Cherie Blair attacks Catholic Church for holding back career women
Cherie Blair Photo: GETTY
But now she has turned on the Catholic Church’s position on birth control, suggesting it could be preventing women from pursuing a successful career.
Despite being a devour Catholic and encouraging her husband, Tony, to convert from Anglicanism, she said she used contraception.
The wife of the former [...]
Roads are ruining the rainforests
“THE best thing you could do for the Amazon is to bomb all the roads.” That might sound like an eco-terrorist’s threat, but they’re actually the words of Eneas Salati, one of Brazil’s most respected scientists. Thomas Lovejoy, a leading American biologist, is equally emphatic: “Roads are the seeds of tropical forest destruction.”
They are quite [...]
Water crisis threatens Yemen’s swelling population
Gentle showers temporarily damp the dust and cool the August heat of Sanaa, but cannot remedy a grim water outlook for the Yemeni capital’s 2 million people.
Some residents receive piped city water only once every nine days and others get none at all. The sinking water table means the municipality can now operate only 80 [...]
Hijacked by climate change?
Have China’s population curbs helped the global environment
As the UN climate summit in Copenhagen approaches, exhortations that “we must get a deal” and warnings that climate change is “the greatest challenge we face as a species” are to be heard in virtually every political forum.
But if you look back to the latest definitive check on [...]
Leave population out of climate talks, Indian minister says
Western nations are trying to use India’s “profligate reproductive behaviour” to force Delhi to accept legally binding emission reduction targets, India’s environment minister said today.
Speaking at a conference in the Indian capital, organised by Delhi’s Centre for Science and Environment, Jairam Ramesh said there was a “move in western countries to bring population into [...]
Morning-after pill ‘should be available to girls in school’
Secondary school nurses should be free to administer emergency contraception to help cut Scotland’s “appalling” teenage pregnancy rate, according to a leading sexual health doctor.
Dr Lyndsey Myskow said there is a strong argument for making the morning-after pill available to schoolgirls free of charge.
The Edinburgh-based expert in sexual health added that widening the availability of [...]
UK population increases by 408,000
Population Change
UK population increases by 408,000
Components of population change, UK, mid-1998 to mid-2008
The population of the United Kingdom was 61,383,000 in mid-2008. This is an increase of 408,000 (0.7 per cent) on mid-2007 and is equivalent to an average increase of over 1,000 people a day.
Population growth has increased over recent decades; this latest increase [...]
Laughing gas is biggest threat to ozone layer
Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is now the dominant ozone-depleting substance emitted by humans – and is likely to remain so throughout the century, a new study suggests.
Researchers suggest use of the compound – which is produced by the breakdown of nitrogen in fertilisers and sewage treatment plants – should be reduced to [...]
Voyage confirms plastic pollution
Abandoned fishing gear was among the debris found by scientists
Scientists have confirmed that there are millions of tonnes of plastic floating in an area of ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre.
The first of two ships on a voyage to study plastic pollution there has recently returned to port.
Scientists on board [...]
Adapting to new climate dearer than U.N. says
LONDON (Reuters) - Adapting to the effects of climate change such as floods and droughts will probably cost many times more than the United Nations estimates, a report said on Thursday ahead of a major U.N. summit in December.
The U.N. climate change secretariat, UNFCCC, puts the global [...]
Launch for amphibian ‘life raft’
A world of amphibians
In pictures
Conservationists have launched a new initiative aimed at safeguarding the world’s amphibians from extinction.
The Amphibian Survival Alliance will bring together existing projects and organisations, improving co-ordination, scientific research and fund-raising.
About a third of amphibian species are threatened with extinctions.
A two-day summit held last week in London identified the two [...]
New Permanent Birth Control Option For Women
With the economy the way it is, many couples are trying to avoid unplanned pregnancies. There is a new permanent option for women which doesn’t require surgery, a hospital stay, or a long recovery period.
Essure is a permanent form of birth control, with no incisions and no scars. The small, flexible coils are threaded up, [...]
Sexual and reproductive education beginning at age five?
A June report from the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) suggests children of all countries and cultures are entitled to sexual and reproductive education beginning at age five.
The report, called International Guidelines on Sexual Education, was released in June in conjunction with the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization which works for [...]
Gaia scientist to be OPT patron
Greens “hiding from the truth” on population and climate change
James Lovelock, the scientist responsible for the Gaia theory, today (Wednesday, August 26) describes environmentalists who campaign on climate change but ignore population growth as irrational, ignorant or “hiding from the truth”.
Dr. Lovelock, whose appointment as a patron of the Optimum Population Trust is announced today, [...]
‘Extinction threat’ to flying fox
Scientists attached collars to the bats to track their movements by satellite
Scientists are urging the government of Malaysia to ban the hunting of the world’s largest fruit bat.
Researchers say the large flying fox will be wiped out on the Malaysian peninsula if the current unsustainable level of hunting continues.
Writing in the [...]
Interactive map - urban growth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/06/urbanisation/html/urbanisation.stm
Illegal fishing evades U.N. crackdown
Illegal fishing is depleting the seas and robbing poor nations in Africa and Asia of resources, but a lack of global cooperation is undermining efforts to track rogue vessels, an environmental group said on Tuesday.
The Pew Environment Group, a Washington-based think-tank, has found that a United Nations scheme to oblige ports to crack down on [...]
World Population Highlights: Key Findings From PRB’s 2009 World Population Data Sheet
Population change will shape the prospects of regions and countries over the next half century. Future population growth will be almost entirely in the developing world, with the fastest growth in the poorest countries and regions.
During the 20th century, nearly 90 percent of population growth took place in countries classified as less developed (LDCs) by [...]
Climate change could swamp Venice’s flood defence
Rarely was a city so aptly named. By the end of the century, Venice – Italy’s City of Water – could face daily floods, and according to a new study, the costly and controversial flood barriers now being built might not be able to protect it.
Laura Carbognin at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Venice [...]
A storm brews over food, water & power
As the world’s population grows, competition for food, water and energy will increase. Food prices will rise, more people will go hungry, and migrants will flee the worst-affected regions.
PERFECT STORM 2030
On Monday BBC correspondents report on the problems identified by UK chief scientist John Beddington, in his forecast of a “perfect storm” [...]
India’s rising population poses questions on stability
In the 62 years since independence, the population has tripled to 1.2 billion. In the next 20 years, India is expected to surpass neighboring China as the world’s most populous nation.
“When I first went to India there was a joke that India had only two sports — cricket and the other was private,” says Stephen [...]
Economist online debate: This house believes that the world would be better off with fewer people.
August 2009 21st to 28th - Contributions and votes welcome
http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/364
The moderator’s opening remarks
During the past few years, the size of the world’s population has become a matter of public debate in a way not seen since the late 1960s. At that time, books such as Paul Ehrlich’s “The Population Bomb” (1968) forecast that the number [...]
E. O. Wilson: We must save the living environment
When we talk about the world going green, the media and the public think of pollution or fresh-water shortage. They understand, and want to do something. But that is the physical world; concern for the living environment has been slow to take off, as Julia Marton-Lefèvre, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature [...]
AusAID can now fund abortions abroad
Funds from the AusAID overseas aid program can now be used to fund abortions of foetuses of up to 20 weeks in countries where the procedure is legal.
The formal revoking of a ban on AusAID funded abortion services emerged yesterday after Foreign Minister Stephen Smith signed off on new family planning guidelines for dispensing federal [...]
New York Times Magazine Focuses on Saving the World’s Women
he New York Times Magazine of Sunday Aug. 23 will be devoted to issues confronting the world’s women, especially women’s rights.
The cover features the headline, “Why Women’s Rights are the Cause of Our Time,” the title of an article by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn. Adapted from their book [...]
Nile Delta: ‘We are going underwater. The sea will conquer our lands’
Maged Shamdy’s ancestors arrived on the shores of Lake Burrulus in the mid-19th century. In the dusty heat of Cairo at the time, French industrialists were rounding up forced labour squads to help build the Suez Canal, back-breaking labour from which thousands did not return. Like countless other Egyptians, the Shamdys abandoned their family home [...]
Kenya’s lions could vanish within 10 years
Kenya has been losing 100 lions a year for the past seven years, leaving the country with just 2000 of its famous big cats, says the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) – which concludes the country could have no wild lions at all in 20 years. Conservationists have blamed habitat destruction, disease and conflict with humans [...]
World youth tell leaders to clean up
An international gathering of youth and children, billed as the largest ever of its type on climate change, Thursday pressed world leaders to do far more to curb damage to the environment.
“We young people — 3 billion of the world population — are very concerned and frustrated that our governments are not doing enough to [...]
Climate change threatens Central American coffee
Scientists expect climate change to dramatically affect coffee production in Central America in the coming decades, but some lowland farmers in Guatemala say they are already feeling the effects.
The United Nations forecasts temperatures will rise one to six degrees over the next century, which will make some lower-lying coffee producing areas enviable, forcing farmers to [...]
How algae turns the tide toxic
The word ‘algae’ is a generic term which can cover anything from seaweed to microscopic organisms.
Algae by satellite - red shows thickest blooms
The type of seaweed causing problems along the Breton coast of France is called “Ulva”, often known as sea lettuce.
Along the south coast of the UK there are build ups of another algae [...]
Cattle, crop losses mount in Texas drought
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Mekong Delta may be inundated by rising sea
A sea level increase of that magnitude would also inundate a quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest city and home to more than 6 million people, according to the extreme scenario, outlined in the newspaper Tuoi Tre on Thursday.
Environmental scientists have long listed Vietnam, with its lengthy coastline and vast swathes of low-lying [...]
Plastics break down fast in ocean
Plastic waste has been until now regarded as relatively inert
Plastics decompose with surprising speed in the oceans, releasing contaminants into the water, according to new research.
The huge amount of plastic waste in our seas has previously been regarded as a long-lasting pollutant that does not break down easily.
Researchers who presented their work at a meeting [...]
Lemurs butchered in Madagascar
Jody Bourton
Earth reporter
Hanging on, the golden-crowned sifaka
Shocking pictures of slaughtered lemurs killed for bush meat have been released by Conservation International.
A breakdown in law and order due to the recent coup in Madagascar has resulted in poachers killing lemurs for profit.
The dead lemurs are sold to restaurant owners seeking to serve new delicacies, [...]
Behavioural changes key to fighting abuse in Liberia’s schools
Ellen Margrethe Løj, SRSG and Coordinator of UN Operations in Liberia
19 August 2009 – The top United Nations envoy to Liberia has stressed the need for greater awareness and behavioural changes to combat sexual exploitation and abuse in schools, and reiterated the world body’s commitment to help the West African nation in its efforts.Ellen Margrethe [...]
Mercury-tainted fish found widely in U.S. streams
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Food supplies at risk from price speculation
The world food market is still “seriously exposed” to speculators artificially driving up prices and worsening the risks of malnutrition, according to one of the world’s leading agricultural researchers.
Linking the recent food and financial crises, Joachim von Braun, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), warned that the world was at risk [...]
Staggering Indifference and Cowardice of American Media
By Frosty Wooldridge
Each day, I scratch my head, purse my lips and stare out the window from 8,000 feet above Denver, Colorado to view that city spread in all directions for as far as the eye can see. Above it, a gargantuan Brown Cloud—loaded with toxic air pollution expands all the way to the eastern [...]
Youth drop-out rate hits new high
Young people are struggling to find work in the recession
Record numbers of young people are not in school, college or work in England, official figures show.
The ranks of 18-24-year-olds considered to be “Neets” - not in education, employment or training - has risen by more than 100,000 in the past year.
Chancellor Alistair Darling has insisted [...]
Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse?
The collapse of civilisation will bring us a saner world, says Paul Kingsnorth. No, counters George Monbiot – we can’t let billions perish.
Decisions, decisions…
See debate here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/aug/17/environment-climate-change
The horrifying world of forced marriage
The start of the school holidays is a cause for rejoicing for most London teenagers but for one group it is a time when their lives take a sinister turn. We investigate the terrifying ordeal of forced marriages
by: Andy Jones and Laura Tait
17 August 2009
Many women who escape the abusive husbands they were forced [...]
Developed countries’ demand for biofuels has been ‘disastrous’
The production of biofuels is fuelling poverty, human rights abuses and damage to the environment, Christian Aid warned today.
The charity said huge subsidies and targets in developed countries for boosting the production of fuels from plants such as maize and palm oil are exacerbating environmental and social problems in poor nations.
And rather than being a [...]
Asia facing unprecedented food shortage
Asia faces an unprecedented food crisis and huge social unrest unless hundreds of billions of dollars are invested in better irrigation systems to grow crops for its burgeoning population, according to a UN report published today.
India, China, Pakistan and other large countries avoided famines in the 1970s and 1980s only because they built giant state-sponsored [...]
Wheat gets worse as CO2 rises
You may have thought that the silver lining of rising carbon dioxide levels would be a boost in crop yields. But evidence is mounting that we may trade quantity for quality.
The discovery that staple crops like wheat have less protein when grown in high concentrations of CO2 has already caused concern, but the bad news [...]
India in denial over sex education
A few months ago, a parliamentary committee on petitions rejected the new Adolescence Education Programme, a comprehensive sex education programme proposed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. India’s “social and cultural ethos are such that sex education has absolutely no place in it”, the committee huffed. Naturopathy and ayurveda should be taught instead.
Meanwhile, teenage [...]
As Arctic Ocean warms, megatonnes of methane bubble up
17:02 17 August 2009 by Michael Marshall
For similar stories, visit the Mysteries of the Deep Sea , Energy and Fuels and Climate Change Topic Guides
It’s been predicted for years, and now it’s happening. Deep in the Arctic Ocean, water warmed by climate change is forcing the release of methane from beneath the sea floor.
Over 250 [...]
Tackle population growth to tackle climate change
Leading figures from science and environmentalism have backed a call for population restraint policies to be adopted by every state worldwide as part of the battle against climate change.
The Optimum Population Trust says today (August 17, 2009) that the climate change talks which will culminate at Copenhagen in December must ensure that all countries adopt [...]
Row over Afghan wife-starving law
Critics accuse President Hamid Karzai of betraying Afghan women
An Afghan bill allowing a husband to starve his wife if she refuses to have sex has been published in the official gazette and become law.
The original bill caused outrage earlier this year, forcing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to withdraw it.
But critics say [...]
Vulnerable states team up for tougher climate pact
The world’s poorest nations joined small island states on Friday to urge far tougher global goals for fighting climate change, saying their people were at risk from everything from droughts to rising sea levels.
The two groups, representing some 80 nations, formed a joint bloc to push for a goal of limiting world temperature rises to [...]
China says its carbon emissions to fall by 2050
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Teens ‘are ignorant’ of safe sex to prevent HIV
Teen’s branded ‘ignorant’
Half the world’s teenagers admit to being dangerously ignorant about HIV risks – and many do not use condoms, a study shows.
One in three youngsters apparently do not believe using protection stops the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
The scale of the youth ignorance follows the revelation that half of the world’s new HIV [...]
Antarctic glacier ‘thinning fast’
By David Shukman
Science and environment correspondent, BBC News
The changes to the glacier are described as “unprecedented” in this part of Antarctica
One of the largest glaciers in Antarctica is thinning four times faster than it was 10 years ago, according to research seen by the BBC.
A study of satellite [...]
World Population Still Growing at Rapid Rate, PRB Says in Fact-Filled Report
Washington, DC, August 13 - The world’s population is set to reach 7 billion in 2011, a year earlier than expected, and most of the growth is occurring in the developing world, the Population Research Bureau said in a report released yesterday.
“Even with declining fertility rates in many countries, world population is still growing at [...]
Stephen Fry: Why turtles make me cry
Over 20 years ago, Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and zoologist Mark Carwardine travelled the world to find its most endangered species. Now Adams’s friend Stephen Fry has retraced his steps for a TV documentary. David Cohen meets the comedian, techno-geek and accidental environmentalist to talk about extinctions and iPhones
You’re [...]
India’s water use ‘unsustainable’
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Much of the water used in paddy fields is pumped from underground
Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages. according to results from Nasa’s gravity satellites.
The Grace mission discovered that in the country’s northwest - including Delhi - the water [...]
World Population Trends Likely to Increase UK Immigration Levels Still Further
Even larger immigration flows into the UK than we are currently experiencing will, as a result of world population trends, be almost inevitable unless there is decisive Government action to restrict numbers, says a report out today.
The UK population is already forecast to rise to 77m by 2050 – from its current 60 million – [...]
Indian land ’seriously degraded’
Air pollution is on the rise, the report, says
At least 45% of Indian land is environmentally “degraded”, air pollution is rising and flora and fauna is diminishing, according to a report.
The State of Environment Report is the first to be published for eight years and is the first to use satellite imagery to support its [...]
U.N. chief warns of dire future without climate deal
Failure to act quickly on climate change could eventually lead to violence and mass unrest as global weather patterns drastically change, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.
“If we fail to act, climate change will intensify droughts, floods and other natural disasters,” Ban said at a forum near Seoul that came weeks ahead of his [...]
Global 2008 CO2 emissions rose 2 percent: German institute
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Malaysian man jailed for forcing wife to have sex
A Malaysian man who forced his wife to have sex with him has been sentenced to five years’ jail under a newly enacted law aimed at protecting women from spousal abuse in the form of marital rape, a news report said Thursday.
The 35-year-old man had pleaded guilty to injuring his wife during sexual intercourse in their [...]
French green groups protest after algae fumes kill horse
Environmental groups have blamed intensive farming for a build-up of noxious algae that killed a horse and caused its rider to collapse on a beach in Brittany in western France earlier this month.
Environmentalists have demanded action after Vincent Petit, a vet, had to be dragged unconscious from a meter-deep patch of rotting algae after his [...]
Not just pills and condoms
Anne Weyman
The vast majority of women in the UK spend more than 30 years of their lives trying to avoid becoming pregnant. Contraception has been available free from the NHS since 1974 and today there is a choice of 15 methods, so it would seem that avoiding pregnancy should be straightforward. Yet the evidence demonstrates otherwise, [...]
UK assesses future food security
The government is consulting on how it can ensure that the UK’s food supply remains secure in the future.
While the current situation in the UK is good, ministers warn that factors such as climate change and population growth could have an adverse effect.
Producers, supermarkets and consumers are being encouraged to submit their ideas on how [...]
Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security
The changing global climate will pose profound strategic challenges to the United States in coming decades, raising the prospect of military intervention to deal with the effects of violent storms, drought, mass migration and pandemics, military and intelligence analysts say.
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Lynsey Addario
The conflict in southern Sudan, which has killed [...]
People ‘get happier as they age’
Most people get happier as they grow older, studies on people aged up to their mid-90s suggest.
Despite worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavements, later life tends to be a golden age, according to psychologists.
They found older adults generally make the best of the time they have left and have learned [...]
Consumerism is ‘eating the future’
We’re a gloomy lot, with many of us insisting that there’s nothing we can do personally about global warming, or that the human race is over-running the planet like a plague.
But according to leading ecologists speaking this week in Albuquerque at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, few of us realise that [...]
Girls Count, Women Matter
In these turbulent times of financial crisis, rising food prices, climate change and political instability, it is women and girls who will be disproportionately affected, particularly poor women in poor countries.
It is girls who will be removed from school because families can no longer afford to pay for them; it is women who will go [...]
Lack of contraceptive choice
The number of women being offered a choice of contraceptives has fallen by a third over the past two years, despite a DoH drive to increase the number of options for women, GP can reveal.
The DoH has invested pounds 20.5 million this year to promote the use of contraception, including pounds 7 million on raising [...]
PCTs block practices offering contraceptive services
Less than half of practices in England are offering patients a full range of contraceptives, as PCTs look to limit their use to cut costs, GP newspaper can reveal.
The finding, based on responses from 86 PCTs to a Freedom of Information Act request, comes despite a DoH drive to increase uptake of long-acting reversible contraceptives [...]
PCTs block LARCs in bid to cut costs
Only 42% of practices offer full range of contraceptives as PCTs squeeze costs.
Less than half of practices in England are offering patients a full range of contraceptives, as PCTs look to limit their use to cut costs, GP newspaper can reveal.
The finding, based on responses from 86 PCTs to a Freedom of Information Act request, [...]
A third of GPs to shun practices giving abortions
GPs believe abortion rate will rise once primary care terminations permitted, GP survey shows.
A third of GPs would refuse to work in a surgery or polyclinic that offers abortions, GP can reveal.
More than half believe offering the service in primary care will increase the overall abortion rate.
Nearly half of GPs also wish to see the [...]
Water Scarcity Looms as Population, Temperature Rise
Water scarcity is increasing in many regions as factors including population growth, climate change, and pollution restrict the amount of water available relative to demand. In 2008, 1.4 billion people lived in “closed basins”-regions where existing water cannot meet the agricultural, municipal, and environmental needs for all. This number is expected to grow to 1.8 [...]
Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast
The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.
Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even [...]
Alaska glaciers shrinking fast: survey
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Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals
Abstract
Much attention has been paid to the ways that people’s home energy use, travel, food choices and other routine activities affect their emissions of carbon dioxide and, ultimately, their contributions to global warming. However, the reproductive choices of an individual are rarely incorporated into calculations of his personal impact on the environment. Here we estimate [...]
Tipping point: richest nations see baby boom
The once ironclad axiom that the wealthier a nation the lower its birthrate is reversed when countries pass a certain threshold of development, according to a study released Wednesday.
Most of the two dozen nations that have passed this tipping point — including Australia, Sweden, France, the United States and Britain — are enjoying modest baby [...]
Abortions Surge in China
More than 13 million abortions are performed each year in China, according to statistics disclosed by Chinese health officials, a marked increase from 2003, the most recent statistics available.
When unreported and medication-induced abortions are counted, the actual number is substantially higher, according to physicians and medical researchers.
The rate of abortion in China — about 24 [...]
Skilled migrant incentives urged
Immigration is the main factor behind the UK’s growing population
Incentives should be offered to keep highly skilled immigrants in the UK, as more are staying for just a short time before leaving, a report argues.
The Institute for Public Policy Research think tank warned the UK could lose what it called “super mobile” migrants [...]
Global warming ‘could put billions in conflict’
Billions of people will be in conflict as they migrate from parts of the world made uninhabitable by climate change unless global warming is tackled, a leading economist said.
Lord Nicholas Stern said innovative skills in maths, software, communications and business needed to be fully harnessed to find a way towards low carbon growth.
Lord Stern, author [...]
U.S., Canadian forests fall to beetle outbreak
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Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific
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Teenagers ‘bullied by sex texts’
Teenagers are more likely to receive a sexual image on their mobile
More than a third of under-18s have been sent a distressing sexually explicit digital message, a survey by the charity Beatbullying suggests.
A large majority of the 2,094 respondents said a fellow teenager had sent it, compared with 2% who said an adult had [...]
Japan kid payouts may win votes, not up birthrate
FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Promises of cash for raising kids look like one reason why Japan’s opposition Democratic Party is ahead in the run-up to an election next month, but many say it won’t prompt them to have more babies.
That is a worry for Japan, which is aging far faster [...]
India pays couples to put off having children
Thousands of couples in India who agreed to put off having babies for at least two years after their wedding will collect cash payments this month as health officials attempt to curb the country’s rapidly growing population.
The country’s population stands at 1.2 billion and is expected to reach 1.53 billion by 2050. But increasing pressure [...]
Petition the UK government on population!
Two on the go right now:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/toomanypeople/#detail
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/worldpopgrowth/
‘Far-right’ areas to be targeted
The BNP won two seats in European elections earlier this year
White working-class areas will be targeted by the government in a bid to counter far-right extremism.
Communities secretary John Denham said about 100 council wards in England would be indentified for the scheme.
Measures could include meetings for residents to express concerns about immigration and [...]
Supermarket predicts UK baby boom
Supermarket giant Tesco has predicted that the nation could be set for a baby boom following a surge in demand for pregnancy products.
Tesco said sales of folic acid and other nutrients which help babies develop during pregnancy have risen by 51%.
The retail chain has also seen a 9% decline in condom purchases during the last [...]
MPs ‘back’ new immigration system
Ministers say the system is fairer than a arbitrary cap
The new points-based immigration system is working well, but concerns remain about the time taken to process visas and the appeals process, MPs have said.
The Home Affairs Committee gave the system, introduced last year to better control migration levels, a “cautious welcome” but identified some [...]