Vietnam works to build on success in population control
Thursday, 30 July, 2009
Vietnamese News Agency (VNA)
Hanoi — Vietnam’s programme on population and family planning is coping with new challenges in order to maintain the countrys fertility reduction trend and improve the quality of human resources.
The remark was made at a seminar on policies on population and health care for mothers and children being held [...]
BANGLADESH: Too young to marry
Friday, 31 July, 2009
IRIN News
DHAKA - Too many teenage girls are getting married in Bangladesh today, say health specialists.
According to the UN Children�s Fund (UNICEF) State of the World�s Children 2009 report, more than 64 percent of girls marry before they are 18.
But with early marriage comes early pregnancy. One-third of teenage girls aged 15 [...]
Fresh hope for world’s fisheries
Technology has made modern vessels very efficient at landing fish
There is fresh hope that the world’s depleted fisheries can be saved from collapse, say a team of researchers.
They said that efforts introduced to halt overfishing in five of the 10 large marine ecosystems they examined were showing signs of success.
A combination of [...]
‘Am I ready to lose my virginity?’
Fifteen-year-old Shauny is trying to make up her mind whether to have sex for the first time.
Shauny talks about her relationship with her boyfriend
She has been seeing her boyfriend for three months and is conscious they are becoming more physically intimate. But as she approaches 16, the legal age of consent, she is [...]
Global warming pushes up building insurance costs
Photograph: Eddie Keogh/Reuters
Householders face higher building insurance premiums after a sharp increase in property damage blamed on climate change. A rise in insurance claims has been caused by flash floods and storms in areas of Britain previously immune to severe weather events.
The AA, which produces an insurance premium index monitoring costs, reports a 15% rise [...]
Alaska’s biggest tundra fire sparks climate warning
The fire that raged north of Alaska’s Brooks mountain range in 2007 left a 1000-square-kilometre scorched patch of earth – an area larger than the sum of all known fires on Alaska’s North Slope since 1950.
Now scientists studying the ecological impact of the fire report that the blaze dumped 1.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide [...]
Thinning cloud cover over oceans speeds global warming, study finds
Thinning cloud cover could speed global warming, new research has found. Photograph: First/zefa/Corbis
Thinning clouds over the ocean exacerbate global warming by leading to more rapid temperature increases, according to the results of a new study, published today.
The research combined data, collected by observers on ships and satellites, going back over a century.
The effect clouds have [...]
Scars left by India’s mineral minefields
Every evening, after 8pm, the road to Keonjhar in the north-east Indian state of Orissa is jammed with hundreds of gaily painted lorries taking the mineral wealth of that impoverished state to Paradeep, the nearest port, and out into the world.
If Vedanta Resources goes ahead with its plan to build an open cast mine on [...]
Bolivia’s Indians feel the heat
Many believe Mt Illimani will have completely lost its glaciers in a few decades
By James Painter
BBC News, Khapi, Bolivia
Marcos Choque is a 67-year-old Aymara Indian with holes in his trousers and battered sandals. He appears remarkably cheerful.
Sitting among his fellow villagers from Khapi, perched high up in the Bolivian [...]
Pakistan faces population time bomb
Pakistan’s population is growing so fast despite decades of family planning efforts that in 40 years it will be the fourth largest country on Earth, a United Nation report said.
The United Nations Population Division said that Pakistan will overtake Brazil and Indonesia by 2050 to rank fourth in world population, almost doubling to 335 million [...]
Arctic tundra hotter, boosts global warming: expert
Regions of Arctic tundra around the world are heating up very rapidly, releasing more greenhouse gases than predicted and boosting the process of global warming, a leading expert said on Wednesday.
Professor Greg Henry of the University of British Columbia also said higher temperatures meant larger plants were starting to spread across the tundra, which is [...]
Human activity is driving Earth’s ’sixth great extinction event’
The leatherback turtle is endangered - but scientific reports expose worrying signs of mass extinctions among other wildlife species. Photograph: Frans Lemmens/Getty Images
Earth is experiencing its “sixth great extinction event” with disease and human activity taking a devastating toll on vulnerable species, according to a major review by conservationists.
Much of the southern hemisphere is suffering [...]
Climate change clouds fate of ancient Polish woods
By Gabriela Baczynska
BIALOWIEZA, Poland (Reuters) - Europe’s last ancient forest, home to its largest herd of bison, faces an uncertain future because of climate change, but residents worry that tougher conservation efforts will damage the local economy.
The 150,000-hectare (380,000-acre) Bialowieza Primeval Forest, which straddles the border between Poland and Belarus, is one of [...]
New immigration polls find nearly 80% of the British public, even in his own constituency, think the Home Secretary is ‘out of touch’.
70% of Labour voters in Britain want a sharp cut in immigration.
78% of voters in Alan Johnson’s own constituency oppose his attitude to immigration.
New opinion polls, published today, show the Home Secretary is clearly out of touch with the public. Last week Alan Johnson told a House of Commons Committee that ‘he does not lie [...]
People steal meat from wild lions
Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Even large male lions are wary of people
Lions in Cameroon are having their kills stolen from under their noses by hungry villagers.
Incidences of such kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food from another, usually occur between top predators such as lion, hyena and cheetah.
But people are increasingly [...]
Dragonflies in danger of extinction seek sanctuary at new rescue centre
British dragonflies are facing extinction Photograph: Stephen Dalton
Dragonflies may have hovered and hunted across the planet for the last 325m years, but their modern relatives are staring extinction in the face. Experts warn that one-third of British species are now under threat, a plight that today sees the opening of the UK’s first ever dragonfly [...]
Porritt parting shot at ministers
Sir Jonathon has been government green adviser for nine years
The government has been accused of failing to develop a green economy for the 21st Century by its own outgoing adviser on sustainable development.
Sir Jonathon Porritt, who left his role at the weekend, criticised ministers on the environment and social justice, and for failing [...]
Last chance to save the gorilla
YOU might have missed it, but in December 2008 - when the world’s media were preoccupied with President Barack Obama’s election and the global economic recession - the United Nations declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla. If you did notice, you could be forgiven for wondering why. Just weeks earlier it was reported that [...]
Fertile Crescent ‘will disappear this century’
Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become [...]
China moves away from one-child policy
Fears of an ageing population means that China’s biggest city and financial hub, Shanghai, is now highlighting exceptions to the One Child Policy that allow couples to have two children – although only particular kinds of people can apply.
Couples who were both only children, which includes most of the city’s newly-weds, are allowed two children. Also, couples [...]
Water crisis uproots Syrian farmers
Only a few decades ago, fish were plentiful in the Orontes river which for thousands of years has provided water to the lush Syrian plains, at the crossroads of the ancient world.
These days the Orontes’s 12th century norias, enormous water wheels famous for their distinctive creak, barely turn in the weak tides. Algae covers the [...]
World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns
The world faces record-breaking temperatures as the sun’s activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted for the next five years, according to a study.
The hottest year on record was 1998, and the relatively cool years since have led to some global warming sceptics claiming that temperatures have [...]
Freshwater crabs ‘feel the pinch’
Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
Geothelphusa ancyclophallus has little defence against habitat destruction
Two thirds of all species of freshwater crab maybe at risk of going extinct, with one in six species particularly vulnerable, according to a new survey.
That makes freshwater crabs among the most threatened of all groups of animals [...]
Woodlands ‘losing biodiversity’
The researchers fear that the diversity found in woodlands could be lost forever
British woodlands are less biologically distinctive than they were 70 years ago, says a team of UK researchers.
The use of fertilisers in farming had increased soil fertility, while tree canopies had grown thicker and cut light levels, they explained.
As a result, [...]
Colorado river running on empty by 2050
The lifeblood of the American west, the Coloradoc river, is running dry under current usage, according to a study from the University of Colorado.
Travelling almost 1,500 miles, the river supplies drinking and irrigation water for about 30 million people from Colorado to the Gulf of California.
The study looked at how water supplies would be affected [...]
Forest fires in Southern Europe destroy much more than trees
Forest fires in Spain, France, Italy and Greece burned more than 50 000 hectares in the last four days. The economic and environmental damage caused by such fires extends well beyond the affected areas. Damage to biodiversity and livelihoods may take decades to reverse.
Forest fire in Greece
© greekadman
Themes
Agriculture [...]
Wild camels ‘genetically unique’
Matt Walker ditor, Earth News
Are these some of the last remaining wild camels on Earth?
The precarious status of the Bactrian camel has been highlighted by a new genetic study.
An analysis by scientists in China and Inner Mongolia shows that wild Bactrian camels are distantly related to their domestic two-humped counterparts.
That [...]
Climate change could ruin California fruit, nut crops
Climate change could devastate tree crops such as walnuts, cherries, prunes and peaches in California’s fertile Central Valley, researchers reported on Tuesday.
These kinds of trees require a certain amount of winter chill to be productive, and winters could be warmer than normal as climate change proceeds, scientists at the University of California-Davis and the University [...]
Barcelona gets new water supply
Catalonia has suffered repeated droughts in recent years
A desalination plant has opened near Barcelona - said to be the biggest of its type in Europe - to ease chronic water shortages.
A drought last year forced Barcelona to import drinking water by tanker. It was one of Spain’s driest years on record.
The new plant [...]
Transport at a crossroads
Acting as a consultant to the European Environment Agency (EEA), TRL has contributed to the TERM 2008 report “Transport at a crossroads” which was launched in Brussels at the European Parliament this Spring.
The report highlights that whilst the current economic downturn may reduce the demand for transport, the transport sector still makes a significant contribution [...]
Britain should grow more crops to avoid global food crisis, say MPs
Britain should grow far more fruit, vegetables and cereals to help feed the extra 2.7 billion people there may be in the world within 40 years, said a powerful committee of MPs in a report published today.
Michael Jack, who chairs the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) committee, said: “If people go hungry then political [...]
G8 leaders ‘ignored’ UN’s scientific findings on climate change
0 July 2009 – The world’s largest economies have “clearly ignored” the findings of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations scientific body that evaluates climate change when formulating their recent proposals on slashing greenhouse gases, a top official said today.It was a “big step” for leaders of over one dozen developed nations attending the Major [...]
Carbon emissions trading system ’seriously flawed’
The system of trading carbon emissions at the heart of the ambitious low-carbon plan announced by the government last week is seriously flawed and close to becoming irrelevant, according to researchers behind a new analysis.
So-called “hot air” carbon credits – those which do not result in any actual emissions cuts – could be so numerous [...]
Bangladesh: 47,000 children born for shortage of contraceptives
Around 47,000 children were born last year in addition to the general population increase in the country due to unexpected pregnancies caused by an acute shortage of contraceptives, according to a study.
The study said that the total loss caused to sufferers due to a shortage of oral pills, injections and condoms during the period is [...]
Ozone pollution is declining — but not everywhere
Ground-level ozone is among the most harmful air pollutants in Europe today. Elevated ozone levels cause health problems, premature deaths, reduced agricultural crop yields, damage to plants in semi-natural ecosystems and corrosion of physical infrastructure and cultural heritage.
Multimedia
Ozone map
Themes
Air pollution
Environment and [...]
Ishraq programme expanded in Upper Egypt
CAIRO (29 June 2009) — The Population Council, through a grant from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Cairo, is supporting the introduction of Ishraq to 30 additional villages in Fayoum, Sohag, and Qena. Ishraq is a program that provides out-of-school adolescent girls in rural Upper Egypt with a package of services to [...]
Humanity needs humility
WE NEED HUMILITY
by Lynn Margulis
Human beings need to be more humble. “Humble” comes from dghem , which is an ancient Indo-European root meaning earth. It’s the root of humus and human and humanity. All of those things are, in that sense, of the earth and from the earth.
The world is full of non-human splendor, and [...]
Poorer countries need new development model
July 2009 –
The world’s poorest countries are bearing the brunt of the global economic crisis and their governments need to review the development model they have followed for the past three decades if they are to substantially reduce poverty and achieve long-term growth, a new United Nations report concludes.The report from the UN Conference on [...]
The world in 2050
Rapid population growth in some regions, combined with increasing affluence and explosive growth in fossil fuel and natural resources consumption throughout the world, is seriously endangering a broad range of natural systems that support life. For the first time in history, much of the natural world is adversely affected by human activity. Global warming is [...]
Bangladesh ex-PM asks India to scrap river dam plan
The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) asked India on Saturday to scrap a controversial dam project on a common river which experts say could make two rivers in Bangladesh dry up, affecting millions.
India has approved plans for a 1,500 megawatt project at Tipaimukh on the Barak River, which flows from northeast India into Bangladesh [...]
Bat protection with radar beams
Radar beams that irritate bats could be used to prevent the animals from being diced by the spinning blades of wind turbines, according to a study of how the animals react to radar signals. The researchers discovered that a stationary beam reduced bat activity near the turbines by almost 40%.
Bat and bird populations can be [...]
Huge drop in Corn Bunting numbers
The RSPB said action was need to save the corn bunting
Conservationists have called for more work to be done to save a once common farm bird whose numbers have declined by an estimated 83%.
A new study has revealed intensive farming methods over the last 20 years have left only 800 corn bunting territories [...]
Shipping emissions plan ’stalls’
By Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst
The shipping industry is under fire over greenhouse gas emissions
Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting.
The International Maritime Organization delayed a decision to raise the cost of ships’ fuel and use the money to help poor [...]
How cities are changing the world
As negotiations to re-work the Kyoto Protocol intensify with the UN summit in Copenhagen this December, there has been a belated recognition of the key role of cities in contributing to and combating climate change. According to the UN Environment Programme, cities account for as much as 80% of greenhouse gas emissions; David Satterthwaite of [...]
Aid donors unwittingly subsidise corruption
There are seminars you attend and you leave both depressed and inspired. Last week, I attended a seminar on the rules of the game - how things really work not how they are supposed to work - governing two sectors in an African country: forestry and wild life management. As with any kind of gritty [...]
Illegal Pangolin Trade Threatens Rare Species
by Ben Block on July 16, 2009
Photo courtesy Dan Bennett
Pangolins are the most frequently seized mammal in Asia’s illegal wildlife trade.
Chinese demand for the pangolin, a scale-covered anteater, is forcing the endangered animals closer to extinction, wildlife organizations announced this week.Pangolins are disappearing in China and across their ranges in East and Southeast Asia. [...]
Developing countries still hurting from high food prices
Millions of people in developing countries are affected by high food prices
16 July 2009 – Despite a drop in international food prices and good cereal harvests overall, prices in developing countries remain high, hurting millions of poor people in both rural and urban areas, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a [...]
Industry drive to curb drinking
Alcohol abuse costs the NHS billions of pounds a year
Britain’s drinks industry is launching a £100m government-endorsed campaign to discourage excessive drinking among young adults.
The Campaign for Smarter Drinking, supported by 45 companies, is one of the largest of its kind and aims to advertise throughout England.
Under the slogan “why let good times [...]
UN tackles ‘climate harm’ ships
The shipping industry is under fire over greenhouse gas emissions
The United Nations is discussing rules to cut the soaring emission of greenhouse gases from shipping.
The environment committee of the International Maritime Organisation is drawing up recommendations for design standards to make ships more efficient.
It includes working on operating standards so that ships save [...]
Indian tiger park ‘has no tigers’
Most of the tigers at Panna National Park were killed by poachers
One of India’s main tiger parks - Panna National Park - has admitted it no longer has any tigers.
The park, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, was part of the country’s efforts to save the famous Royal Bengal Tiger from extinction.
State Minister of [...]
It is time to start talking rubbish
Burying our rubbish in huge pits in the ground is no longer an option in the 21st Century, says Stuart Wardlaw. In this week’s Green Room, he argues that a range of measures - some more popular than others - is needed if the UK is going to get on top of its waste problem.
[...]
Assessing biodiversity: where does Europe stand? Document Actions
In 2002, when the world committed to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, Europe went one step further and pledged to halt the loss completely. A set of 26 indicators, known as ‘Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators’ (SEBI 2010), was compiled to measure change. The first assessment based on SEBI 2010 by the [...]
Battle raging in US mining country
Battle raging in US mining country
Despite its obvious environmental impact, mountaintop mining still has support from many in West Virginia
Opinion is divided in West Virginia’s coal belt over a controversial mining technique, reports Jean Snedegar for the BBC’s Americana programme.
For years, a battle has been raging in the Appalachian Mountains over a coal-mining practice [...]
Migrant wave wanes with Spain’s economy
Migrant wave wanes with Spain’s economy
By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Canary Islands
The sea is calm and the skies clear, as the Spanish coastguard boat speeds out into the Atlantic.
Behind us are the Canary Islands - vast, volcanic hunks of rock, dotted with hotels.
Ever popular with tourists, the archipelago has also [...]
India prays for rain as water wars break out
It was a little after 8pm when the water started flowing through the pipe running beneath the dirt streets of Bhopal’s Sanjay Nagar slum. After days without a drop of water, the Malviya family were the first to reach the hole they had drilled in the pipe, filling what containers they had as quickly as [...]
Birth rate/ homosexuality laws - is there a link?
http://www.indexmundi.com/map.aspx?v=Birth+rate(births%2F1%2C000+population)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World_homosexuality_laws.svg
Overly conservative social mores can damage your health.
Both Conservatives and Labour “conning” the public on immigration. New research shows neither party will stop UK’s population hitting 70 million
As the latest immigration Bill comes to the House of Commons on Tuesday for its final approval, new research published today (Briefing Paper 11.13) shows that the immigration policies of neither the Conservative Party nor the Labour Party will stop the UK’s population hitting 70 million - up from 61 million today.
The official forecast is [...]
End of retirement age signalled
End of retirement age signalled
Many people would like to work beyond the default retirement age
A review of the default retirement age, which allows employers to compel staff to retire at 65, is to be brought forward by a year, the government says.
BBC home editor Mark Easton said ministers had effectively signalled an end [...]
Universal family planning access
7/13/2009
Demographic factors will play a significant role in determining future emissions. The most obvious such factor is the global population, which is expected to rise to around nine billion by 2050.
Although the fastest population growth is happening in countries with relatively low emissions per person, the addition of two or three billion people to the [...]
Contraception at a crossroads
All over the world millions of women, men and young people want to decide for themselves when, if and how many children to have.
They want to protect themselves against
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, and they want and need the ability to protect their health and choose their own destiny.
When they are able to do [...]
What to do when there are too many of us
Nature, and What Women Want by Robert Engelman. Copyright 2008 by the author. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington, D.C.
All historical eras are shaped by the material and environmental realities of their time. Our own reflects the adjustments society and nature have made to accommodate the unprecedented 6.7 billion human beings now alive. And [...]
The planet’s future: Climate change ‘will cause civilisation to collapse’
Authoritative new study sets out a grim vision of shortages and violence – but amid all the gloom, there is some hope too
By Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 12 July 2009
An effort on the scale of the Apollo mission that sent men to the Moon is needed if humanity is to have a fighting chance of [...]
Investors know about peak food
In the last few years investors have poured millions of dollars in to farmland, farming businesses, commodities and companies supplying farmers with machinery, fertiliser, seeds and pesticides.
In Fortune magazine, Shonda Warner explains why she launched an investment firm to buy farmland.
She says “…..The simplest metric to consider is the amount of farmland per person worldwide: [...]
World Population Day
Climate Change Forces New Migration Response. June 10, 2009 Reuters
Rising seas resulting from climate change will force millions of people to leave their homes in search of viable livelihoods and safety over the coming decades. Funds are needed to help migrants escape worsening natural disasters, threatening political stability, according to a report [...]
Population Media Centre statement on World Population Day
PMC STATEMENT ON WORLD POPULATION DAY
July 10th, 2009 |
July 11, 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of World Population Day. “Investing in Women,” this year’s theme, draws attention to the importance of improving the health and opportunity of women worldwide in order to create a more just and balanced world. By focusing on the plight of [...]
Public Supports Small Families, Smaller Populations, Poll Shows
PUBLIC SUPPORTS SMALL FAMILIES, SMALLER
POPULATIONS, POLL SHOWS
Nearly half the public believes couples should limit themselves to two children or fewer to reduce human impact on the environment, according to a survey published today (July 11, World Population Day). A majority of those questioned would welcome a significantly smaller UK population than at present; almost as [...]
Family Planning Aid Drops in Priority
Photo courtesy CARF Brazil
Although donor-country governments and international aid agencies are allocating a smaller share of their budgets to family planning services, overall funding has risen from $901 million in 1995 to $1.9 billion in 2007.
Funding for population and reproductive healthcare programs, as a share of global health aid, declined from 30 percent in [...]
British company barcodes trees to protect forests
By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - Deep in the world’s tropical rainforests, workers are hammering thousands of barcodes into hardwood trees to help in the fight against illegal logging, corruption and global warming.
The plastic tags, like those on supermarket groceries, have been nailed to a million trees across Africa, southeast Asia and South America to help [...]
Worldwatch Institute to investigate agricultural methods
Washington, D.C.-The Worldwatch Institute is launching a two-year project to point the world toward innovations in agriculture that can nourish people as well as the planet, supported by a $1.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project will focus specifically on sub-Saharan Africa.
Currently, 1 billion people worldwide go to bed hungry [...]
UN Population Agency in Iraq
UN population agency and Iraq partner to boost development
Displaced Iraqi children sit in their makeshift shelter in an abandoned government building in Baghdad in 2008
9 July 2009 –
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Iraqi Government have agreed to step up their collaboration in promoting national development in the strife-torn nation.Earlier this week, [...]
Poachers pushing rhinos to extinction
Poachers seeking horn for traditional medicines are driving once thriving populations of rhinos in Africa and Asia toward extinction, global nature protection groups said Thursday.
In a report issued in Geneva, they said illegal slaughter of the already endangered animals is rising fast, with rates hitting a 15-year high amid stepped-up activities by Asian-based criminal gangs [...]
Overpopulation at the root of it all
THE MOST OVERLOOKED & IGNORED ISSUE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND WORLD
By Frosty Wooldridge
The United Kingdom faces crushing issues in 2009, but what crisis do you suppose the media danced around in 2008—to ignore, to deny and to push into oblivion? Let’s not talk about it, let’s avoid it, let’s pretend it’s not happening!
While London [...]
Family Size and Religious Belief
Recently I suffered a perplexing and, frankly, difficult situation. I asked a lady acquaintance how she justifies having six children in this age of degrading environment and dwindling resources. “Think of the stress it places on an already over-crowded world,” I stated.
“Jesus guides my life. He wants me to have children,” she countered. “I’d like [...]
Biodiversity and disease
COULD biodiversity protect humans from disease? Conservationists have long suspected it might, and now they have the evidence to back this up.
Keeping complex ecosystems intact is thought to pay big dividends, by preserving natural balances among species that keep animal diseases in check. These includes zoonoses - animal diseases that affect humans.
Rodents in the Americas [...]
GM crops:an aid in the fight against poverty?
An farmer sifts dust out of harvested wheat in Afghanistan. Photograph: Ahmad Masood/Reuters
Salty soils affect the growth of plants worldwide, particularly in irrigated land where one-third of the world’s food is produced. It is estimated that one-fifth of irrigated land is salt-affected. And it is a problem that is only going to get worse as [...]
Solar-powered craft to fly across Channel
Solar-powered blimp set to fly across Channel
The blimp was designed and built by French students and its first flight will prove that CO2-free air travel is now a reality.
Nephelios is set to fly across English channel at the end of this summer. Photograph: Sol’R
Perhaps propelled by the recent dawn of solar powered airplanes, this stunning [...]
Out of sight,out of mind
Down in the sewer there’s creature discomfort
Tubificids or bryozoans? Whatever these mysterious sewer-dwelling creatures are, we could perhaps learn a thing or two from them.
Out of sight, out of mind. That’s how most of us like to mentally cope with the effluent that we flush down into the vast network our sewers beneath our feet. [...]
Arctic ice thinned dramatically since 2004: NASA
Arctic sea ice has thinned dramatically since 2004, with the older, thicker ice giving way to a younger, thinner kind that melts in the northern summer, NASA scientists reported on Tuesday.
Researchers have known for years that ice covering in the Arctic Sea has been shrinking in area, but new satellite data that measure the thickness [...]
Developing world faces age crisis
New research warns of a population time bomb for developing nations as the ratio of elderly people rises faster than in the industrialised world.
A report for the French Institute for Demographic Studies says poorer states have only a short time to set up workable pension schemes.
The alternative is the prospect of vast numbers of their [...]
Nature can’t take unrestrained growth: Prince Charles
The quest for unlimited economic growth is unsustainable and could bankrupt the environment through climate change and depleted natural resources, Britain’s Prince Charles said on Wednesday.
Charles, next-in-line to succeed Queen Elizabeth, said a new economic model must be found because the Earth can no longer support the demands of a growing “consumerist society” where growth [...]
Australian town, state government ban bottled water
An Australian town has banned bottled water, claiming to be the first in the country to revert to the tap for the sake of the environment and prompting the nation’s largest state government to stop buying bottled water.
Residents of rural Bundanoon, a picturesque, tourist destination 150 kms (93 miles) southwest of Sydney, voted overwhelmingly Wednesday [...]
Scant knowledge of contraception in third world
1 of 1Full Size
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In developing countries, young women’s use of modern methods of contraception is limited by a range of factors, a review of seven studies conducted in five countries suggests.
Lack of knowledge, access problems and side-effect fears were the “overarching themes” limiting the women’s use of hormonal [...]
Condoms for women
Talk about patient money. It took The Female Health Company, a Chicago-based maker of female condoms, almost 20 years to turn a profit.
O.B. Parrish, the company’s 75-year old CEO, is nothing if not persistent. He retired from his position as head of G.D. Searle’s global pharmaceutical business in 1985, when Searle’s then-president, Donald Rumsfeld, helped [...]
UK Government Scheme to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy Rates Fails
The drive, which cost almost £6 million, was designed to offer education and support to young people aged 13 to 15 who were deemed at risk of exclusion from school, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy.
It ran in 27 parts of England between 2004 and 2007 and was based on a similar model in New York.
A [...]
Water becoming world’s most valuable resource
When you want to spot emerging trends, always follow the money. Today, many of the world’s leading investors and most successful companies are making big bets on water. Do a little research, and it’s easy to see why. There simply isn’t enough freshwater to go around, and the situation is expected to get worse before [...]
Energy and fertiliser from waste
When the world realises that there is a limit to the natural resources that the earth can provide, we will have to stop wasting energy and nutrient rich “waste” such as animal manure and waste food.
In Europe, anaerobic digestion is widely used to deal with these materials and is now catching on here in the [...]
Population Growth Rates by Country
Population Growth Rates by Country
Contributing Author: Peter Saundry (other articles)
Content Source: Central Intelligence Agency (other articles)
Article Topic: Population
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Mark McGinley (other articles)
Last Updated: May 18, 2009
This article provides estimates of the average annual percent change in the population, resulting from a surplus (or deficit) [...]
Court’s reversal of pesticides decision prompts accusations of whitewash
Campaigner Georgina Downs celebrates outside the High Court after her victory. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
A landmark victory against the government over pesticide spraying was overturned today, prompting accusations of a “whitewash” from the environmental campaigner who brought the original case.
Georgina Downs, said the decision by the court of appeal to overturn the judgement was “bizarre” and [...]
‘Time to ditch climate policies’
By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News
Policies are failing to decarbonise economies, the report says
An international group of academics is urging world leaders to abandon their current policies on climate change.
The authors of How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course say the strategy based on overall emissions cuts has [...]
The grim reality of life for women in Afghanistan
For many women, the difference between life and death is a piece of string, a clean razor blade, a fresh bandage and a bar of soap. That’s why a pitiful amount of money can save a woman, or a newborn baby, or both. And that’s why, while the Australian government is expending hundreds of millions [...]
Reefs could perish by end of century
By Michael Kahn
LONDON (Reuters) - Increasingly acidic oceans and warming water temperatures due to carbon dioxide emissions could kill off the world’s ocean reefs by the end of this century, scientists warned on Monday.
The experts told a meeting in London the predicted pace of emissions means a level of 450 parts per million of carbon [...]
Porritt criticises UK government
Jonathon Porritt, one of Britain’s leading environmentalists, has attacked the Treasury for being “startlingly arrogant” and for dragging its feet over sustainability.
This month Porritt steps down as chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, an independent government watchdog, after occupying the role since it was founded nine years ago.
He said: “Looking back now, as I am [...]
Climate change will exacerbate hunger in poorest countries
Hunger may become the defining human tragedy of the century as the climate changes and hundreds of millions of farmers already struggling to grow enough food are forced to adapt to drought and different rainfall patterns, a report warns.
Oxfam International, in a comprehensive look at the expected effects on people of climate change, says some [...]
CO2 reduction:just add lime to the oceans
Putting lime into the oceans could stop or even reverse the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to proposals unveiled at a conference on climate change solutions in Manchester today.
According to its advocates, the same technique could help fix one of the most dangerous side effects of man-made CO2 emissions: rising ocean acidity.
The project, [...]
Sandstorms in Iraq
We are on alert. This is the worst dust storm we have ever had in Iraq,” said Doctor Jasib Lateef, operations manager at the Iraqi Health Ministry. “A large number of people are turning up at emergency rooms at hospitals, challenging our resources.”
At least 300 people came to Baghdad’s Ibn al-Nafees hospital with breathing difficulties [...]
Increase in Illegal Migration to UK from Pakistan
The number of illegal immigrants from Pakistan in the UK could be as high as 200,000 according to a new report out today which has compared official statistics on the number of Pakistani born workers with a dramatic increase in the level of remittances being sent to that country.
An examination of workers remittances shows that [...]
Guest Workers
In many cultures, the term “guest worker” would be an oxymoron. Yet policy makers in both receiving and sending countries seem to like guest worker programs. The hope is that guest workers will fill labor shortage in the receiving countries, and at the end of an employment contract go back home with money and some [...]
Costa Rica is world’s greenest, happiest country
Latin American nation tops index ranking countries by ecological footprint and happiness of their citizens
A rainbow over San Jose in Costa Rica. Photograph: Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters
Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country in the world, according to a new list that ranks nations by combining measures of their ecological footprint with the happiness of [...]
Fears for the world’s poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food
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The acquisition of farmland from the world’s poor by rich countries and international corporations is accelerating at an alarming rate, with an area half the size of Europe’s farmland targeted in the last six months, reports from UN officials and agriculture experts say.
New reports from the UN and analysts in India, Washington and London estimate [...]
No safe haven for rarest antelope
Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
A bit special: A lone adult male
Fleeting sightings of the world’s rarest antelope, the hirola, in a new safe haven are cases of mistaken identity, a survey has found.
That has dashed hopes that some of the last hirola have managed to colonise a new territory where [...]