availability, use, and funding of family planning worldwide has seen a revolution in the last 50 years, dramatically reducing fertility levels and slowing population growth in developing countries. But contraceptive use is still low and need for it high in some of the world's poorest and most populous places.

In the 1970s and 1980s family planning was in the spotlight, but recently not so much recently as as issues such as HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation. Perhaps its success has led to its recent loss of visibility.

Recently key informants - developing-country program managers, senior staff members of nongovernmental and donor organizations, and prominent researchers - were surveyed in a study supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute of Population and Reproductive Health at Johns Hopkins University. One key informant in the study said: "When you hesitate to say the words 'family planning,' something is happening. When you say 'reproductive health' and have to be careful, something is happening."

There is a declining sense of urgency about population growth and its consequences; competing health and development priorities; rising political conservatism (especially in the United States); and a lack of international and local leadership. Poverty reduction was cited as the primary focus of current development efforts.

The agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) meeting in Cairo in 1994 emphasized the welfare of individual women, the achievement of their sexual and reproductive health and rights, and gender equity. This redefinition of the social problem of population growth in terms of reproductive health, particularly for women, has caused popular consciousness about the problem to ebb, since reproductive health does not carry the same political vitality as a developmental disaster or disease epidemic.

"When reproductive health becomes too big, family planning gets lost. The trouble is that it's no longer a focused program. It's difficult for donors to see, to manage and implement." In 1995, family planning received 55% of total worldwide population-assistance expenditures, while basic research and reproductive health received 18% each and HIV/STIs received 9%. In 2003, HIV/STIs received 47% of total worldwide population-assistance expenditures, while reproductive health received 25%, basic research 15%, and family planning 13%. Compared to the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, preventing unintended pregnancies is now perceived internationally as much less compelling and less urgent.

While there was general agreement that collaboration between family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs was appropriate, there seemed to be distinct lack of collaboration between the fields. Young people who used to be attracted to the family planning field when it was seen as a critical social need are reportedly going into fields that are perceived to be more urgent today, such as HIV/AIDS, safe motherhood, and poverty alleviation, while some older, experienced leaders who formerly worked in family planning have moved on. That and lack of funding for advanced training means that leadership in family planning is aging or lacking.

Strong opposition from abortion opponents is also a disincentive to work in the family planning field. Some respondents felt that the international family planning movement was in it's demise, but others felt that the movement would continue with the locus of action shifiting to the developing world in those countries that have major contraceptive needs, a rapidly growing population, and a policy commitment to slowing growth. Others felt that women's motivation to control fertility is so strong (and the social norm of family planning so well established) that contraceptive use will continue to rise no matter what happens to family planning programs.

Some felt the message of family planning could be recast (1) addressing an unfinished agenda of unmet contraceptive need, unwanted fertility, stalled fertility decline, and shortages of contraceptive supplies; (2) highlighting family planning's benefits for reducing abortion and improving women's status and health; and (3) demonstrating family planning's relevance in reducing social inequity. Many saw the risks of increased poverty, poor health, and higher mortality as a result of high fertility and population growth rates.

"The population theme is both a threat and an opportunity. It needs to be better utilized, not for Malthusian reasons, but in order to rise above poverty," said one respondent.

Amid Mass Migration to Cities, Bolivians Learn to Adapt to Urbanization

El Alto city is at 13,000 feet, and thousands land on its doorstep each year. Over 90% of its population comes from somewhere else. According to the UN, more than half the world's population is living in cities for the first time, as people move for jobs, education, and better services. By 2050, 70% of the world's population is expected to be urbanized.

This poses challenges: creating new slums, overwhelming governments, and placing new demands on land and water. But the migrants themselves are showing resilience in adapting.

There are innovative ways that people have learned how to deal with the problems.

On a recent day, a group of indigenous women participated in a workshop to develop leadership skills. All these women had moved to El Alto for a better life. Like most migrants here, their economic status is precarious. Latin America and the Caribbean is the world's most urbanized developing region, with 78% of residents living in cities. But this search for employment challenges cities. El Alto's government runs employment programs for youths - giving them internships to work in the factories that draw so many migrants. If some migrants end up in urban poverty, they tend to be better off than the countryside.

Governments tend to blame migration on growth of slums and violence, but it is misplaced. Providing services such as electricity and water is easier in urban areas than dispersed agricultural ones. And urban migrants tend to have networks of friends and family to help them. Census numbers in El Alto reveal an almost equal ratio of women to men, women tend to migrate more permanently, while men migrate seasonally.

Women migrants are vulnerable, but living in cities gives them access to civic roles they would not have in the countryside.

Women who benefit from Pro Mujer tick off the difficulties - infidelity, violence on television, alcohol. rw

A Green Tsunami in Brazil: the High Price of Clean, Cheap Ethanol

Sugar cane is grown in Brazil to satisfy a demand for ethanol. Brazil hopes to supply drivers worldwide with cheap ethanol, considered an antidote to climate change, but thousands of Brazilian plantation workers harvest the cane at slave wages.

The plantations around Brazil's ethanol zone look like a war zone during the harvest, as the burning fields light up the sky. In the morning, when only embers remain, tens of thousands of workers with machetes head into the fields and harvest the cane, which is used to distill ethanol.

Cane cutters last an average of 12 years on the job before they are so worn out that they have to be replaced. There is nothing else, those who do not cut sugarcane go hungry. a million people toil on the plantations and in Brazil's ethanol factories. The power lies in the hands of militias, working for the sugar barons, who intimidate workers and drive away small farmers in support of a global vision.

"By 2030 we will be the world's largest fuel supplier," says Brazilian President In 2008 Brazil produced just under 26 billion liters of ethanol, projected to rise to 53 billion by 2017. More than 30 countries use ethanol as an additive to gasoline. The US plans to satisfy about 15% of its requirements with biofuel by 2012. Experts estimate that if every car in the world ran on ethanol, Brazil could satisfy one-fourth of global demand. Ethanol would even be cheap, with Brazil's factories producing it at a cost of about 20 cents a liter. But the nightmare of trans-Atlantic slavery began with sugarcane and this is only the beginning, with plans in place to expand production to cover 10 million hectares. The region bordering the Atlantic Ocean is called the Forest Zone. But the rain forests were cut down long ago, and it has been turned into Brazil's ethanol zone. rw

Brazil Admits Amazon Deforestation on the Rise

Amazon deforestation jumped 69% in the past 12 months as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees. Some 3,088 square miles of forest were destroyed between August 2007 and August 2008. Brazil's government has increased cash payments to fight illegal Amazon logging, and eliminated government bank loans to farmers who illegally clear forest. The country lost 2.7% of its Amazon rain forest in 2007, or 4,250 square miles. Monthly deforestation rates have slowed since May, but environmental groups say seasonal shifts in tree cutting make the annual number a more accurate gauge.

Most deforestation is in March and April, and routinely tapers off in May, June and July.

Environmentalists argue that INPE's deforestation report was to alert the government to deforestation hot spots in time to save the land.

The Amazon region covers about 1.6 million square miles of Brazil, nearly 60% of the country. About 20% of that land has been deforested. rw

Abortion Move Divides Uruguay

The decision by the Uruguayan Congress to decriminalise abortion is being hailed as a milestone for a country where most forms of abortion have been illegal, and it's a rare step in Latin America where abortion in most countries is considered a criminal act.

Previously abortion was illegal but a woman would not face sanction in the case of rape or if her life were in danger.

The new legislation would allow a woman to terminate her pregnancy in the first 12 weeks if her health is at risk or under certain other circumstances, such as extreme poverty.

Supporters hailed this as a victory which would reduce the number of women who die or become seriously ill after an illegal abortion.

However, Uruguay's President has said he will veto the legislation. rw

Profligate Water Use in the U.S. Is Fueling the Flight of Mexicans Across the Border

On October 21, 2008, the Secretary of the Interior inaugurated the new Imperial Valley water reservoir near the U.S.-Mexico border. The 500-acre reservoir will store surplus Colorado River water for use by coastal Southern California, southern Nevada, and central Arizona; previously this water had been used by Mexican cities and farmers.

This reservoir and a project to line a 23-mile stretch of the All-American Canal with concrete to prevent water seepage to an underground aquifer, means dire consequences for Mexico.

An estimated 67,000 acre-feet of water seeps from the canal annually. This captured seepage water will be sent to San Diego for municipal use. The triumphant U.S. water and irrigation districts are gloating over their victory. The losers are Mexican peasants and subsistence farmers which will fuel illegal migration to the US.

US water negotiators see water as a commodity in this war over natural resources. There are other nails in the coffin of Mexico's water future: a mega-drought; lack of funding for water infrastructure throughout the country; rapid development and population growth; increasing pollution; water privatization and inequality in water allocation. Government corruption, incompetence, infighting, and mismanagement of water.

Mexico's government considers deforestation and the lack of clean water two national security issues. Vicente Fox repeatedly said that water is a national security issue. Mexico's poor have had to contend with skyrocketing food prices, general inflation which also raised the price of water, a calamitous drought, rising unemployment, and increasing hunger and malnourishment.

The poor have staged street protests to protest against a 50% price hike of corn tortillas. Now the subsistence farmers have even less water to irrigate their crops. But the livelihood of those living on subsistence farming will be affected as well by drought and water scarcity. Thus, water scarcity is triggering food insecurity in Mexico, which has implications for its national security.

Northern Mexico also has been afflicted by a drought since 1992. Climate scientists have predicted that the entire region from southwestern United States to north-central Mexico will be hit especially hard by global climate change and extreme droughts. Mexico's largest freshwater lake, has been steadily shrinking since the 1970s and lost approximately 80% of its water due to development in central Mexico.

Drought and water scarcity have exacerbated Mexico's food crisis for the urban poor and for medium-size and small subsistence farmers.

Many of our illegal aliens may be, water or environmental refugees. With intensifying global climate disruptions, there will be more of this category of people in Mexico. rw

Caribbean: Island Species Among Most Threatened by Population Growth

Seven Blue iguanas were killed on Grand Cayman Island, and the incident brought attention to the plight of the iguana. The real problem posed for the species' survival - human population growth - has gone largely unnoticed. Staff writer Ben Block reports on the growing pressures facing island species. A captured breeding program has revived the reptile's population, but human overpopulation remains a leading threat.

A team of volunteers were shocked that someone had attacked the program's endangered reptiles, killing seven. this was a major blow to the recovery of the rare blue iguana, found only on Grand Cayman. Only 10 existed in 2002, but the breeding program has increased the population to about 340.

An influx of immigrants to Grand Cayman has led population size to jump 32.% since 2000. In recent decades, the iguanas were nearly driven to extinction with the construction of highways and the expansion of residential areas. Other island nations are facing similar challenges. Human populations in the Caribbean and Pacific are averaging a 1% annual growth, due to high fertility rates and poor access to reproductive health services.

The rising human populations, coupled with the pressures of global climate change and the spread of invasive species, have made island species among the most threatened in the world. Conservation drives are beginning to preserve more island territory.

The government has been negotiating an agreement that may set aside shrubland for the blue iguana, large enough to accommodate an estimated 1,000 animals to have a self-sustaining wild population. rw

Ecuador's Yasuni Park: Oil Exploration Or Nature Protection?

The Yasuni National Park is a 2.5 million acre rainforest at the intersection of the Andes, the Amazon and the Equator. It is also the heart of a struggle between oil exploration and to permanently protect one of the most biologically diverse regions of the planet.

Only 2.5 acres of this forest contains as many tree species as in the US and and is home to jaguars, woolly and spider monkeys, and harpy eagles. Some of the species live on the brink of extinction. This was the home of 16,000 Waorani, but yoday, there are no more than about a thousand. One of the key reasons is the arrival of multinational oil companies in the latter part of the 20th century. A new plan could bring a halt to this exploration.

Tasuni falls between Ecuador and Peru. The Ecuadorian government granted an environmental license for Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned corporation, to drill for oil in Block 31 that is believed to hold up to a billion barrels of oil. The Peruvian government has approved environmental impact studies for two areas. Armed with new contracts, the companies have attempted to win over the people of the forest by offering the indigenous villagers clothes and candy in return for permission to drill.

With the tacit permission of the villagers, Petrobras started to set up the infrastructure for oil exploration on the outer edges of Yasuni. Local authorities soon started to complain about Skanska's work in the area, saying Skanska behaved in a suspicious manner. An official in the provincial environmental office in Coca says that the company refused to cooperate with them. Petrobras' permit was revoked and the company was asked to conduct an environmental feasibility study.

Villagers say that Skanska hired people from the local population to perform dangerous jobs. They are accused of having purchased food supplies in the villages, but failed to pay.

One of Skanska's regional managers, an Argentinian oil exploration veteran said that "People here are slightly backward. You never know when the barbarians are going to start shooting arrows from the bushes". Skanska engineeers pay for security guards, but the company also has an agreement with the military for support. The oil companies supply the military with infrastructure, food, fuel, living quarters and emergency medical care in exchange for protection.

Attorney Bolivar Beltran says that the contract violates Chapter V of Ecuador's constitution. The population is being exposed to health hazards related to oil spills and waste dumping while they live in fear of the companies.

Today the future of the ITT fields remain uncertain. The government would refrain from exploiting Yasuni in exchange for receiving at least $350 million annually from the international community. A number of groups have put their weight behind it, but the plan has yet to get commitments for the full sum of money. rw

Jamaica: No Condoms in School, Says Holness

The minister of education, says that no condoms will be distributed in Jamaican schools. He says the health and family life education programme in secondary schools is the means through which students will make healthy lifestyle decisions. There is a debate that condoms should be distributed to students in schools. The curriculum explores human sexuality and prevention of unplanned pregnancies, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

It is designed to help the students to make the best choices for themselves. Some 224 high schools have already implemented the programme. A partnership between the ministries of Health and Education was vital in the response to the HIV epidemic, particularly as it relates to Jamaican youth.

"Students 10-19 years old are at highest risk or are vulnerable to HIV infection. This is a result of socio-cultural factors, including the fact that, in Jamaica, young people start having sex early. rw

Chile's Policy of Free Emergency Contraception Under Threat

Conservative officials in Chile are threatening the emergency contraception (EC) policies with a lawsuit that would ban EC. Under the President Michelle Bachelet's administration, all forms of birth control have been free for women over 14 at public clinics since 2006.

Conservatives argue that the policy violates the Chilean ban on abortion based on the misconception that EC is a form of abortion. Despite the Catholic influence on Chile, 49% of Chileans believe that women should have the right to access EC.

President Bachelet's administration is battling pharmaceutical companies to force them to keep emergency contraception in stock. President Bachelet has enforced legislation to ensure birth control's availability. rw

Brazil to Increase Monitors in Rain Forest as Illegal Clearing Spreads

Brazil said it would send additional federal police to the Amazon following an announcement that illegal clearing of the rain forest had jumped last year.

Authorities will also monitor areas where the deforestation occurred in an attempt to prevent anyone from trying to plant crops or raise cattle there. The clearing of Brazil's Amazon rain forest jumped in 2007, spurred by high prices for corn, soy and cattle. Officials will try to fine people or businesses that buy anything produced on the deforested land. The plan means a 25% increase in the police force assigned to the region. If the plan doesn't work, Brazil will have an environmental and economic loss.

As many as 2,700 square miles of rain forest had been cleared from August through December, and Brazil could lose 5,791 square miles of jungle by this August. That would be a 34% increase from the 4,334 square miles of forest that was cut down and burned from August 2006 through July of last year.

Although preliminary calculations prove only that 1,287 square miles of rain forest were cleared from August through December, officials were still analyzing satellite imagery and working under the assumption that the higher amount of jungle had been cleared. rw

Brazil: Amazon Deforestation Seen Surging

Deforestation of the Amazon has surged in recent months. The rise raises questions over Brazil's assertion that its environmental policies are effectively protecting the world's biggest rain forest. Nobre, whose government agency monitors the Amazon, said that 2,300 square miles of forest had been lost in the past four months.

That compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July 31, which Brazil officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since the 1970s.

Policies such as more controls on illegal logging and better certification of land ownership were reducing the deforestation. But environmental groups warned that rising global commodity prices are likely to fuel more clearing of land for farms.

Nobre said the major drivers of deforestation were illegal logging and land clearing for cattle farming that remained intact, despite the recent annual declines in forest clearing.

The three years of reduced deforestation did not bring a cure for illegal deforestation.

Destruction of forests produces about 20% of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. But the government has struggled to stem deforestation, partly due to strong global demand that has made Brazil one of the world's biggest food suppliers. Infrastructure is associated with aggressive and progressive land use change. Continued high oil prices were likely to result in a surge in demand for Amazon land to produce ethanol. rw

Paraguay's Traffic Hub Imperils Female Teens

The central business district of this border city is lined with stalls selling counterfeit goods. Shopping centers offer seemingly everything and at the right price to a constant stream of shoppers from Brazil and Argentina and tourists on their way to the magnificent nearby Iguazu Falls.

A dollar buys a bus ticket from Puerto Iguazu in Argentina, through Foz da Iguazu in Brazil, and into Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. There is the Office of the Center for Awareness, Prevention and Companionship for Children and Adolescents in Situations of Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

Seventy percent of the cases are trafficking victims. Seventy percent of those have been trafficked internationally. All the children are female.

An important part of the charity's work is teaching skills to replace prostitution. The border area is a major hub in international people-trafficking.

Eighty-five percent is for sexual exploitation.

More than 90% of the victims are women. After women are sexually exploited, some are used to carry drugs.

The region attracts women from the countryside, mostly from Paraguay where almost a third of the population earns less than $1 a day each. Some of the young women have come following promises of work as domestic employees. Some are from local families desperate for any form of income.

In some cases, the girls and young women choose to stay so they can earn small amounts of money and send it back to their families. But many are subject to isolation, starvation and violence. With birth control proscribed by the Catholic Church, it is common to find families of eight children, all under 18, exacerbated by teenage pregnancies at the age of 13 or 14. Many of the families make the problem worse by making the children responsible for providing for the family. Another growth factor in prostitution is the influx of sex tourists drawn to the districts around the monumental Iguazu.

While the border is porous for traffickers it's tough for anti-trafficking efforts because the area requires triple-nation cooperation.

There are signs of progress. The International Office of Migration, an intergovernmental agency of 122 countries, opened an office in Paraguay's capital, to focus, on the outflow of its citizenry.

There is also a publicity campaign about the dangers of trafficking.

The problem is that some of the people involved are very high up and untouchable. It's on a very big scale. rw

Bolivia's Bad Births Sit on Political Sidelines

Bolivia's Constituent Assembly last month narrowly avoided adding a ban on all abortion to its new constitution. In the past two years, Nicaragua's former revolutionary government banned all abortions. The president of Uruguay has vowed to veto legal abortion. Venezuelans' push to decriminalize the procedure has come to a halt under socialist Chavez.

In Bolivia the controversy revolved around five words--"from the moment of conception" which would have outlawed all abortion in Bolivia. Abortion here was legalized in 1973 for victims of sexual assault or to prevent a life-threatening pregnancy. In practice, abortions are often performed without any legal inspection and the country has never seen an abortion provider prosecuted.

Bolivia has up to 80,000 procedures annually in a country of only 9 million people. Many are performed in more than a dozen clinics. But the average $150 fee is prohibitive, so many look for alternative methods.

At least one woman a day ends up dead in this type of swallow-hard-and-take-the-risk medical care.

But talking about abortion remains taboo here in Bolivia.

In Catholic schools, children are required to watch a video of a womb undergoing an abortion. It was church authorities who brought the conception clause to Constituent Assembly delegates when the body first began its proceedings.

Anti-abortion sentiment is widespread. "Regardless of religion, we learn that conception isn't an option, it's our function," she says. "Women who abort live with a lifetime of guilt."

Staff in medical clinics try to dissuade their patients from having abortions, telling them it is better to choose life than murder. Leftist indigenous women have, for the most part, steered clear of the issue.

Paul Bustillos, political director for La Paz-based Catholics for the Right to Choose, says that's because pro-choice leaders have not engaged the country's indigenous majority.

Many abortions are performed in rural areas where indigenous people predominate, and are called "bad births" and are followed by cleansing rituals.

Morales' ruling Movement Towards Socialism party blocked the conception clause from the final text of the constitution. Catholics for the Right to Choose went into a "state of emergency" when the conception clause was introduced. rw

Costa Rica;: Fertility Rate at Record Low

The fertility rate reached 1.9 children per woman of reproductive age, reports Costa Rica, just below the two-child mark needed to sustain the population.

The average was 7.3 kids per household of 1960-1961. By 2003, the birth rate was 2.1 per women; in 2005 it fell to two.

The birth decline comes from a number of factors. Higher education among women and greater incorporation into the workforce, the high cost of raising children, more available contraception, changes in values.

Young people are placing less importance on maternity.

There is no difference between practicing Catholics and non- in terms of the birth rate.

Probably, the population will grow to 6 million until 2050, and will then stabilize, unless the birth rate continues to drop below 1.8, and immigration stops entirely. rw

U.S.;: Sex, Science and Savings

President Bush's veto of Congress's main social spending bill has Democratic leaders looking for places to make trims. A small, place to begin would be to eliminate the bill's $28 million increase for abstinence-only sex education.

Spending on abstinence-only sex education has ballooned under President Bush, while evidence of the program's danger as a public health strategy has continued to mount.

A Congressionally evaluation found that students who received abstinence instruction were just as likely to have sex as students who did not get such instruction.

Last month, Virginia became the 14th state to reject federal grant money to, instead, pursue the approach supported by science and most Americans. That encourages abstinence but also arms young people with information about sexually transmitted diseases, contraceptives and pregnancy.

Expectations that the new Democratic Congress would confront the abstinence-only hoax have proved unfounded. Instead of cutting support, the vetoed spending plan increased money for faith-based and other groups offering abstinence education programs above the $113 million allotted for the current fiscal year.

The weak link is Nancy Pelosi who opposes the abstinence-only approach, but she ceded the issue to Representative David Obey, who continues to insist on using it as bait for Republican votes on a budget compromise. Forgoing principle failed to produce a veto-proof majority for the spending bill the first time. Ms. Pelosi needs to reconsider whether expanding a discredited sex education program should be on the meager list of achievements of the first Democratic Congress in a decade. rw

Jamaica;: Condom Controversy- Statistics Say Condom Distribution Necessary in Schools, Government Says No

Officials at the St James Health department, Jamaica, Monday pointed to a dilemma involving the government's refusal to sanction the distribution of condoms in the island's high schools, despite statistics indicating the need to include this measure as part of a multi-pronged approach to curbing the spread of the deadly HIV virus.

The government's stance, According to Melanie Walcott, could place Jamaica in the same position as Sub-Saharan Africa which has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world followed by the Caribbean region.

The ever-controversial issue came up during a workshop for close to a hundred students from the island's western high schools at the Holiday Inn Sunspree resort.

The workshop hopes the participating students who were selected on the basis of their perceived leadership qualities will come up with action plans to raise awareness among their peers concerning the best way to go about curbing the spread of HIV.

Pointing out the need for condom vending machines to be placed in schools, Walcott invited the students to get proactive on the issue with an aim to engaging further public debate. Ask for condoms to be distributed in schools and then you will push the hands of the powers that be.

St James has distinguished itself as having the highest incidence of HIV cases.

When a student pointed to the need for condom distribution the response was mixed. Some participants called for the abstinence campaign to be raised instead while others pointed out that it was already deafening.

Persons who are in their teen years in school have HIV, and high rates of teenage pregnancy, herpes, gonnorrohea and syphilis that means teens are having unprotected sex. We have spent millions of dollars on abstinence campaigns in schools. Empower these persons that if you need to have sex you need to have sex but you need to at least do it safely. So we are advocating for the use of condoms in schools. rw

Brazil Doles Out Morning After Pills

As part of a new fight against Brazil's unwanted pregnancies and illegal abortions, the country's most populous state is offering "morning after" contraceptive pills and 90% off contraceptive pills at pharmacies.

Federal Health officials are offering to train teachers to give sex education and offering condoms to pupils. The Health Ministry wants men to take more responsibility and is offering free vasectomies.

These are part of a wide-ranging and controversial new initiative to address women's health issues and reduce the number of illegal abortions and complications.

We want to give access to the poorest citizens and let them choose what course of action to take. One of the main goals is to slash the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies. In 2004, the last year for which figures are available, 7 in every 100 Brazilian women between the ages of 15 and 19 gave birth. Accurate figures are impossible to determine because abortions are illegal in this Roman Catholic country, but the Health Ministry estimates 1 million abortions are performed each year.

Many unplanned pregnancies go to term with around 1 in 3 pregnancies unwanted.

The medical costs of back-street abortions are enormous, with 240,000 women hospitalized each year suffering from complications caused by illegal procedures. The government slashed 90% off the price of contraceptive pills in government-run pharmacies and it will spend more than $50 million in doubling the number of free contraceptive pills it gives to state clinics from 20 million to 50 million.

Sao Paulo State has made the morning after pill available at pharmacies in metro stations. One city council tried to ban the pill but was denied by a judge who ruled the ban unconstitutional.

The Catholic church has protested. Bishop Orlando Brandes, underlined that the church is "radically against" any attempts to make contraceptives easier to get. Proponents stress that they see the pill as a last recourse to avoid pregnancy. rw

Doctors Fight No-Abortion Policy

Two weeks after Olga Reyes danced at her wedding, her bloated and disfigured body was laid to rest in an open coffin, the victim of Nicaragua's new no-exceptions ban on abortion. Reyes, a 22-year-old law student, suffered an ectopic pregnancy. The fetus develops outside the uterus, cannot survive and causes bleeding that endangers the mother. But doctors seemed afraid to treat her because of the anti-abortion law, said husband Agustin Perez.

Nicaragua last year became one of 35 countries that ban all abortions, even to save the life of the mother. The ban has been followed, leaving the country torn between a strong tradition of women's rights and a growing religious conservatism. President Ortega, a former leftist and a Roman Catholic, has refused to oppose the church-supported ban.

But at least three women have died because of the ban, and another 12 reported cases will be examined.

Before the ban took effect on Nov. 18, 2006, fewer than a dozen legal abortions were recorded per year in Nicaragua. They were performed only when three doctors agreed a woman's life was in danger. However, the Roman Catholic Church estimates that doctors and other medical staff carried out about 36,000 "secret" abortions a year, because under the old law they had little fear of government reprisals.

This year the Health Ministry recorded 84 deaths of pregnant women between January and October, compared with 89 for all of last year and 88 the year before.

Abortion rights groups have disrupted Congress several times, demanding that lawmakers lift the ban. The Roman Catholic Church mobilized nearly 300,000 people to march and sign petitions in support of the ban.

Law student Reyes was one of three confirmed fatalities. She knew something was horribly wrong, They were sent to Bertha Calderon maternity hospital. There, Reyes was given a cursory exam, and told to return the next day.

By that time, the bleeding and cramping were worse. Perez said he rushed her to a hospital but after she had an ultrasound that confirmed her condition, they left her in agony for hours. When a doctor at a shift change saw her condition, she was rushed into surgery. She suffered three heart attacks and an exploratory surgery.

President of Nicaragua's Association of Gynecologists and a supporter of the abortion ban, said doctors are taking the new law too far. Surgery for an ectopic pregnancy isn't the same as carrying out an abortion.

But he acknowledged that many doctors fear they will be accused of performing an abortion. Some doctors admit to carrying out what they believe are illegal procedures, while others say they won't jeopardize their careers.

Many are thinking that instead of taking the risk, it is better to let a woman die. Because the people with some medical training who used to do illegal abortions have disappeared, women more frequently take drugs or pull the fetus out on their own using wires or other crude objects.

She sees hysterectomies and severe infections that leave women sterile or dead because obstetricians can't take any action that might harm a living fetus. rw

Chile Pharmacies Warned Over Pill

The Chilean government has warned pharmacies refusing to sell the morning-after pill that they could face fines or closure.

Major pharmacy chains have argued they could not buy stocks locally.

The government has imported supplies and said the stores now had no excuse for not selling the pill.

Pope Benedict said Catholic pharmacists had the right to object to dispensing emergency contraception.

The sale of the morning-after pill is controversial in Chile and has been challenged in the courts by religious groups.

The row has been building for several weeks, with the three major chains saying they were not selling it because it was not available locally.

The government's initial response was to fine the stores and import stocks.

Deputy Health Minister warned that the government would close a pharmacy that refused to sell the morning-after pill.

One of the chains said the government's actions were a violation of its freedom of opinion about the pill which it said was abortive.

Pope Benedict XVI said that pharmacists had the right to conscientiously object to dispensing emergency contraception or euthanasia drugs.

Pharmacists must raise people's awareness so that all human beings are protected from conception to natural death, the Pope said. rw

The Chilean Infant Mortality Decline: Improvement for Whom? Socioeconomic and Geographic Inequalities in Infant Mortality

A study analysed Chilean registries from 1990 to 2005 for infant mortality by maternal education, head of household occupation, status, cause, age and location of death. Annual infant mortality rates and relative risk were calculated by maternal education and head of household occupational status for each cause and age of death. Socioeconomic inequalities were then mapped to 29 regional health services. Reductions in the national infant mortality rate were among educated mothers, while stagnation in the national rate is caused by high levels of infant mortality among uneducated mothers. These households are particularly prone to infant mortality due to infectious disease and trauma. Clustering of socioeconomic inequalities in infant mortality were identified throughout the poorer north, indigenous south and densely populated centre of Santiago. Finally, we report inequities in vital statistics coverage, with infant deaths among vulnerable households much more likely to be inadequately defined. The socioeconomically disadvantaged in Chile are at a higher risk for infant mortality by infectious diseases and trauma during the first month of life. Efforts to reduce infant mortality must target child survival for at-risk populations for specific diseases, ages and locations. rw

Central America Free Trade Agreement Dividing Costa Rican Society

After more than 13 years of environmental degradation and increasing gaps between the rich and poor, the Bush Administration continues to push NAFTA.

The mistakes of NAFTA have been codified in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), which was negotiated starting in 2003 between the United States, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua--the Dominican Republic signed in 2005.

The agreement requires that 80% of all tariffs on U.S. goods entering CAFTA-DR nations be eliminated and the remaining tariffs phased out over the next ten years.

Opposition groups in Costa Rica demonstrated against the agreement, and have forced the government to acknowledge the voice of the people.

For the first time a voting population will have the opportunity to vote on a free trade agreement in a referendum. Submitting the CAFTA to a referendum in Costa Rica is perhaps the most democratic approach to a free trade agreement that the world has yet seen. This is in contrast to the manner in which DR-CAFTA was negotiated, behind closed doors under President Bush's now-expired Fast Track Authority.

CAFTA-DR would change thousands of laws that are presently in place in Costa Rica, as it has done in other countries that are party to the agreement. One of the most critical changes required are the elimination or transformation of laws protecting natural resources from foreign purchase or control.

These provisions would inhibit the power of local communities to legally prevent multinational corporations from environment pillage. This represents placing the destinies of these communities out of their hands permanently.

Among other provisions in CAFTA-DR, parties to the agreement would be compelled to consider nuclear waste as a tradable good in the eyes of the law. This could potentially mean that if a private corporation were contracted by the U.S. government to dispose of its nuclear waste in another country, the company could sue for the right to dump these radioactive 'tradable goods' in Costa Rica even if existing laws prohibit it.

CAFTA bestows the right upon companies to sue local, regional, and national governments for not allowing such dumping of toxins and other public hazards and to also collect financial compensation should the arbitration panels side in favor of the corporations.

In the context of Costa Rica, this presents the possibility of environmental racism since Costa Rica's indigenous communities and their lands were excluded from DR-CAFTA's indigenous communities' exemption clauses.

Subsidized U.S. agriculture gains duty-free access despite the fact that these subsidies keep prices of U.S. goods at artificially low levels. CAFTA-DR markets protect U.S. textiles & apparel under the 'Yarn Forward' Rule; that requries that apparel using yarns and fabric from the United States and CAFTA-DR countries qualify for duty-free benefits. rw

Brazil Ethanol Seen Good for Climate, Maybe Not Environment

Brazil's Environmental Minister said that ethanol production is cutting the country's greenhouse gas emissions, but another ministry official said that it remains to be seen whether ethanol is good for the environment.

Reductions in deforestation and increased ethanol use has reduced Brazil's CO2 emissions by 500 million tons. Between 2003 and 2004, Brazilian agribusiness and the civilian population cut down 27,000 square kilometers of forest. the number should be around 9,000 square kilometers in 2007.

The number one contributor to deforestation is the lumber and cattle industry.

Agribusiness is responsible for 25% of Brazil's carbon emissions, due to fertilizer production and burning of sugarcane fields. Sugar and ethanol production is a contributor to greenhouse gases, despite being a force in reducing overall contributions. Ethanol isn't as green as people might like to think.

Brazil is studying whether ethanol and biofuels in general are harmful for the environment. The remedy could be worse than the sickness. Sugarcane may be harmful to the environment. The impact of sugarcane expansion on Brazil's groundwater and potassium in fertilizer could be harmful to Brazilian aquifers.

Municipalities, state, federal laws and even federal departments often have opposing views on sustainable agriculture.

Many small and midsize sugarcane industries simply break environmental laws. One concern is the environmental sustainability of Brazil's ethanol industry. Brazil's government views ethanol much the way oil-producing nations view petroleum. rw

Reflections on Cuba: Health, Terror,

Cuba has more doctors per capita, 1 per 170 people, than the US, 1 per 188. In addition to its current 70,000 doctors, 65,000 new students have enrolled in Cuban medical schools since 2004. If Cuba does not already, they will soon lead the world in doctors per capita, meeting their accomplishment in teachers. Most doctors in Cuba are women, as are most philosophers. Cuba also exports more doctors and health professionals to the third world - to 68 countries - than any other country, including roughly 15,000 doctors and dentists to Venezuela in exchange for much needed oil. The paradox is partly resolved in Fidel's comment "Human capital is worth far more than financial capital."�

Cuba has a three-tiered model: (1) Health guardians, that include neighborhood-based teams of physicians and nurses, who interact regularly with citizens in their community, provides childhood immunization against 13 preventable diseases. That, along with guaranteed nutrition and a real sense of belonging to a community, is a key component in Cuba's low infant mortality rate that is lower than that of the US; (2) A network of healthcare polyclinics (over 470) dedicated to integrating multi-medical-specialties (e.g. pediatric medicine, heart treatment, ophthalmology, optometry, x-rays, rehabilitation, 24 hour dentistry, minor surgery, ultrasound diagnostics, etc.); (3) Hospitals: acute care facilities spread across the island. One of these larger Cuban hospitals was featured in SiCKO.

A 400+ page US document from 2004 called "A Plan for Assistance to a Free Cuba," claims the US will apply to Cuba the lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq (Fallujah, Haditha, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, for example?) It says it will bring literacy and vaccines to Cuban children, not knowing that Cuba has a 100% literacy rate, and among the best vaccination programs for children in the hemisphere. Cuban social security will be eliminated and old people will be put to work (60 is the current retirement age in Cuba). The document proclaims that the US will abolish all Cuban social programs (schools, health care, sustainable farms, etc.) and privatize them. rw

Brazil: Controversial Bill to Sterilize Younger Women

A draft law to reduce the minimum age for voluntary sterilisation in Brazil's public hospitals from 25 to 18 is opposed by the government.

A Brazilian Republican Party senator and bishop of an evangelical sect, Marcelo Crivella, who introduced the draft law said it would help reduce violence, because "children who would be hungry and abandoned wouldn't be born".

The current law states that voluntary sterilisation is only for men and women over 25 years of age and have at least two living children.

The Health Ministry is against the law. Family planning is available including tying off the Fallopian tubes.

The Health Minister said he was opposed because that's not family planning, it's fertility control.

Coordinator of the Technical Area of Women's Health told IPS that tubal ligation is an irreversible contraceptive method. Studies indicate that between 2% and 13% of women change their minds, depending on age and circumstances. Among women under 30 at the time of the operation, most change their minds.

An NGO told IPS that the latest study carried out in 1996 showed that 77% of women who were married or in a stable relationship used some method of contraception. 40% had been sterilised between the ages of 15 and 49.

The study was undertaken by BEMFAM, which works on sexual and reproductive health issues in 13 Brazilian states.

The average age of the women at the time they were sterilised was 28.9 years, but 20% of them were under 25. Thirty-seven percent were aged 25 to 29, 28% were aged 30 to 34, 12% were aged 35 to 39, and three percent were aged 40 to 44.

Contraceptive methods used according to the women's age and circumstances. Many women at the height of their fertility use contraceptive pills, and when they have the ideal number of children, they choose to be sterilised.

The more education a woman has, the wider the variety of family planning methods used, and the more frequently their partners have had a vasectomy. We could do more through public policies, like giving the public more information about the variety of methods, and awareness-raising campaigns so that women can exercise birth control without resorting to a drastic measure. Sterilised women often change their minds when they begin a new relationship, or if one of their children dies.

In the context of poor populations with limited access to healthcare and education, sterilisation is often a vote-catcher. Many women who have little money or education choose to be sterilised, thinking they won't have to worry any more.

A census on family planning is being carried out by the Health Ministry to find out whether in Brazil, caesarean sections encourage sterilisations, or whether sterilisation encourages caesareans.

The new National Policy on Family Planning provides for a campaign to offer clear information and stimulate family planning, and mass distribution of educational material about contraceptive methods to schools and community centres.

It also plans to expand the supply of contraceptives to basic health clinics from 20 million to 50 million and to encourage vasectomy.

In 1960 the fertility rate stood at six children per woman, but by 1996, it had fallen to 2.3 children per woman, and in some urban centres it was 1.9.

The expert cited economic reasons for the decline in fertility, such as migration from rural areas to the cities, and women's entry into the labour market. rw

Brazil Denies Amazon Logging Link

Brazil has promised to investigate allegations that its policy of settling landless communities in the Amazon is encouraging deforestation.

Brazil's environment ministry says deforestation in those areas is falling but it will investigate the claims.

Land distribution to the poor is an important objective, but Greenpeace says it is encouraging logging and deforestation in parts of the Amazon.

Greenpeace claims the government's land reform agency, Incra, is setting aside areas for land settlement that are of value to the timber industry, instead of placing people on land that has been cleared.

Links are encouraged between logging companies and the settlers, which facilitates exploitation of the newly formed settlements.

In the state of Para, more than 30,000 families were said to have been settled in 2006.

Deforestation in the Amazon in the 12 months to July 2006 fell by 25%.

Satellite images show deforestation in settlement areas has been falling, not rising. rw

Jamaica;: Women Having Less Children, Owning More Businesses

Once you educate and liberate your women, everything else takes off, and in several decades we have seen a dramatic increase in women opting to have careers, getting educated, and becoming liberated.

Women are having one or two children, and later, due largely to Jamaica's family planning programme.

The total fertility rate has fallen, reaching 2.5 children per woman in 2002. In 1997, the fertility rate stood at 2.8 children per woman. This number continued to decline to 2.21 in 2001, 2.05 in 2002, 1.99 in 2003 and 1.93 in 2004.

20% of female-run businesses have been in existence for over 20 years, 57% are sole proprietorships or partnerships, 76% operate from well-defined business plans and 34% are college or university-educated.

The Bureau of Women's Affairs monitors government policy on women. The Association of Women's Organisations of Jamaica (AWOJA) co-ordinates women's organisations islandwide. Women's Crisis Centres help those in dire straits. The Women's Political Caucus facilitates participation in politics. The Women's Construction Collective trains women in construction. Woman Inc runs a crisis centre and shelter. rw

Trinidad and Tobago;: Fertility Rates, Births Decreasing

Trinidadians are not making enough children. The National Insurance Board (NIB) announced. The nation's total fertility rate (TFR) had remained around 1.76 children per family since the mid-1990s but a TFR of 2.1 was needed for each generation to replace itself.

The country was suffering from the aging population and this could have an impact on the NIS system. The future number of pension-aged persons is increasing because of increasing life expectancies and the number of children is expected to decrease. Trinidad and Tobago is expected to feel the impact of the aging population in about 20 years, when those who are in the labour market move into retirement, and there will not be enough children to fill that gap. rw

Venezuela Fulfills Millennium Drinking Water Supply Goals 10 Years Ahead of Time

Venezuela has fulfilled millennium goals regarding drinking water. 94% of the urban population and more than 82% of rural communities have guaranteed drinking water supplies.

This is 10 years ahead of the United Nations goal. Achieving the goal relied on community participation via civilian organizations to analyze water problems in each region and then to present projects to resolve the situation. rw

Venezuela Achieves Water Millennium Goal

Venezuela fulfilled millennium goals regarding drinking water assured the Vice Minister of Water Resources. Currently, 94% of the urban population and more than 82% in the rural region have drinking water supply guaranteed.

Achieving this goal counted on the participation of the communities through civilian organizations that analyses water problems in their region.

Projects are presented to government entities to solve the problem. It is set down in the nation's Constitution, that water is a public right.

The UN Objectives of Development call for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction of infant mortality and universal right to primary education.

These goals should be reached before the end of 2015.

Objective number seven calls for a reduction by half of the percentage of persons lacking access to drinking water. rw

Chile;: Condom Use Still Limited

Chileans are unwilling to use to birth control. 49% between 15 and 19 did not use birth control during their first sexual experience, or thereafter.

About 18% use intrauterine devices, 9% sterilization and 6% use condoms. Wealthier Chileans are three times more likely to use birth control than lower income Chileans.

15% percent of Chileans experience problems with alcoholism, a 2% drop from 2000. Low-income residents have the highest rate of alcoholism, 38%, followed by those 20 and 44, with a 19% rate.

Nearly half of Chile's working population dedicates over eight hours a day to their job.

44% of Chilean women do most of the housekeeping, while 8% of men do housework. 19% of couples equally share domestic duties, while 18% of men and 2% women do nothing at home.

The poll was based on interviews with 6,120 Chileans over the age of 15. rw

Mexico City's Abortion Law Hits Stop-and-Go Signs

Federal officials are trying to turn back the law legalizing first-trimester abortion in Mexico's capital. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission has teamed up with the federal attorney general to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The court has said it will hear the arguments but has not set a date.

While the Supreme Court resolves this matter, the secretary of health will grant all requested abortions that are within the 12-week time period. People know where to go for an abortion but often have trouble affording one. A single dose of the abortion pill costs just under $100. If a second dose is required, the cost rises another $30. Surgical abortion can run nearly $500.

The need also exists for health officials to make sure doctors are trained in the safest ways to perform abortions. Also, women need to be educated about the availability and new legality of abortion. Many doctors already perform abortions, making it legal by having the woman sign a form asserting that her life or health are in danger, but others refuse, even if the woman has been raped. The 14 city-run hospitals are all providing abortions. The federal government's social security agency, IMSS, has said it will not provide the service even in its Mexico City clinics.

In the first month of the law 1,300 women had sought abortion information and 230 abortions had been performed. Opponents of the measure argue that the law will attract women from all over the country. London, has long attracted Irish women seeking abortions. Of the 230 procedures performed in the first month after the law took effect, only a handful of women came to Mexico City from other parts of the country.

Botched abortion is the fifth-highest cause of maternal mortality. From 1990 to 2005, 21,646 women in Mexico died of maternal causes, of those, 537 were from abortion complications and badly performed procedures and 64% women who lack access to the public health system.

Latin America has the highest maternal death due to unsafe abortion. rw

Brazil Gives Amazon Dams Go-ahead

Brazil has approved the construction of two hydro-electric dams on the longest tributary of the Amazon.

The Madeira River projects have been one of the most environmentally sensitive issues.

The river is said to have one of the most diverse fish stocks in the world and environmentalists fear they could be threatened. Brazil's environmental agency Ibama took two years to reach this initial conclusion and has attached 33 conditions to the project.

The project still needs final approval. The intense debate summed up the challenge to reconcile the ambitions of a developing country alongside the need to protect the environment.

Brazil suffered extensive power cuts in 2001 and President da Silva was determined this would not be repeated.

The government believes the two dams could supply 8% to 10% of the national demand for electricity.

Critics fear it will damage the Amazon area by disturbing the flow of sediments in the Madeira River, as well as bringing thousands of workers and their families to an area where resources are already overstretched.

There are also worries that it would stir up mercury levels in the river. Thousands of families depend on the river for their income. The government says the environmental consequences will be minimised by the conditions attached to the proposed dams. rw

Jamaica;: Senator Calls for Abstinence Education

Jamaica Senator Donna Scott Mottley was concerned that a campaign to curb early sexual initiation should target children.

She told colleagues that information revealed that 83% of boys and 63% of girls under 15 in Jamaica have had their first sexual contact.

The age of consent for sexual intercourse is currently 16.

Public education and other non-legislative measures were crucial.

We need to educate our people as to what is appropriate conduct.

Senator Mottley wants the Office of the Children's Advocate to launch the education campaign promoting abstinence.

This would have a double impact. It would delay sexual initiation and would save many young people from sexual infections, including HIV, which, is taking the lives of a disproportionate number of young people.

Many young people 20 to 44 had died as a result of HIV. It means that many of them would have been sexually active from the age of 13. The Senator is recommending that entertainers and sports stars be engaged in the effort. rw

Oil Plan Casts Shadow on Bolivia Park

Sergio works in ecotourism in Bolivia's most national park, Madidi. This is where he and four of his 11 siblings show visitors the jungle's many treasures.

Overall, the park is sparsely populated and encompasses the Andean peaks and the tropical basins of the Amazon. Some feel that protected areas like Madidi could deliver more for the country's poor.

Farmers have seized a part of the national park near Apolo. They wanted land to cultivate crops, a road and the exploitation of its oil.

But other villagers say the land is not suitable for agriculture and that extracting oil could cause lasting damage.

The farmers have drawn back and the government is promising a military post to defend Madidi. But the Bolivian president, visited Madidi to highlight the existence of natural resources.

"It is impressive how our own mother Earth has natural resources," he said as he watched oil being extracted.

It was Mr Morales's promise to re-nationalise Bolivia's natural resources and deliver prosperity to the indigenous majority that brought him to power.

But locals fear the president does not understand life in the jungle and will not defend their interests.

The government agrees that ecotourism has potential; but it does not see it as a panacea and says people like Sergio need to be more realistic about what is best for Bolivia.

The government is also concerned that what happens in Madidi will have a domino effect on other national parks and protected areas.

Activists want sustainable development in the constitution

The protected areas belong to the people and should provide opportunities for local communities. Conservation makes no sense if it does not generate benefits for society as a whole.

Environmental groups want to see a commitment to biodiversity and conservation. Biodiversity is Bolivia's biggest competitive strength. We need to define its sustainable development. rw

Halt the Deterioration of the Planet

Humanity has been unable to halt and reverse the realities of a world facing pollution, global warming, a scarcity of potable water, the destruction of forests and other calamities.

A Cuban official said the impacts fall on the poor nations because they lack the resources to confront the situation.

He noted that by the end of the 21st Century, the Earth will see an increase in the average temperature of 1.8 degrees Celsius. He also estimated that two thirds of the world's population could face a lack of water, generating tensions of such a magnitude that could lead to new wars. He contrasted this scenario with Cuba's efforts to promote a national environmental policy based on the promotion of the nation's sustainable economic and social development. This shows he assured, what can be achieved on the path of sustainability, when the political will and the support of the citizens exists. rw

Ecuador;: Have We Gone Insane? Destroying the Galapagos for Profit

The Galapagos was described as the "far side of the world," in the early 19th Century. Now jet flights bring more tourists and workers to these once remote and islands situated 1,000 kilometres from the coast of Ecuador. There are dozens of internet cafes, and seemingly everyone has a cell phone. Despite the Special Law prohibiting more cars, the automobile population has jumped from 700 vehicles to over 1500 and there are traffic jams at rush hour. The escalating cat population is devastating native birds who have never known predators and roving dogs have mauled and killed hundreds of marine iguanas.

These islands are in deep trouble with more and more people, more eco-tourism and more resource exploitation. The corrupt Ecuadorian Navy protects the poachers and the quest for the dollar is replacing conservation.

For eight years we have intercepted poachers, cleaned up oil spills, neutered dogs and spayed cats, confiscated longlines, collected garbage from the beaches and fought corruption and violent fishermen. It is a protracted, endless struggle.

But an Ecuadorian Presidential decree recognizes the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as one of the organizations empowered to protect the Galapagos and we are in full partnership with the Ecuadorian National Police.

Tomorrow we sail off to patrol the Galapagos Corridor between these islands and the Panama Canal. This is the area where illegal shark finners operate and our mission over the next ten days is to search them out and shut them down.

We will leave the Galapagos with a month and a half of interceptions. We found and confiscated a three mile longline and released numerous sharks, fish, mantas and turtles from the lethal hooks. We raided three shark fin smuggling operations on the mainland and confiscated and destroyed illegal fins. We also raided an illegal sea cucumber operation and destroyed over 92,000 sea cucumbers to prevent them being sold. We put five poachers behind bars and cost them over $750,000 U.S. in losses.

We exposed the illegal activities of the Mayor of Vilamil on Isabela Island. He cut down a stand of mangroves to build a dock for tourism boats. He also bulldozed a beach and destroyed thousands of marine iguana eggs and he has been illegally breeding dogs. Our evidence resulted in an indictment by the National Police and he fled the islands to escape arrest.

Staying in Galapagos is our Director and his team of shark protectors and conservationists. Our ship remains in the Marine Reserve and is now approaching her 8th year of operations and has intercepted over seventy illegal fishing operations since 2000.

If we can't save the Galapagos we will not be able to save any place on Earth. It sometimes feels like every step forward forces us to take two steps backwards.

But we must stand our ground.

We need to secure another patrol boat to operate with the Environmental Police. We need to build a Latin American Environmental Police Training Centre on Santa Cruz island. We need to humanely and non lethally remove all dogs, cats and goats and other exotics. We need to limit eco-tourism numbers and we need to stabilize the human population on the islands. We need to bring poaching under control and to end corruption by the Ecuadorian Navy. In short we have a great deal to do and little time to do it. Our lives have been threatened by the industrial fishermen of Manta, the centre for commercial fishing operations on the Ecuadorian coast.

But this place is evolution's workshop, where some of the most unique animal species in the world dwell on land and waters. I took a walk today on the eve of our departure. I made my way down to the black lava beach and found myself face to face with dozens of marine iguanas. A couple snorted salt from their flaring nostrils, and as I moved all their eyes followed me . I sat on a black jagged stone and watched the surf pound against the rocks. I saw blue footed boobies dive like arrows into the azure sea and brown pelicans glide across the water in groups, their wing tips almost touching the moving water. I saw red-throated frigate birds soaring in the thermals and on the rocks around me, blood red crabs scurrying in and out of the surf.

A magnificent place! But these islands should be set apart from mankind, the one place on Earth where evolution should be allowed to proceed without our damnable interference.

The road from Baltra to Puerto Ayora is littered with the crushed and mangled bodies of hundreds of little birds run down each day by buses and cabs shuttling tourists. When I arrived here, the little Darwin finches and even the boobies would alight upon an out stretched hand and marine iguanas basked in to sun on the sidewalks. Those days are not returning, with the cancerous growth of civilization creeping across the park land and lethal hooks and lines, nets and spears penetrating and extinguishing life beneath the surface of the blue seas.

Even here in this remote place wildlife cannot escape the terror of fireworks or being stoned by kids or being splattered across the pavement as road kill by uncaring drivers.

So many sharks have perished, some 300,000 a year is the estimate, to provide soup to Asians half a world away. So many sea lions have been slaughtered for their penis bones so that some impotent man in China can use it get an erection. I would so love to sail away for good and leave all of these wonderful species in peace in a world without us but I can only do so once we have purged their killers from these islands.

We cannot leave these innocent and unique creatures to the blood and profit lust of the poachers and the smugglers, the politicians and shady military shysters. We are honour bound to defend our non-human clients so Sea Shepherd will stay until we win the right for these islands to survive or until we are violently expelled by the forces of darkness.

We must hold the line in the Galapagos. rw

Brazil;: New Family Planning Program

Amid harsh criticism from the Catholic Church, the Brazilian President launched a family planning program including free distribution of birth control pills and contraceptive hormones.

The government will invest US$50 million to reduce the prices of birth control pills by up to 90%, offer free vasectomies and intrauterine devices.

It's necessary to protect the poorest population who can't decide how many children they want and when to have them.

Women's groups applauded the plan and said that it will reduce the number of illegal abortions estimated at 800,000 per year.

The archbishop of Belem criticized the program. Brazil has more important health demands and the plan favored companies that want to sell their products. rw