Migrant woes as economies weaken
Rates of migration soared in recent decades as the likes of Britain and America enjoyed rapid economic growth and sucked in labour. Around 200m people now live outside their homelands, some 3% of the global population. The proportion of foreign-born people in many Western countries has surged well above 10%: this includes Greece and Ireland, [...]
Girls of 12 could be given contraceptive implants to curb pregnancies
Around 21 girls under 16, the legal age of sexual consent, become pregnant every day in Britain, according to Government figures. A report for Barnsley Metropolitan District Council has found that the number of pregnancies among 17 and 18 year olds has gone down since 1998, but there has been no significant reduction among [...]
New soil map for African farmers
The first detailed digital soil map of sub-Saharan Africa is to be created. Scientists from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) will take soil samples from across the continent and analyse nutrient levels. These will be combined with satellite data to build a high-resolution map, to be disseminated freely to poor farmers [...]
Water shortage fears increase
In Fortune magazine, Daniel Pepper reports from India about falling water levels due to over extraction. Ground water has been depleted to such an extent that it is devastating the country. A soil and water expert estimates that the energy used to subsidize rice production in the Punjab region costs $381 million a [...]
No Pills Sex Risked By One In Four Women
According to Lloydspharmacy 64 per cent of women aged between 18 and 24 take the pill, amounting to around 1.6 million people. But one in four of those - around 426,000 young women - are taking huge risks by having sexual intercourse between pill prescriptions. Lloydspharmacy warns that young women in particular find it [...]
Rising sea levels threaten cities in US, Africa
Sea levels on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coast are rising faster than the global average because of global warming, threatening the future of coastal communities, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday. The EPA focused on the mid-Atlantic region because it “will likely see the greatest impacts due to rising waters, coastal storms, [...]
Obama lifts ban on abortion funds
US President Barack Obama has lifted a ban on federal funding for foreign family planning agencies that promote or give information about abortion. The US is one of the biggest supporters of family planning programmes globally, but former president George W Bush blocked funds for abortion services.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America hailed the [...]
Sharks, not humans, most at risk in ocean
Commercial fishing and a desire for Asian shark fin soup sees up to 100 million sharks, even protected endangered species of sharks, slaughtered around the world each year, says the Shark Research Institute (Australia). Yet in contrast, sharks, apparently, do not like the taste of humans. Usually when a shark bites a human [...]
Chinese women ‘want more babies’
Note: The Optimum Population Trust is absolutely opposed to any form of coercion in family planning.
BBC Report
The authorities in China say they have found that most Chinese women would like to have more than one child. Family-planning officials say their research indicates that 70% of women want to have two babies or more. [...]
Rain speeds Antarctic Peninsula glacier melt
More rain on the Antarctic Peninsula is speeding a melt of glaciers such as the Sheldon, which has retreated 2 km (1.2 miles) in 20 years and is nudging up world sea levels, a leading expert said. “The glacier has retreated since 1989 and left this open water. That’s the same pattern for 87 [...]
Birds flee Tehran’s polluted air
Environmentalists say the hitherto pollution-resistant population of crows have fled in large numbers in recent days after air quality reached crisis levels. Unregulated urban development has also destroyed the birds’ habitats. The crow exodus occurred less than three weeks after high levels of carbon monoxide and other gases in the air drove off other [...]
Making the Case for U.S. International Family Planning Assistance
Five former directors of the Population and Reproductive Health Program of USAID issue a call for renewed U.S. political and financial commitment to international family planning programs.
The case
Population Connection
President ‘has four years to save Earth’
Barack Obama has only four years to save the world. That is the stark assessment of Nasa scientist and leading climate expert Jim Hansen who last week warned only urgent action by the new president could halt the devastating climate change that now threatens Earth. “We cannot afford to put off change any longer,” said [...]
‘Many teen mums are just lonely’ - UK health project
With over 40,000 pregnancies to girls aged under 18 every year Britain has the worst record on teenage pregnancy in western Europe. There are so many young mothers on the Gleadless Valley Estate in Sheffield that is known locally as “Push Chair Alley”. “If people’s lives are rubbish they just think a baby [...]
Tropical rainforests are regrowing. Now what?
The world’s tropical rainforests are making a comeback, but young vegetation may not be able to sustain as much diverse wildlife or lock up nearly as much climate-warming carbon dioxide as old trees did, scientists report. About 135,000 square miles (350,000 square kilometers) of the original forested areas that were cut down by humans are [...]
Climate change will hit poorest Brits
The poorest people in the UK will be hit hardest by climate change, a report warned. A study by a coalition of environmental and social justice groups said one in five people still lived in poverty in this country, often unable to afford to heat their homes or eat healthily. The impacts of [...]
Pope outlines his priorities on visit to Germany
Pope Benedict XVI, the former German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, has completed his first foreign trip with an open air mass for more than 500,000 young Catholics.
In an unusually frank address to Germany’s 80 Catholic Bishops delivered shortly before he left Cologne, he admitted that Christianity is on the decline in the country where the Protestant [...]
Sea absorbing less CO2
Scientists have issued a new warning about climate change after discovering a sudden and dramatic collapse in the amount of carbon emissions absorbed by the Sea of Japan. The world’s oceans soak up about 11bn tonnes of human carbon dioxide pollution each year, about a quarter of all produced, and even a slight weakening [...]
More UK Asian women having abortions
There has been a big jump in the number of Asian women having abortions in the UK, according to figures from the Department of Health. They show there were 15,197 terminations in 2007 compared to 10,084 in 2003 for all age groups. Experts say more Asian women are now in open relationships and [...]
Climate change threatens Pacific, Arctic conflicts
A confidential security review by Australia’s Defense Force, completed in 2007 but obtained in summary by the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, said environmental stress had increased the risk of conflicts in the Pacific over resources and food. But the biggest threat of global conflict currently lay beneath the Arctic as melting icecaps gave rise [...]
MSI defends Polish women’s right to access UK abortion services
National newspapers have carried stories alleging the up to 10,000 Polish women every year are accessing abortions in the UK at a cost to the NHS of more than £10 million. Marie Stopes International confirmed its support for Polish women who are forced to go to the extreme of travelling to the UK to [...]
Billions face food shortages, study warns
A study in the US journal Science found there was a 90% chance that by the end of the century, the coolest temperatures in the tropics during the crop growing season would exceed the hottest temperatures recorded between 1900 and 2006. More temperate regions such as Europe could expect to see previous record temperatures [...]
Teen pregnancy soars in leafy suburbs as girls mimic celebs
TEENAGE pregnancies have increased at a faster rate in Rushcliffe than anywhere else in the country, according to new figures. The statistics put out by the Conservatives reveal that in 2006 – the most recent data available – 44 teenagers conceived in the leafy suburbs. This compared with just 16 in 2002 – a [...]
Globally, population grows, resources shrink - do the math
For those who like visuals, a truly excellent 16 minute US slideshow with voiceover on population and resources. Part of a series of slideshows, also downloadable.
http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse/chapter-18-environmental-data
Thanks to Bill Ryerson, who sends population related emails on a regular basis on request.
http://www.populationmedia.org/pmc-blog
3,500 pupils suspended for sexual bullying
Groping and sexist name-calling are a shocking part of school life for many pupils, with 3,500 suspended for sexual misconduct in a year, say new statistics. The department for children, schools and families (DCSF) also showed that 260 of the pupils suspended for sexual misconduct in 2006-07 were still at primary school. Ed [...]
Think-tank urges population inquiry by government
The Government should hold an inquiry into the number of people the UK can support who are able to enjoy a good quality of life without damaging the environment, the Optimum Population Trust says today.
In a letter to Phil Woolas, the recently appointed immigration minister, OPT says overpopulation puts Britain’s security at risk [...]
Leading scientists believe emissions curbs now not enough
An emergency “Plan B” using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions [...]
UK faces court case over air pollution breaches
The European Union is planning to take Britain to court for consistently breaching air pollution laws, which could result in unlimited daily fines.
Air pollution near many roads averages well over twice the UN’s World Health Organisation maximum recommended level, which has led to constant infringements of EU air quality laws. In particular, diesel engines [...]
Slowdown of coral growth extremely worrying, say scientists
Coral growth across the Great Barrier Reef has suffered a “severe and sudden” slowdown since 1990 that is unprecedented in the last four centuries, according to scientists.
Corals around the world are severely threatened by coastal pollution, warming seas and over-exploitation, but the most probable explanation for the drop in the growth rate of the corals’ [...]
National Statistician reports on UK Population
Selected highlights
The UK population grew by almost 1.7 million between mid-2002 and mid-2007: this is the fastest rate of increase since the 1960s
Life expectancy in the UK has risen steadily to 77.2 years for men and 81.5 years for women in 2005–07, and is expected to continue to rise
The number of people aged 85 or [...]
Young, female and left out
The more than 500 million adolescent girls who live in the developing world represent a huge untapped potential: They hold the key to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and achieving the MDGs. Whether adolescent girls flourish with opportunities or languish in poverty can decisively influence the direction of their countries’ long-term development prospects. More [...]