Population, Family Planning,
& Ecology News Digest
Archives September - December 2000
December 2000
LA Times
ER Overcrowding Spreads Into Crisis Territory.
In Los Angeles County, ambulances are routinely diverted to other
facilities, resulting in delayed care for critically ill patients. Such diversions have been reported in cities around the country,and are a result of an increase in patients, fewer hospitals beds and a worsening shortage of nurses, according to Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change. Many in the nation's growing uninsured population continue to use ERs for routine, nonemergency medical problems. Dr. Loren Johnson, medical director of the emergency room at Sutter Davis hospital in Davis said "An increasing number of on-call specialists in the United States are not willing to take calls from hospital emergency departments because of inadequate reimbursement and increased patient volumes."
'
December 2000
Alan Guttmacher - Issues in Perspective
The Reproductive Health of Refugees.
This article introduces a special section of the December 2000 issue of International Family Planning Perspectives devoted to examining the challenges in providing reproductive health care to refugees. Links to articles include:
·The history of the movement to provide adequate care to such populations;
·Existing reproductive rights and policies that international agencies and organizations have adopted; ·Literature review determining how refugee women's reproductive health status is similar to and different from that of settled populations; ·A description of efforts to date about what services are currently provided to refugees and the internally displaced, and ·Specific contraceptive needs of Cambodian refugees who lived in a camp in Thailand.
'
December 2000 Population Briefs
Would Girls' Schools Help Reduce Fertility in Pakistan?
In 1980 demographer John Caldwell hypothesized that when most children
attend primary school, fertility transition would be triggered. A new study
by Population Council researchers investigated how the accessibility of
public schools in 12 rural communities in Pakistan influences couples as
they envision and build their families. Villages that had a higher school
enrollment than expected for the economic level of the community were
examined. A variety of socioeconomic and schooling conditions were examined.
50-60 currently married women aged 20-45, and their husbands when available,
were interviewed. Two of the 12 communities had a boys' public primary
school but not a girls' public primary school. In general, girls' schools
were of poorer quality than were boys' with fewer amenities, fewer
class-rooms, and higher teacher absenteeism. Girls are usually taught only
by women. Parents seemed to want to educate both girls and boys. "Knowledge
is jewelry for girls that remains with them throughout their life." said one
mother. Many parents said if they could do it over again they would have
smaller families, citing inflation and a desire to provide better health
care and education. The cost of additional children was the most frequently
cited reason for adopting family planning. . "Communities that had overall
higher schooling enrollments were the very ones with higher contraceptive
prevalence," They found that an increase from no girls' schools to two
girls' schools in each community would increase by 14-15 percentage points
the probability that a mother would express a desire to stop childbearing
and act on that desire by practicing family planning.
December 14,2000 Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report
'Social Marketing' Fosters Condom Use in India.
When condoms were given away, 75% of them were wasted. But when condoms are purchased, they are used more wisely. Social marketing is India’s way of promoting condom and birth control usage. Condoms are sold with catchy names such as Mauj (enjoyment), Bliss, and others. The health ministry continues to distribute free condoms to help minimize the population boom, but free condom distribution has decreased from 891.2 million in 1995-1996 to 624.4 million in 1999-2000. The condoms are also provided to curb the spread of AIDS, however the majority of aide is for birth control. rvs
December 30, 2000 ENN.com
Natural disasters hit record level in 2000
A record number of natural disasters were reported in 2000. Global
warming and rising population will play a large role in natural
disasters for the future. 10,000 people died in 2000 compared to
75,000 in 1999. This is due to the locations where the disasters
occurred, relatively low population density areas. Storms were at the
top of the disaster list, accounting for 73% of losses, 23% were
floods. Devastating forest fires in the United States were also a
factor, which incurred $1 billion in losses. Drought and dry weather
in Europe caused a $300 million crop loss.[Don’t you look forward to
continued devastation?] -rvs
December 8, 2000 Sacramento Bee
Pesticides Suspected in Frog Die-offs
By Stuart Leavenworth
Findings from the U.S. Geological Survey say they found evidence that
pesticides blown from the Central Valley might be reducing
populations of frogs and other amphibians in the Sierra. "Even with
the USGS research, however, some scientists say it is still far from
clear that pesticides are helping to muffle the once cacophonous
sounds of the Sierra's frogs and toads." Within a 1999 published
study, six researchers found that pesticides with high summertime use
in the valley were ending up in the Sierra watershed. "Some of the
most common pesticides were chlorpyrifos and diazinon,
organophosphates widely sprayed by structural pest control companies
but also by farmers growing almonds, cotton and other crops."
Cholinesterase,a vital nervous system enzyme, tests were done to some
amphibians and the levels were higher in frogs from northern Sierra
than those east of the San Joaquin Valley. If the findings are
confirmed, local air boards or the state Department of Pesticide
Regulation would have to regulate farm spraying to protect species in
the Sierra. "In 1999, statewide use of chlorpyrifos totaled 2.1
million pounds, while pest controllers and farmers sprayed about
957,000 pounds of diazinon -- a chemical to be phased out because of
a recent federal decision." -rvs
December 29, 2000 ENN.com
Pollution threatens Hong Kong's rare pink dolphin
The rare pink dolphins are fighting for survival against toxic
industrial waste from China, overfishing and massive development. The
1,000 pink colored, Chinese White Dolphin may survive the
environmental challenges they face. A local dolphin expert said that
every calf is born in the Pearl River Delta and has died from
pollution. A whole generation has been lost. Organochlorines,
including DDT which is still used in China, are found in dolphin
tissue in high concentrations. The industrial effluents are
destroying their immune systems and killing off calves. Some
environmentalist complain that the lack of public awareness is what
is allowing the government to get away with shoddy efforts to save
the mammal. The enforcement of many environmental laws remains lax.
Even the marine park, once proclaimed a dolphin sanctuary, allows oil
tankers to refuel within the area. "If Hong Kong's dolphins are to
survive, pressure needs to be put on Chinese authorities to clean up
the environment and control the release of effluent into the sea,
said Porter. There is a lot of monitoring done by a cross-border
liaison group but little is actually done. There's no reason why you
cannot have a clean environment and a good economy." -rvs
December 19, 2000 ENN
Prickly issue: What to Do about Feisty Fishers?
During the time of heavy logging in the Pacific Northwest, the fisher was brought in to "tackle" the porcupine problem. The fisher is one of the rare species that regularly dines on the creatures. Reintroduced fisher populations drove down the porcupine population. Due to its success, the fisher has become scarce in the West. Some conservation groups hope the timber policies and federal government regulations will change the fisher’s gloomy future. There are about 2,500 left in the West. Although in the East the fisher’s threat has been trapping, the West’s population decline is due to the logging industry. Some deny this claim. Protecting the fisher’s habitat would introduce stricter logging in old growth areas. rvs
December 27, 2000 The Independent
Poverty in the Developing World Can Be Beaten.
Twenty-two of the world's poorest countries finally saw debt relief in the year
2000. The challenge in 2001, the year of the United Nations Children Summit, is
to create a virtuous circle of debt and poverty reduction and sustainable
development and push open the door of opportunity for the billion of the world's
citizens excluded from the chance of prosperity. Nelson Mandela will take the
lead in a new global alliance for
children. By 2015 the goal is to halve poverty, secure primary education for all
children, and to cut infant mortality by two-thirds. Faster, wider and deeper
debt relief will be the essential foundation for meeting these 2015 targets. 20%
of school-age children do not receive elementary of education. In sub- Saharan
Africa, the figure is 40%. Two thirds are girls. Sustainable development is
impossible without basic education. Uganda has seen the pupil: teacher ratio
reduced from 100: 1 towards 50: 1 - debt relief has helped. A mother in a poor
country has a 500-times greater chance of dying in childbirth than a mother in a
rich country. And most of the seven million infant deaths in the world are
preventable.
December 28, 2000 New York Times
For Russia, Biological Clock Is Running Out.
The Soviet Union entered its death throes in 1991. In subsequent years the
marriage rate in Russia has fallen 30%. The divorce rate has jumped 60%.
Consequently, the birthrate is down 40%. With a fertility rate of 1.17 children,
down from 1.89 in 1990, Russia today is right down there with Spain and Italy as
countries with the lowest rates. Experts did not expect the social and
public-health upheavals to be as serious or as prolonged as they have been. The
health care system has collapsed, along with people's health. Poverty and stress
are eroding the government's ability to care for its own. Women have few
marital, medical, social, and financial choices. Russia has already lost 3.3
million people since its population peaked in 1992, and is expected to contract
from its current 145 million people to 121 million, the level of 1960. 75% of
Russian women still use abortion to control family size, and with subsidies
eliminated for contraceptives, that rate may rise. In addition, abortions,
alcohol, and venereal disease are causing infertility. The situation is
comparable to the Great Depression in the U.S., when births dropped sharply.
December 14, 2000 Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report
'Social Marketing' Fosters Condom Use in India.
When condoms were given away, 75% of them were wasted. But when condoms are purchased, they are used more wisely. Social marketing is India’s way of promoting condom and birth control usage. Condoms are sold with catchy names such as Mauj (enjoyment), Bliss, and others. The health ministry continues to distribute free condoms to help minimize the population boom, but free condom distribution has decreased from 891.2 million in 1995-1996 to 624.4 million in 1999-2000. The condoms are also provided to curb the spread of AIDS, however the majority of aide is for birth control. rvs
December 30, 2000 ENN.com
Natural disasters hit record level in 2000
A record number of natural disasters were reported in 2000. Global
warming and rising population will play a large role in natural
disasters for the future. 10,000 people died in 2000 compared to
75,000 in 1999. This is due to the locations where the disasters
occurred, relatively low population density areas. Storms were at the
top of the disaster list, accounting for 73% of losses, 23% were
floods. Devastating forest fires in the United States were also a
factor, which incurred $1 billion in losses. Drought and dry weather
in Europe caused a $300 million crop loss.[Don’t you look forward to
continued devastation?] -rvs
December 8, 2000 Sacramento Bee
Pesticides Suspected in Frog Die-offs
By Stuart Leavenworth
Findings from the U.S. Geological Survey say they found evidence that
pesticides blown from the Central Valley might be reducing
populations of frogs and other amphibians in the Sierra. "Even with
the USGS research, however, some scientists say it is still far from
clear that pesticides are helping to muffle the once cacophonous
sounds of the Sierra's frogs and toads." Within a 1999 published
study, six researchers found that pesticides with high summertime use
in the valley were ending up in the Sierra watershed. "Some of the
most common pesticides were chlorpyrifos and diazinon,
organophosphates widely sprayed by structural pest control companies
but also by farmers growing almonds, cotton and other crops."
Cholinesterase,a vital nervous system enzyme, tests were done to some
amphibians and the levels were higher in frogs from northern Sierra
than those east of the San Joaquin Valley. If the findings are
confirmed, local air boards or the state Department of Pesticide
Regulation would have to regulate farm spraying to protect species in
the Sierra. "In 1999, statewide use of chlorpyrifos totaled 2.1
million pounds, while pest controllers and farmers sprayed about
957,000 pounds of diazinon -- a chemical to be phased out because of
a recent federal decision." -rvs
December 29, 2000 ENN.com
Pollution threatens Hong Kong's rare pink dolphin
The rare pink dolphins are fighting for survival against toxic
industrial waste from China, overfishing and massive development. The
1,000 pink colored, Chinese White Dolphin may survive the
environmental challenges they face. A local dolphin expert said that
every calf is born in the Pearl River Delta and has died from
pollution. A whole generation has been lost. Organochlorines,
including DDT which is still used in China, are found in dolphin
tissue in high concentrations. The industrial effluents are
destroying their immune systems and killing off calves. Some
environmentalist complain that the lack of public awareness is what
is allowing the government to get away with shoddy efforts to save
the mammal. The enforcement of many environmental laws remains lax.
Even the marine park, once proclaimed a dolphin sanctuary, allows oil
tankers to refuel within the area. "If Hong Kong's dolphins are to
survive, pressure needs to be put on Chinese authorities to clean up
the environment and control the release of effluent into the sea,
said Porter. There is a lot of monitoring done by a cross-border
liaison group but little is actually done. There's no reason why you
cannot have a clean environment and a good economy." -rvs
December 19, 2000 ENN
Prickly issue: What to Do about Feisty Fishers?
During the time of heavy logging in the Pacific Northwest, the fisher was brought in to "tackle" the porcupine problem. The fisher is one of the rare species that regularly dines on the creatures. Reintroduced fisher populations drove down the porcupine population. Due to its success, the fisher has become scarce in the West. Some conservation groups hope the timber policies and federal government regulations will change the fisher’s gloomy future. There are about 2,500 left in the West. Although in the East the fisher’s threat has been trapping, the West’s population decline is due to the logging industry. Some deny this claim. Protecting the fisher’s habitat would introduce stricter logging in old growth areas. rvs
December 27, 2000 The Independent
Poverty in the Developing World Can Be Beaten.
Twenty-two of the world's poorest countries finally saw debt relief in the year
2000. The challenge in 2001, the year of the United Nations Children Summit, is
to create a virtuous circle of debt and poverty reduction and sustainable
development and push open the door of opportunity for the billion of the world's
citizens excluded from the chance of prosperity. Nelson Mandela will take the
lead in a new global alliance for
children. By 2015 the goal is to halve poverty, secure primary education for all
children, and to cut infant mortality by two-thirds. Faster, wider and deeper
debt relief will be the essential foundation for meeting these 2015 targets. 20%
of school-age children do not receive elementary of education. In sub- Saharan
Africa, the figure is 40%. Two thirds are girls. Sustainable development is
impossible without basic education. Uganda has seen the pupil: teacher ratio
reduced from 100: 1 towards 50: 1 - debt relief has helped. A mother in a poor
country has a 500-times greater chance of dying in childbirth than a mother in a
rich country. And most of the seven million infant deaths in the world are
preventable.
December 28, 2000 New York Times
For Russia, Biological Clock Is Running Out.
The Soviet Union entered its death throes in 1991. In subsequent years the
marriage rate in Russia has fallen 30%. The divorce rate has jumped 60%.
Consequently, the birthrate is down 40%. With a fertility rate of 1.17 children,
down from 1.89 in 1990, Russia today is right down there with Spain and Italy as
countries with the lowest rates. Experts did not expect the social and
public-health upheavals to be as serious or as prolonged as they have been. The
health care system has collapsed, along with people's health. Poverty and stress
are eroding the government's ability to care for its own. Women have few
marital, medical, social, and financial choices. Russia has already lost 3.3
million people since its population peaked in 1992, and is expected to contract
from its current 145 million people to 121 million, the level of 1960. 75% of
Russian women still use abortion to control family size, and with subsidies
eliminated for contraceptives, that rate may rise. In addition, abortions,
alcohol, and venereal disease are causing infertility. The situation is
comparable to the Great Depression in the U.S., when births dropped sharply.
December 28
Title X and Federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Funding.
On October 1, 2000, an additional $20 million in federal funds became available
for teaching abstinence-only-until-marriage education. This new program, known
as SPRANS-CBAE, is through the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This program grants money to
projects teaching abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the
expected standard for all school children and that a mutually faithful
monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of
human sexual activity. $17 million dollars are expected to be distributed
through this new program in fiscal year 2001. In the recently approved
appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Labor, Health and Human Services
and Education, the Congress has set aside an additional $30 million for this
program in advance funding for fiscal year 2002. This same compromise bill
slashed a previously agreed to increase in Title X family planning funds of $35
million to a $15 million increase for fiscal year 2001. The bill was signed by
the President on December 21, 2000.
December 28, 2000 US Census Bureau
Census 2000 Shows Resident Population of 281,421,906.
The first results from Census 2000 show the resident population of the United
States on April 1, 2000, was 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% since the last
census in 1990. The most populous state in the country was California
(33,871,648); the least populous was Wyoming (493,782). The state that gained
the most numerically since the 1990 census was California, up 4,111,627. Nevada
had the highest percentage growth in population, climbing 66.3% (796,424 people)
since the last census. Regionally, the South and West picked up the bulk of the
nation's population increase, 14,790,890 and 10,411,850, respectively. The
Northeast and Midwest also grew: 2,785,149 and 4,724,144. In the reapportionment
counts, each member of the House represents a population of about 647,000. In
1790, each member of the House represented about 34,000 residents. Since then,
the House has more than quadrupled in size, and each member represents about 19
times as many constituents. [Population dilutes democracy.]
December 20, 2000
CUSP, New Congressional Environmental Scorecard Includes Population. CUSP uses the IPAT formula to determine a scorecard for measurement of Congressional votes leading toward US sustainability. I = PAT, says that impact (I) on environments is due to population (P), times consumption per capita, or affluence (A) times the harmfulness of the technology used (T). CUSP depends on the vote selection of experts. The CUSP score is the arithmetic average of each tally's suitably-selected votes, all scored 0 - 100.
December 13, 2000 New York Times
Unicef Asks Countries to Add to Children's Aid.
UNICEF has come out with a report, The State of the World's Children 2001. During the earliest years of life, children's health and mental capacities are in critical stages of development. One-fifth of all the children in poor nations are not in school. Money is siphoned off by shortsighted policies, by corruption and by the need to repay debts, which means that next generation may not be healthy enough and skilled enough to lead a country out of poverty and away from destructive disparities of income, education and opportunity. In 33 countries, more than half the children born are not registered at birth. 40 million are born 'nonexistent' and are therefore denied social benefits. 11 million children younger than 5 die every year, often from preventable diseases. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, more than 30% of the children are seriously malnourished. 58% of the children in India are malnourished. 10 of millions of children are working rather than attending school.
December 19, 2000 Christian Science Monitor
The World in 2015.
A set of forecasts called "Global Trends 2015" has been issued by the US government's intelligence community, predicting a robust global economy and greater international cooperation. Economic growth rates will approach those of the 1960s reducing armed conflict and ease the effects of population growth and water shortages. There will be more migration of people driven by globalization of
labor markets and political instability. Today, over 15% of the population in more than 50 countries is comprised of legal and illegal migrants. The concept of 'belonging' to a particular state will probably erode. Governments will have less control over the flows of people, arms, information, and money. Food and energy will be in plentiful supply, but distributed unevenly by bureaucratic bottlenecks and poverty. Conflicts over water will occur in water-stressed areas where half of the world's population will live in Africa, the Mideast, Asia, and China. Terrorists will be more free-wheeling and capable of chemical, biological, or nuclear attacks. The U.S. will have as a global power, will need to accept more responsibility to confront problems on both sides of the widening economic and digital divides since globalization's benefits will be far from global.
December 14, 2000: Africa News
Kenya: Proposal to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy.
45% of adolescents in Kenya become mothers by the time they are 19. "Teenage pregnancy contributes significantly to the high rate of school
drop-out among girls, and pregnancy-related complications are major causes
of death for girls between 15 and 19 worldwide," said Planning Minister Gideon
Ndambuki. He also said "sexuality education contributes to higher levels of
abstinence, late initiation to sexual activity and fewer sexual partners for
the sexually active." And .."In the next 5 years, 60 per cent of the new infections among women and 40 per cent among men will occur among those under 20 years, and even with this scenario, over 80 per cent of our young people still do not believe in themselves to at risk of contracting HIV/Aids and continue to engage in high
risk behavior," the minister noted.
December 11, 2000 CNN
Gates Donates $8.8 Million to Improve Women's Health.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated a $8.8 million grant to the International Planned Parenthood Federation which will help improve reproductive health and family planning services for women in more than 180 countries around the world. The founder of Microsoft and his wife have donated more than $20 billion to the foundation which is dedicated to improving people's lives by sharing advances in health.
December 15, 2000 Urban Legends
A Hoax: "Progesterex": Horse and Human Sterilizer?
An internet hoax claims there is a drug called Progesterex which is being used by date rapers to sterilize victims, thus preventing the rapists' identification through paternity. There is no evidence of the existence of such a drug.
December 14, 2000 World Watch
Hidden Freshwater Crisis.
Toxic chemicals are contaminating groundwater on every inhabited continent,
endangering the world's most valuable supplies of freshwater, according to a new report from Worldwatch Institute, Deep Trouble: The Hidden Threat of Groundwater Pollution. This first global survey of groundwater pollution shows that a toxic brew of pesticides, nitrogen fertilizers, industrial chemicals, and heavy metals is fouling groundwater everywhere, and that the damage is often worst in the very places where people most need water. 97% of the planet's liquid freshwater is stored in underground aquifers. Nearly one third of all humanity relies almost exclusively on groundwater for drinking, including the residents of some of the largest cities in the developing world, such as Jakarta, Dhaka, Lima, and Mexico City. Almost 99% of the rural U.S. population, and 80% of India's villagers, depend on groundwater for drinking. 3 additional billion people are expected to inhabit the Earth by 2050, creating even more demand for water. More than half of irrigated farmland in India, and 43% in the United States, are watered by groundwater. In India, groundwater was found unfit for drinking in 22 major industrial zones. One third of the wells tested in California's San Joaquin Valley in 1988 contained the pesticide DBCP at levels 10 times higher than the maximum allowed for drinking water-more than a decade after its use was banned. In the U.S. 100,000 gasoline storage tanks are leaking chemicals into groundwater. In Santa Monica, California, wells supplying half the city's water have been closed because of
dangerously high levels of the gasoline additive MTBE. In the northern Chinese provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong, nitrate concentrations in groundwater exceeded the health guideline in more than half of the locations studied in 1995.
December 12, 2000 Inquirer
India: National Family Health Survey Reveals Disturbing Trends.
India's population reached one-billion in May 2000, growing from one quarter billion in 1900. Almost two-thirds of India's population growth in the 20th century
took place after 1971 with the growth rate peaking in the period 1961- 81.
The Second National Family Health Survey (NFHS-2), funded by USAID, and conducted in 1998-99 showed that the country's overall total fertility rate (TFR) - the average number of children a woman bears in her life time it is still quite high at 2.9. Only if the TFR drops below 2 by 2010 will the population size stabilize by 2050. Only 48% of currently married women age 15-49 are using contraceptives. Female sterilization dominates the contraceptive use. Althoughyoung women would like to be able to space their births, birth spacing methods are not being widely promoted and are not being used much by women. Early marriage is common, with 37% of women of age 15-19 are already married (one quarter of women are married before the age of 15 and half before the age of 18). The Indian states of Kerala, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are fairly advanced in family planning. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Punjab are making good progress. However, Bihar, Orissa, Rajasthan and UP continue to lag far behind. Rural areas lag far behind urban areas. Poverty reduction programs need to be increased as does the coverage and quality of health and welfare services. 37% are illiterate with 43% illiterate in rural areas and 20% in urban areas. Overall, 49% of females and 26% of males are illiterate, but in rural areas it is 56% of females and 31% of males. One-third of women of age 15-49 are undernourished (according to body mass index) and almost half the children under age 3 are underweight or stunted. More than half the women age 15-49 and almost three-fourth of the children age 6-35 months are anemic.
December 11, 2000 Inquirer
N.J. Growth Plan Offers 2020 Vision.
900,000 more people, about 800,000 new jobs, and about 460,000 new households, and more traffic and congestion are expected in New Jersey by 2020. Of New Jersey's 4.98 million acres, about 1.5 million have been developed, and as many as 1.59 million are still developable, according to data collected this year by Rutgers University. From 1986 to 1995, New Jersey's population increased by 4.5% while developed land increased by 14.1%, or more than three times as fast. At this rate, New Jersey will have no new land available for construction in 32 years. New Jersey's State Development and Redevelopment Plan is a detailed blueprint that envisions compact, pedestrian-friendly communities and farms thriving without fear of development. The state plan is expected to save $1.45 billion in water and sewer infrastructure costs, 870 miles of local roads at a cost of $1 million per mile, save municipalities, counties and school districts about $160 million annually, save 122,000 acres that would have been developed, nearly half of that in farmland, and aid urban areas by increasing their populations by 144,000, doubling job creation to 80,000 a year, and expanding their tax bases by 61/2 times the amount they would grow under the current trend. Environmentalists have criticized the plan because it is just a set of guidelines, not a means of implementation, for managing growth.
December 11, 2000 USA Today
Albright Discusses AIDS in Botswana.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright hugged Mayoress Molefi-Mochangana, one of Botswana's most celebrated singers, who revealed for the first time that she was infected with the AIDS virus. Albright praised her bravery in confronting the stigma against the disease. About 1/3 of adults in Botswana are infected with HIV. The government provides AZT for HIV-infected pregnant women to prevent them from transmitting the virus to their babies during childbirth. They are also provided with baby formula so that the child is not exposed to the mother's infected breast milk. But women seen using the formula are ostracized.
December 10, 2000 The Jakarta Post
How Fast Is the Human Population Expanding?
Media articles on world population growth vacillate from doomsday hysteria to
complacent unconcern. "Prof. Stephen Hawking, the most intelligent person in the world I think," interviewed on Larry King Live, said "My biggest worry is the population growth, and if it continues at the current rate, we will be standing shoulder to shoulder in 2600. Something has to happen, and I don't want it to be a disaster."
December 8, 2000 Business Line
India: The Food vs Population Debate.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates the incidence of undernourishment in the
developing countries in 1995-97 at 790 million, accounting for 18% of the population of these countries. The world's population grew by 2.1% a year in 1960, but declined to 1.3% in the 1990s. By 2015 it is expected to be 1% and 0.3% by 2050. Currently 77 million persons are added every year and this number is expected to continue till 2015. To meet the food demand, the world cereal production must increase by another billion tonnes, from 1.84 billion tonnes now. In South Asia, per capita income is anticipated to grow only at 1.5% a year. FAO expects a fall in the percentage of the undernourished in the developing countries from 18 in 1995-97 to 10 in 2015 and 6 in 2030.
"Thanks to the decline in population growth and the gradual attainment of medium-to-high food consumption levels in several countries, the growth rate of demand for food will be lower than in the past." [Does this last sentence make sense??]
December 8, 2000 Washington Post
Tough Choice in Africa.
The nation of Chad is war-torn, land-locked and destitute: its average per capita income is 55 cents daily, and it suffers illiteracy and high infant mortality rates. President Idriss Deby has violated the terms of a huge oil development program (with a 650-mile oil pipeline) concluded with the World Bank 6 months ago, by diverting $ 4.5 million from the oil project to finance arms purchases instead of reducing poverty. It will be hard to justify further aid to Chad.
December 5, 2000 Dateline NBC
A Matter of Choice.
Women in Europe have more choices for birth control than a woman in the U.S. For example, 'Persona' is a device that uses urine samples to detremine the time of ovulation. A green light indicates that sex is OK while red means a woman is fertile. Many consider this a more natural method of birth control. There are new and improved versions of the diaphragm and of the condom and new contraceptives a woman can receive by injection or in an implant. One implant, "Implanon," uses just one rod and lasts for three years. "Mirena" is a intrauterine system that has few, if any, bad side-effects, releasing just one-18th the amount of hormones, directly into the uterus providing non-stop contraception for up to five years. In the U.S. the most common form of birth control is surgical sterilization, probably because U.S. women are dissatisfied with what's available on the pharmacy shelves. Many of the products available in Europe were invented, researched, financed, even tested on women back in the U.S. But Americans have a low tolerance for risk when it comes to birth control and a high propensity to sue when there's a problem.
December 6, 2000 Nandotimes
Doctors Urge Sale of "Morning-After" Pill Without
Prescription.
The "morning-after" pill will soon be available over the counter. The
American Medical Association approved the decision. Making
the "morning-after" pill available without a prescription will
prevent 1.7 million unplanned pregnancies and 800,000 abortion
annually. The "morning-after" prevents ovulation or blocks
implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus if taken within three
days of intercourse. It is essentially a high-dose birth control
pill. It is different that the RU-486 abortion pill that causes
contractions to expel the embryo from the uterus. Two forms of
the "morning-after" have been approved during the past two years:
Preven and Plan B. Although the "morning-after" is not as opposed as
RU-486, many still consider it a from of abortion. Planned Parenthood
doesn’t consider the "morning-after" a form of abortion since it
won’t work if the fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus. Some
side effects can include nausea and vomiting and is considered safe
and effective among the medical community. rvs
December 2000 Scientific American
The Science of Smart Growth.
Sprawl has become the mainstay of American middle-class housing since World War
II and, for many, the physical embodiment of the American dream. But the
defintion of sprawl has changed. In the 1950's and 1960's, it was the 'suburbs'.
Today it is unstoppable spread of such development, leading to worse congestion,
escalating tax rates, disinvestment of older communities and the devouring of
open space. Sprawl is fueled by the sheer pace of development, which, according
to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is roughly double of what is was a decade
ago. Although only 5% of the nation's total land area has been built on, a
disproportional number of wildlife habitats, wetlands, and watersheds are primed
for development. Florida and California, which are the two biologically richest
parts of the U.S. are also the fastest growing. Citizens are concerned about
sprawl because of traffic, the increase of infrastructure costs, overcrowded
schools, and the destruction of wildlands. Per capita traffic delas have
increased 20% from 1993 to 1997. The additional wasted time and fuel adds up to
$74 billion a year. Absence of safe walking and bicycling opportunities have
led to an "epidemic" of obesity. The author promotes New Urbanist projects which
provides for appealing walkable mixed-use communities - which usually require a
restructuring of current planning and zoning rules. Birth and immigration rates
do not completely drive sprawl. Sprawl has occured in every metropolitan area
whose centers have shrunk. Also, population growth accounts for only 13% of the
increase in driving in the last several years, according to the Federal Highway
Administration. In the author's new system, the American public to the growth
that has become inevitable. [Note: it is this last sentence that embodies the
attitude of the sprawl-focused student and which so alarms the
population-concerned student.]
December 6, 2000 World Resources Institute
World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of
Life.
Increased resource demands which cause global ecosystems to deteriorate could
be devastating for human development and the welfare of all species. The report is the result of a two-year effort by 175 scientists from the institute, the UN Development Program, the UN Environment Program and the World Bank. 50% of the world's wetlands and almost as much forest land has been lost in the last century; fishing fleets are 40% larger than the oceans can sustain; nearly 70% of major marine fish stocks are
overfished; soil degradation has affected two-thirds of all agricultural
lands in the last 50 years; dams, canals and other diversions fragment
almost 60% of the world's largest rivers; and 20% of freshwater species are
either extinct, threatened or endangered globally. The capacity of ecosystems "to produce many of the goods and services we depend on is rapidly declining," said Norbert Henninger of the World Resources Institute. Governments need to view ecosystem
sustainability as essential to human life and adopt an "ecosystems approach"
to managing the world's critical resources.
December 17, 2000 New York Times
Power Shortage Sends Ripples Across West.
In the vast interlocking electrical grid of the western part of the U.S., power usually flows south in the summer and north in the winter. But California is at the brink of a breakdown in its power system, and federal energy officials have ordered suppliers in the Northwest to send emergency electricity south. The Northwest uses a network of hydroelectric dams to give the region a cheap supply of power. But the ability to produce power later in the winter or meet the fish flows in the spring is threatened by low rainfall and the demand for power from California. Population growth and the out- of-state demands have caught up with the network. Already many species of salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act because of the existence of the dams and the low and the unusually low rainfall has left fish eggs exposed and threatened. The governors of Oregon and Washington have urged their residents to conserve energy and have asked for a cap on the price of wholesale electricity. [Californians have also been asked to conserve energy.] Oregon governor Kitzhaber blamed California's "failed deregulation experiment" for the shortages. Four years ago, when reserves were often as high as 30%, California decided to deregulate its power industry to deliver cheaper, cleaner and more efficient power across the state. However, one-fourth of California's generating capacity has been offline at times in recent weeks after going full tilt to meet the record demands of last summer.
December 11, 2000 ZPG
Wal-Mart's Ban on Emergency Contraception - We're Not Smiling: Take Action.
Wal-Mart has banned emergency contraceptives. Send a FREE FAX to Wal-Mart asking them to reverse their so-called "business decision". Wal-Mart carries Viagra for men, but has
banned an emergency product that would benefit women in their childbearing years!
December 14, 2000 ENN
Elephants on the Brink in Asia.
An icon in Vietnamese culture, the Asian elephant is rarely spotted in that part of the world anymore, going from from 1,500 to 2,000 individuals to barely 100 since 1990. Logging, agriculture and human resettlement programs are pushing the elephants out of their traditional homes and into increasing conflict with humans.
December 5, 2000 The Mercury News
Sales a Dilemma in Power Crisis. Gov. Gray Davis is considering a proposal to bar California power-plant operators from selling electricity to other states during extreme shortages here, but California routinely imports about 25% of the power it uses. Other states could retaliate with similar restrictions on power coming to California, which could plunge the state into an even deeper energy crisis.
December 6, 2000 Associated Press
First Census Results Expected by Year's End.
The Census Bureau is expected to
deliver the first results from this year's count to President
Clinton by the constitutionally mandated Dec. 31 deadline.
December 6, 2000 Xinhua
ESCAP Chief Urged More Efforts to Tackle Regional Population
Challenges.
"Reproductive health services, human resources investments, female
education, care of older people, are among the best options for the
Asia-Pacific countries to solve diverse problems caused by rapid population
growth," said Kim Hak-Su, executive-secretary of the Economic and Social
Commission For Asia and The Pacific (ESCAP).
December 3, 2000 Sacramento Bee
Agency Missing Train on Sprawl? Folsom Growth Vote a Test for LAFCO.
Should the town of Folsom be allowed to expand into 3,600 acres outside Sacramento County's current urban growth boundary, into the rolling pasture and oak woodlands
south of Highway 50? Special district representative Shelton says: "I've been down to (Folsom) to that wonderful forest that exists south of the highway; it's absolutely beautiful," Shelton said. "There are (wild) turkeys running around and there's a stream
running through it. But people have to live. You just can't coop them up."
December 1, 2000 The Miami Herald
Commuting Costly for S. Florida.
The Surface Transportation Policy Project, a network of 250 organizations that lobby for better public transportation, found that drivers in Miami-Dade and Broward spend 19% of their annual income on transportation, second only to housing costs. The study, Driven to Spend, said that the key factors are urban sprawl and poor public transportation as commuters are forced to use their cars for even the most basic errands. Transportation costs included vehicle purchases, maintenance, gas and motor oil. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, ranked the 10th-most-expensive area in the country, transportation costs
exceeded that of shelter. In Miami-Dade, Jose Mesa, director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, said commuters have been unwilling to pay more for better public transportation.
Nov/Dec 2000 Sierra Magazine
No Place to Call Home.
25 million people a year are refugees from environmental disasters compounded by growing population, poverty, and corporate greed. Floods, droughts, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other calamities are often provoked or amplified by human activities such as damming rivers, clearing forests, over-extracting groundwater, or building unsafely in hazardous zones. In 1998, for the first time, more people were forced to leave their homes because of environmental disaster than because of war, accounting for 58 percent of the total worldwide population of refugees, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. "Environmental degradation has put people in harm's way," said Anthony Oliver-Smith, an anthropologist at the University of Florida. "The human impact on Earth today is responsible for the displacement of millions." The article concentrates on Hurricane Mitch, which killed 15,000 people in Central America, mostly in Honduras. From a treeless hill above the capitol city, Tegucigalpa, tons of topsoil turned to mud and flowed down from hills and into a river which jumped banks to destroy markets, factories, and homes. Entire villages were on blown away the Caribbean coast. Mitch left some 2 million homeless, jobless, or otherwise damaged. Once almost entirely forested, Honduras loses about a quarter million acres annually to logging, burning, and clearing of the rainforest to create pasture, and to erosion from poor farming practices. About 80% of the land is sloped, so when rain is heavy, without trees to break rainfall or hold the soil in place, the land turns to sliding mud and the rivers choke, causing floods. The agricultural sector has been geared to export, partly in order to pay back loans from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. But this large-scale agriculture forces small farmers up hillsides or out of business entirely, with many ending up in the crowded, unplanned shack communities that circle the cities. Oliver-Smith, advocate for environmental refugees said "The World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development don't invest in small farmers. In a way the economy needs the very thing that drives the vulnerability." The ideal is prevention, of course, or after a crisis, remedial actions that might return the environment to a livable state. Deforestation also contributed to the flooding that affected 180 million people in China's Yangtze River basin.
The term environmental refugee was born in the 1970s after the catastrophic drought in the 1970s in the Sahel region of Africa, covering five countries, which forced thousands of Mauritanian nomads and their cattle to swamp Mali looking for food; nearly a million and a half others arrived in the Ivory Coast, making every fifth person in that country a foreigner. Essam El-Hinnawi, a professor of natural resources and environment at the National Research Centre in Cairo, coined the term "environmental refugee" to apply to people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural or human-caused) that jeopardized their existence or seriously affected their way of life.
In 1970, in the city of Yungay, Peru and earthquake shook loose huge pieces of 22,000-foot Mt. Huascaran, raining rock and ice down a vertical mile. 65,000 died. Ramshackle housing, inappropriate use of land, poor families forced to live in risky places. Oliver-Smith said: "It began in a whisper: that after disaster you shouldn't re-create underdevelopment." Earthquakes cause major dislocation in a world where 40 of the 50 fastest-growing cities-most ringed by shantytowns-are in earthquake zones.
Sidebar: The disasters that send environmental refugees fleeing their homes are exacerbated by growing population and poverty. More than 120 million women worldwide would like help in planning the size of their families, but lack access to contraception. Families are smaller and children are healthier when women are given economic opportunities, but more than two-thirds of the world's poorest citizens are women. The Sierra Club's Global Population Stabilization Program promotes small loans, job training, and family planning for women everywhere.
Nov/Dec 2000 E Magazine
The Weight of Numbers.
Population control was a big part of the environmental agenda when Earth Day was established in 1970. The Population Bomb, by Paul and Anne Ehrlich, was a bestseller. The executive director of the Sierra Club at that time, David Brower, said "You don't have a conservation policy unless you have a population policy." President Nixon's Commission on Population Growth and the American Future declared that the U.S. would be unlikely to meet its environmental goals unless its population was stabilized. However, since 1970, over 70 million people have been added to the U.S., an unprecedented increase. Nearly half the population lives along our coasts where ecosystems are most fragile. Air and water pollution, traffic congestion, habitat destruction and loss of farmland are the consequences. "Sprawl" is treated as if it were separate and divorced from the weight of the extra humanity. Immigration discussions in environmental groups such as the Sierra Club often lead to divisive internal squabbles. Immigrants seek admittance to the U.S. because of fear of political persecution, war, famine and deteriorating environmental conditions in their home countries, as well as for economic reasons. It would seem that strategic use of American development aid, coupled with family planning support, can help reduce these emigration pressures. Even minor adjustments to immigration levels could have major impact on our environmental stewardship. When we should be protecting our farms and dedicating new open space, we're paving paradise and putting up a parking lot.
Nov/Dec, 2000 E Magazine
Balancing Act: Can America Sustain a Population of 500 Million -- Or Even a Billion -- by 2100?
Set in 2038, the science fiction book Earth, was written by David Brin in 1990. The story, written before global warming was a well known phenomenon, depicts an overcrowded world of 10 billion people inundated by rising sea levels, with Bangladesh's capital underwater. Holes in the ozone layer make any trip outside life-threatening, and even livestock wear eye covers. Siberia is tropical. The last wildlife is housed in zoo-like "arks," and private cars have been outlawed in favor of bicycles. A glass of pure water costs as much as the monthly rent, and jail time is ordered for anyone throwing away a soda bottle. The 10 billion by 2038 figure predicted by Brin might be just in time, going by U.S. Census Bureau figures. Population activism, tends to focus--laudably--on global growth. But how can a country like the U.S. lecture the world if it's own population is predicted to double to 571 million by 2100, according to the U.S. Census Bureau middle projections (it's high projections say 1 billion). In 1900, when America's doors were wide open to immigration and birth rates were accelerating, there were just 76 million Americans. Today foreign-born Americans consititute a tenth of the population, the highest level since 1930. 40% of New York City residents are foreign-born. The U.S. is the fast-growing industrialized country in the world, growing 1.2% annually. The President's Council on Sustainable Development in 1996 listed moving toward stabilizing U.S. population as one of it's 10 goals. Of the doubling U.S. population, Jay Keller, national field director for Zero Population Growth said, "Such a huge increase could be tremendously damaging. Even with the current population we have a lot of environmental challenges." A doubling would mean a population density of 161.4 people per square mile. While this is only a quarter that of western European countries like England, these countries have surrendered most of their wilderness regions, native forests and unique animal populations. "Some of the European countries have very high population densities, with the consequence that they have to import most of their food and are very dependent on the rest of the world," says Keller. "The United States, by contrast, is still one of the great breadbaskets of the world." In the U.S. 400,000 acres of farmland are lost a year. Under doubling of the population, arable land would go from 400 million acres today to 290 million and the $40 billion the U.S. makes through food exports would be seriously threatened. Keller pointed out that Europe has not only stopped its population growth but actually reversed it. By 2050, Italy's population is expected to shrink from 57 million today to 41 million and Germany's from 82 million now, to 73 million. In the meantime, world population overall grows by 78 million a year, or every three days by the size of the city of San Francisco. 27,000 species of animals and plants are lost annually. According to Peter Ward of Washington University, "Every forest, every valley, every bit of land surface capable of sustaining plant life, as well as much of the plankton in the sea, will have to be turned over to crops if our species is to avert unprecedented global famine." Deforestation at home could reach equally alarming rates. "Imagine every congested, sprawled part of the country right now, then double the number of people," says population activist Roy Beck of Numbers USA. If there were 1 billion Americans living as they do today, Bob Engelman, vice president for research at Population Action International, said " ..Each American generates five tons of the global warming gas carbon dioxide (CO2) each year, so that would mean five billion tons from the U.S. alone, with dire consequences for the climate. There would definitely not be enough water, particularly in places like southern California, Nevada and south Florida. Food security would be a major issue, because urban sprawl would take away much of our remaining prime farmland. Forests could not possibly be stable with that level of population. Major biodiversity would also be lost: 95% of the country's endangered plants are in just three states, California, Florida and Hawaii, which have the highest population growth rates." The environmental impact of the average American is 30 to 50 times that of a citizen in a country like India. The richest fifth of the world's population produces 53% of all carbon dioxide emissions, consumes 80% of the world's natural resources and generates 80% of the pollution and waste. Despite these facts, American media portrays environmental problems--from climate change to urban sprawl, and from species loss to soil erosion--as if they were isolated phenomena, unaffected by factors like rapid population growth. According to Population-Environment Balance: If 92 million households in the U.S. switched three lamps from 75-watt incandescent bulbs to 18-watt compact fluorescents, the savings would amount to 157 billion kilowatt hours over the seven-year lifespan of the bulbs. But in that same seven years, the U.S. would add 20 million new residents, and these additional energy users would soak up another 193 billion kilowatts of electricity in their compact fluorescent lamps. 93% of the United States' increase in energy use since 1970 can be attributed to population growth. By 2050, over 80% of the growth will be attributable to immigrants and their descendants who have settled here since the 1990s, as indicated by Census Bureau figures. 72% were opposed to high immigration in a 1998 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. A 1993 Hispanic USA Research Group survey showed that 89% of Hispanic Americans strongly support an immediate moratorium on immigration, and 74% feel fewer immigrants should be allowed and stronger restrictions should be enforced. But business groups still lobby for an open door immigration policy to suppress the high wages that would otherwise be demanded in a full-employment economy, and there is no comparable countervailing pressure. And politicians support high immigration levels for fear of alienating large ethnic voting blocks.
November 29, 2000 Chicago Tribune
UN Report Cites Women’s 2nd-class Status.
In a recent report, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) stated that
rape, abuse and laws are some causes of oppression for women. At least one
in three women has been beaten, raped, coerced into sex or abused.
According to the UNPF, findings everything from health care to human rights
are poorer for women. Many say that blaming men is an easy solution to a
complicated global issue, but Nafis Sadik, the fund's executive director says that the modern solution to an age-old problem was to get the other half involved in the global fight for equality. According to the survey, the worst oppression takes place in southern Africa and parts of Asia. From statistics cited in the report: one woman dies every minute in the world from complications of childbirth and pregnancy; every 15 seconds a woman is battered in the U.S.; sexually transmitted diseases afflict five times more women than men; at least 60 million girls who would otherwise be alive are "missing" from the global population due to sex-selective abortions, neglect and infanticide; genital mutilation is forced on 130 million women, and thousands of young women die in "honor" killings every year; 2 million girls ages 5 to 15 enter the commercial sex market every year. rvs
November 28, 2000 Business Day
South Africa: Government to Introduce Free Pap Smears.
The government is now offering free screening for cervical cancer,
also known as a pap smear. The program was introduced with the
results of research on women who die in pregnancy, an indicator of
the country’s health. The program will be limited to women over 30
years old, and only three over the following three decades. If cancer
is found, treatment will be offered. The three test will reduce the
cervical cancer rate by 64% according to the World Health
Organization. In SA, 150 women for every 100,000 live births die. In
the UK, the figure would be only 12 deaths. Care in SA is better than
care available in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa. Five Hundred die
in Zimbabwe and thousands further north per 100,000 live births. A
recent report showed that 774 maternal deaths were reported in 1999,
98 more than in 1998. rvs
November 30, 2000 Deseretnews.com/Reuters
Aids Infection Fall in Africa.
There are fewer people alive to infect the United Nations said in a recent report. The report was released on World AIDS day, Dec. 1 and stated that there were 3.8 million Africans infected with HIV this year compared to 4 million the previous year. This is the first decline since the epidemic began. 25.3 million of the 36.1 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa or 1 in 10 adults in Africa have HIV or AIDS. Since the epidemic began, more than 20 million people have been buried worldwide. 2.4 million died in Africa from AIDS-related diseases this year. Almost 36% of Botswana is infectedwith AIDS, the country hit hardest by AIDS. Decreasing sexual activity and increasing basic health care could help. Life expectancy has shrunk from 65 to 43; one in four South African women between 20 and 29 is HIV positive, and more than 10 million Ethiopians will die of AIDS within the next decade. rvs
November 24 The Fresno Bee
California: Controlling Growth on Rise Again.
by Dan Walters.
California, a state of 35 million, finds itself in one of its longer periods of sustained high
population growth, thanks to the state's attractiveness to foreign
immigrants and its high birth rate. California grows by 600,000 annually: 275,000 due to foreign immigration, plus 525,000 births, minus 225,000 deaths. California is projected to reach 41 million by 2010, 47 million by 2020 and 50 million around 2025. Because outward manifestations of growth, such as new residential and commercial construction and auto traffic, are more apparent during economic expansions, anti-growth uprisings tend to erupt when the economy is reaching a peak and wane when the economy weakens, even though underlying growth remains relatively steady. Often growth-control measures push development into rural areas, thereby encouraging the suburban sprawl that environmentalists profess to oppose. For example, Marin County virtually shut down housing development in the 1970s and 1980s, pushing growth into Sonoma County to the north.
November 16, 2000 Xinhua
Birth Rate in Vietnam Drops.
The annual birth rate in Vietnam has dropped 0.05 percent to 1.7% in the last 10 years, but the ever-increasing number of abortions, gynecological and sexually
transmitted diseases, difficult pregnancies, and malnourished infants remain challenges for the country's family planning sector said the Vietnam News. More than one million
women had abortions in 1997, 30% of whom were juveniles and 6.7% of whom were unmarried. 46.9% of children nationwide and 69% of children in the country's rural and mountainous areas suffer from malnutrition.
November 14, 2000 Chicago Tribune
Britian Raises Contribution for Safe Global Contraception.
To help meet increasing demand for safe contraceptives in the developing world caused by the AIDS pandemic, Britain will send a $36 million one-time payment to the United Nations Population Fund for male and female condoms and drugs to treat sexually transmitted infections. The UN population fund may not be able to meet the rising demand for contraceptives in the developing world. "A shortfall of 500,000 pounds [$740,000] could lead to 360,000 unwanted pregnancies, 150,000 unsafe abortions, more than 800 maternal deaths and 11,000 child deaths."
November 15, 2000 IIASA
Population and Climate Change International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and Cambridge University Press have announced the publication of
Population and Climate Change by Brian C. O'Neill, F. Landis MacKellar,
and Wolfgang Lutz. This book provides the first systematic in-depth treatment of links between two major themes of the 21st century: population growth and associated demographic trends such as aging, and climate change. The multidisciplinary team of authors
integrates both natural science and social science perspectives intended
for members of both communities.
November 15, 2000 CNN
Oil Prices Edge Higher: Decline in U.S. Heating Oil Stocks Raises Supply Concerns as Winter Nears. ... and a threatened halt of Iraqi exports sent shivers through the global oil market. A 665,000-barrel drop in U.S. heating oil stocks left supplies more than 30% below this time last year, in the face of a cold front now headed to the U.S. northeast. Prices are still below a 10 year high. John Davidson, chief investment officer at Orbitex Group of Funds said that the pinch will be felt by the customers and cause an economic slowdown. Greenspan will probably not be raising any interest rates and in fact may be lowering them some time next year. Iraq, which sells about 5% of the world's crude oil exports, has informed its customers that beginning Dec. 1 it wants a 50 cent a barrel premium outside United Nations-controlled accounts. Click here for more information.
November 17, 2000 Adbusters/ZPG
International Buy Nothing Day is November 24, 2000.
North American overconsumption grossly magnifies human impact on the Earth, with 5% of the world's population consuming about 30% of its natural resources. And a mere 20% of the earth's population uses 80% of its natural resources. Our overconsumption is killing the planet. Buy Nothing Day, falling on the biggest shopping day of the year, is sponsored by Adbusters Media Foundation, is an excellent opportunity to formally recognize and reduce the impact of our consumer culture. Can you refrain from buying anything for one whole day? Organize a Buy Nothing Day in your area. Publicize American consumption patterns and urge friends and co-workers to purchase nothing for one day. For more help and information, visit www.adbusters.org., http://www.newdream.org or http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1624/umvei.htm#Institute .
November 13, 2000 Fortune
Death of a Continent; Africa Will Never Be the Same.
Africa has 11% of the world's population, and almost almost 75% of its AIDS cases. More than 25 million Africans have already contracted the virus that will kill them within a decade. AIDS is killing off the most productive people in Africa: the well educated, the prosperous, the powerful, the parents of young children. Yet Africa is in denial about the disease. The disease is strangely silent, almost underground. You don't see emaciated victims on city sidewalks in Botswana, South Africa, or Zambia. People return to their villages to die but don't tell their families why they are sick. In one utility company corporate boardroom, eight of 12 top executives are HIV positive; more than a dozen ministers in Malawi's national parliament have died. According to the CIA, in Angola and Congo half the soldiers are HIV positive. In Botswana, one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, 35% between 15 and 50 are HIV positive, says a United Nations report. In Muslim areas, HIV rates are low: between 1% and 3% north of the Sahara and around Senegal and Liberia. A study by a farmers union in Zimbabwe reported that maize production dropped 61% after the death of a breadwinner. Cotton and vegetable production fell by half. Families that grow more lucrative but labor-intensive crops to sell to cooperatives or along the roadside often must revert to subsistence farming when the male adults become sick. Assests such as the family cow, the plow, or the bicyle are sold to pay for treatment. Traditional healers get rich. Some suggest that the victim cure his AIDS by having sex with a virgin. 25% of 10-year-old girls in poor sections of the town of Lusaka have had sex, and 60% of 16-year-old girls. More than 25% of Zambia's children are orphans. Often the girls become prostitutes, catching and spreading HIV, and the boys become petty criminals. "Dry sex," a practice that is supposed to enhance sex, and lack of circumcision hastens the spread of AIDS, as well as untreated syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Only 6% of people reported using a condom in their last encounter with a spouse or live-in partner. 95% seem to know that unprotected sex leads to AIDS, but they seldom do anything about it. In the last few years 85% of the teachers who died in the Central African Republic were HIV positive. In Zambia, educated women past their teens are three times more likely to contract HIV than uneducated ones. Top country leaders rarely speak out in public about AIDS. Only in Uganda, perhaps the hardest-hit country in the world, has the President, Yoweri Musevini, led the charge. In Uganda, HIV has declined from 15% to 8% over the past 20 years.
November 9, 2000 New York Times
Poor Access To The Pill Killing Rural Tanzanian Women.
Young African couples dream of raising a stable and healthy family. Population Service International, local affiliate, PSI-Tanzania, develops and implements social marketing programmes in HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning promotion and child health. To dispel rumours that family planning pills make a woman infertile, cause deformed babies and cancer or itching of private parts, and to dispel the myth that men have no role in reproduction and fertility control, PSI-Tanzania hands out a consumer brochure countering commonly held beliefs and misconceptions about oral contraceptives, and a detailed description of the pill, and, in addition, under an initiative funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched a new family planning product called 'SafePlan,' a low dose oral contraceptive pill. It is proven to be 99% effective when used correctly and, at least 100 million women around the world have over the last 15 years used the pill to plan the size of their families. The cost is about 7 cents (US) per cycle. The pill also helps prevent anaemia, a serious problem affecting between 13 and 43 percent of Tanzanian women, and it reduces the risk of ectopic pregnancy and breast diseases. 42% of married Tanzanian women would like to space the birth of their next child or limit their family size, but only 18% are using a modern form of family planning. High fertility results in poverty and financial insecurity because women and families have more children than they can afford to take care of, high child mortality and morbidity, and high maternal mortality. Pregnancy and childbirth complications lead to 529 death for every 100,000 births. Many of these deaths could be avoided if all women able to stop childbearing when they wanted to. Unfortunately, contraceptives are not as readily accessible in rural areas and this is where most of the deaths occur.
November 12, 2000 email press release
Terry Anderson, Prisoner of South Central Los Angeles, Will Host His own Talk Show.
A long time opponent of illegal immigration, Terry has spoken at meetings, conferences, rallies, etc. and testified at Congressional hearings in Washington, DC, pleading with elected representatives to enforce immigration laws and protect citizens from
the effects of illegal immigration. Terry, a black man stuck in South Central LA, has stories to tell about poor people's wages falling because of competition with illegal immigrants who work for substandard wages. Sundays 8:00 to 9:00 pm KIEV (870AM)
or at www.kiev870.com.
November 10, 2000 Xinhua
Dhaka to Turn into 4th Largest City in World by 2015.
After an increase of 9 more million people, to reach a population of 23 million, the sprawling capital of Bangladesh, will become the fourth largest megacity in the world in fifteen years, according to the September 2000 Population Bulletin of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). Only Bombay India, Tokyo Japan and Lagos Nigeria will be larger. There are approximately 292 "million-plus" cities in less developed countries. This number is expected to nearly double to 564 in 15 years. Sao Paulo, Karachi, Mexico [City], Delhi, New York and Jakarta will be the 5th through 10th largest cities. Unplanned development of big cities depletes non-renewable natural resources and contributes to climate
change. Ensuring drinking water, electricity, sanitation and waste management pose a constant challenge to urban authorities in big cities of the undeveloped world. Rampant city growth is said to lead to urban poverty, and inequality, which in turn could spark a weakening of the state, civil unrest, urban terrorism, crime, violence and radical religious fundamentalism.
November 10, 2000 Associated Press
Mexico to Pay to Conserve Forests
where monarch butterflies nest. 44% of such forests destroyed in last 29 years. [If you wish to summarize this article for WOA!!, email me and I will send it to you.]
November 10, 2000 Reuters
Forests May Help Counteract Greenhouse Gas
Letting forests grow on abandoned farmland and logging grounds may do more than beautify the countryside -- they may be soaking up greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. [If you wish to summarize this article for WOA!!, email me and I will send it to you.]
November 9, 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Bay Area chooses to Limit Growth.
Bay Area voters approved more than a dozen measures to manage rampant growth. Alameda County was stripped of its power to convert most farmland into housing tracts and shopping malls without a vote of the people. Of the 18 growth-related measures in the region, only five lost. Most of the winning measures set or strengthen urban growth boundaries around cities, including San Jose. The Home Builder Association of Northern California said such measures worsen the area's already severe housing shortage by pushing development farther east and south, and neighbors complain because it puts too much traffic on their streets. Throughout California, 35 of 54 measures, 65%, passed, as compared to only half in 1998, according to the California Planning & Development Report. In Arizona and Colorado, two statewide initiatives to limit growth failed by a 2-to-1 ratio. [A Washington Post article said that growth control suffers when the debate can be converted into environmental
protection vs. affordable housing. For example, the housing group Habitat for Humanity fought the initiative in Colorado saying that the anti-sprawl measure "threatens our mission and the future of affordable housing in Colorado." Opponents pointed to the growth of housing costs in Portland and in Boulder, Colo., which has a growth
boundary. (Advocates pointed out that housing costs in Denver have gone up even faster than in Portland, even though Denver has no growth restrictions.) Opponents
attacked Loudoun County's slow-growth efforts as "snob zoning" that would preserve open space for the affluent while driving up housing costs for the less well-off. .... In yet another article from The Tracy Press, Tracy residents voted in favor of slow growth with 56.1% of voters favoring Measure A which amends the city's Growth Management Ordinance by cutting the number of residential building permits that can be issued in half, from a maximum of 1,500 to 750 and an average of 1,200 to 600.]
November 9, 2000 Women's Enews
Campaign 2000 Pro-Choice Forces Pick Up Senate, House Seats.
For the first time in six years, the U.S. Senate will have a
pro-choice majority, with 54 pro-choice and 46 anti-choice Senators. A record number of women have been elected to serve in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The Republicans are still in the majority in both houses, however. The House, too, may have picked up some pro-choice seats. The number of women governors increased from three to five, and also women experienced an increase in state houses as well.
November 9, 2000 Washington Post
Suicides of Women Rising in Traditional Southeast Turkey.
The suicide rate in southeast Turkey has rise over 50% since 1993. 80% of the suicides
are by women and 75% of those are between the ages of 13 and 25, according to government figures. Guerrilla warfare waged by Kurds and the military's destruction or evacuation of about 2,000 villages has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them into city slums and shattering the traditional agrarian economy of the area. Tribal traditions are still strong and illiteracy is widespread. Girls as young as 13 are sometimes married to sexagenarians against their will and many girls are not allowed out of the house by their fathers or husbands. Availability of television in the area has shown these women that there are different lifestyles in the West, making them less likely to suffer in silence. "The suicide rate among women is high in conservative and repressive societies," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations envoy on violence against women. China, for example, has one of the highest suicide rates among rural women--almost 500 per day.
November 7, 2000 New York Times
25 Years Later, Vietnamese Still Flock to the U.S.
Since the first rush of 130,000 who fled Vietnam when Saigon fell in April 1975, one million have emigrated from Vietnam to the U.S. "This present emergency should not last," said the top refugee official at the United Nations as desperate people jammed onto helicopters and small boats to flee the Communist victory. 26,000 Vietnamese a year now emigrate to the United States, forming one of the 6 largest flows of immigrants into America. Most of the immigrants now are part of what one consular official called "an expanding pyramid" of family reunification in which refugee citizens reach back to their homeland to bring their parents, children, siblings and spouses who eventually will send for more relatives. The immigrants say they go in search of an American dream of
prosperity and education that shines as brightly here as anywhere in the world. Many of these people have spent much of their lives in refugee camps, trying for decades to reach the United States or other countries. Though required to prove "a well- founded fear of persecution" long after hostilities have ended, they are often given the benefit of the doubt by immigration officials. Of the "boat people" who fled, 10 - 15% died at sea, but 400,000 found asylum in the U.S. Another 20,000 "land people" who fled on foot through Cambodia came to the U.S. In addition, special programs started in 1990 have accepted 90,000 Amerasian children of servicemen and about 165,000 survivors of re- education camps, where high-ranking South Vietnamese officials and military officers were incarcerated. $2 billion a year is sent back to family members in Vietnam from the two million or so ethnic Vietnamese now living in the U.S. This is twice the total amount of foreign aid received by the Vietnamese government.
November 7, 2000 The Associated Press
China Makes Example of Family Planners Suspected of Killing Aborted Child.
In China, three family planning officials will be put on trial on suspicion of killing an infant who survived an abortion. Family planners in the countryside outside the central city of Wuhan had persuaded a mentally retarded couple to abort a fourth child when the woman was eight months pregnant. Abortions in China are legal only up through the seventh month of pregnancy. The husband then disposed of the aborted fetus, only for an elderly woman to later find it still alive and rescue it. The child, a boy, was killed, possibly by being drowned in a paddy field. Beijing has set strict birth quotas, which sometimes result in forced abortions, exorbitant fines and other coercive measures. Beijing has tried to move away from birth control by fiat toward providing better education and services to families.
November 7, 2000 New York Times
David Brower, an Aggressive Champion of U.S. Environmentalism, Is Dead at 88.
David Brower spent over 50 years fighting to protect America's wilderness areas against speculators, developers, state agencies and the federal government. He died of cancer on Sunday. He was the leader of a number of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth. In the 1960's he was instumental in preventing the construction of two major government dams in the Grand Canyon. He also fought recently for the wilderness of the Northern Cascades in Oregon and Washington, Point Reyes and Kings Canyon in California, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, the Allagash Wilderness in Maine and the Everglades in Florida. Speaking about the evils of pesiticides, he would tell his audience: "Bite the worms. They won't hurt nearly as much as the insecticide does." He also said: "We're hooked on growth. We're addicted to it. In my lifetime, man has used more resources than in all previous history." Also he said: "We can, upright people that we are, rediscover the foot; we can save a place to walk in, and an antelope, too." Brower became Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 1952 when it had a membership of 7,000 and an annual budget of $75,000 When he stepped down under pressure in 1969, it had 77,000 members and assets of $3 million, and had probably blocked or delayed construction of at least $7 billion. He served on the Sierra Club's Board of Directors several times, but this spring, saying "The world is burning, and all I hear from them is the music of violins," he said in resigning. "May the Sierra Club become what John Muir wanted it to be and what I have alleged it was." [In an article from Reuters news service: Declaring that the organization had strayed from issues included in its original mandate such as protecting California's Sierra Mountains, and was failing to oppose increased immigration into the United States, Brower publicly quit the group in May.]
November 6, 2000 Agence France Presse
China Predicts No More than 1.4 Billion People by 2010.
China has vowed to keep up strict family planning controls to ensure its
vast population does not exceed 1.4 billion by the year 2010 so that it does not become a major obstacle to the country's economic development. An increase of 10 million per year is expected over the next decade peaking at 1.6 billion around 2050. China has an estimated 1.25 to 1.3 billion people. China's working population would reach
900 million in the next few decades, leading to a rise in unemployment. The number of elderly people (over 60), would rise from just 130 million this year to an estimated 439 million in 2050 25% of the population. Urban families who exceed the one child limit could face penalties such as being fired or fined at state-run enterprises, being forced to pay higher school fees and health costs, and being refused the right to register a second child. Rural families are allowed to have two children as long as the first child
was a girl. Forced sterilization campaigns in some rural villages have been documented.
November 2000 Prospect
After Oil
The weightless economy still has dirty old oil pumping through its veins, as the recent fuel blockades demonstrated says David Fleming. In the next ten years, the growing demand for oil will permanently overtake a shrinking supply -- playing havoc with price. Why are western governments doing nothing to prepare? Only one country has the potential for a serious increase in output, on a scale which could make a difference. The bad news is: that country is Iraq.
November 30, 2000 The Guardian
Health Consciousness on a Global Scale.
Public health is not just a national issue but a global concern that brings rich and poor nations
together in a community of danger or--if we do something about it--shared well-being. The ultimate lesson of HIV/AIDS is that when we ignore the public health of poor nations, we imperil the public health of affluent nations. Over 80% of Americans believe that infectious diseases in other countries posed a serious threat here, and 30% are more concerned about it this year than last year, according to a Global Health Council poll last year. Basic health care is vital: improving child health, nutrition and survival; expanding immunization programs; investing more in maternal health and reproductive health, including family planning and treatment and prevention of
sexually transmitted diseases as well as control of malaria, tuberculosis and childhood pneumonia. Rotary International gave $400 million for polio eradication; Ted Turner gave $1 billion to
a United Nations fund for public health; Corporations like Merck, SmithKline Beecham, Glaxo Wellcome and Pfizer are donating drugs for global health. Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation has established a $1 million annual award to be given to an organization that has made an extraordinary difference in reducing the health gap between rich and poor nations.
November 29, 2000 Los Angeles Times
California: State Funding Urged to Save Open Spaces.
Ominous growth threatens to devastate the state's remaining open spaces and Gov. Gray Davis was called on to make land preservation an urgent priority. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation released a report on its ambitious five-year drive to protect farmland, wildlife habitat and other threatened acreage around the state. The Foundation has saved 327,000 acres, an area about 10 times the size of San Francisco. It considered the $341 million it spent, with matching funds, as a "down payment" and said state government should commit significant money now to a permanent land acquisition fund. Jeanne Sedgwick, director of the foundation's conservation program said "There are 25 million new
Californians coming in the next 40 years, and if we don't get on top of this now, we'll be buried." Members have agreed to double their investment budget and expand the conservation effort to half a million acres. Packard uses its contributions to draw matching
funds from private and public donors. For example, a spectacular six-mile stretch of coastline south of San Francisco destined to have build luxury homes built on it was saved. Other projects include numerous wetland acquisitions, efforts to restore salmon and steelhead runs to various streams, projects to enhance waterfowl habitat in the Central Valley and preservation of wilderness on Mt. Hamilton near San Jose. The Foundation said that by 2040, California will need to absorb as many residents as live in eight cities the size of Los Angeles. Over the last decade, the report says, 138,000 acres of California farmlands have been lost to urban sprawl, an increase of more than 50% from the previous decade. In the Sierra Nevada, 50% of the remaining private lands are expected to be developed by 2040. The state has a projected state budget surplus of $10.6 billion, and the Foundation says Gov. Davis ought to commit at least $1 billion to a land preservation endowment. One study estimates that it would take $12.3 billion to buy the 5.4 million acres of critical habitat in need of preservation in California. A recent poll showed that 59% of Californians believe their region is growing very rapidly, and that 57% favor using tax dollars to buy open space. The Central Coast, Central Valley and Sierra Nevada are the Foundation's targeted areas.
November 30, 2000 The Guardian
EU May Ban Aid to States That Allow Female Circumcision.
European Union development aid could be withheld from third world countries that refuse to ban the controversial practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). Nearly 2 million girls are at risk from this practice. 28 African countries practise FGM and in Somalia 98% of women are affected. Senegal, Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Togo have outlawed it; other recent reformers are Ghana, Burkina Faso and Egypt. [Unfortunately, withdrawal of development aid will hurt the very people this measure is trying to protect].
November 29, 2000 Agence France Presse
Women's Condom Goes on Trial in Rwanda.
60% of Rwandans have sexual encounters before the age of 18, and 83% before 23.
The condom was introduced by Population Services International (PSI), a
US-based organisation. It is a fine polyurethane membrane that covers
all of the user's genitalia. It sells for 38 US cents but will be subsidised in Rwanda
as are contraceptives for men.
November 28, 2000 DailyMonitor/allAfrica.com
Ethiopia's Population Will Reach 129 Million In 2030.
Ethiopia's current population (2000) is 63,495,000, according to the 1994 National Population and Housing census. The current TFR (number
of children a woman would have at prevailing fertility patterns)
is 5.9 children per woman. The government plans to achieve contraceptive prevalence rate of 44% in the year 2015. However, the current rate is only 8%. Increasing the school enrollment, particularly for rural girls will delay the age of marriage which hopefully will decrease fertility in the rural areas. Nearly two third of the population is under 25.
November 2, 2000 Xinhua
China Cooperates with Developing Countries.
In the field of population and development, China will cooperate with Partners in Population and Development (PPD) through South-to-South cooperation. Other PPD countries include Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, the Gambia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Exchanges and cooperation should be strengthened to boost a sustainable development between population, economy, society, resources and environment, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State
Family Planning Commission. Plans include inter-governmental exchange visits, personnel training, bilateral exchanges, export of contraception medicines and instruments, sex education, prevention of AIDS and venereal diseases and health care of women.
November 13, 2000 Hubbertpeak.com
The Peak of World Oil Production and the Road to the Olduvai Gorge.
by Richard C. Duncan, Ph.D., Pardee Keynote Symposia, Geological Society of America Summit 2000.
Based on historic data from 1920 to 1999, world energy production per capita increased strongly from 1945 to its all-time peak in 1979. Then from 1979 to 1999 - for the first time in history - it decreased from 1979 to 1999 at a rate of 0.33%/year. Evidence strongly suggests that, from 2000 to 2011, world energy production per capita will decrease by about 0.70%/year (the 'slide'). Then around year
2012 the author expects a rash of permanent electrical blackouts - worldwide. These blackouts, along with other factors, will cause energy production per capita by 2030 to fall to 3.32 barrels/year, the same value it had in 1930. The rate of decline from 2012 to 2030 is 5.44%/year. The average decline of oil production is predicted to be 2.45%/year from 2006 to 2040. The Olduvai 'slide' from 2001 to 2011 may resemble the "Great Depression" of 1929 to 1939. The electricity business has almost run out off existing generating capacity. In 1999, electricity supplied 42% of the world's end-use energy versus 39% for oil.
November 27, 2000 GPSC
Population Forum: Strategies for Empowering Women & Youth Worldwide.
Atlanta, Georgia: Thursday, December 7, 6:30 p.m., Emory University, White Hall, Rm 208. Speaker: Peggy Curlin, president, The Centre for Development and Population
Activities (CEDPA). The world is growing by 78 million people a year and is now approaching 7
billion. Currently, nearly a half a billion women are about to reach
childbearing age, 15-24. This year alone, about 600,000 of these women will
die from preventable pregnancy and childbearing complications. Access to
family planning has never been more important -- it gives women the CHOICE of
determining the number and spacing of their children. It can also have a
profound impact on women's opportunities for schooling, employment, and
empowerment. Come learn about exciting programs in the Third World that focus on
management training, institution building, youth development, and
reproductive health. See how women empowered with knowledge and skills and
working under the most difficult circumstances can transform entire
communities.
Sponsors: Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter; United Nations Association of the
USA, Atlanta Chapter; Interfaith Health Program and International Health
Department of the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; in
cooperation with Population Resource Center of Washington, D.C.
For details, visit the Georgia Population & Sustainability
Coalition web site at: www.poptalk.org/backpage or call Todd Daniel at (770)
439-5908.
November 26, 2000 ENN
Ten Years After: The Killing Fields of Kuwait.
by Jean-Michel Cousteau
It has been almost 10 years since the retreating Iraqi invaders, in a
"scorched earth" maneuver, turned the environment itself against their
Kuwaiti enemies, but the war's environmental legacy continues to poison life
in the region, according to a report by Green Cross International.
600 oil fires were set, crippling the Kuwaiti oil industry. Some burned for
a year and a half, polluting the air, land and water, smearing the
countryside and everything in it with an acrid oily residue. Broken
wellheads spilled 60 million barrels of oil onto the land, creating 246
lakes now covering almost 50 square kilometers of desert. The 5% of the oil
that has not been recovered continues to percolate downward, contaminating
the nation's freshwater aquifers. 40% of Kuwait's freshwater supply are no
longer drinkable and Kuwait's strategic reserves are estimated at two days.
Apparently, this problem has no technological fix. 1,500 miles of coast were
soiled, some of it home to spectacular corals and rare marine creatures,
such as dugongs. Today's overfishing and coastal development may hamper
recovery. Each day toxic dust is caught up in desert winds. Along the
Nile, Ganges, Jordan, Tigris and Euphrates rivers, water supplies shrink
while populations grow. Technological, agricultural and managerial changes
made to secure the future include drip irrigation, recycling, intercropping
and conservation-oriented pricing. [As populations grow and remain
energy-hungry, the demand for oil will lead to more strife and more
environmental damages.]
November 26, 2000 Reuters
U.S.-EU failure to Cut Climate Deal Met with Outrage.
U.N. climate and global warming talks have collapsed. Activists and poor
nations poured scorn on the failure of the gas-guzzling richest countries,
the United States and European Union, to stop squabbling over the cost of
cleaning the planet and unite to tackle climate change.
November 19, 2000 The Hindu
Japan: Needed: A Bold Policy.
Japan has failed to facilitate the compatibility of womens' pursuit of a career with family
life, thus the tendency among working women to postpone marriage and childbirth
has grown markedly stronger with the years. Japan's birthrate is now at 1.38%, the lowest in the world. At this rate, by 3500 A.D. Japan will be empty. By 2015 one in four will be 65 years old or over, and by 2050 the proportion will be one in three. Will the younger generation be able to bear the burden of supporting the elderly? Japan's non-Japanese resident population is only 1.2% of the total. Perhaps Japan should allow immigration of Cambodians, Vietnamese and Latin Americans of Japanese extraction? [Japan is one of the world's most crowded countries]
November 24, 2000 A World That Works
A World That Works For Every Person by 2040. August, 2000 brought the birth of a new web site, www.aworldthatworks.com. The site seeks to identify the major global "players" making a difference with 20 global issues and providing up-to-date information on progress being made and resources needed. The ultimate goals of the site are: 1) to develop the largest and most powerful network of individuals committed to A World That Works - and cause global breakthroughs when the size of the network reaches "critical mass." 2) to become a conduit for billions of dollars of investment into each of the global issues listed.
November 17, 2000 Xinhua
Beijing has 1.88 Million People Aged over 60.
14.6% of Beijing's total population is over age 60, according to a conference on Beijing's senior citizens. The elderly population there grows 5.5% annually. 71.4% of the Beijing's population over 60 have chronic diseases, 19.6% above the nation's average. The municipal government has formulated regulations concerning its pensions, basic medical
care and social welfare systems for senior citizens.
November 23, 2000 Reuters
Cause for Thanksgiving: WHO Launches Clean Water Campaign.
The World Health Organization hopes to improve sanitation access for 2.2
billion more people and water supply access for 1.6 billion people by 2015,
thus drastically cutting the planet's annual death toll from water-borne
diseases. A goal of universal access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene
is planned within the next 25 years. Estimated cost per year is $7 billion
- a tenth of what Europe spends on alcohol and under half of what the United
States spends on pet food, according to Jose Hueb, a WHO coordinator. Most
of the people with no improved water supply or sanitation live in Asia and
Africa. Diarrhea, intestinal worms and blindness caused by trachoma are the
diseases manifested by poor water supply. 2.2 million people die annually of
diarrhea, most of them under 5 years old. One child dies every 15 seconds,
on the average. In Asia where only 48% of the population has sanitation
coverage. 50 of the world's developing countries have already achieved an
average 90% coverage of water and 90% of sanitation.
October 10, 2000
Earth Times News
Thoraya Obaid, The Director of the Division For Arab States And Europe of the UN Population Fund Has Ascended to the UN Agency's Top Post.
Dr. Thoraya Obaid of Saudi Arabia was appointed the new executive director of the UN Population Fund on October 25. "I hope we will move forward ... to further implement the Programme of Action of the Cairo Conference of 1994 and the Key Actions that were adopted in the UN General Assembly Special Session held in New York in June 1999." ... "The whole point of that program is to link population issues with the larger picture of development and to move from population as numbers to population as people, from quantity to quality, from contraceptives to choices." Dr. Obaid has a literary background combined with Sociology and Cultural Anthropology. "UNFPA is not only about the physical health aspects of women and men; it is also about the total well-being of the individual. The Cairo Programme of Action is about choices that are available to women, choices that would allow them to make decisions about their lives and about their reproductive health, she said.
'
October 15, 1999
Redefining Progress
Calculate Your Ecological Footprint
This is a very basic questionnaire to calculate a quick and relatively accurate Ecological Footprint for an individual living in the US.There are 13 questions divided into 3 sections (food, transportation, and housing). This application calculates from your answers your Ecological Footprint. The default answers represent North American averages.
'
October 20, 2000 Associated Press
Group Details Decline of Ecosystems.
The natural wealth of the world's ecosystems has declined by a third over the past 30 years, according to a recent World Wildlife Fund study, entitled The Living Planet Report 2000. Since 1961, the area of land mass and ocean needed to produce natural resources for consumers and to absorb carbon dioxide pollution has doubled. Between
1970 and 1999 there has been a decline in ecosystems by 12% in the forests, 50% in fresh
waters, and 35% in the oceans. The pressure of mankind on nature had increased by
about 50% over the same period and had now gone beyond the planet's ability to regenerate. "We have borrowed this planet from our children and our grandchildren," said Professor Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch prime minister, and the Fund's international president.
October 17,2000 ENN
Deep Gulf Research Dives May Uncover New Energy Resources
From University of North Carolina at Wilmington: In a search for new energy resources, a team of scientist sent a Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin on 14 research dives in the Gulf of Mexico. The scientists investigated topics such as: gas hydrates, microbiology, and intense storms in the deep ocean. Their discoveries may gain insight on the planet’s past geology, our global climate patterns and a groundwork for discovering future energy resource. Of main interest to the scientists is the possibility of hydrocarbon reserves beneath the sea which may lead to petroleum exploration in the deep waters. To learn more about the expedition and description of theirobjectives, visit www.ecology.com (click on Gulf Project). -rvs
October 4, 2000 Islamic Republic News Agency
UK Gas Imports Could Start This Winter, Transco Warns London.
Britain's natural gas could run out within the next 20 years because of the lack of growth in North Sea reserves, British Gas' transport firm, Transco has warned. In a 10-year statement forecasting gas supply and demand, it said that imports from Europe could start sooner than previously predicted. It did not rule out the possibility of imports through the gas pipeline to Belgium starting this winter. jh
October 8, 2000 Brain Food
Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Decision Making,
by Howard T. Odum; Wiley, 1996.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471114421/brainfood.a
Book review: From page 314 we find that in 1993 total US fuel use was 4.78 x 10e24 sej increasing about 2% per year ever since. From page 187 we find that total net solar radiation absorption for Alaska and the lower 48 was 4.48 x 10e22 sej. In other words, the US is presently using fossil fuels more than 100 times greater than the total absorption of solar radiation across the entire US! jh
October 26, 2000 Associated Press
Global Warming Theory Affirmed.
Man-made pollution has "contributed substantially" to global warming and the Earth is likely to get hotter than previously predicted, new evidence from a United Nations-sponsored panel has shown. "There is stronger evidence" yet on the human influence on climate and that it is likely that man-made greenhouse gases already "have contributed substantially to the observed warming over the last 50 years," was the assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which consists of hundreds of scientists. If
greenhouse gas emissions are not curtailed, average surface temperatures may increase between 2.7 and nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. A range of 1.8 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer was predicted in its report five years ago. One of the reasons given for the difference was the expected decrease in sulfate releases from industrial facilities and power plants due to other environmental concerns. Sulfate releases tend to have a cooling influence. Industrial nations tentatively agreed to lower the release of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, 3 years ago in Kyoto, Japan to below 1990 levels, but none of the major industrial countries has yet ratified the agreement. [Petroleum experts Colin Campbell, Jean Laherrere, Brian Fleay, Roger Blanchard, Richard Duncan, Walter Youngquist, and Albert Bartlett (using various methodologies) have all estimated a "peak" in "conventional oil" around 2005. Moreover, the CEOs of Agip, ENI SpA, (Italian oil companies) and Arco have all published estimates of peak in 2005. So it seems like a reliable estimate. ... dieoff website]
October 17, 2000 Inter Press Service
Health-India: Women Campaign Against Birth Control Injections.
Women's rights groups in India are pressing the government to give its up plans to use contraceptive injections, such as Depo-Provera, and other "synthetic, steroidal female hormones" as part of the national birth control program, which they say is becoming coercive. Injections have already been approved for use in the country's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. The women's groups, including communist party affiliate, All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), allege the injections have harmful side-effects, including premature menopause, atrophy of the ovaries, sterility death from spontaneous blood clots, susceptibility to HIV-infection, Down's Syndrome in offspring, cervical cancer, and interfering with the reproductive health of progeny. They say foreign drug companies are pushing the contraceptive injections without proper certification for safety. The introduction of Depo-Provera into India has been stalled by the Supreme Court on the grounds that there was insufficient research on its suitability for Indian conditions. These long-acting contraceptives require proper counselling and follow-up, which would be lacking in India's poorly managed and ill-equipped health delivery services. While India's new National Population Policy speaks of a "target-free and non-disincentive regime" in birth control, several states have been allowed to negotiate direct funding for birth control from international agencies, which have laid down conditions that go against the national policy. The western Maharashtra state will cut subsidized food quotas for children of the poor with large families. Uttar Pradesh, central Madhya Pradesh and western Rajasthan states now link availability of benefits to family size. Delhi and Haryana bar candidates with more than two children from local body elections. 42 million women in India need protection against unwanted pregnancies. Depo-Provera is administered once every three months, but can block contraception for a year or more after the last injection.
October 11, 2000 Sacramento Bee
California: Growth Fights Fill a Vacuum.
By Dan Walters. Driven by high rates of births and foreign immigration, California is experiencing one of its longer periods of high-level population growth. The state has grown from 24 million Californians in 1980 to approximately 35 million (expected when the 2000 U.S. Census is tabulated). 6 million people a year are expected to be added to California's population, reaching 50 million around 2025. Those additional millions will need places to live and work, plus water, open space, sewage treatment, clean air, transportation, education and electric power. These needs will constitute California's single greatest public policy challenge, yet this challenge will be largely ignored by public officials. We address problems such as traffic congestion, water shortages or school crowding as if they were accidents of fate, rather than logical and largely predictable consequences. The California Planning and Development Report says 50 measures dealing with growth will appear on local ballots next month. Measures vary from strict development controls and urban development limits in some areas, to pro-growth measures, such as Sacramento County's ballot measure that would authorize a huge senior housing complex outside the county's urban development line. All these growth conflicts at the local level results in a policy patchwork which squeezes development -- which must occur because of population growth -- into communities most receptive to growth, whether or not it makes sense overall. Tougher controls in coastal areas forces development into inland agricultural valleys, for example, and contributes to sprawl and transportation congestion.
October 26, 2000 ZPG
Victory for International Family Planning: Congress Passes Foreign Aid Bill Without 'Gag Rule Restrictions.
On October 25, Congress voted to increase funding for international family planning to $425 million -- a little more than $50 million over the current spending level. This will help to ensure that more women around the world will have access to critical family planning services. Congress also lifted the "global gag" rule --which restricts foreign aid to family planning groups overseas that perform abortions or lobby their governments for abortion rights with their own, separate funds. The $14.9 billion foreign aid spending bill passed the House by a 301-101 vote, and later passed the Senate by a 65-27 vote. President Clinton is expected to sign the bill. The agreement is not perfect, though, in that it delays the release of funds until February 15, after a new president is inaugurated. This means that the new president, if he is so inclined, will be able to reimpose the gag rule by executive order, as was done during the administrations of Presidents Reagan and Bush.
October 24, 2000 Associated Press
Negotiators Agree on Aid.
On Tuesday, October 24, 2000, negotiators reached an accord on a $14.9 billion
foreign aid measure that includes $425 million to overseas family planning
programs, up from $385 million Congress provided last year. The measure also
eliminates a ban on giving funds to organizations that use private funds to
perform abortions overseas or advocate liberalized abortion laws there. In
addition, the measure gives $435 million to help relieve over $100 billion
in international debt owed by 20 or so poor countries.
October 24, 2000 Cox News Service
Turner Issues Philanthropic Challenge.
Ted Turner challenged persons made rich by the Internet. "There is no
excuse," he said, for the fact that children live without access to clean
water, education and health care. UNICEF gave Turner an award for his
efforts in promoting children's health, women and population issues, the
environment, and peace and security.
October 24, 2000 BBC
South Africa's New War Against Aids
South Africa will publicize, through newspaper, radio and television
advertisements, basic methods to prevent HIV transmission, such as
abstinence, monogamy and condom use. Guidelines have been designed to clear
up confusion caused by President Thabo Mbeki's controversial remarks
questioning whether HIV causes AIDS. Mbeki's government has so far been
reluctant to allow use of anti-retroviral drugs, even to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
October 22, 2000 El Tiempo
Columbia: Families Choose To Have Fewer Children.
Profamilia conducted a national survey of demography and health and found
that over one-third of the 1.1 million children born every year in Colombia
are from unwanted pregnancies. Columbia's average children per family has
dropped from seven 35 years ago to a current average of two. Female
sterilization has increased. Columbians have suffered destruction of their
homes, inequality between men and women and a long endurance of civil war.
Young women "decide that their children are not going to suffer like their
mothers." Columbia has advanced in maternal health, child nutrition and
family planning, but is lacking in adequate sexual education, leading to
unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The number of women between the ages of
15 and 19 who have given birth or become pregnant increased over the past 10
years from 11% to 19%.
October 24, 2000 Sunspot.net
Pollution, Global Warming Destroy World's Coral Reefs.
25% of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed by pollution and global
warming and most of the remaining reefs could vanish in 20 years, unless
immediate measures are taken, reports researchers at the 9th
International Coral Reef Symposium on the island of Bali. Governments must
reverse global warming trends, reduce pollution and combat overfishing by
commercial suppliers. In some regions, fishermen use dynamite or cyanide
poison to help harvest their catches, which harms the reefs. In other areas,
governments allow untreated sewage and other wastes to flow directly into
the oceans. Up to 90% of coral reefs have been killed because of rising
water temperatures in the Maldives and Seychelles islands in the Indian
Ocean. Global warming damages the coral by bleaching, a process in which the
reefs heat up and expel the microscopic plants that give them their color.
Coral reefs anchor many marine ecosystems; their loss could mean extinction
for thousands of species of fish and other marine life. 500 million people
rely on the reefs for food and income.
October 23, 2000 Future Harvest
Pesticides: Scientists Promote Natural Locust Killer.
A Nigerian research group funded by the World Bank, International Institute
of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), has developed a natural pesticide designed
to kill crop-destroying locusts and grasshoppers. A naturally-occurring
fungus marketed as Green Muscle provides a "highly effective" control option
and is "safer and more environmentally sound than the present range of
chemical pesticides," Swarms of locusts have long plagued farmers around the
world, according to Future Harvest, a nonprofit research group A locust
invasion between 1986 and 1989 impacted countries from West Africa to India
and consumed an amount of vegetation per day equivalent to the food needs of
200 million people. The fungus was used successfully in August in a mass
spraying in Niger. [Pesticides are often unregulated and misused in third
world countries. As soil deteriorates or drought occurs, resulting in lower
crop production, farmers desparatly turn to pesticides.]
October 23, 2000 FAO
FAO: Potential of Solar Energy Systems in Rural Areas Often Still
Untapped.
"We should not only use solar systems for household lighting, but also for
pumping drinking water, irrigation, cattle watering, small cottage and
agro-industries, facilitating educational radio and TV programs and health
services." said a A UN Food and Agriculture Organization report (FAO)
report. Nearly 2 billion people have no access to electricity. As prices
drop the size and number of smaller-scale services will become more readily
available. Solar power can operate drip irrigation for high-value crops and
water supplies for people and their herds in remote areas and help develop
the retail sector and technical workshops. The installation and maintenance
of photovoltaic electricity helps create jobs.
October 21, 2000 Associated Press
Congress Mulls Overseas Abortion Aid.
The $14.9 billion foreign aid bill could be ready for congressional
approval early next week. Rep. Sonny Callahan, the chairman, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
the top Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls foreign aid, have discussed at least two options. In both options, last year's $385 million for international family planning would be boosted to perhaps $425 million. This is higher than the House version for this year. One version would keep the Reagan-era ban in place until early next year. The other would lack the prohibition, but the money could not be spent until early next year, by the next president. In either case, the next president will decide whether to reinstate the Reagan restrictions.
October 11, 2000 Wall Street Journal
GOP Revises Foreign-Aid Budget of $14.9 Billion - With Strings
Republicans are proposing a revised $14.9 billion foreign-aid
budget which is $1.6 billion higher than the amount the House approved in July. It moves far closer to President Clinton's initial request and holds the promise of increased funding to pay down the debts of poor developing countries. There are still major differences over provisions that would be attached to
the bill, including restrictions on U.S. aid to population-planning programs overseas. The ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations panel, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said "We are making progress." ... "The numbers that we are talking about can accommodate many of our needs."
October 20, 2000 Sacramento Bee
California: Capital Reaches 406,899 or So.
California has 33,145,121 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, based on 1990 projectons. The the California Department of Finance, which uses drivers license information, estimates the state's population at one million more. Sacramento is the 38th largest city (about the same as Fresno and Las Vegas) in the nation according to new population estimates from the US Census Bureau. The top three cities remain unchanged: New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In California, the biggest cities are Los Angeles (with 3,633,591 residents), San Diego (1,238,974), San Jose (867,675) and San Francisco (746,777). Sacramento's population grew 3% from 1990 to 1999, and its suburbs mushroomed.
Neighboring Rocklin grew 83%, to 34,205 last year, making it sixth fastest-growing city in California. Roseville grew 72% in the same time period. Galt, another Sacramento County community, grew by 95%, from only 8,954 in 1990.
October 18,2000 ENN
Northwest Grizzlies Reach the Brink.
Idaho and Washington are the last lower elevation habitat for grizzly bears in the lower US states. High-elevation habitat is in the recovery areas of Yellowstone, Northern Continental Divide and Selway-Bitterroot ecosystems. All are threatened. Over 50,000 bears once ranged from Mexico to Canada; currently there are less than 100. Grizzly habitats face an increasing habitat loss from logging, mining, drilling, recreation and road building. When the grizzly was listed in 1975, the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem lost more than 280,000 roadless acres, 17% of the recovery area. In 1999, five out of the 30 bears in the region perished. Grizzlies are hunted legally in both the US and Canada.
rvs
October 2000 Rand Policy Brief
Beyond the Numbers: How Americans View Global Population Issues,
Population Matters.
According to a recent RAND survey, the majority of respondents believe that
the world is overpopulated, but only about 14% of Americans know that world
population currently stands
at over 6 billion people. Another 14% thinks there are as many as 30
billion people, and 40% said they have no idea of current world population
levels. RAND authors say that communicators might catch the U.S. public's
attention more by "discussing these issues in terms of their impact on
individuals and families and their quality of life, rather than by focusing
on aggregate statistics and trends." Rand found that Americans voice strong
support for U.S. government funding of international and domestic family
planning programs, but half of those polled said they do not oppose
congressional cuts in foreign assistance for family planning. RAND suggests
that "the public would benefit from accurate information about the
relatively low cost of population assistance programs," adding that an
emphasis on foreign governments' support for and individuals' desire for
such programs could help bolster public opinion. Only two-thirds of
Americans, and half of those who oppose U.S. support for abortion rights
overseas, believe that family planning reduces abortions. Evidence from a
number of countries shows that improved availability of contraception
cuts the number of abortions performed. Those opposed to abortion rights
believe that "too many women use abortion as a routine