India’s contribution pushes UN global campaign to over 10 billion trees planted
India, the world’s second most populous country, announced today that it is coming on board the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) campaign to cover the world with billions of trees, pushing the total number planted so far to more than 10 billion since the movement started in 2006. The South Asian nation is one of [...]
Pregnancy rates [in the UK] hit 10-year low
The number of women having babies has fallen for the first time in nearly 10 years, according to official figures. The drop in pregnancies follows a 10-year baby boom which saw the population pass 61 million, according to the Office of National Statistics. Pregnancy rates fell in all groups apart from those women aged over [...]
U.N. meeting moots WTO-style environment agency
Ministers and officials from more than 135 nations converged on Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian island of Bali, this week for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) annual meeting, the biggest grouping of environment officials since climate talks in Copenhagen last year. UNEP’s executive director, Achim Steiner, told reporters on Friday that environmental governance reform [...]
Britain’s green spaces under threat from water shortages and house prices
Parts of the UK could face water shortages, rapidly rising house prices and threats to wildlife and landscapes without major changes to how land is managed, a report warned today. The chief scientific adviser, professor John Beddington, said sticking with “business as usual” management of land was not an option in the face of pressures [...]
Antarctic spits out iceberg the size of Luxembourg
An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has split off from the Antarctic continent and could disrupt global ocean patterns and weather systems for decades, according to scientists. The 985 sq mile (2,550 sq km) block of ice was knocked off the Mertz Glacier Tongue, a spit of floating ice protruding from eastern Antarctica, on February [...]
Lack of funds threatens Yemen aid operation
U.N. agencies have warned they will have to start scaling back aid to a quarter of a million people uprooted by conflict in northern Yemen unless donors commit more money for the provision of food, water and other life-saving relief. Following a fragile ceasefire which came into effect on Feb. 11, aid agencies want to [...]
Nutrition experts needed to tackle Chad hunger
Chad lacks the human resources and health services needed to tackle a looming hunger crisis that threatens around 2 million people in the central African country, a senior U.N. official said on Friday. Drought has led to a 35 percent fall in crop production, with one-fifth of the population facing food shortages. The rate of [...]
Yemen threatens to chew itself to death over thirst for narcotic qat plant
There’s something a bit different about the three Rafik brothers as they show off their fields of lanky green trees, grown from the rich and rare soils of Wadi Dahr. Unlike three-quarters of Yemeni men on the afternoon of a day off, there are no little green flecks around the teeth of Abdullah, Nabil and [...]
50-year countdown to an apeless world
‘New Scientist’ book review of ‘Among the Great Apes’ by Paul Raffaele :
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/02/stephanie-pain-contributor-the-washington.php
WFP Urges Doctors To Join Fight Against Malnutrition
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Friday urged doctors and medical experts to put their knowledge to work to support the battle against malnutrition, a factor in 10,000 child deaths every day. Speaking at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, Sheeran said that the world already had the ability and knowledge to tackle the [...]
Desperate California to get more water at last
Drought-stricken farmers and cities across California were granted a measure of relief on Friday when federal and state officials said they expected to supply significantly more water this year than last. The announcements came as welcome news in the nation’s No. 1 farm state, where dramatic cutbacks in water deliveries by the U.S. Bureau of [...]
Senator Kerry says compromise climate bill coming
Senator John Kerry said a bipartisan climate change bill would emerge soon in the U.S. Senate, contradicting what he called the “conventional wisdom” that the legislation was dead this election year.Kerry is working closely with the Obama administration and a bipartisan group of senators on a comprehensive bill to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide pollution blamed [...]
A quiet sun won’t save us from global warming
EVEN if the sun were to quieten down appreciably for the rest of this century, it would still be business as usual for global warming. The sun goes through an 11-year solar cycle during which its luminosity varies according to the number of sunspots appearing on its face. The normal cycle has a small effect [...]
Arctic arch failure leads to sea-ice exodus
EVERY winter the Arctic ice cap is penned in by curved barriers of ice spanning the straits that lead out of the Arctic Ocean. Now it seems that some of these ice arches are failing to form. The resulting exodus of sea ice into the Atlantic and Pacific could affect ocean circulation and marine life. [...]
Dolphins, monks, migrants aided by Oscar’s long arm
Documentary filmmakers are accustomed to preaching to a choir of mostly small-sized audiences who see their issue-driven films. But nominees for the March 7 Oscars, who don’t attract the controversy of a Michael Moore or the pull of Al Gore, say their nonfiction films are still reaching new eyes and a few powerful decision makers [...]
Whaling worsens carbon release, scientists warn
A century of whaling may have released more than 100 million tonnes - or a large forest’s worth - of carbon into the atmosphere, scientists say. Whales store carbon within their huge bodies and when they are killed, much of this carbon can be released. US scientists revealed their estimate of carbon released by whaling [...]
Monitoring resources and conflict
Is the “resource curse” inevitable? The Resource Conflict Monitor (RCM) produced by the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC) attempts to monitor the management, administration, and governance of natural resources in countries prone to resource-conflict dynamics by establishing an empirical measure of resource governance.
The online index combines available secondary data for established measures of good [...]
Biofuel demand to put pressure on food prices
Demand for biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels will continue to be one of the significant factors that could see food prices soaring dramatically again in the near future, says an industry source. In late 2007 to mid-2008, the world witnessed a “silent tsunami” of rising food costs that resulted to social tensions and [...]
Grizzlies encroach on polar bear territory
Grizzly bears are being spotted in Manitoba, Canada, where biologists say only polar bears are usually found. Scientists from City University of New York say sightings are increasing. “Grizzlies would likely hibernate in polar bear maternity denning habitat,” says CUNY’s Linda Gormezano. They would come out of hibernation at the same time and can kill [...]
Teenage pregnancies fall, but not far enough
The government today announced an overhaul of its teenage pregnancy strategy after new figures showed conception rates among under 18s were not falling fast enough. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, 41,325 girls under 18 in England and Wales fell pregnant in 2008, a decline of 3.9% from 2007, while the number [...]
From ocean to ozone: Earth’s nine life-support systems
UP TO now, the Earth has been very kind to us. Most of our achievements in the past 10,000 years - farming, culture, cities, industrialisation and the raising of our numbers from a million or so to almost 7 billion - happened during an unusually benign period when Earth’s natural regulatory systems kept everything from [...]
Future faces of water conflict
“Most of the actual violence around water today is not occurring with armies marching out on the field of battle…[it] is more diffuse, more at the community level, more small scale, but quite real and quite important for us to try to address,” says Ken Conca, professor of government and politics at the University of [...]
Population issue needs a long-term approach
POPULATION has been called the elephant in the room that no one talks about.
Actually there has been quite a lot of talk recently. At a discussion hosted by Transition Exeter at the Global Centre, Dr Pip Hayes, from the Optimum Population Trust, proposed that there should be an estimation of what is the best size [...]
Environment watchdog predicts ‘precision farming’ using GM crops for UK
Lord Smith of Finsbury, Chairman of the Environment Agency, said the world will struggle to feed the growing global population as more land is taken out of production because of global warming. He told the National Farmers Union annual conference that the UK will have to develop ‘precision farming’ where new technologies such as GM, [...]
Golden years: time spent in retirement has sharply increased
As governments try to tackle huge structural budget deficits, one means of attack is to delay paying state pensions by gently raising the official state-retirement age. Protests are expected in Spain on Tuesday February 23rd against an official plan to lift the retirement age by two years to 67. Official retirement ages have failed to [...]
China’s soil deterioration may become growing food crisis, adviser claims
The quality of China’s overworked, polluted and artificially fertilised soil needs to be protected or the country could struggle to grow enough crops for the 300 million to 400 million people who will move from the countryside to the city over the next 30 years, a senior government adviser warned today. Han Jun, an expert [...]
Over 7 million people in Niger facing food insecurity owing to bad harvest, warns UN
More than 7 million people in Niger, which last week saw its Government overthrown in a coup d’état, are facing food insecurity, the United Nations health agency warned today. Some 2.7 million, or one in five households, were severely food insecure and another 5.1 million were moderately food insecure, Paul Garwood of the World Health [...]
African officials at UN-backed meeting seek to protect migrating children
With cross-border movement of unaccompanied minors reaching into the thousands, senior officials from 15 Eastern and Southern African countries are thrashing out ways to strengthen cooperation for the protection of children at risk, at a three-day United Nations-backed meeting beginning today in Pretoria, South Africa.
“We need to make sure that all children, particularly vulnerable [...]
Biodiversity: out of sight, out of mind
Once species disappear from the face of the Earth, they are quickly forgotten, says Samuel Turvey. In this week’s Green Room, he warns that extinctions must be treated as a warning that human activities, such as overhunting and agriculture, are making the planet a poorer place to live.
It has been widely reported that the Earth’s [...]
Ministers admit failure over cutting ‘shameful’ teenage pregnancies
A ten-year strategy costing millions of pounds to cut the “shameful” number of teenage pregnancies in Britain has failed to make any serious impact. Ministers accept that they cannot meet Tony Blair’s target, set in 1999, of halving pregnancies among under-18s by 2012. Figures today will show that Britain still has the highest teenage pregnancy [...]
New floating garbage patch found in Atlantic Ocean
Researchers have found a high concentration of plastic debris is floating in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Caribbean, months after concerns were raised over a vast patch of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean. The study’s principal investigator said that the findings were based on more than 64,000 tiny bits of plastic collected over [...]
Biofuel power plant decision due
An application to build a controversial biofuel power station is being considered by councillors in Bristol. Environmental groups oppose the plant, and the city’s council leader says it is likely to lead to rainforest destruction and food insecurity. But council officials say there are no good grounds to block the proposal under existing planning law. [...]
Climate change melts Antarctic ice shelves: USGS
Climate change is melting the floating ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula, giving scientists a preview of what could happen if other ice shelves around the southern continent disappear, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said on Monday. The ice has retreated so far from the land mass that Charcot Island, which has long been connected [...]
World’s coral reefs could disintegrate by 2100
The world’s coral reefs will begin to disintegrate before the end of the century as rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere make the oceans more acidic, scientists warn. The research points to a looming transition in the health of coral ecosystems during which the ability of reefs to grow is overwhelmed by the rate [...]
Emissions vows not enough to avoid 2 deg C rise: UN
Emission cuts pledges made by 60 countries will not be enough to keep the average global temperature rise at 2 degrees Celsius or less, modeling released on Tuesday by the United Nations says. Scientists say temperatures should be limited to a rise of no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times if [...]
Indonesia aims to be world’s breadbasket
Following Brazil’s trail, Indonesia is encouraging foreign and local investors to lease huge swathes of fertile countryside and help make the country a major food producer. “Feed Indonesia, then feed the world,” was the recent call from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after the government announced plans to fast-track development of vast agricultural estates in remote [...]
Study integrating family planning and HIV treatment and care funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
UCSF has received a $1.15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to determine if integrating family planning into HIV treatment and care will increase contraceptive use and decrease unintended pregnancy among HIV-positive women.
UCSF will partner with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and Ibis Reproductive Health to conduct the research.
“Two-thirds of the world’s [...]
Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels
Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings. The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [...]
Uganda asks oil firms to move camps from game parks
The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has asked firms exploring for oil to move their camps outside of game reserves to prevent poaching, it said Monday. In January, the UWA accused workers contracted by Tullow Oil of killing the only surviving male Reedbuck — an African antelope — in Kabwoye wildlife reserve. UWA’s Executive Director Moses [...]
Climate change could be accelerated by ‘methane time bomb’
Atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas, which is as much as 60 times more potent than carbon dioxide, appear to have risen significantly for the past three years running, scientists say. Experts have long feared that vast amounts of the natural gas trapped in the frozen tundra of the Arctic could be unlocked as the [...]
UN calls for action on growing electronic waste
The world must do more to cope with the drastic rise in electronic waste, according to a UN study published today. The report suggests that in some countries, the amount of e-waste being produced – including mobile phones and computers – could rise by as much as 500% over the next decade. Such rapid growth, [...]
Unilever drops major palm-oil producer
The household goods giant Unilever has distanced itself from a major palm-oil producer after a BBC documentary filmed its staff clearing protected rainforest to make way for plantations producing the widely-used ingredient. In its second blacklisting of a palm-oil producer in three months, Unilever said it would avoid buying supplies originating from the Indonesian company [...]
After feminism: what are girls supposed to do?
Abbi Marper is too shy to speak above a whisper, but she wants to be a policewoman or a nurse. Her friend Becky Billing is studying to be a plumber. Charlotte Wilson, the most chatty of the group, is having a problem narrowing her options. “I want to be a firefighter, but I also want [...]
Monkeys, butterflies, turtles… how the pet trade’s greed is emptying south-east Asia’s forests
Countries across south-east Asia are being systematically drained of wildlife to meet a booming demand for exotic pets in Europe and Japan and traditional medicine in China – posing a greater threat to many species than habitat loss or global warming.
More than 35 million animals were legally exported from the region over the past decade, [...]
Acidified landscape around ocean vents foretells grim future for coral reefs
Huge vents covering the sea-floor – among the strangest and most spectacular sights in nature – pour carbon dioxide and other gases into the deep waters of the oceans.
Last week, as researchers reported that they had now discovered more than 50,000 underwater volcanic springs, they also revealed a new use for them – as laboratories [...]
World’s top firms cause $2.2tn of environmental damage, report estimates
The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world’s biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.
The report comes amid growing concern that no one is [...]
Almost half of all primates face ‘imminent extinction’
Almost half of the world’s primate species – which include apes, monkeys and lemurs - are threatened with extinction due to the destruction of tropical forests and illegal hunting and trade.
In a report highlighting the 25 most endangered primate species, conservationists have outlined the desperate plight of primates from Madagascar, [...]
Canada’s permafrost retreats amid warming trend
When permafrost melts, it can liberate the powerful greenhouse gas methane that is locked in the frozen soil. The amount of methane contained in permafrost around James Bay is slight compared to the vast stores of the chemical found in ancient, deep permafrost in the Yukon, Alaska and Siberia.
The southern [...]
Sex health centre for ethnic groups
A newly opened sexual health centre for London, which has 36,000 residents with HIV, is aimed at reaching communities from the Horn of Africa, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The centre, known as the Naz Project London (NPL), has grown over 18 years from a community-based organisation. Based in Hammersmith, it targets hard-to-reach [...]
Greenland’s glaciers disappearing from the bottom up
Water warmed by climate change is taking giant bites out of the underbellies of Greenland’s glaciers. As much as 75 per cent of the ice lost by the glaciers is melted by ocean warmth.
“There’s an entrenched view in the public community that glaciers only lose ice when icebergs calve off,” [...]
Push to ban trade in endangered bluefin tuna
It was one of the most expensive fish ever sold. A few weeks ago, a giant bluefin tuna achieved a price of 16.3m yen – about £111,000 – at auction in Tokyo. The rich, buttery taste of the tuna’s flesh made the 513lb fish irresistible for one group of restaurateurs. The [...]
Social justice more important than ever in global economic crisis, Ban says
Social justice based on the values of fairness, equality and respect for diversity is more important than ever amid a global financial and economic crisis that has significantly increased unemployment and poverty and is straining social integration, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.
“The world’s major economies are beginning to emerge from this [...]
Great white shark is more endangered than tiger, claims scientist
Their poor public image may mean great white sharks go extinct before the tiger. Photograph: Brandon Cole/Getty
Great white sharks may be more endangered than tigers, with only a few thousand left in the world’s oceans, according to a leading marine biologist.
The grim assessment suggests that fishing and collisions with shipping vessels [...]
Amazon set for second hydrocarbon boom
The Peruvian Amazon is in the early stages of a second hydrocarbon boom, which could have damaging effects on biodiversity and indigenous people. That’s according to researchers from the US and Spain, who are the first to plot historical trends in oil and gas exploration and extraction in the forest.
“We found [...]
Claim of U-turn on sex education
Ministers are being accused of caving into pressure from faith schools over sex and relationships education.
The government is due to make sex and relationship lessons compulsory in England’s schools from 2011 through a bill in Parliament next week.
But pressure groups and the Liberal Democrats say a late amendment means faith [...]
Deep-sea trawling is destroying coral reefs and pristine marine habitats
Squat lobsters on a cold-water coral reef off the coast of Ireland. Deep-sea trawling poses a particular threat in temperate regions. Photograph: University of Plymouth
Deep-sea trawling is devastating corals and pristine marine habitats that have gone untouched since the last ice age, a leading marine biologist has warned.
A survey of the [...]
FAO database exposes land rights gender gap
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) yesterday launched a database that attempts to gather in one place information on land rights and access to land in a way that highlights the inequalities that exist between men and women. The Gender and Land Rights Database, which has been produced in consultation with national statistics authorities, universities [...]
Overpopulation and Climate Change [International Herald Tribune]
With the continuing failure of governments to reach agreements on combating climate change, the outlook for both humans and nature remains bleak. And nowhere is the failure more conspicuous than in the avoidance of the subject of population growth. Population is a double-barreled environmental problem — not only is population increasing; so are emissions per [...]
SYRIA: Over a million people affected by drought
Drought in eastern and northeastern Syria has driven some 300,000 families to urban settlements such as Aleppo, Damascus and Deir ez Zour in search of work in one of the largest internal displacements in the Middle East in recent years. The country’s agriculture sector, which until recently employed 40 percent of Syria’s workforce and accounted [...]
More than 20 million people in Asia-Pacific could fall into extreme poverty, UN warns
The global economic downturn could push an additional 21 million people in the Asia-Pacific region into extreme poverty, rolling back development gains, according to a United Nations-backed report issued today. The publication, launched in Manila, examines the toll that the crisis has taken on progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight anti-poverty [...]
Yemen’s water crisis eclipses al Qaeda threat
“My well is now 400 meters (1,300 feet) deep and I don’t think I can drill any deeper here,” said Tawwa, pointing to the meager flow into tanks that supply water trucks and companies. From dawn, dozens of people with yellow jerricans collect water from a special canister Tawwa has set aside for the poor. [...]
Unsafe abortion in Kenya: Poor women, teenagers most affected
Women with little or no source of income and teenagers account for most cases of unsafe abortions in public hospitals. Doctors say this group is disadvantaged largely due to lack of access to reproductive health services.
Dr Njoroge Waithaka, the chairman of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society, says rich women have many options for terminating [...]
Is Britain full?
When Phil Woolas , the Immigration and Borders Minister, suggested last week that queuing should be a feature of the UK citizenship test, it seemed to make sense. After all, we stand nose to nose on the Underground, drive bumper to bumper in city centres, and regard queueing as a national sport.
Yet the irony of [...]
‘Asylum has become a dirty word’
The Scottish Refugee Council says that 25 years since it was set up, the situation for asylum seekers and refugees is worse than ever. BBC Scotland’s social affairs reporter Fiona Walker looks at how attitudes have changed.
More: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33783&Cr=liberia&Cr1=
UN urges media in Liberia to highlight lack of punishment for sexual violence
February 2010 – The United Nations is urging media practitioners in Liberia to play a major role in creating public awareness about gender-based violence, one of the most frequently committed serious crimes in the country, as part of a wider UN push in West Africa to increase media spotlight on sexual violence.“It is at the [...]
Tajikistan facing water shortages and climate extremes, report warns
It has been occupied by the Russians, the Mongols, the Turks, the Arabs and the Uzbeks, the Chinese, as well as Genghis Khan. But the ancient, mountainous state of Tajikistan, which has been at the crossroads of Asian civilisations for over a thousand years, is in danger of being overwhelmed by water shortages, rising temperatures [...]
The National Geographic archives: Conserving the Florida Everglades
A controversial restoration plan designed to improve the water quality of the Florida Everglades is proving unpopular with local sugar cane farmers and some environmentalists.
More (4-minute video): http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2010/feb/17/florida-everglades-conservation
Family planning for contraception week
Unplanned pregnancy in the middle-aged women is the target for this year’s Contraception Awareness Week.
Run by the Family Planning Association it is targeting women aged between 35 and 48.
Gail Hampal, sister and health advisor at Warrington Hospital’s Genito Urinary Medicine (GUM) Clinic has encouraged women in this bracket to think about the choice of contraceptives [...]
NRI* WOMEN DON’T TRUST INDIAN DOCTORS IN UK
Many young British women of Indian-origin are wary of discussing issues such as sexual health, pregnancy and contraception with their Indian or Asian family doctors for fear that the information will leak to their parents and the community.
This reluctance to consult Asian family doctors has caused concern among Britain’s health officials who believe that the [...]
Tories get their sums wrong in attack on teen pregnancy
The Tories were facing embarrassment last night over an errant decimal place, after a key statistic in a document issued to much fanfare turned out to be wrong by a multiple of 10.
The Conservatives launched the attack document, called Labour’s Two Nations, to try to show the rise in inequalities under the current government. It [...]
EU biofuels significantly harming food production in developing countries
EU companies have taken millions of acres of land out of food production in Africa, central America and Asia to grow biofuels for transport, according to development campaigners. The consequences of European biofuel targets, said the report by ActionAid, could be up to 100 million more hungry people, increased food prices and landlessness.
The report says [...]
Video campaign to cut teenage pregnancies
NHS Peterborough, NHS Peterborough Community Services and the local council launched the Who’s the Daddy? campaign last week. The campaign, which is based on ideas from local young people, includes a short, light-hearted video on YouTube and Facebook.
More: http://www.nursingtimes.net/whats-new-in-nursing/primary-care/video-campaign-to-cut-teenage-pregnancies/5011429.article
Teenage pregnancy ‘can have good side’
TEENAGE pregnancy can “make sense” for young people and have a positive effect on their lives, according to the authors of a new study.
The book, Teenage Parenthood: What’s The Problem?, argues teenage pregnancy is not necessarily the result of ignorance about contraception or low expectations.
The authors say the majority of teenage mothers they interviewed were [...]
Children are unhappier
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/feb/11/children-unhappier-poll-finds
Condoms offered to 13-year-olds
Free condoms and chlamydia testing kits have been offered to children as young as 13 by the Teesside Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
The kits and contraceptives are being distributed by NHS Middlesbrough’s Life Store in the run up to Valentine’s Day, which occurs during National Contraceptive Awareness Week this year.
The C:Card scheme is being promoted by [...]
Wild Food Peak
The importance of wild food has obviously been in decline right from the time when a few hunter gatherers decided to have a try at farming. Now, although wild food caught or gathered on land is still important in parts of Africa and places like the Amazon for most of us in the west it [...]
Despite rain, California still fighting over water
California has been deluged with rain and snow this winter, but its epic tug-of-war over water rages on, this time in the form of a plan by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein to divert more water to the state’s farmers.
U.S. | Green Business
Feinstein has infuriated environmental activists, fishing groups and even fellow California Democrats by drafting federal legislation [...]
Climate change: calling planet birth
Twelve years ago, the American author Bill McKibben published a short book entitled Maybe One: A Personal And Environmental Argument For Much Smaller Families. It certainly has its faults: most obviously, it provides a little too much information about the vasectomy McKibben decided to have in lieu of a second child. But it isn’t pious [...]
Big cities and global farming now driving deforestation
The drivers of tropical deforestation have shifted in the early 21st century to hinge on growth of cities and the globalised agricultural trade, a new large-scale study concludes. The observations starkly reverse assumptions by some scientists that fast-growing urbanization and the efficiencies of global trade might eventually slow or reverse [...]
Condom scheme working in Cornwall
The C Card condom scheme is being promoted in colleges with the help of NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly as part of Contraceptive Awareness Week.
By providing their date of birth and the first part of their postcode, anyone between the ages of 16 and 21 can register for a C Card, which allows them [...]
Only Severe Cuts to Immigration will Stop Population Hitting 70 million well within 25 Years
Even if the birth rate were to drop to levels not seen for 100 years the UK population is almost bound to hit 70m within 25 years unless there is a dramatic cut in immigration levels, says a new report out yesterday.
An analysis of the Government’s own figures – issued on the eve of a [...]
Preserving world’s biodiversity vital for economic development, UN official warns
11 February 2010 – Saving the world’s myriad diverse species, which are being lost to human activity at an unprecedented rate that some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression, is vital not just for environmental reasons but for the economic well-being of humankind, a senior United Nations official said today.“Without preserving biodiversity and [...]
Any pact with Taliban must guarantee rights of Afghan women – UN panel
5 February 2010 – Any agreement between the Afghan Government and the Taliban should include a clear commitment to protect women’s human rights, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women said today.The Committee, which consists of 23 experts on women’s rights, voiced deep concern at “the absence of [...]
“New Population Bomb”
In the January/February edition of Foreign Affairs, Jack Goldstone writes a compelling piece on demographic trends, which all have implications on global hunger and how we address it.
“The New Population Bomb” points out a few things we already know: The industrialized world is getting older. The developing world is getting younger. And it seems everyone [...]
Gender Equity in Local Development Strengthened in Rwanda
Kigali — A Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD) programme in Rwanda was signed in Kigali on 8 February. The programme aims to improve women’s access to resources and services at the local level through gender-responsive planning and budgeting. It is implemented in five African countries – Mozambique, [...]
UNiTE Campaign Launched in Africa
Addis Ababa — Africa-UNiTE to End Violence against Women and Girls, the Africa component of the UN Secretary-General’s global campaign, was launched on 30 January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The event was attended by representatives from Member States of the African Union, the United Nations system and civil society.
As outlined in a presentation by Micheline [...]
UNFPA to provide $2.7m for population welfare programmes
The United Nations Population Fund will provide two point seven million dollars to the Ministry of Population Welfare [Pakistan] for population welfare programmes during the current financial year. A signing ceremony for the implementation of Annual work plan 2010 between the Ministry of Population and UNFPA was held here Wednesday where Minister for Population welfare [...]
Bangladesh: Climate change and women
Dhaka — Climate change is soon going to be a great challenge for Bangladesh. Global warming and climate change are already affecting lives and livelihoods in this region. By 2050, 70 million people could be affected annually by floods and 8 million by drought, with increasingly intense cyclones hitting the coast.
The largest island in the [...]
Pakistan: Bill to facilitate reproductive health care introduced in NA
ISLAMABAD — A Bill to facilitate reproductive health car eand promote reproductive health rights (The Reproductive Healthcare and Rights Bill, 2009) was moved in National Assembly on Tuesday. According to our correspondent, MNA Dr. Attiya Inayatullah, introducing the Private Member Bill, saidit aimed at providing quality reproductive health through short and long term efforts, among [...]
Ethiopian President seeks expansion of reproductive healthcare
Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis has called for the expansion of sexual and reproductive health rights to cover the poor and ignored groups such as pastoralists, usually classified as marginalized groups.
Speaking during the opening of the Fourth Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Woldegiorgis warned that African countries were unlikely [...]
Did immigration transform Britain by accident?
Why did immigration to Britain increase so rapidly in recent years? David Goodhart, editor of Prospect magazine, considers the question for Radio 4’s Analysis programme.
Eastern European fruit pickers have benefited from UK immigration laws
Since Labour came to power in 1997, Britain has experienced what is comfortably its largest wave of immigration [...]
Water at core of climate change impacts: experts
Desertification, flash floods, melting glaciers, heatwaves, cyclones or water-borne diseases such as cholera are among the impacts of global warming inextricably tied to water. And competition for supplies might cause conflicts.
“The main manifestations of rising temperatures…are about water,” said Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water which coordinates work on water among [...]
Category Focus: Contraception and sexual health
Increasing demand for choice and convenience in sexual health services and an increasing range of OTC products present pharmacists with exciting opportunities to provide innovative and comprehensive services, says Francesca Robinson.
Sexual and reproductive health services are a public health priority for the NHS.
This is a fast growing sector that is [...]
Asian water wrangles
The quantity and quality of available water play a crucial role in the politics of central-south Asia. Access to clean drinking water is a major, though largely unmet, objective and poor management lies at the heart of many problems.
Many areas are already experiencing physical water shortages – recent studies estimate per [...]
Tough being young and having a baby
MORE money than ever is being spent on sex education in schools, yet the number of teenage pregnancies has RISEN for the first time in five years. Schoolgirls as young as ten are even getting pregnant, according to shocking statistics uncovered in The Sun yesterday. And earlier this month it [...]
Unplanned pregnancy warning to older women over 35
Experts fear older women are ditching contraception in the mistaken belief that they cannot get pregnant past a certain age.
The Family Planning Association (FPA) believes the message on infertility and age has gone “too far”.
Although fertility does wane, women can still get pregnant well into their thirties, forties and even [...]
12-year-old Saudi girl in divorce battle with 80-year-old husband
A 12-year-old girl fighting to divorce her 80-year-old husband in Saudi Arabia is to receive legal assistance from the Government in what could become a test case for banning child marriage in the kingdom.
The state-run Human Rights Commission has hired a lawyer to represent the girl when she takes her case to [...]
Company chiefs warn of ‘oil crunch’
Sir Richard Branson and other business leaders will warn this week that the world is hurtling towards an “oil crunch” to match the financial crisis within five years.
In a report due to be launched on Wednesday, the Virgin Group founder will say that the world is running out of oil and [...]
‘Don’t rely on science to stop biological clock’
Fertility doctors say there are no more people needing fertility treatment now than there were 10 years ago - it is just that people have become more anxious about having a family.
In this week’s Scrubbing Up, Stuart Lavery, a consultant gynaecologist at Queen Charlotte’s hospital and a director of the IVF [...]
Water at core of climate change impacts: experts
Desertification, flash floods, melting glaciers, heatwaves, cyclones or water-borne diseases such as cholera are among the impacts of global warming inextricably tied to water. And competition for supplies might cause conflicts.
“The main manifestations of rising temperatures…are about water,” said Zafar Adeel, chair of UN-Water which coordinates work on water among 26 U.N. agencies.
“It has an [...]