Is a fertility stall a manger in Bethlehem?
Posted on July 2, 2008
Family planning, Resource depletion, World | Leave a Comment
Unfortunately not. Countries’ fertility rate typically falls as they become better off. Neither is now happening in sub-Saharan Africa, leading to higher projections for population. Hence the stall. Report here.
The Bush administration has responded by withholding UNFPA funds for the 7th year in a row. A record 181 countries contributed a record amount to the fund in 2007. The US is the only country withholding funding for political reasons. Coverage here.
Eco-towns “irrelevant ” to UK Housing and Environment
Posted on June 30, 2008
Climate change, Food security, Migration imbalance, Family planning, Resource depletion, UK/ Europe | 1 Comment
The Government’s plans for eco-towns make a “derisory” contribution to housing need and are irrelevant to the environmental challenges facing Britain, the Optimum Population Trust says today (Monday June 30).
In its submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government consultation on eco-towns, which closes today, the OPT says 15 million more houses will be required in the next seven decades to cater for projected population growth - an increase of 60 per cent on current housing numbers and equivalent in housing terms to almost five more Londons.
Yet on the Government’s own figures, the eco-towns programme will provide, at best, under 100,000 houses and probably many fewer. This is equivalent, at most, to less than one per cent (0.65 per cent) of long-term housing need.
“Set against the projected need for another 15 million [dwellings], this is an insignificant – indeed, almost derisory – figure. In that sense the eco-towns programme is at best an irrelevance, at worst a distraction from the real task in hand - securing sustainable population levels,” the OPT says.
For more, see the full news release and submission.
One third of secondary schools have a sex clinic
Posted on June 27, 2008
Teenage pregnancy, UK/ Europe | Leave a Comment
And a good thing, too, given the UK’s massive lead in teen pregnancies. Let’s hope the other two thirds follow suit.
Meanwhile, councils across England are choosing their local priorities. Refreshingly, many, like those in Manchester, are choosing teenage pregnancy reduction. Coverage here.
Energy and climate change - the need, the solution, the reality
Posted on June 25, 2008
Climate change, Resource depletion, UK/ Europe, World | 1 Comment
The need - Major economies should aim to halve world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and work out ways to bury gases in a wider assault on climate change, the science academies of 13 nations said on Tuesday. Coverage
Big business is getting worried: coverage here and here and here
The tipping point is near according to climate change pioneer James Hansen’s latest comments.
The latest concern is that the rapid loss of Arctic ice could threaten the permafrost belt, releasing vast amounts of climate changing methane. Coverage
The solution - Governments around the world must spend $45 trillion (£23trn) if they are to halve carbon emissions by 2050, according to a leading energy watchdog, as it called for an “energy revolution”. If current policies are maintained, CO2 emissions will more than double, The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned. The IEA called yesterday for “unprecedented” action to completely transform the way energy is produced, adding: “Our current path is not sustainable.” Coverage
The reality - Britain will find it ‘impossible’ to meet its target as part of the world’s battle to ensure temperatures do not rise more than 2C - a key threshold for dangerous climate change, according to a study by a panel of leading experts.
The report ‘Carbon Scenarios’ by the Stockholm Network thinktank says that if existing policies and hopes of international agreement on reducing emissions were implemented, there would still be a 90 per cent chance the temperature rise would reach about 3C, a level that experts fear would provoke ‘feedback’ of more carbon by melting permafrost, threatening the world’s forests.
If governments let policies ’stall and backslide’ - as many appear to be doing - the rise would be 4.8C, says the study, to be published tomorrow. ‘The two-degree target is impossible, and [a] three-degree target is implausible,’ said Paul Domjan, energy fellow at the London-based European thinktank and an author of the report.
Domjan said the modelling, done by the world-renowned Hadley Centre at the Met Office but using emissions calculated by the Stockholm Network, highlighted three problems: ‘Current policy comes in too slowly, it internationalises too slowly and it binds developing countries too late.’ Coverage
Meanwhile, the 170 nation UN climate change conference in Bonn ends with little progress. Coverage
Meanwhile Mark Lynas’s Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet has won the Royal Society award for science book of the year. Lynas’s book walks readers through the hellish scenario implied by a warming planet, degree by degree. A single degree hotter, he shows, will bring severe droughts; two will see the US population fleeing a desiccated land, and so on. Beyond six degrees, which he explains may see huge fireballs crashing into cities, the story finishes, along with most of humanity. Drawing on a vast amount of research, Lynas’s book tempers its pessimism by insisting that time remains for the world to avert the coming crisis. (Guardian) Editors note: Six degrees is the IPCC prediction.
EU/UK starts getting tough on immigration
Posted on June 23, 2008
Migration imbalance, UK/ Europe | Leave a Comment
This growing issue is becoming a higher priority as population pressures increase the level of migration. On World Refugee Day, the UNHCR notes record refugees of 11m due to conflict, climate change and rising food prices. I’d add rising populations to the mix. Coverage here.
Europe is having to respond.
UK names and shames companies employing illegal immigrants.
The new EU presidency has a focus on the issue of immigration, reported here.
And the EU has approved a plan for illegal immigrants, reported here.
Wot no water?
Posted on June 20, 2008
Food security, Resource depletion, World | Leave a Comment
Worries about water: apparently Goldman Sachs also think it’s the next big shortage, after oil and food.
BBC - overview
New Zealand - water shortage leads to energy shortage - unlike Bangladesh where it’s the other way round.
And in Australia, water shortages may soon push a key agricultural area beyond repair.
Groundwater: another diminishing non-renewable resource.
Meanwhile, water for the Beijing Olympics are being sourced from needy agricultural land and non-renewable groundwater. Hardly a sustainable model. Coverage here.
Is wanting fewer humans pro humanity?
Posted on June 18, 2008
Food security, Family planning, World | 1 Comment
No, say critics of family planning programmes. They characterise attempts to stop and reverse population growth as a sinister attack on mankind’s right, God-given or not, to grow, progress, dominate and otherwise advance itself. However, they tend to fall quiet when it’s a question of women’s right to be supported in managing their own fertility.
The consequences of these critics’ fundamental lack of humanity showed itself in two news stories this week, as population growth drives food prices up.
Malnutrition is rising in India:here and here
And food aid for the poorest in the world declines to a near 50 year low.
Meanwhile, the need for family planning worldwide is growing sharply for two reasons: many more young people and the increased popularity of family planning. Will the international community help meet the funding requirement, which they conspicuously fail to do at present? Coverage and discussion
Drugged, pregnant and fat
Posted on June 16, 2008
Teenage pregnancy, UK/ Europe | Leave a Comment
Children are being failed by councils which are struggling to tackle levels of teenage pregnancy, substance abuse and obesity, according to the Government’s watchdog. An Ofsted report found that fewer local authorities are offering a good service in terms of health, education and social care than a year ago.
More than one in five town halls only provides an “adequate” level of care for children in key areas set out by the Government.
The Ofsted report concludes: “Some councils are finding a number of intractable problems and are having little success in resolving them.
“For example, teenage pregnancy rates are only slowly declining and there is significant variation from one council to another.
Some strategies to cut teenage pregnancy rates are failing or not being funded properly, while in many areas increasing numbers of youths are catching sexually transmitted diseases. Recent figures showed that 41,593 girls under 18 became pregnant in 2006.
This is supported by a recent 10% increase in abortions by under 16s as reported here.
One reason may be that life is tough for UK teens.
A study by the UK Children’s Commissioners warns that “unacceptable” numbers of youngsters are languishing in poverty and being “discriminated” against by a harsh justice system.
It finds that health inequalities across Britain are “stark”, with obesity doubling over the past decade and increasing numbers of children are suffering mental health problems as they drink and take drugs.
The report, which will be handed to the United Nations on Wednesday as a group of young people call for their rights to be respected, also claims children are treated completely differently across Britain and that the Government is ignoring those who live in the countryside.
The study makes 110 recommendations for ministers and concludes: “In the UK today, the gap between rich and poor is increasing, along with associated disparities in the well-being of children and respect for their rights.”
Some efforts are being made to stem the tide.
A SCHOOL believes it is cutting teen pregnancy among pupils by issuing simulator babies.
The scheme, sees both girl and boy pupils take one of the ‘babies’ home either overnight or for a whole weekend.
The pupils aged 14 plus have to respond to its computer-generated cries and provide the appropriate care such as feeding, nappy changing, winding or cuddling.
Sue Banner, head of design technology, told the ECHO: “Like any other school we will have our fair share of pregnancy. This scheme I am sure has had an impact and that this is the best form of contraception. Pupils come back into school and make comments like ‘I never want to have a baby’.” Gemma Hunt 15, from Runcorn said: “It cries for 10 to 15 minutes and it is like changing a real baby.I think it would put someone my age off becoming a mum.”
School sex clinics are also proving popular, in a pilot in Bristol. Coverage
Who’s a pretty climate canary?
Posted on June 13, 2008
Climate change, Resource depletion, UK/ Europe, World | Leave a Comment
Climate canaries are species which disappear early - possible warnings of things to come.
or perhaps butterflies?
Though we probably wouldn’t hear the canary anyway, due to noise pollution. This is more serious than it sounds…
Meanwhile, the 191 nation UN Conference on Biodiversity in Bonn has had mixed results.
The conference had “confirmed the indifference of the international community when it comes to protecting forests, protecting the climate and conserving biodiversity,” Greenpeace said. Proceedings had “inched forward like a snail” in the face of rapid species loss, it said.
Greenpeace and the WWF cast doubt on whether the goal of significantly cutting species loss by 2010 could be reached.
Press coverage has been limited so far: here’s some from Germany.
One reason for species loss is habitat loss, now hitting the most remote areas, like the Amazon and Papua New Guinea here and here.
Where else?
China is using up land, timber and water at twice the rate they can be renewed.
And African resources are being depleted with great rapidity, according to coverage of the WWF’s first detailed study and some before and after satellite shots.
2006 numbers - record UK migration
Posted on June 11, 2008
Migration imbalance, UK/ Europe | Leave a Comment
Record numbers of people are leaving the UK to live abroad, but more are arriving, according to the latest estimates. Over the last 10 years about two million British citizens have emigrated. And they make up more than half the total number of people who left the UK in 2006.
The population and migration figures for 2006, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), suggest that overall the numbers of people leaving Britain increased.
It was an estimated 400,000, which the report said was the highest estimate of emigration since the method of counting was introduced in 1991.
But despite the record numbers leaving the UK there was also a record number coming in. It is estimated that 591,000 people entered Britain in 2006.
A further reduction in the numbers of British citizens within that group means that there continues to be more Britons leaving than coming back, a trend that has been happening since 2000.
The result of this sum of inflows and outflows of people is a net increase in the population running at about 190,000 a year.
BBC report
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