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<font size=5>Population, Family Planning, <br>& Ecology News Digest<br>Archives January - April 2003</font> of WOA!! World Population Awareness

Population, Family Planning,
& Ecology News Digest
Archives January - April 2003
August 23, 2003

  • April 30, 2003   Los Angeles Times   US California: Rise in Otter Deaths Puts Experts on Alert.   An increase in dead sea otters on California beaches has wildlife officials scrambling for possible reasons. 44 had been found from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, the previous high was 29. This year's death toll has grown so dramatically that wildlife officials see new urgency in finding answers. Many of the animals died from infectious diseases and parasites, and a few fatally injured when struck by boats. For several years, the southern sea otter population off California has hovered at about 2,150, protected by the Endangered Species Act since 1977. A sustainable sea otter population could be as high as 8,400. The northern sea otter has always thrived and now numbers about 100,000. Scientists concede that lower human population in that area could be part of the answer. The sea otter habitat is becoming short on food but officials dismiss any suggestion they are starving to death. About 25% of the deaths are from disease spread by feral cats and cat litter dumped into sewage systems. A worm infestation found in sand crabs, part of the sea otter diet, is another major cause. In the late 1980s, officials moved 140 sea otters from the Monterey area to San Nicolas Island 60 miles off the Ventura County coast, any otters that strayed would be herded back to San Nicolas. Some swam back to the Channel Islands others to Mexico and San Diego but the federal government hasn't returned them. Sea otters stay close to shore because they cannot forage in more than 100 feet. Fishermen are fighting an idea that would allow the sea otter to spread along the entire California coast.     rw 006617
  • April 29, 2003   Patrick Burns   Abortion vs Contraception.   Across the globe, 133 million births occur annually, as well as an estimated 46 million induced abortions, meaning that about 25% of all pregnancies end in abortion. The U.S. follows this pattern. Research by the Population Council makes a convincing case that an increase in contraception decreases the number of abortions. Abortion has been legal in the U.S. for 30 years, thus if we are going to achieve a decline in the rate of U.S. population growth it is not going to be by abortion, but by either tackling immigration and/or increasing contraception. A number of Americans use no contraception, use contraception irregularly or improperly, or use contraceptive systems that have high failure rates. What if one-tenth of the energy put into the abortion debate (on both sides) had gone into educating people about the methods of contraception available and improving the level of access? We've all seen pro-choice and anti-choice ads at one time or another. Anyone seen an ad that tells the failure rate of condoms or diaphragms? An ad for over-the-counter emergency contraception or an ad touting a reversible form of birth control that lasts 10 years at a crack? The good news is that a change may be in the works. Emergency contraception will eventually lead to over-the-counter birth control pills. It can't happen soon enough.     rw 006598
  • April 29, 2003   Associated Press   UNICEF Warns on Water in Southern Iraq.   Water supplies in southern Iraq could be undrinkable within weeks. Many pumping stations have been repaired, but face dwindling supplies of chlorine to purify the water drawn from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Most sewage is being dumped in rivers and untreated water could soon be pumped to Iraqi homes. UNICEF needs $3 million to buy enough chlorine for the next three months. Unsafe water could cause outbreaks of cholera, dysentery and diarrhea.     rw 006599
  • April 29, 2003   Grist Magazine   US Colorado: High and Dry.   Colorado is suffering a three-year drought. The average snowpack was half of normal, and streams the lowest in 100 years. The majority of the water comes from the Western Slope of the Rockies and the drought is responsible for development constraints, wildfires, declining tourism, and some of the state's $900 million deficit. Municiple officials say there is no way around building new reservoirs and diversion pipelines. Environmentalists claim this could cost billions and wreak havoc on rivers and forests; they claim the needs can met through reduced consumption. The state government believes that the long-term issue is storage, because they can't store all the water they are entitled to. Enough to supply 2 million families flow out of the state, much of the lost water leaves through the Colorado River and is used by Arizona and California. State officials and developers are backing the Colorado Aqueduct Return Project, that entails building a 200-mile long pipeline to pump Colorado River water to the Front Range to be recycled. The river would then carry a stream of used water to farms and towns on the Western Slope. The pipeline would cost at least $5 billion. To West Slope communities and environmentalists, the project is absurd. The legislature approved $500,000 for a study, but the project could be derailed due to its price and environmental impact. A state bond issue exists for water projects and cities can purchase existing rights from farmers for less money than any new development. The lack of provisions such as requiring that conservation measures be considered before any new development may encourage towns to build dams and reservoirs. Colorado's environmental organizations promote "Smart Storage" and "Smart Supply" instead of new development and say conservation goals can meet Front Range water needs over the next 40 years. But the legislature balked at conservation. Agriculture accounts for 85% of water use and bills to enable the sharing of agricultural water with thirsty cities are in the state legislature.     rw 006606
  • April 29, 2003   C-Span/Patrick Burns   The Hyde Hyde HIV/AIDS Bill on the House Floor April 31 and a Video of Bush on HIV/AIDS and Condoms.   For those of you that missed President Bush's speech on HIV/AIDS, it can be seen via RealPlayer from C-Span at http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/kdrive/e042903_aids.rm?end=:17:00.0 or at C-Span.org. This is a pretty big file. In his speech, Bush says: "Since January 1, 2001 we have increased U.S. funding to fight HIV overseas by almost 100% .... but we must do far more." For those that think Bush cannot actually say the word "condoms" without passing out, this video is certainly worth viewing! If a Democrats had launched this effort, we would be cheering pretty loudly. Because it was launched by a Republican is no reason to be silent now. Please send a letter to your Representative and Senator in support of this legislation -- and a note of thanks to the White House. Rather unbelievably, the Bush Administration is also proposing the largest single increase in U.S. development assistance in U.S. history. Who would have ever imagined? As a final note, the Hyde HIV/AIDS bill is the only item on the House agenda tomorrow. For those of you that want to see a little history in the making, this should provide that opportunity. For the die-hard political junkies on this list that want a complete program for tomorrow's floor action, the debate rules (with timing, debate order, and links to all amendments) can be read at: http://www.house.gov/rules/108rule1298.htm 006618
  • April 28, 2003   Push newsfeed   Australia: Disease Alert for Under-30s.   In NSW, those aged 16-29 are being urged to get tested for (STD) chlamydia. The disease can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women, and testicular infection, and infertility in men. Chlamydia can be diagnosed with a swab or urine sample and treated with antibiotics.     rw 006583
  • April 28, 2003   UN News   Timor-Leste Midwives Get UN Motorcycles in Bid to Slash Maternal Mortality.   The United Nations has given Timor-Leste’s midwives 80 motorcycles in a bid to extend their reach to remote rural areas and cut maternal deaths. Expanding midwife services is is crucial in a country with a maternal death rate of 850 per 100,000 births. Increasing the number of midwife-assisted deliveries will help lower maternal death rates.     rw 006586
  • April 28, 2003   Los Angeles Times   US California: Lettuce Study This More.   A toxic chemical used in rocket fuel was found in four lettuce samples purchased at Northern California grocery stores. The lettuce, contaminated with perchlorate, was traced to farms that irrigate their crops with Colorado River water in Southern California and Arizona. The water has been contaminated by military and industrial activity. An average serving contained four times the level considered safe in drinking water, though not enough research has been done to determine how much in the diet would be dangerous. EWG is calling for a study of perchlorate in the food stream and to clean up military sites.     rw 006589
  • April 28, 2003   San Diego Union-Tribune   U.S.: Brockovich Files Pollution Claims Against Beverly Hills School.   Erin Brockovich and attorneys filed 25 claims against Beverly Hills school district, alleging that former students got cancer from being exposed to toxic fumes from an on-campus oil field. Brockovich, said up to 300 claims could eventually be filed for students who attended between 1975 to 1997 and have been treated for Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's or thyroid cancer. It is believed that an oil rig under the athletic fields emitted high levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Beverly Hills Unified School District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, have disputed the findings. The oil rig produces about 450 barrels of oil and 400,000 cubic feet of natural gas a day. The law firm says tests conducted in and around the athletic fields found high levels of benzene, toluene and h-hexene, byproducts of the oil industry. The school's cancer rate is said to be 20 to 30 times above the national average.     rw 006608
  • April 28, 2003   Los Angeles Times   US California: Sprawl: Open-Space Group Targets 6,000 Acres.   Open-space advocates successfully fought the measure to allow construction of 1,390 homes in the hills above Ventura. They have established a nonprofit conservancy to acquire 6,000 acres and backers met to discuss raising the money to purchase the hills and canyons they hope to spare from development. The landowner wants to sell the land and is willing to meet with conservancy officials to discuss a deal. The conservancy is an offshoot of last fall's campaign that challenged some 300 landowners who tried to persuade voters to permit home building in exchange for setting aside 80% of 3,800 acres for parks, trails and open space.     rw 006613
  • April 28, 2003   BBC News   India: World's Wettest Area Dries Up.   The Khasi Hills, in north-east India, usually experience more than 1,000 inches of rain each year and has two of the world's wettest places: Cherrapunji and Mawsynram. But Cherrapunji is drying up because of increases in pollution and deforestation. Residents have received less and less rain over the years and long rows of trucks loaded with drums of water can be seen travelling up to Cherrapunji from the plains. A bucket of water costs six or seven rupees during the winter. Ten years ago clouds were clinging to the mountains and it was raining. This year there is bright sunshine and no rain. Since Meghalaya became a separate state, there has been a rise in deforestation in the area and environmentalists agree that the loss of forest cover around Cherrapunji is more serious than ever. In 1960, Cherrapunji had 7,000 people. Now, there are 15 times that number and a cement plant a few kilometres away, was built 20 years ago. The cement plant polluted the environment and added to the population pressure. If there are more people, the pressure on the forests will increase.     rw 006616
  • April 27, 2003   Los Angeles Times   Iraq: After the War / Fearing the Future; Women Fear Their Rights Will End with Hussein Era.   Many Iraqi women are happy about the end of Saddam Hussein's rule, but worry that the change could lead to erosion of women's freedoms. Iraqi women have enjoyed personal liberty undreamed of in neighboring nations but there is a growing sense that the power vacuum will be filled by Muslims who may seek to impose the conservative mores of Iraq's Shiite-dominated south. Hussein presided over a repressive police state, but his socialist-minded Baath Party provided women with professional and educational opportunities. There have been signs that the American-backed transitional government will protect women's rights but Iraq, like any Muslim country has conservatism and the new government will have to reflect that. Hussein's government was similar to the former Soviet Union, with women's rights enshrined in party doctrine. Iraqi women were afforded some opportunities, but women ministers, members of parliament and a high-ranking women in the Baath Party, were all handpicked loyalists. Rural women shared few of the gains. Most are mired in poverty. Virtually none work outside the home, marriages are arranged. Already, in these early postwar days, some women say they are seeing signs that they might be relegated to a more restricted role.     rw 006582
  • April 27, 2003   Washington Post   India: New Delhi to Harvest Rain.   Thousands of unauthorized wells in New Delhi have caused groundwater levels to drop alarmingly. But a solution may be to collect monsoon rains and pipe them underground to recharge depleted aquifers. The inexpensive technique has been successfully applied in five pilot projects. The water authority estimates daily demand at 850 million gallons, yet the system delivers 650 million gallons, of which 12% comes from groundwater. To government has installed hundreds of hand pumps, but most have gone dry due dropping water levels. Government officials promise relief, with the completion of a new dam and treatment facility. But the city adds 500,000 people year, improvements will be outstripped by demand and groundwater supplies will be depleted by 2020. People have long collected the monsoon rains, archaeologists have unearthed colection structures dating to the third millennium B.C. Modern rainwater harvesting involves channeling water from rooftops or storm drains into sand-lined underground boxes called "soak pits." Water that would otherwise run off then percolates through the soil, replenishing natural aquifers several hundred feet below the surface. The project has been so successful that in affluent Panchshila Parkthat the water table has risen three feet in less than a year.     rw 006588
  • April 27, 2003   Star-Ledger   US New Jersey: Sprawl: Water Regulation to Face Legal Battle.   Gov. James E. McGreevey announced a curb on development around 15 bodies of water, including nine reservoirs, but it will have to survive a court of law. Builders are challenging. Both sides agree that the stakes of the expected court battle are enormous. If builders lose, McGreevey could give teeth to the "smart-growth" map he unveiled in January. The new rule designated nine reservoirs and six streams as Category One (C1)water bodies and nothing can be discharged into them that worsens the water quality. This would make subdivisions, more difficult to build. The state will propose C1 status for 40 more bodies of water. If C1 becomes widespread it can wipe out all available land for development. Builders have been successful in court battles at thwarting the water quality regulations, including strict septic tank and wetlands rules. Land-use planning has been the province of the Department of Community Affairs which expects a challenge from builders. Builders could also challenge each designation. Barring some procedural mistake by the DEP, builders would have to show that the rule is "arbitrary and capricious" to have it overturned.     rw 006604
  • April 27, 2003   BBC News   Indonesia: Cheap Coffee 'Threatens Wildlife'.   Overproduction of the coffee beans used in instant coffee may contribute to the loss of animals in Sumatra. Areas of Indonesian forest being cut for coffee plantations increased by 28% between 1996 and 2001. 70% of Lampung's coffee production occurs inside and adjacent to Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park -one of the strongholds of Sumatran tigers, elephants and rhinoceros. Their populations are declining due to the loss of their forest home. Deforestation rates within the Park were shown to be directly related to the price of coffee paid to farmers. Throughout the 1990s, coffee production accelerated while prices plummeted. The demand for coffee continued and it was the second leading export product from developing countries, and the US the biggest importer. Despite recent low prices, Indonesia has announced plans to expand coffee production in Lampung that will result in increased threats to large mammals. Higher yields of quality coffee that can be grown among indigenous shrubs and trees would allow a reduction in acreage while boosting prices. Large mammals avoid forest boundaries and are affected by deforestation. Compared with mining or rearing livestock, coffee cultivation is eco-friendly.     rw 006607
  • April 26, 2003   Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC)   Trinidad: One Hundred UN Volunteers to Serve in Health Service .   The Trinidad and Tobago health sector is to have 100 U.N. volunteers, as a doctors' sick-out affects the state run hospitals. The program, will provide specialized doctors working for a stipend not exceeding local doctors. They come from Commonwealth countries and are approved by the WHO, with an initial three year contract. The government had no choice with a shortage of 200 doctors. It is claimed that the health authorities were procrastinating on negotiations to justify bringing in foreign doctors. The major health facilities, including the three main hospitals, have been operating in emergency mode since 9 April due to a shortage of junior doctors, whose contracts expired last December. A number of senior doctors have also reported sick in solidarity with the junior doctors. We want to provide our service, because this is our country, they claim, but if we are forced out many of us will go. But following Thursday's Cabinet meeting the govt; said that what they are offering the doctors is reasonable.     rw 006585
  • April 25, 2003   Patrick Burns   House Vote on Major Family Planning Bill.   The House International Relations Committee has endorsed HIV/AIDS legislation which exceeds that which President Bush asked for in his State of the Union message. It authorizes $15 billion for overseas HIV/AIDS, $3 billion a year for five years, and earmarks a greater percentage for the global AIDS fund. Most of the HIV/AIDS money will go to countries in sub-Saharan Africa where condoms are an important part of slowing HIV. The Bush White House has greenlighted inclusion of condoms in the bill.     rw 006572
  • April 25, 2003   Patrick Burns   Emergency Contraception - Behind the Confusion and How it is Available in the Bathroom of 27% of All Women Using Contraception.   Confusion among pharmacists and the lay public is widespread, and those in the family planning movement are at least partly to blame. Some incredibility is due to the fact that: in the early 1980s and 1990s, RU-486 (now called the abortion pill) was refered to as 'emergency contraception' and not abortion, leading to confusion as to what we now call 'Emergency Contraception' really is, which is NOT abortion. At the very same time that this was going on, there was little effort to educate women about the use of regular birth control pills as emergency contraception. RU-486 is new to the U.S., but taking massive doses of birth control pills is NOT new. The Yutzpe method (developed 20-25 years ago by Dr. Al Yutzpe), when using the most commonly available birth control pills in the U.S., are that two doses should be taken, 12 hours apart, and within 72 hours of having sex. Like the Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, most women already have access to emergency contraception. Just as the shoes on her feet got Dorothy home, so too can the birth control pills already in her cabinet (or in her friend's cabinet) get her out of the trouble she is in if a condom breaks or she has a serious lapse of judgment. For more information, see: http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/ecpuse.html rw
    General instructions: Take one dose every 12 hours
    for 24 hours, discard the last 7 pills in a 28-pill pack
    as they do not contain any hormones. If you are
    using Triphasil, Tri-Levlen, or Trivora, use only
    the correct color of pills that are noted below.
    Pill Brand Manufacturer Pills per Dose
    Alesse Wyeth-Ayerst 5 pink pills
    Aviane Duramed 5 orange pills
    Cryselle Barr 4 white pills
    Enpresse Barr 4 orange pills
    Lessina Barr 5 pink pills
    Levlen Berlex 4 light orange pills
    Levlite Berlex 5 pink pills
    Levora Watson 4 white pills
    Lo/Ovral Wyeth-Ayerst 4 white pills
    LowOgestrel Watson 4 white pills
    Nordette Wyeth-Ayerst 4 light orange pills
    Ogestrel Watson 2 white pills
    Ovral Wyeth-Ayerst 2 white pills
    Ovrette Wyeth-Ayerst 20 yellow pills
    Portia Barr 4 white pills
    Tri-Levlen Berlex 4 yellow pills
    Triphasil Wyeth-Ayerst 4 yellow pills
    Trivora Watson 4 pink pills
    Source: Trussell J, Koenig J, Ellertson C, Stewart F.
    Preventing unintended pregnancy: the cost-
    effectiveness of three methods of emergency
    contraception. American Journal of Public Health
    1997;87(6):932-937.

    Please note that the FDA has explicitly declared
    that the brands of birth control pills listed
    above are safe and effective for use as
    emergency contraceptives. These protocols work!

       006573
  • April 22, 2003   Push newsfeed   Conservation Costs, but Inaction Costs More: Development Has Taken Its Toll on Hong Kong’s Beautiful Harbour, Rolling Green Hills and Air Quality.   Hong Kong’s green spaces offer habitat to a diversity of wildlife and in 1974 set aside 40% of its land for conservation and recreation. However, many areas of high ecological value are outside the parks. Wetlands, woodlands, streams, and marine and intertidal habitats are being destroyed. The department in charge of conservation is underresourced, lacking leadership and is unwilling to restrict development. In this year’s agenda, the chief executive pledged to consider a rating system for ecological values in various locations. The government expropriates land for roads, reservoirs and new towns, it has never considered conservation a public purpose. The conservation value of Hong Kong’s natural resources could be as much as HK$ 6.5 billion annually. Ecotourism could increase Hong Kong tourist receipts by HK$ 4.3 billion a year.     rw 006558
  • April 22, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   China Marks 34th Earth Day with Focus on Resources Protection.   China marked the 34th World Earth Day with a theme of "treat the earth better, better protect resources". China's resources are being used with a low utilizing rate and the ecological environment has deteriorated due to increased attention to economic development, to the neglect of environmental protection. China's arable acreage is shrinking - the per-capita farmland area was 0.097 hectares in China. China is a major mining production and consumption nation, but the country now suffers a shortage of mining resources. Water resources are also shrinking as the country has had to supply water to its 1.3 billion people - 20% of the world's population - with only 8% of the world's freshwater.     rw 006562
  • April 21, 2003   Washington Post   Nonprescription Sale Sought for Contraceptive; Petition to FDA to Offer 'Morning After' Pill Over the Counter Could Become Entangled in Abortion Debate.   The makers of the emergency contraceptive "Plan B" are petitioning the F.D.A. to sell it without a prescription. If approved, it would be the first "morning after" contraceptive to be sold over the counter. This could become entangled in the abortion debate although the makers say their product prevents conception, rather than aborting. An easily avalable emergency contraceptive could reduce unintended pregnancies and abortions by half. Plan B uses progestin to interfere with fertilization and is usually effective within 72 hours after intercourse, but its ability to prevent pregnancy diminishes by 50% over the first 12 hours. Some antiabortion groups are opposed to their use and some silent. FDA officials have said it will take about 10 months to review their application. The treatment was restricted to rape-crisis centers until the late 1990s, when two morning-after pills were approved by the FDA for use with a doctor's prescription. Plan B's cost would remain about $27 a dose.     rw 006549
  • April 21, 2003   New York Times*   Texas Reactor Is Leaking Cooling Water From Its Base.   The South Texas Nuclear Project, 90 miles southwest of Houston, was found to have leaked cooling water from its large reactor vessel. Managers of 103 nuclear plants in the U.S. have been on the lookout for leaks since extensive cooling-water seepage was discovered at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo, Ohio.     rw 006552
  • April 21, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   EU Plans Clean Water Fund for Poor Countries.   The EU intends to set up a fund to provide assistance and financing for water projects in developing countries. The EU would not seek to compete with the small-scale water projects or private sector developments. It would promote initiatives and provide information and, as a last resort, lend money. The fund should provide the link in the financing of sustainable projects. More than 430 million live in nations facing widespread water shortages. Population growth will lead to a fivefold increase in the number of people with access to less than 1,700 cubic metres of fresh water per person per year. Oxfam says water-related diseases kill more than 5 million people every year and 2.3 billion suffer from diseases linked to dirty water.     rw 006556
  • April 21, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   US Helps Rebuild Afghan Health Sector.   In a move to highlight continuous support by the US to Afghanistan's reconstruction and stability despite its war in Iraq, a women's hospital rebuilt with US assistance was opened here in a high profile ceremony. US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said the US government is committed to helping rebuild the health sector, especially reducing high infant and maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan. When fully operational the hospital would admit nearly 36,000 patients each year, deliver about 40 babies daily, and provide the best medical instruction to Afghanistan's health care providers. It was reconstructed by the civil branch of the US military authorities in Afghanistan with a cost of over US $300,000 and there will also be four teaching clinics outside Kabul, which would provide direct health care to patients as well as training to health workers at all levels. US military authorities are assisting US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in establishing maternal and child health clinics and teaching centers.     rw 006557
  • April 21, 2003   The Economic Times (India)   India: Hindustan Latex, Limited to Test-Market Condoms for Women.   Hindustan Latex, Limited (HLL) will initiate its female condom research study in Maharashtra. The programme, is targeted at three groups, commercial sex workers (CSW), homosexuals and married couples. The female condoms are an option to the condoms for men. They contribute to protection against sexually transmitted diseases. The main objective is to promote protected sex. Priced at Rs 35 a proposal has been submitted for a government subsidy which would result in a rate of Rs 5 a piece. With financial constraints, it will be too early to know if the state government will offer subsidy. A pilot study was conducted in July 2002 with a success rate of 80%.     rw 006560
  • April 21, 2003   Associated Press   U.N. Appealing for $84 Million in Emergency Humanitarian Aid to Haiti.   The U.N. is appealing for US $84 million to confront poverty in Haiti. International donors have withheld US $500 million since flawed elections swept in President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's governing party. The economic situation in Haiti has worsened as the government and opposition have been at loggerheads on new elections that Aristide has pledged. So far, no commitments have been made by international donors. The funds are channeled exclusively through private aid groups. Some US $146 million in Inter-American Development Bank loans have been freed, but Haiti first must pay some US $24 million in arrears. Haiti's government has criticized donors for withholding aid that Aristide has called "economic terrorism." 56% of Haitians suffer from malnutrition.     rw 006561
  • April 21, 2003   Philadelphia Inquirer   Too Much Junk in Junk Cars.   A growing portion of the American car is plastic, often too much trouble to recycle. There's no way to separate it or no vendor who would want that material, so it goes to the landfill. The residue from the shredder, contains plastic, foam, glass, dirt, and nonferrous metals such as copper and aluminum, up to 25% of the weight of a car, up to five million tons a year. The metals can be sold but plastics can be made more cheaply from raw materials. The E.U.has mandated that by 2006, 80% of junked cars must be reused or recycled, rising to 85% in 2015. By 2005, new vehicles must be reusable or recyclable at a minimum of 85% by weight. U.S. automakers have worked to solve the problem by developing technologies to separate plastics after old cars are shredded. They also can design their new cars with fewer plastics that are more easily separated. Proponents note that plastics don't rust, and cost less. DaimlerChrysler's focuses on how to separate types of plastics. A single technology is not a complete solution to the problem. Then there's the option of turning the waste into energy by simply burning the plastics But that can have problems, especially if the plastics are contaminated. Cars should be designed with the end of use in mind.     rw 006566
  • April 17, 2003   Immigrants Help Steady Big-City Populations.   This article claims that immigrants helped to stabilize the big-city centers, while people continued to push out the metropolitan fringes. Rockwall County, Texas, east of Dallas, was the fastest growing, Atlanta and Washington also had big gains. Los Angeles County added 118,000 immigrants while losing 83,000 residents. The 2000 census showed that emigration from Mexico helped Chicago reverse a decline in population. The largest urban counties had little or no growth, suburban counties in the West and South dominated the list of fastest-growing areas. The United States had 288.4 million residents last July, up 1.1 percent from 2001.   While immigrants are willing to cram themselves in - big families or several families to a unit, they drive up the demand for city housing and prices go up. Native borns are usually not willing to settle for the lower standard of living at higher prices and the previous residents move out to the suburbs because that is the only housing left that they can afford.  rw 006533
  • April 20, 2003   Bob Perciasepe, National Audubon Society   Safeguarding Wildlife: a Wise Investment.   One hundred years ago, the population of California was less than 2 million. By 1950, it was 10 million and since then it has tripled. Bob Perciasepe of the National Audubon Society says: "As human numbers have soared in California, forests have fallen to farms, and farms have fallen to freeway. As human populations have exploded, habitats worldwide have been profoundly altered." 50 years ago Mono Lake, 300 miles NE of Los Angeles, was home to nearly a million ducks, today fewer than 20,000. Freshwater diversions for Los Angeles have the lake 40% increasing salinity and reducing the life it can support. In Tanzania, the changing chemistry of Lake Natron threatens the only breeding ground of East Africa's lesser flamingos. In Central and South America, farms and roads have been burned and bulldozed into once pristine forests and 50% of migrant bird species that winter there are in decline. The population explosion over the last 50 years is killing them. President Bush is increasing U.S. aid to poor countries by $5 billion over the next three years but has yet to earmark any for contraceptives. Family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost and would benefit wildlife.     rw 006548
  • April 20, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   UN Agency to Identify Gender Gap in Afghanistan for Women's Empowerment.   The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) initiated a research to make gender analysis in Afghanistan. The study is trying to examine the impact of changes at the household level, which have affected the divisions of labor between the man and women. The study will capture these changes in the regional context and could make a contribution by incorporating gender analysis into livelihoods research.     rw 006550
  • April 19, 2003   The Monitor (Uganda)   Uganda; Bahati Wants More Money for Population Activities.   District leaders have been encouraged to allocate more money to population activities. A few districts have given ample support but others need to increase their allocation to population programmes. Bushenyi, Katakwi and Luwero districts have some of the lowest allocations. The U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) representative said districts must recognise the link between uncontrolled population growth and the fight against poverty.     rw 006559
  • April 19, 2003   BBC News   AIDS Ravages Rwanda.   Every 14 seconds, AIDS turns a child into an orphan. The average life expectancy in Rwanda is 49 and one in six children die before they reach five. About a million people were massacred in the genocide in 1994. Over 11% of the population have HIV or AIDS. Many of the women got HIV when they were raped the militia during the war. Children were orphaned by the genocide and now by AIDS. A charity called Hope and Homes for Children has set up a project to help support the orphans. They keep family units together, sending the children to school and providing food and shelter. In 2003 they will be working with 452 children in Rwanda and plan to grow the number significantly in the next few years.     rw 006567
  • April 18, 2003   Grist Magazine   Afri-Can Do.   Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia are collaborating to increase geothermal power generation to 1,000 megawatts by 2020. They could produce up to 7,000 megawatts. To date, Kenya produces 57 megawatts. The U.S. State Department will help fund the cost of geothermal energy in Africa.     rw 006543
  • April 18, 2003   Audubon population listserv   The Speed of Growth.   It took two million years to add the first billion people to the population of the world. It took only 100 years to add the second billion, and just thirty years to add the third billion. Today the population tops 6.2 billion, and demographers predict world population will climb to seven billion within the next 12 years.     rw 006547
  • April 17, 2003   Inquirer, Philippine Daily   Senate OKs Bill vs Trafficking of Women, Kids.   A measure that will criminalize the act of trafficking in persons, especially women and children, locally or internationally, has been approved on the Senate in the Philippines. Trafficking is defined as the "recruitment, transfer, provision, harboring, receipt or deployment of person for the purpose of forced labor, slavery, sexual exploitation, involuntary servitude, debt bondage, physical and other forms of abuse, removal or sale of organs or involvement in armed activities or other similar acts." The Act provides for a penalty from 20 years to life imprisonment and fine from P1 million to 5 million.     rw 006518
  • April 17, 2003   Deutsche Presse-Agentur   Indonesia's Infant Mortality Rate Rises.   Indonesia's infant mortality rate has risen to 51 babies per 1,000 births. The post-natal maternal mortality rate has increased from 325 women per 100,000 births in 1997 to 396 mothers per 100,000 births in 2001. Experts blamed the economic crisis which has limited access to health services. Indonesia's health budget has been reduced, while the number of people living under the poverty line has increased due to growing unemployment and underemployment.     rw 006519
  • April 17, 2003   Los Angeles Times   'Safe' Lead Levels Lower IQ in Children.   Lead blood levels 10 micrograms per deciliter below current federal and international guidelines produce a drop in IQ of up to 7.4 points. It is estimated that one in every 50 children has levels above that guideline and one in every 10 has levels of 5 micrograms/deciliter or above, within the dangerous range. There is no safe level of exposure. We have to take the lead out of houses built before 1950 that have lead-based paints. Exposure also comes from folk medicines and Mexican ceramic pottery. Low levels of lead delay puberty in young girls, especially African Americans and Latinas as it interfers with hormonal processes. Higher levels of lead reduce intelligence, slow development and can lead to behavioral problems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continued to reduce the allowable level to the current 10 mcg/dl in 1991, about 100 parts per billion. The average lead level in children is about 3mcg/dl, but that's 10 to 100 times higher than the level in preindustrial humans.     rw 006525
  • April 17, 2003   Associated Press   Pollutants Dip 5% From 1995 to 2000.   Pollution in North America dropped 5% between 1995 and 2000, according to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, established under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Two of the trends are a 28% drop in the chemicals emitted into the air and a 41% increase in the chemicals sent to landfills. In 2000, the total amount of pollution was 3.6 million tons -- 1.5 million tons going into the air, water or ground. More than 1 million tons went to recycling and the rest for treatment, energy recovery or disposal. Electric utilities, steel mills, chemical makers and other industries in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada's Ontario accounted for a fourth of the continent's pollutants. The five facilities reporting the largest total releases were Kennecott Utah Copper in Magna, Utah; Chemical Waste Management in Arlington, Oregon; ASARCO Inc. in East Helena, Montana and Hayden Arizona; and Magnesium Corp. of America in Rowley, Utah. 14% of the pollution were chemicals such as styrene, lead, chromium and their compounds, known or suspected carcinogens.     rw 006526
  • April 17, 2003   Associated Press   Denver Limits Lawn Watering for 1.2 Million Customers .   Denver has restricted outdoor watering. The rules allow residents to water two hours twice a week. The Water Board has imposed surcharges on residents who use excess water. Commercial users and city parks must reduce water consumption to 70% of 2001 usage. Golf courses must cut consumption in half. Denver's reservoirs were at 44% capacity Wednesday. Levels could increase to 79% percent by July 1 with runoff from the snowpack, if spring precipitation is average. The estimate is 66% if this spring is dry.     rw 006531
  • April 17, 2003   Patrick Burns   Where in the World? .   The average American has never heard of Shandong that has a population as big as Mexico. Guangdong / Hainan have a population as big as Germany. Anhui has a population as big as Italy. Hubei has a population as big as France. Liaoning has a population as big as Spain. Shanxi has a population as big as Canada. Tianjin has a population as big as Sweden. Ningxia has a population as big as Finland. All are in China. Falling birth rates have slowed population growth, but momentum continues to increase the population. India's population growth rate is twice that of China and is expected to overtake China's within the next 30 years.     rw 006536
  • April 17, 2003   Scripps Howard News Service   On Earth Day, the Water News Is Bad.   1 in 5 people don't have safe drinking water and every year 5 million people die from waterborne diseases. The world's governments have pledged to cut the number without safe drinking water in half by 2015. Global water supplies are falling, while the demand is growing at an unsustainable rate. More likely than wars between nations are internal instability and violence by downstream users denied water. China and India have both experienced water riots. There are 2,878 cubic miles of polluted rivers worldwide and 2.5 billion people lack access to sanitation. Water-related diseases claim an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 children each day. More than 20% of freshwater fish species are endangered. 70% of the world's freshwater is consumed each day by agriculture. Some of the world's key aquifers are being overpumped and when irrigation is scaled back, crop yields will decline and food prices rise. - Population pressures are pushing water utilities to sell their systems to private water companies or build expensive new projects to meet demand. Experiments in privatization of water systems have been controversial. Changes in Earth's climate have resulted in more intense rainy seasons, longer dry seasons, stronger storms, shifts in rainfall and rising sea levels.     rw 006540
  • April 16, 2003     Why China’s Health Matters to the World.   Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has quickly spread from Guangdong to Hong Kong and beyond, illustrating China's increasing economic and social interdependence with the region and the entire planet. Mainland China has become East Asia's engine of growth. Now more than ever before Chinese enjoy freedom of movement in their country while millions of travellers visit and millions of Chinese travel abroad. A strategic transit point for commerce, Hong Kong has reaped great benefits. Now the price is being paid for mainland China's underdeveloped and opaque public health system. In the years of 'gaige kaifang' (reform and opening up) its admirable public health system has deteriorated to the point of being ill-prepared to cope with rapidly emerging diseases such as SARS, hepatitis and HIV/Aids. The slow reaction by medical authorities to the SARS threat happened in a political environment where individual initiative is discouraged and social stability is protected above other interests, in addition to outdated laws (i.e. the State Secrets Law) that prevent effective communication about emerging epidemics. Only the Ministry of Health in Beijing can announce the existence of an epidemic. Other emerging infectious diseases throughout the mainland have demonstrated the inability of the public health system to deal with them. Social services are inadequate to non -existent in rural areas where most of the population resides. While SARS has already had an immense, immediate economic impact on the economy of the region, the long term impacts of ill-preparedness will be much greater. One million Chinese are infected by HIV/Aids and 170 million have hepatitis B, a disease for which there is a vaccine. A vast improvement in medical capacity is necessary to maintain China's steep economic growth rates. 006507
  • April 16, 2003   Associated Press   Harmful Algae Blooms Linked to Population Growth.   The toxin in littleneck clams from northwest of Bainbridge Island increased fivefold from the 1970s to the '90s as the population of Kitsap County increased 87%. More people mean more fertilizer, sewage and animal waste flowing into Puget Sound, providing rich nutrients for algae. Clams, mussels, oysters, geoducks and pink scallops filter algae from seawater, producing toxins. When people eat infected shellfish, the neurotoxin can cause breathing difficulties, nausea, paralysis and death. The relationship between algae blooms and human activities remains unclear. Algae require nitrogen and other nutrients, but it is not understood what are the nutrients that fuels the blooms. Most of the closed shellfish beds are off limits because of high levels of fecal coliform or dangerous pollutants, such as mercury. If you go south you've got more pollution, and if you go north you've got more paralytic shellfish poison.     rw 006508
  • April 16, 2003   Associated Press   US California: Irrigation Blamed for Warming Effect in San Joaquin.   Rising nighttime temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley (Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare counties) may be caused by irrigated land that increases humidity. Nighttime temperatures in the region have risen more than four degrees F. over seven decades. The big issue is climate change from carbon dioxide. Preliminary data conflicts with global warming theories, but suggests increased humidity is preventing nighttime air from cooling. John Christy, director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville said, "The evidence shows that if this were a large-scale climate change caused by carbon dioxide, it would affect the valley, the foothills, and the mountains," ... "But we have not seen these changes in the higher elevations." Dave Kranz, a California Farm Bureau questioned the study: is it irrigation that's warming temperatures or sunlight reflecting off the paved roads that come with urbanization? The crops on irrigated land help clean the air - each acre of rice in scrubs about 23,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. California has more than 8 million irrigated acres, of which 2 million are in the study's region.     rw 006514
  • April 16, 2003   Grist Magazine   A Great Grandma -- An Aboriginal Elder Battles Construction of a Radioactive-waste Dump in Australia.   In the 1950s and '60s, the British military conducted nuclear tests in southern Australia. To the military, it was a wasteland, to the Aboriginal people it was their home. The military told the Aboriginals that the testing was safe, but many went blind, suffered radiation sickness, or developed cancer. Now, the Australian government has proposed a radioactive-waste dump near Woomera, that would store waste from nuclear reactors. Aboriginals fear their land, water, and health will be poisoned once again. Eileen Wani Wingfield and Eileen Kampakuta Brown, in their 70s, joined with five other older women to create the Coober Pedy Women's Council. They have written to the government and traveled miles to speak against the project. The Australian government says it plans to move ahead with the project. Wingfield and Brown shared one of this year's environmental prizes for their efforts to stop the radioactive-waste dump. Wingfield and the other elders decide to fight it because "those things" already killed all the old people, and is still dangerous. The dump would poison everything else.     rw 006515
  • April 16, 2003   Washington Post   U.S.: Tougher Rules Unveiled for Diesel Emissions.   Diesel-powered off-road machines will be subject to stricter EPA emissions standards, cutting emissions by 95%. The tougher rules are expected to prevent 9,600 premature deaths per year and save billions of dollars in medical expenses and lost productivity. Refineries will have to cut the sulfur content to 500 ppm in 2007 and 15 ppm in 2010. Once the fuel standards are in place, the EPA will phase in tougher soot and nitrogen oxide standards for diesel engine manufacturers between 2008 and 2014.     rw 006516
  • April 16, 2003   Christian Science Monitor   U.S.: City Improvement: Planting Trees.   Over the past 15 years the number of trees in the U.S. has declined by 30%, while the space covered by solid surfaces has risen by 20%. To redress the imbalance, the country needs 634 million more trees says American Forests, a conservation group. In some cities, volunteer groups are stepping in to plant and care for trees on public land, and educate the public on why they matter. Trees are natural pollution-control devices. Their leaves, branches, and trunks help slow the runoff of storm water. They also provide sound buffering, shade, and measurably cooler temperatures on hot summer days, and breeding and roosting places for local and migratory birds, whose habitat has been disappearing. City trees can reduce storm-water and pollution-control expenditures by millions of dollars. Much of the problem with trees stems from lax maintenance, outright neglect, and stressful growing conditions. One solution is to plant good-sized trees as tree size and longevity count more than quantity.     rw 006517
  • April 16, 2003   South African Press Association   South Africa: Condom Billboard Ok, Says Authority.   The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of South Africa has ruled that a billboard depicting a woman holding a condom embracing a man with the caption "one roll-on all women want" does not breach the advertising code. The billboard had caused offence, but the ASA had decided to overlook this due to the seriousness of the HIV/Aids pandemic.     rw 006522
  • April 15, 2003   New York Times*   Firm Wins $62 Million Deal to Restore Education in Iraq.   Creative Associates International Inc., Washington, has won a $62 million contract to open schools on schedule this fall, with equipment and supplies, teaching to lay the foundations for democracy among students, parents and teachers. Education is critical for ridding the schools of the environment of Saddam Hussein. When safe in Iraq, the company will send teams to assess the state of the schools. 25% of children do not attend school, and the company will ensure that they return to class and catch up on their education, girls as well as boys. Textbooks, will be awarded in a separate contract. A $4.8 million contract to manage and repair seaports was given to Stevedoring Services of America in Seattle, and a $7 million contract to plan emergency relief went to the International Resources Group of Washington. The Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina won a $7.9 million contract to restore local governments in Iraq.     rw 006494
  • April 15, 2003   Boston Globe   Iraq Aid Efforts Raise Africa Questions.   Iraq's need for relief is siphoning away funding for the world's other crises - Africa comes to mind. James Morris, head of the World Food Program, said that the $1.8 billion needed for emergency food aid for Africa remains more than $1 billion short. Iraq has our attention, but "there are nearly 40 million Africans in greater peril. They are struggling against starvation," he said. "How is it we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world?" $3.5 billion in global emergency assistance was requested by the U.N. this year, compared with $2.2 billion (60% of the total) requested by the UN for Iraq alone over the next six months. Until Iraq oil is adequately producing, over the next two or three years, an estimated $25-$30 billion would be spent for Iraq's construction. John W. Snow, the US treasury secretary, said that the Bush administration would seek an extra $100 million from Congress for the International Development Association. UNICEF warned in March that "away from spotlight, millions of children in peril." UNICEF put out a $501 million appeal for children in 30 countries or territories, but received just 14% of that request by the end of February. UNICEF recently appealed for $166 million for Iraq - and has already netted $49.3 million. Its earlier $110 million appeal for Afghanistan raised only $13.3 million. 006495
  • April 15, 2003   Kathmandu Post   Asian Development Bank Approves Loan for Water Supply Scheme in Nepal .   The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a 1.4 million US dollars grant to improve the water supply and sanitation sector of the Kathmandu Valley under a private scheme due for completion in 2004. This includes a river diversion from the Melamchi Valley to the Kathmandu Valley, distribution network improvements, construction of a water treatment plant and bulk distribution system and wastewater system improvements. There is a clear consensus that private participation is essential to the development. The Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) has failed to supply efficient and affordable services to the residents of the Kathmandu Valley. The total cost is estimated to be 1.75 million US dollars. 700,000 dollars will be financed by the government of Japan, $700,000 by the government of Norway and the remaining $350,000 from the Nepal government.     rw 006497
  • April 15, 2003   Push newsfeed   U.S.: Battle of the Environment Breaks Out as Pentagon Urges Fewer Limits on Military: Rules on Marine Mammals, Toxic Waste and Air Quality Are Seen as Obstacle to Training.   The Senate’s environment committee underscores the efforts to insulate the US military from environmental lawsuits. The Defense Department asked Congress to "clarify" regulations governing marine mammals, toxic waste, air quality and endangered species. The Pentagon says vague definitions leave it vulnerable to legal challenges. Employing an unusual tactic, Mr Inhofe’s staff sends e-mails to journalists offering rebuttals of environmental groups’ criticisms. The five-week-old campaign, named "Operation End Extremism", underscores the controversy surrounding efforts to insulate the US military from environmental lawsuits. Congress rejected a similar request last year. The Pentagon says there is a need to reduce limitations on combat training. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) accuses the defense department of exploiting the situation in Iraq. "Existing laws already allow national security to trump environmental concerns, ... And they’ve never proven that the laws even constrain military training." says Rob Perks of NRDC. One of the contentious issues involves the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the changes sought by the Pentagon would allow it to test sonar equipment with less fear of lawsuits so that the navy’s ability to detect quiet diesel submarines would not be impaired.     rw 006498
  • April 15, 2003   Push newsfeed   Freedom Fighters Win Political Clout: Status of Women -- Those Who Fight for Their Country Do Not Voluntarily Head Back to the Kitchen’.   Women who fight for their country do not voluntarily head back to the kitchen - this is one explanation for the change in female fortunes since the National Resistance Army seized power in 1986. Women now have a status in Uganda unrivalled in Africa. The vice president is female, and a quarter of parliamentary members are female. When the war forced husbands to flee the country, they left women no choice but to support whole families. Ugandan feminists are frustrated at the pace of change and uncertain how long it will last. The legal rights of women have barely begun to reflect their productive role. It is estimated women produce 80% of food crops, 60% of exports such as coffee, tea and cotton and 80% of exports such as maize, vanilla and chillies. Yet they own only 7% of the land. Under President Museveni, female enrolment at primary school has risen to parity. Affirmative action is in place at the universities. Legislation regarding rights to land and property, and iniquities in the divorce laws that would enable women in politics to bring about improvements for the vast majority of their sex in rural areas remains on the back burner. There is no guarantee that the affirmative action will find a place in a more pluralist political system.     rw 006499
  • April 15, 2003   Lancaster Megastar   Jolie Cares for Cambodia.   Angelina Jolie plans to give $1.3 million over five years to help sustain a wilderness in the north-west of Cambodia. The region, known as the "100 Elephants Forest," is believed to hold the last remaining wild tigers and elephants in the former war-torn country.     rw 006501
  • April 15, 2003   New Scientist   Contraceptive Vaccine Temporarily Sterilises Dogs.   A contraceptive vaccine designed by an Australian group to make dogs sterile for at least six months may be available soon. But frequent visits to the vet and human forgetfulness may make spaying or neutering a better alternative. The vaccine works by generating antibodies to luteinising hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH), which controls the production of male and female sex hormones such as testosterone, progesterone and oestrogen. The reliability of the vaccine will soon be know from larger trials involving many different breeds of dog. "Our expectation is there will be a significant proportion of dog owners who would rather not have their animals undergo surgery," said Kelso of the group creating the vaccine. "The vaccine is less invasive, there are essentially no risks." There is a contraceptive vaccine for elephants which works by generating antibodies against an egg protein, preventing sperm binding to the egg. Some groups in Australia and New Zealand would like to eliminate alien invaders such as rabbits and possums by releasing infectious viruses that stimulate the production of these antibodies. 006504
  • April 15, 2003   AAP Newsfeed   Australia: NSW: Concern About Cuts to Family Planning.   Cuts to family planning services in NSW, including closing three Sydney clinics, could result in higher rates of unwanted pregnancy. They provide tens of thousands of women with free sexual and reproductive health services. They have around 90,000 abortions a year, one of the highest in the world. A spokeswoman for the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) said funding for family planning in NSW, currently $8 million a year, had been cut by 25% over the past five years. 38% of clients were under 24. Reducing infrastructure costs would allow FPA to concentrate on health promotion, training and information, while women would be able to see their GP or other sexual health service providers for clinical services.     rw 006509
  • April 15, 2003   Daily Trust (Nigeria)   Nigeria; Agency Organises Workshop for Women in Politics.   A USAID-funded agency has organised workshops in Nigeria to make women aware of HIV, reproductive health and child survival situations in the country. They were also aimed at improving quality of lives, how to network among women politicians, identify appropriate interventions for improving the health of the 120 million people in the country. Men who make all the decisions do not consider these as priorities, as they do not generate income nor are they amenable to immediate resolution. Health and population problems should be of priority concern to women politicians.     rw 006510
  • April 15, 2003   Malaysia General News   Malaysia: No Family Planning Policy for Now.   The government will not launch any family planning policy because the target for Malaysia's population- to reach 70 million - has yet to be achieved. People with many children, from among the poorer segments of society, were poorly educated and thankful for having "gods gift" of many children. The government will review the situation when it is warranted.     rw 006512
  • April 14, 2003   Push newsfeed   UNDP and Pakistan’s First Women Bank Launch 3-year Project.   The United Nations Development Progrmme (UNDP) and First Women Bank Limited (FWBL) have signed a three-year project entitled ’Women’s Access to Capital And Technology’ (WACT) to improve women’s access and control over micro credit and technology in Pakistan.     rw 006480
  • April 14, 2003   Statesman (India)   Their Feudal Lords.   Most Bangladesh garment factories engage in discriminatory practices against women labourers. Women who get pregnant either lose their jobs or are forced to undergo abortions. Even when the factory imposes no such strictures, women are not allowed a break even if they are unfit for hard labour. It is claimed that a large number of workers suffer miscarriages because of overwork. These women earn Bangladesh almost 70% of its foreign exchange. Yet, neither employers nor government offer labour protection. Some claim that employers force them to use contraceptives that have been condemned for the damage they inflict. Researchers claim a link between the rising fortunes of the garment industry and the low marriage rate for women. More married women preferred to settle in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ), which offered day-care facilities, than in the non-EPZ, where large garment factories are located. Women workers in non-EPZ factories rarely opted for motherhood. So desperate are the women to hold on to their jobs, that they risk undergoing abortions at low-grade clinics. Garment factory owners argue that the productivity of female workers declines from the moment they go on maternity leave. Employing women who have no children ensures consistent productivity and no obligation to provide child-care facilities. Those who do not dismiss pregnant women, rarely offer paid maternity leave. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) claims it has not heard of any unit forcing anti-conception injections on women workers. The Directorate of Labour too, has made no arrests or questioned the anti-women policies of factory owners. The government has enacted laws to ensure equal rights for working women, including four months of maternity leave. The Constitution states, that if an employer forces a lactating mother to work before the period of six weeks following childbirth is over, he/she will be liable for prosecution.   [Note: The hard facts of life in an impoverished country are that a job in a garment factory may be far better life than no job at all. If the garment factory is making a big profit off of women, that is one thing, but if the garment factory cannot afford to keep a woman who often has to take time off to care for her children, that is the hard facts of life. We cannot always blame the entrepreneur for the injustices of poverty. Re: Depo-provera, it is approved by the FDA for use by American women. Since FDA has the most rigorous standards in the world for drugs, it is hard to believe the bad name that some extremists want to give it.]  rw 006481
  • April 14, 2003   Deutsche Presse-Agentur   Saddam City: Children Suffer Most in Baghdad's Slums.   In Baghdad there is a large Shiite slum of 2 million people. Its poverty and the residents' bad health has been made worse by war. The water is contaminated and looting and violence have nearly collapsed the health care system, with only three out of 32 hospitals and clinics working over the weekend. Children suffer such health problems as malnourishment, food allergies, diarrhoea and vomiting. Adults suffer from car accidents, gunfire and stabbings. The fight for food and provisions has also resulted in injuries. The German group APN in a small clinic has looked after 1,500 people in the last four days. Larger humanitarian organizations are still caught up in the midst of chaos. 006500
  • April 14, 2003   New Haven Register   North America: Jobs Move Offshore as Firms Continue to Economize.   In India, the amount of software and back-office services performed for companies outside India is expected to reach $54 billion by 2008. The Indian market for the same services is expected to reach just $15 billion. The software and technology services are a high foreign-exchange earner. That represents many new jobs in India and fewer in the United States. Offshore outsourcing save companies 25% to 50% A recent report by Foote Partners LLC in New Canaan said up to 45% of information-technology workers in the United States and Canada will be replaced by contractors, consultants, offshore technicians and part-time workers by 2005.  rw 006503
  • April 14, 2003   The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)   The People Problem; When Will the World Face It?.   Either the world slows its booming population growth or dreams of conquering global illiteracy and poverty will be dashed. The AIDS epidemic will curtail population growth somewhat, but that the world can do without. Efforts to educate and feed all the people can't succeed if new mouths and minds keep appearing faster than they can be filled. There's little sign that the world's nations are serious about population control. The failure to follow through on the Cairo goal isn't just unfortunate. Over the long haul, it promises to be disastrous. The total spent on population control in 2000 was $11.2 billion, in 2001, $9.4 billion. The industrialized countries, have come through with only 40% of their share. Birth-control is being denied, condoms are in short supply in AIDS-stricken countries. Fertility rates remain high in the world's poorest regions. The upshot will be hundreds of millions of unwanted pregnancies, untenably large families, untold numbers of preventable AIDS cases. Packing the world with too many people is a sure way to make the majority miserable. Half of the world's citizens subsist on $2 a day or less and the only way to bring hope is to squelch poverty. The chief method is population control so foolishly ignored by the world's wealthy.   Note: The words 'population control' is sometimes thought to suggest coercive methods, but this is not the case because the 'Cairo' convention is about voluntary family planning. There is a large unmet need for contraception. RW says THIS SHOULD BE PRINTED IN CAPITAL LETTERS AND A COPY SENT TO EVERY PERSON IN THIS COUNTRY.  rw 006532
  • April 14, 2003   Manila Bulletin (Philippines)   Philippines: Growing Garbage Problem Linked to Family Planning .   Developed cities find it difficult to keep up with the increase in waste that accompanies rising consumption. Metro Manilans face a problem of waste disposal since the two main facilities have been closed. It is estimated that the population of Metro Manila will increase by 50 million by 2050. People mean garbage. The Philippines has enacted the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act which international donors are helping implement, in particular, to set up public education programs on recycling as well as refuse processing centers with private contractors. Thus, it is important to link environmental question with information and services on family planning.     rw 006537
  • April 13, 2003   Agence France Presse   World Bank Chides Rich for Sliding on Development Promises.   The World Bank chided industrialized powers for failing to boost aid and lower trade barriers. Aid from rich countries as a proportion of GDP had slumped from 0.5% in the early 1960s to just 0.2%. Developing countries had cut trade barriers, but this has not been reciprocated by wealthier nations. Action now could cut poverty rates to less than half by 2015. But rapid growth in Asia and improvements in Eastern Europe will do little to reduce the poverty in Africa. The number of impoverished people will drop from 1.29 billion people or 29.6% in 1990, to 809 million or 13.3% in 2015. But in sub -Saharan Africa, poverty numbers will swell from 315 million in 1990 to 404 million in 2015 and in the Middle East, the number will climb from five million to eight million. In East Asia and the Pacific, including China, the number in poverty would decline from 486 million to 80 million, and in South Asia, would slide from 506 million to 264 million. World powers had agreed on halving global poverty rates, providing primary school education for all and cutting child mortality rates by two-thirds. But those goals would slip without stepped-up action. Critics said the organizations missed a chance to do more. The World Bank said an initiative to cut the debt of the poorest countries had amounted to 40 billion dollars in 26 countries.     rw 006479
  • April 13, 2003   Free Lance Star   Radical Right Wants to Abridge Women's Rights.   Neither the U.S. delegation, nor any other delegation, (nor the U.N. agencies or nongovernmental organizations) "promote abortion as 'reproductive health,' as Steven Mosher claims ["Rep. Davis: Champion of Women, Opponent of UNFPA Funding," March 21]. Mr. Mosher's phrase is widely used by the extreme right to camouflage a broader, underlying agenda. That agenda would deny women access to the widest range of contraceptives of their choice, withhold vital information from young people that would protect them against HIV and AIDS and prevent girls and women from achieving equality with men.   Writer of this op-ed is Adrienne Germain, the president of International Women's Health Coalition and member and core strategist of the Clinton delegation to the 1994 United Nations population conference. 006489
  • April 13, 2003   Terra Daily/Agence France-Presse   Kashmir's Fabled Forests Vanish.   Kashmir is loosing glorious forests - and soldiers, villagers, officials, and timber merchants are blamed. Since 1947, the 13,300 square kilometer strip of the region under Pakistani control has diminished by two-thirds. In 1947, 42% of Azad Kashmir was forest, today it's 13%. Disappearing with the forests is Kashmir's exotic wildlife. They are also victims of shelling along the heavily militarised line splitting the region between Pakistan and India. Wild deer, were nowhere to be seen, snow leopards declined from 80 to 20, migratory birds, have changed their routes. Pakistani and Indian soldiers are involved in illegal logging. Forestry officials checking vehicles for smuggled timber are not allowed to check army trucks. The civilian population cuts trees for fuel. 25% percent of forests are zoned commercial, providing 60% of its revenue and 2,800 jobs. The army is planting more than 30,000 saplings and AJK villagers have tried to prevent illegal felling, but they cannot forbid the army.     rw 006492
  • April 12, 2003   Nation (Nairobi)   Investing in Girls' Schooling a Win-Win Strategy.   In African hamlets, 12-year-old girls are postponing marriage and will be the first generation of educated girls. Mali's programme ensures that half the students are girls, local women are trained to become teachers and class hours respect the rhythm of the farming seasons. In Bangladesh girl enrollment in secondary school has doubled in less than a decade. Girls will eliminating the gender gap in education by 2005. For 50 countries, the gender parity target remains difficult. Girls' education translates into smaller, healthier families, higher productivity and incomes. It is the most effective way to prevent HIV/Aids. Work is an obstacle, many parents require their daughters to help out and care for siblings. The cost of clothing, shoes and textbooks is beyond poor families. Finally education is of little value where girls are expected to marry early and remain in the household. Yet most families will send girls to school when costs are reduced and quality is improved. Separate latrines, safe drinking water, free meals and small schools close to home are boosting girl attendance. Women are learning to read and write through programmes that teach them how to manage credit, maintain water pumps and issues of health and violence.     rw 006496
  • April 11, 2003     3 Tykes and You're Out; in a Bid to Curb Population Explosion, New Delhi May Set Example by Barring Those with Many Kids From Elections.   The Indian government is planning legislation banning politicians with more than two children from contesting elections. The opposition lawmaker Laloo Prasad Yadav has nine children, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has an adopted daughter, and opposition leader Sonia Gandhi has two children. The proposal wants the ruling class to set an example. India's population is growing at 2%. The ruling will need the support of all parties in the House. A variant was introduced at local government level in some states but it is unclear if it serves the purpose. Disqualifying people from the democratic process will not make much difference to the family-planning programmes that India started in the 1950s. Adoption of a small family norm has social consequences but should be voluntary. There has to be an environment where a small family is accepted as normal but this has not materialised because of poverty, illiteracy, inequality and lack of proper health facilities.     rw 006462
  • April 10, 2003   Associated Press   U.N. Says Iraq's Population is Expected to Grow.   Using figures based on the 1987 census, Iraq's population is expected to grow from 23.2 million in 2002 to about 26.6 million in 2005 and 58 million by 2050, according to the United Nations Population Division. An additional 1.1 million Iraqis are living outside the country. The war is another variable, so higher mortality, fertility declines and changes in living conditions that can affect nutrition, illness and child-bearing," must be taken into account. Iraq's population is growing by 2.68% a year. Half of Iraq's population is under the age of 19. Iraqi women have an average of 4.77 children. Infant mortality is high at 83.3 per 1,000 births. An estimated 50,000 to 180,000 Iraqis are in Jordan and about 40,000 Iraqis in Germany and Sweden. 006464
  • April 10, 2003   UN Integrated Regional Information Network   Somalia: Puntland Warns of Drought.   Parts of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland face water shortages. The problem is acute in the regions of Sool and Sanaag, and the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Also affected are the districts of Bargal, Iskushuban, Qandala, Alula, Badar Beyla and Qardo, all of Bari Region, and parts of Nugal Region, said Abdishakur. Puntland administration had dispatched fuel to Sanaag to help in the trucking of water. Puntland authorities had called on international agencies to intervene. The first priority was to deliver water to affected areas and distribute food to those who had lost their livestock.     rw 006465
  • April 09, 2003   CAPS   SB 71: California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act.   SB 71, introduced by Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles), consolidates various legislation involving sex education and AIDS prevention and preserves California's provision of age-appropriate sex education in schools, including the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. Ask your state Senator and Assembly person to support this legislation. (Click on headline to send a fax). 006370
  • April 07, 2003   New York Times*   U.S.: A Global Catalog of Wrongs.   The State Department produces a document detailing human rights practices of almost every country. Among the nations are: Uzbekistan who routinely tortures detainees; Eritrea has ended freedom of the press and restricts religious freedom; Azerbaijan detains dissidents and rigs elections. Violations are noted in Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Macedonia, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia, all with poor human rights. Iraq, North Korea and Iran victimize their people. Baghdad has executions without trial, political murders, torture and persecution of Shiite Muslims. North Korea has detention camps, torture and harsh prison conditions, including starvation. Iran has arbitrary arrests, disappearances, stoning and flogging. Burma has punitive rape by soldiers, forced relocation of minorities, forced labor and conscription of children. Turkmenistan's autocrat models his rule on Stalin's. China is freer but Beijing executed 3,000 people last year, many without due process. It uses torture, forced confessions, imprisonment in psychiatric hospitals and lengthy detentions with no right to communicate with family members or lawyers. Some countries have been cited for withholding sleep and food to extract confessions. American authorities have been charged by some with using these techniques in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.     rw 006421
  • April 04, 2003   Push newsfeed   Seoul’s Air Pollution Worst Among OECD Members.   Seoul’s particulate matter (PM) was 71 micrograms per cubic meter at the end of 2001, the highest among OECD countries. Moscow recorded the lowest with 10 micrograms. PM causes various respiratory problems. Nitrogen dioxide in Seoul was 0.037 ppm ranking third after Moscow with 0.058 ppm. The high level of pollution is due to an increase of diesel-fueled automobiles. 45% of nitrogen dioxide and 44% of PM in 2000 came from automobile emissions. Diesel-fueled cars made up 81% of the nitrogen dioxide and 100% of the PM. The lower price of diesel fuel is the main cause for the increase in diesel-powered cars. Cost of diesel in S.Korea is 54.9% of gasoline, well below the average 77.5%. In Italy, Japan and Mexico, diesel fuel costs 80% that of gasoline, in Britain and the U.S. there is little difference. Among the 14 million vehicles in S. Korea, diesel-powered account for more than 30%. The government is allowing the domestic sale of diesel-powered passenger cars from 2005 aggravating the air pollution.     rw 006384
  • April 04, 2003     More Than Four in 10 U.S. Women Experience Complications Giving Birth.   A study found that 29% of women had complications giving birth. About 4% had preexisting conditions that were made worse by giving birth. Complications included major vaginal tears, pelvic trauma, bleeding, infections and pregnancy-induced diabetes. About 22% of women underwent C-sections, a major procedure. The mortality rate has remained at eight deaths per 100,000 births for the last two decades. Many of the complications could be avoided with quality prenatal and delivery care. 19 million births occurred in the United States from 1993 to 1997.   [Note: If the number is as high as 29% in the U.S., you can bet it is much higher in countries where malnutrition, malaria, and HIV are additional complications. Why would people like Judy Brown of ALL deny funding for reproductive health simply because (she claims) IPPF is only pretending to care about women's reproductive health care?]  rw 006412
  • April 02, 2003   BBC News   Toxin Threat to Inuit Food.   The traditional diet of Inuits of Greenland includes polar bears, seals, and whales. It is a healthy diet and no toxins are produced by their lifestyle. Unfortunately persistent organic pollutants, lead, cadmium, mercury, and other hazardous chemicals are being carried from industrialised nations by wind and ocean currents to Inuit Greenland region and accumulating in the same animals the Inuit eat - which could result in birth defects, reduced fertility, and genetic damage for the humans. In fact, in some areas toxic levels were high enough to cause concern for in 100% of the population, and above the "level of action" for 30%. The report from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) concludes Greenlanders should consider changing their eating habits. The Greenlander diet that has kept Greenland's population protected from ailments typically associated with industrialised societies, like heart disease, diabetes and obesity; so until now people were told to avoid abandoning their traditional diet for a Western one. Diabetes, for example, has increased from almost no cases twenty-five years ago to three times the level in Denmark. "To discover that the food which for generations has nourished them and kept them whole physically and spiritually is now poisoning them is profoundly disturbing and threatens Indigenous Peoples' cultural survival," the report says. 006395
  • April 02, 2003     Pipeline Company to Pay $34 Million for Spill.   The EPA has levied a $34 million fine against Colonial Pipeline Company, which owns a 5,500-mile pipeline from Texas to New York. It violated the Clean Water Act with seven spills, 1.45 million gallons of oil. The EPA said the spills were caused by corrosion, damage, and human errors. The fine was punitive for being a consistent violator.     rw 006408
  • April 01, 2003   Associated Press   EU's Multibillion Dollar Aid-and-Trade Pact with 77 Developing Countries.   A multibillion aid-and-trade pact between the European Union is aiming to fight poverty and promote democracy. 16 billion euros would be disbursed among the world's poorest nations under a deal that promises aid to nations if they show improvements in human rights and a reduction in corruption. It encourages members to form regional trade blocs to promote economic growth. Quotas on bananas will be phased out between 2002 and 2006, and sugar and rice from 2006 to 2009. Zimbabwe, Haiti, Ivory Coast and Liberia had already been criticized for human rights violations. Zimbabwe has diplomatic sanctions by EU nations and EU nations have frozen Mugabe's financial assets. Cuba has lobbied to be included and this will be considered - hoping it will turn the communist country toward democracy and improved human rights. Cuba insists it respects human rights by ensuring broad social services including free education and health care.     rw 006381
  • April 01, 2003   Push newsfeed   Kenya; 1,500 Street Children Set to Join National Youth Service.   1,500 former street children are to be admitted to the National Youth Service program in Kenya. Each child will cost the government Sh100,000 to complete the programme, which aims at moulding them into useful citizens. The Street Children Rehabilitation Fund has reached Sh6 million,and was expected to increase. Under the UN convention member states are obliged to ensure that child victims of conflicts, torture, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation are helped to recover. More than 300 youths aged above 18 have been identified for training. The presence of street families is based on poverty and the collapse of social values, including HIV/Aids. The YS programme is part of the government’s jobs creation programme and was aimed at training NYS staff in issues such as human and children’s rights, counselling and basic health care.    006383
  • April 01, 2003   Asia Pulse   Philippine Urban Areas to Face Water Sanitation Crises.   Cities in the Phillipines face water and sanitation crises as the population grows. 50% of the world's population lives in cities and towns and one billion live in slums and squatter settlements without clean water or decent sanitation. Metro Cebu in the Phillipines has a population of two million and is expected to grow. The Rotary Club of Cebu provided 15 toilets with water that were turned over to the community. But they will have to charge a small fee to maintain them and pay for the water. All cities grow on a supply of good water, the removal of wastewater, and attention to pollution control. But better governance means all citizens' needs must be considered. Government institutions must allow community-based organizations a greater role in determining projects.     rw 006386
  • April 01, 2003   Financial Times (London)   Africa: Child Trafficking Still Widespread.   Evidence of trafficking in child labour in West Africa documents cases of children transported for domestic or farm labour and accuses governments of failing to protect minors and prosecute traffickers. 13 countries are involved with Togo as a source, destination and transit point for illegal child labour. Togolese children between three and 17 have been recruited, including girls taken to ports in Nigeria and then to Gabon to work in domestic service. It reveals abuse resembling child slavery. The report describes transporting truckloads of boys to work on farms in Nigeria in conditions of bonded labour.     rw 006387
  • April 01, 2003   Inquirer, Philippine Daily   Philippines: High Population Growth Undermines Conservation Gains.   On Apo Island, a showcase of marine conservation, the population growth of 40% to 700 people has become a problem. Rapid population growth of 2.3% annually, high poverty rates, and over-fishering have overexploited Philippine reef fisheries. Until 1995, dynamite fishing was practiced in the waters of Bais and neighboring areas as fishermen had to go farther and farther for less and less catch. Development without consequences was another contributor to coral reef degradation. Development, agriculture, aquaculture and land cover change threaten many coral reefs. Over 80% of tropical forests and mangroves have been cleared, increasing sediment outflow onto reefs. Conservation must include family planning. Tourism must be controlled or conservation will come to naught. New management projects integrate family planning. Environmental problems are also due to overconsumption by the affluent and deprivation of the poor.     rw 006388
  • April , 2003   National Audubon Society population news list   Good News! the HIV/AIDS Bill Just Passed by a Vote of 374 to 41.   This HIV/AIDS bill, initiated by President Bush and authored by Congress Henry Hyde (R-IL) may be the most significant family planning development of the last 25 years. For a good analysis of the benefits of this bill and what you should do to help, please click on the headline link.   [This article has some important points that need summarizing. If you would like to help, click on the red arrow to register as a volunteer. Thanks!!] 006620
  • March 31, 2003   The Slovak Spectator   Slovakia: Plans to Raise Awareness of Family Planning.   The Slovak Deputy Prime Minister has promised to intensify training of health workers, remove barriers to health care, and encourage Roma girls and women to visit gynaecologists and receive information on reproductive health. This requires 60,000 euro to prevent discrimination, racism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. This project for the Roma minority focused on 300 Roma settlements in the Preov, Koice, and Banska Bystrica regions. The claims by two foreign NGOs that up to 100 Roma women in Slovakia had been forcibly sterilised are untrue, the Slovak government says.     rw 006380
  • March 31, 2003   UN News (United Nations)   UN Hears Call for Education to Curb Population Growth, Boost Development.   Primary education is crucial in improving economic and social conditions among the poorest segments of society, including girls, rural dwellers and minorities. Expanding educational opportunities is one of the most powerful tools governments have for promoting both income growth and equality. But growth in the numbers of school-age children, (2 billion worldwide) presents a challenge to less developed countries. The number of school-age children worldwide should rise by nearly 300 million between 2000 and 2050, with more than 90% in Africa, where the school-age population should double. The school-age population of more developed regions is expected to decline by more than 20% by 2050.     rw 006390
  • March 31, 2003   US Newswire   Pro-life Congresswomen Call for Zero Funding for Forced Abortion, Coercive Family Planning.   Concerned Women for America (CWA) http://media.cwfa.org and the Coalition for Women and Children announced an April 1 congressional press conference - "Women Speak for Motherhood" - to support the expansion of the Mexico City Policy, oppose funding of the UNFPA, and support the Bush administration's international policies to protect marriage, parents and children. 'Population control' groups [as they were called in the press release] lobbied Congress March 31 to [the press release claims] "secure funding for programs that are known to support forced abortion and coercive family planning. The United States must not give these inhumane activities our financial support." The press conference was mediated by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Group. Members in attendance: Rep. JoAnn Davis (R-VA), Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehiten (R-FL). Also supporting the legislation but absent: Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC). Members of Press: SRN News, Family News In Focus and CNS News. Pro-Life Groups Represented: Family Research Counsel, Eagle Forum. Rep. JoAnn Davis said: "In many areas of the world, women and children are in need of real foreign aid. Basic medical care, safe sanitation and clean water are desperately needed. However, abortions and condoms are what they receive. Women across the globe deserve better." "Its time for international assistance programs to focus on the inherent needs of women and children, and not the population control agenda. The root of effective population control is not forced abortion and condoms. It is abstinence, fidelity and improvements in the overall standards of life for women around the world." "Regardless of whether you support abortion or not, we should all agree that NO women should be forced to kill her unborn child, as we Americans will not stand back and allow our federal tax dollars to support such action." Connie Mackey: "Women of America do NOT want abortion." The representatives repeatedly expressed their support for abstinence-only programs, instead of "abortion and condoms" as the preferred form of health aid in foreign countries. Groups and members had no new arguments or data in support of their position. It appeared that their program was thrown together at short notice in response to Population Connection and allied groups' lobby days. They claim to have gathered a group of about 100 activists who are all in town on their own dollar. However, CWA brought with them about 15 young people, half men and half women. There appeared to be about three members of the press, but no cameras. Other than this presence, there were only about 5 audience members.   So far, no evidence has been produced that the UNFPA has participated in or promoted forced abortion or coercive family planning. Also, population groups are not about 'control' but about voluntary family planning to achieve healthy and happy families. 006402
  • March 30, 2003   Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA)   U.N. Population Fund Deserves Our Support.   "..although the Population Research Institute was able to convince the Bush Administration to withdraw the $34 million approved by the Congress for the United Nations Population Fund (which does no abortions), the people of the United States are responding by the tens of thousands to an appeal made by Lois Abraham and myself," said Jane Roberts. After a seven-month long grass-roots effort, $767,000 has been raised and $7,000 arrives daily. Jane traveled to Senegal and Mali to see UNFPA's work on site. She talked to women whose lives had been saved by Caesareans and saw babies vaccinated and mothers given the means to space their next pregnancies properly. She saw joint-government UNFPA clinics that have brought maternal mortality rates down, and the children born healthier. Our own State Department has shown that the statement made by PRI about the UNFPA program in China is false and hurts the poorest, most vulnerable women in the 141 other countries where UNFPA has programs. Those "who appreciate the reproductive health care we have in this country can share a little of their good fortune with the world by sending $1 and asking their friends to do the same. Our government may not be participating in the work of the UNFPA, but we the people are." 006335
  • March 29, 2003   Washington Post   Pro-Life Priorities.   In a February 23rd editorial the Bush administration's pro-life policies in Africa were attacked. The writer wrote that "abortion is sometimes a choice of last resort for AIDS patients: A pregnant woman comes into a remote clinic weak with AIDS. The medicine to prevent mother-to-child infant transmission is not available. The pregnancy will weaken her immune system further. Her choices are bleak: her other children orphaned, or an abortion." But such clinics do not provide abortions. There is only one doctor for every 50,000 people in rural Africa, so most rural clinics have no doctors, only a nurse or two. Clinics are often short on drugs, clean water and electricity. Patients with compromised immune systems may not survive such an abortion. Only 20% to 30% of children born to HIV-infected mothers become infected -- half from childbirth, half from being breast-fed, so abortion would remove more healthy children than infected children. The president's goal to provide long-term HIV treatment to 2 million people in Africa and the Caribbean within five years will be hard work. Those who obsess over his pro-life policies ought to get their priorities right. The writer, Phil Christenson, was an assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1988 to 1991. 006334
  • March 29, 2003   BBC News   Iraq's Female Health Crisis.   Two thousand babies are born every day in Iraq. Women's health during childbirth in Iraq has been undermined by sanctions and conflict and it's a dangerous situation. This week UNFPA moved supplies from warehouses to clinics. There doesn't seem to be shortages but the problem is access. UNFPA is considering setting up a hotline to help family members guide a woman through delivery if they're unable to leave the house. One in five women is of childbearing age and on average, bears five children. The stress of conflict can also increase miscarriages. In Iraq, 370 mothers die for every 100,000 live births - compared with 21 maternal deaths in developed countries, more than one in 10 babies will not survive five years, and 130 will die for every 1000 live births. UNFPA is asking for $5 million for the next six months work in Iraq.     rw 006336
  • March 28, 2003   Reuters   U.S.: Most Parents Unaware That Teens Can Be Treated for STDs, Receive Contraception Without Their Involvement.   In 2002 more than 1,000 parents of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 in Minnesota and Wisconsin were surveyed by phone. 71% of parents would not object to mandatory parental notification regarding minor health care, including a five-day waiting period for contraception. 68% of parents said that a teenager should have access to confidential care in cases of rape or incest. 34% of parents said that teens ages 16 to 17 should have access to reproductive health care without parental consent.     rw 006322
  • March 28, 2003   New York Times*   AIDS Funding and Politics.   The far right's agenda has been protected throughout the Bush administration by cutting foreign and domestic safe-sex programs, family planning and condom distribution. Now the far right's agenda is even more disruptive on the crucial issue of fighting AIDS overseas. Even though opponents of abortion wanted to prohibit the AIDS initiative money from going to groups that counsel or perform abortions, the White House understands that this could cripple anti-AIDS programs, especially in places like rural Africa, where the only care available may be a single clinic. Consequently the abortion restriction has been softened to say that groups cannot use AIDS money to perform or counsel abortion. But the groups that provide family planning services to refugee women must stop providing abortion services or counseling - or have their financing suspended. This is not enough, however, for the religious right, who claim that condoms should not be promoted to prevent AIDS. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is stalled, but in the House a good $3 billion AIDS bill has bi-partisan support due to the efforts of Representative Henry Hyde, Republican of Illinois, an abortion opponent who understands that the priority is preventing AIDS deaths. The House bill is more than Mr. Bush proposed and has no abortion distractions. 006326
  • March 28, 2003   Nepal News   Nepal: Migration: Boon Or Bane?.   In Nepal the economic benefits of migration for young villagers are immense, but their unawareness of the dangers puts them at risk: as people migrate from rural to urban and urban to abroad, there is more vulnerability of HIV. A resident in mid-western Nepal returned to Kathmandu from his work in the United Arab Emirates with Rs.200,000 in hand. Six months ago, he had come to Nepal on a vacation. Before returning to Dubai he had spent a night with a girl. He lost a good job in Dubai and as the breadwinner he is left weighing the economic fallout of his behavior. He cannot go back to his village, fearing he might infect his wife. But he is worried as to who will feed his seven family members. He was lucky to have been in the UAE, where medical facilities are impressive and the disease was detected. Many young migrants return home without knowing they have been infected with HIV. People in Kathmandu are vulnerable, as the capital has changed to a hub for migrant workers and has brought commercial sex workers, dance restaurants and massage parlors. As more than half of Nepal's population is below 40, spread of infections will have far-reaching consequences for the kingdom's economic prospects. 26% of remittances to families came from urban Nepal, 33% from rural areas in Nepal, and 33% from India. As rural people come to Kathmandu, the infrastructure is coming under greater strain. and HIV infection has come as another burden. The urban population is projected to rise by 30% by 2015. It is estimated that several hundred thousand Nepalese men migrate to India for employment each year. Programs must be developed to address prevention. Intervention programs including media coverage are required. Studies show that the percentage of men who report having sex with sex workers has dramatically increased - from 42% of transport workers in 2000 to 61% in 2001, also from 10% of laborers in 2000 to 30% in 2001.     rw 006330
  • March 28, 2003   MSNBC.com   Largest Wind Farm to Rise in Iowa.   The Wind Farm, which requires approval by Iowa Public Utilities and state legislation would be the largest land-based wind farm in the world with a capacity of 310 megawatts. The U.S. had a total wind generating capacity of 4,700 megawatts at the end of 2002 but Germany is the biggest wind power nation, with more than 12,000 megawatts. Wind power is becoming a cost-effective source of energy. Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy plans to freeze its electricity rates in Iowa through 2010. Iowa will be third in the nation for wind energy. Farmers in northwest and north-central Iowa where the turbines will be located will be paid about $4,000 a year for each turbine.     rw 006331
  • March 27, 2003   Daily Mail   U.K.: 100 Percent Increase in Teenage Girls Using Morning-After Pill.   The use of the morning-after pill has more than doubled since it became available over the counter. One in five 16 year olds takes them each year, some use it repeatedly. The figures suggest the reduction in pregnancy is due to availability of the pill rather than a drop in teenage sex. Teenagers on the pill are not protected against sexually transmitted infections which affect one in 20 girls under 16. Teenage girls are more likely to use the pill than older women. The rise in teenage use supports campaigners who tried to stop chemists selling the pill as its easy availability would increase pressure to have sex while increasing the risk of infection. Girls under 16 need a prescription, which can be obtained without parents' consent from a doctor or a school nurse. But many buy it from a chemist because there are few checks to ensure it is not sold to under-age girls. Fear of sexually-transmitted diseases seems to have little impact on behaviour.     rw 006316
  • March 26, 2003   Washington Times   The ABCs of Hope by Joseph R. Pitts.     [This op ed needs a response. Email the editor at: letters@washingtontimes.com and send your response to WOA!! If you would like to summarize this op ed, please register as a volunteer at http://www.population-awareness.net/signup.html ] 006309
  • March 26, 2003   Patrick Burns   A Bit of Good News on Foreign Aid.   The Senate adopted by voice vote the Lugar-Feinstein amendment restoring $1.1 billion to the Senate Budget Resolution that had been previously stripped from the Administration's request for the Fiscal Year 2004 International Affairs Budget (also called the 150 Account). After the unanimous vote, the Senate's budget resolution now allocates $28.5 billion for the international affairs budget (which includes family planning). This was the Administration's full request for Fiscal Year 2004. For a side-by-side of the FY 2003 and FY 2004 budget requests, see http://www.colead.org/FY-04%20Budget%20Request.htm As the pie chart graph at the bottom of this page notes, foreign international affairs assistance totals less than 1% of the total FY 04 budget of the U.S. The Senate also more than cut in half the Administration's proposed tax cuts. Cutting taxes in order to generate deficits, which are then used to justify cuts in programs that include environmental protection, family planning, and foreign assistance, is a time-honored tradition on Capitol Hill. A smaller tax cut means less cuts to programs most Americans care about -- and millions of people in the developing world depend on. 006311
  • March 26, 2003   South Africa Independent   Illegal Gatherers Threatening South Africa Forests.   Illegal medicinal plant gatherers pose a major threat to South Africa's forests. The removal of forests for agriculture and settlement is also a problem. The department of water affairs and forestry (DWAF) lack the capacity and staff to manage the country's widely distributed indigenous forests. Other dangers include building roads, illegal cutting of timber and unsustainable gathering of firewood and building material. Indigenous forests cover 53,000 hectares, 0.4% of the country. Local herbalists do not pose a threat to the forests; the commercial gatherers are the problem. Logging operations involve only the removal of dead and dying timber, on a tree-by-tree basis. All natural forests are protected and any person cutting trees or collecting organic material, unless done on a local "domestic" basis, has to have a license, or be exempt from this requirement.     rw 006313
  • March 25, 2003   Associated Press   Chinese Trade in Baby Girls Thrives.   Baby girls from Chinese farm families are sold to others wanting a daughter, servant or future bride for a son and the government birth-control policies add to the demand. Many buyers are families that have a boy and want a second child. Baby girls have been abducted, abandoned or sold by their parents. China's Justice Ministry says a three-month-long crackdown in 2000 resulted in the rescue of some 10,000 babies. Until the 1940s, girls were considered so unimportant that many weren't given names until adulthood. Communist authorities, upon taking power in 1949, ended the custom of selling unwanted daughters to brothels or as servants. But the trade has flourished amid looser social controls and tighter enforcement of "one-child" rules. That has led to a lopsided ratio of boys to girls that could leave tens of millions of men without wives. The government recently banned abortion as a means of selecting a baby's sex. Infants are cheaper than buying a teenage bride. Buying a baby girl can cost as little as a $100 and won't result in the fines imposed on couples who violate birth control limits.     rw 006300
  • March 25, 2003   MENA Business Reports   Arab Infant Mortality Rate Lower Than World Average.   The average under five and infant mortality rates in Arab countries are lower than the world average, despite an average income of $1,214 per capita. GNI for individual countries ranges from $120 per capita in Somalia to $19,020 in Kuwait. GNI is used to compare countries' performance in health, education, nutritional status and standards of living. In some cases, countries with high GNI perform poorly on indicators of child survival, and vice versa. In other cases, GNI is correlated with other indicators. GNI serves as an indicator for gauging the status of children. For statistical reasons, UNICEF leaves out the oil producing countries of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE when calculating GNI.   [Leaving out the oil producing countries of Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE when calculating GNI? That makes all the statistics nothing but guess work ot making the figures fit the theory.]  rw 006303
  • March 25, 2003   Vietnam News Briefs   Vietnam Seeks Foreign Funding of $300 Million for Safe Water Scheme.   The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help Vietnam call on international donors to fund $300 million to the country's safe water supply in rural areas. Water resources are contaminated by overuse, pollution, a booming population, increasing economic activities and ineffective management and is blamed for 80% of diseases in underprivileged areas. 80% of the water is used for agriculture and the rest for households and industry. 37% to 50% of water is lost. The population with clean water increased by 13% in 1998-2000 but with inequality in distribution. Vietnam needs international cooperation as 60% of the water flows from other countries. The Vietnamese has pumped $ 1.3 billion into doubling its water supply networks, with $1 billion from foreign investment. It aims to provide 80% of rural residents with 60 liters of clean water daily by 2010 and 100% by 2020.     rw 006304
  • March 25, 2003   The Gleaner (Jamaica)   Forests Vital for Economic Growth UNDP, USAID, CIDA.   Healthy forests are vital for the prosperity of Jamaica and Caribbean island states. Protecting forests and managing watersheds are critical for tourism and agriculture. Seven floods in Jamaica from 1979 to 1993 caused 116 deaths, left 51,000 homeless and cost an average of J$ 1.6 billion per flood. The Forestry Department is urged to convey the message of conservation and responsible resource stewardship. A current project, the Ridge to Reef Watershed Management project will aim at engaging private landowners and the private sector. Jamaica is a candidate for debt forgiveness under the Tropical Forestry Conservation Act enacted by the U.S that allows countries to reduce their debt in return for setting up funds for the protection of tropical forests. Since 1992 Canada has funded Trees for Tomorrow, committed to build the capacity of the Forestry Department to effectively carry out its mandate.     rw 006305
  • March 25, 2003   UN Integrated Regional Information Network   Ethiopia: Country Facing Huge Urban Population Boom.   Ethiopia is facing urban population explosion as families move to cities. Urban population growth is increasing at 6% a year, compared to similar countries with 4%. German Ambassador Helga Strachwitz said that "increased pressures" on the country’s already stretched infrastructure would be a consequence of the growth. The population in the capital is four million, making it one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa.     rw 006306
  • March 24, 2003   The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)   Care Kits Packed for Afghan Midwives; Winning the Peace.   In Afghanistan, infant and maternal mortality rates are the highest in the world. Students and faculty at the Baptist College of Health Sciences would like the numbers reduced. They are organizing 2,000 "safe birth kits" for Afghanistan. The kits, offer implements to foster a more sterile and sanitary child-birthing environment. They are made up of donated supplies and will be shipped to Afghanistan, to the country's birthing assistants. The kits include a soap, sterilization packets, a towel, gauze, latex gloves and string to tie off the umbilical cord.     rw 006299
  • March 24, 2003   Public Broadcasting System   US Oregon: Environmental Groups Lobby in Salem.   Members of environmental groups lobbyied legislators on issues important to them. About a half-dozen people stood on the capitol steps under green umbrellas to highlight the issue of a rapidly growing population. The Green Umbrella symbolizes a successful family planning program in Bangladesh. The chair of the population committee for the local chapter of the Sierra Club, Ramona Rex, says there's a connection between the number of people on earth and environmental degradation. It's an issue that is very close to people's lives - how many children they want to have and reproductive issues that a lot of people don't really want to talk about. One solution is to give women more control over the number of children they have. Rexx says when that happens, women are more likely to have fewer children spaced further apart. 006314
  • March 23, 2003   San Francisco Chronicle   US California: Fertile Ground for Sprawl - Governor Proposes Cutting Funds for Farmland Tax Break.   The Williamson Act protects more than half of California's agricultural acreage, mostly in the Central Valley. Landowners enter into 10-year deals agreeing to keep their fields undeveloped and in exchange are given a break on taxes. This helps farmers stay in business when development sends property values and tax rates skyrocketing. Since the early 1970s, the state has reimbursed counties for the taxes they are missing this year $39 million for the 15 million acres protected under the act. In the new budget proposal the state would end its reimbursement. If counties ended the agreements, it would take 10 years to get out of the deals. Environmentalists, farmers and lawmakers fearfully anticipate an accelerated development in 10 to 20 years, when the state's population is expected to grow by more than 11 million. That would send farmers' tax bills soaring and making the lure of selling out hard to ignore. Without the Williamson Act, there will be more sprawling suburban development. The state currently looses 50,000 acres of farmland a year to development. The act has curbed development in rural areas by limiting the number of subdivisions among farms and ranches.     rw 006298
  • March 22, 2003   Push newsfeed   Australia: A Young Country Coming To Grips With Growing Older.   Australia risks descending into hyper-ageing. The fertility rate of 1.73 per woman is at risk of approaching the dangerous level of 1.6. Normal ageing would be manageable and even offer benefits. But hyper-ageing would signal a decline from which it would be difficult to recover. The Council on the Ageing said there was no ageing crisis. Older people enrich society - only 7% of those over 70 live in care. Managing an ageing population depends on a harmonious society with inter-generational respect, fostering a good public health system and retaining older workers.     rw 006563
  • March 21, 2003     Rep. Davis: Champion of Women, Opponent of UNFPA Funding by Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute.     [This erroneous op-ed needs a response. Please send your letter to the editor at: letters@freelancestar.com and send your response to WOA!! ... If you would like to summarize this op ed, please register as a volunteer at http://www.population-awareness.net/signup.html ] 006308
  • March 20, 2003   Push newsfeed   Anti-Trafficking Bill.   The Senate passed a measure penalizing trafficking against women, which includes prostitution and white slavery. The House of Representatives approved a version two weeks ago. The enactment of the bill will address cases against sex trafficking among women and children and first-time violators will be ordered to render community service for six months, while a fine of P50,000 shall be imposed on second-time offenders. Third-time violators shall be penalized with a fine of P100,000 and an imprisonment of one year. Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda said the measure is long overdue.   Does anyone know what country this article is about?  rw 005894
  • March 19, 2003   Push newsfeed   US Minnesota: Bill Would Stress Abstinence in Sex Ed.   The message that young people shouldn't have sex until marriage would get a boost in schools under a bill that passed the House Education Policy Committee. Proponents say the emphasis is needed because sex education programs give students conflicting messages that may encourage sexual activity. Critics said the bill could cut programs that provide students with information on contraceptives and sexually transmitted diseases. Current law requires school districts to include abstinence information in its curriculum. "Why do we need this bill? It's already in the curriculum," said Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood.     rw 005844
  • March 19, 2003   Push newsfeed   A New Revolution in Sanitation is in the Can.   The flush toilet uses 15 liters of drinking-quality water per flush, one-third of a family's water usage, and then there is the sewage to treat or dispose of. 2.8 billion use pit latrines or relieve themselves outdoors, contributing to 6,000 daily deaths of children from diarrhea and dehydration. Low-cost ecological sanitation dubbed 'ecosan' changes that with toilets that separate urine from feces and turn both into renewable resources. The toilets, a slab of concrete covering a meter-deep pit or an ornate porcelain throne, have two holes to get rid of the waste and feeds two vaults, one of which is fed dirt that contains oxygen. Pathogens don't like a dry environment, so they fight the soil bacteria. The vault can be emptied of the compost, a fertilizer that is cheaper and better than chemical fertilizers. Liquid waste when uncontaminated by fecal matter is sterile and can be combined with the grey water from bathing and cleaning for the crops. It is also rich in phosphorus, an important soil nutrient that is one of the world's diminishing resources. The low-cost system has been a boon to rural communities where women often wait until after dark to relieve themselves and risk being molested. In the Indian state of Kerala, 250 female heads of household have helped build simple ecosan structures near their homes, each of which looks out on a lush garden fed with the waste. Ecosan systems have also been applied by urban Swedes and Norwegians as well as by some in wealthy communities in Mexico City "There is no such thing as waste: everything is a resource," said Ingvar Andersson, the senior water policy adviser for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).     rw 005845
  • March 19, 2003   Grist Magazine   Burden of Proof: What We Don't Know About the Toxic Chemicals in Our Bodies.   Scientists measured the levels of 116 chemicals in the blood and urine of 2,500 volunteers and found detectable levels of 89 chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides, and disinfectants. Research studies are required to determine which blood or urine levels are safe and which cause disease but this is not easy. New questions are emerging. 1. Could a given chemical have health effects a long time after exposure? 2. Has a given chemical been tested for low-dose effects? 3. Is a given chemical safe when mixed with other chemicals? Looking for effects from very low doses over very long time periods is difficult, trying to do that for all possible combinations of exposure and the task grows exponentially. Until then, we are all living with risk. However, lead, DDT, PCBs, and hexachlorobenzene have all decreased since the last study and they are all chemicals that have been banned or strictly regulated in the U.S.     rw 005848
  • March 17, 2003   Push newsfeed   Australia: Sick of Work? It Could Be the Building.   Sick building syndrome in Australia, caused by poor air-conditioning and toxic chemicals, costs billions of dollars a year in lost productivity from headaches, lethargy, nausea, eye, throat and skin irritations. 60% of workers fall victim in sick buildings, compared with 15% of the population. Research would involve a study of the technology for monitoring levels of air pollutants, then to build a prototype of a healthy and sustainable workplace. The project could develop new technologies and materials for future buildings. Banning smoking improved indoor air quality dramatically but workers are exposed to pollutants from building materials and equipment such as photocopiers. There is no plan to assess buildings after they are constructed.     rw 005806
  • March 17, 2003   Push newsfeed   Heavy Metal Fish.   Pregnant women, and young children should not eat swordfish, shark, king mackerel, or tilefish and should limit their consumption of fresh or frozen tuna. These warnings are the latest effort to reduce the risks posed by mercury that contaminates seafood. The alarm comes when plans to reduce the main source of mercury, emissions from coal-fired power plants are being scaled back. More Americans are eating fish that helps combat obesity, heart disease, stroke, and other major ills. While fish is nutritious, mercury is toxic. In the 1950s, women exposed to mercury gave birth to children with defects. Even low levels can cause neurological problems in children. The EPA estimates 8% of American women have mercury levels that endanger their children. Young children can be harmed by mercury because their brains are developing. Fish pick up mercury, from microorganisms and absorb it from their prey. Old fish such as swordfish, shark, and tuna carry more of the metal than salmon and shrimp. Of 89 people tested, the majority had blood mercury levels above the EPA safety level. Mercury levels dropped after patients abstained from fish for six months. Canned tuna usually has about half the mercury of fresh tuna, because chunk light tuna comes from smaller fish.     rw 005807
  • March 17, 2003   Planet Ark   Overflowing Japan Tries to Put a Lid on Trash.   Japan's landfills are filling fast, prompting the government to cut the nation's waste in half by 2010 to 28 million tons per year. Landfills and not popular and incineration can result in dioxin emissions. Several islands have been created from landfill. Society itself must change, an official said. A tax on plastic bags handed out free at supermarkets has been proposed. Ireland successfully introduced such a levy last year.     rw 005819
  • March 17, 2003   Sierra Club release   General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).   Every country in the WTO (World Trade Organization) is part of the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services agreement). This covers everything - even municipal services like sewer and water. The goal is to promote privatization of public services and deregulation, subjecting them to the WTO's rules. The U.S. pushed to have services included in the Uruguay Round negotiations, but countries resisted privatization and would only agree to GATS if they could choose which to include. So GATS has country-specific schedules of services covered. GATS creates obligations backed up by trade sanctions and is the first multilateral agreement to provide enforceable rights to trade in all services. It has periodic negotiations and covers every means of supplying a service including the right to set up a presence in the export market. This includes the right for U.S. corporations to set up operations in countries immune from U.S. laws. Rebecca Mark, as CEO of Enron's water subsidiary Azurix, remarked that she would not rest until all the world's water has been privatized. In contrast, says Vandana Shiva: "Privatization and commodification of water are a threat to the right to life."     rw 005836
  • March 17, 2003   Sierra Club release   Sierra Club on the War in Iraq.   Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope: "The Sierra Club opposes the impending military attack on Iraq by the United States. We believe that the best course of action is disarmament through the United Nations' authorized inspections and weapons destruction process. We hope all parties will use the next 48 hours to find a path to peace. "No matter the duration or outcome of this conflict, however, we will find,ourselves in the same situation once again if the U.S. and other nations fail to recognize that continued dependence on oil and other fossil fuels is a significant de-stabilizing influence in international affairs. The Sierra Club therefore reaffirms its urgent call for the U.S. to move to a clean-energy economy using energy-efficient technologies and renewable power." 005838
  • March 17, 2003   Associated Press   Lawmakers Reach Agreement on $15 Billion Package to Combat AIDS.   A $15 billion package to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis worldwide has been agreed on by House lawmakers. 25 million people have died from AIDS. The negotiators agreed not to apply the "Mexico City policy" that has barred U.S. aid to groups that support abortion. The measure endorses the "ABC" approach which has been successful in Uganda: Abstinence, Being faithful and, when appropriate, the use of Condoms.   [Note: the Administration and conservatives in Congress will likely seek other means to apply the Global Gag Rule.] 005839
  • March 15, 2003   Center for Immigration Studies   U.S.: Immigrants in the United States — 2002: A Snapshot of America’s Foreign-Born Population.   A record number of legal and illegal immigrants arrived in the U.S. this year. 33.1 million legal and illegal immigrants live in the U.S. 2 million more since the last census. This new report provides a detailed look at the nation’s immigrant (or foreign-born) population, including entrepreneurship, health insurance coverage, poverty, and welfare use for each state.     rw 005821
  • March 15, 2003   World Watch Institute   Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable World.   World Religious institutions are supporting the environmental movement as religious people begin to partner with advocates of sustainable development. The past decade has seen a growing number of meetings by the two communities. The two groups must overcome mutual misperceptions and divergent worldviews, which have historically kept them apart. Secular environmentalists worry about the history of religious involvement. Religious institutions have perspectives on the role of women, the nature of truth, and the moral place of human beings that diverge from those of environmentalists. Misperceptions and misunderstandings persist, but engagement is growing. Religious people would do well to favor sustainability, and environmentalists would gain by appealing at an emotional/spiritual level.     rw 005827
  • March 15, 2003   Sacramento Bee   US California: Future Shock - Epic Drought Could Strike Again (LTE).   From 1987 to 1992, California added 6 million people and tens of thousands of yards, orchards, and businesses dependent on water. The call is to determine the sustainable population of California. Most first-world countries have a stable population, but the U.S. is growing rapidly. Only 7% of the State's water is used by cities and industry, and a commentator suggested that, with dams and conservation, California could sustain 10 times its current population. (Such people also believe that all of the world's population could live in Texas.)   LTE by Kim Berry  rw 005833
  • March 15, 2003   Washington Times   The Successes of ABC.   ABC (Abstinence, Be Faithful, or use Condoms) has been around for 60 years and Uganda's success in promoting it has been hailed by people on all sides of the political spectrum. It recognizes the equal importance of A, B and not least C. Condom use and education are an essential method of preventing the spread of AIDS.     rw 005840
  • March 13, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   Chinese Society Offers Caring Hand to Pregnant Teens.   More than 50% of Chinese young people in urban areas have had premarital sex. The average age for this sex is becoming lower. The failure of schools to teach them how to avoid pregnancy should accept responsibility for unwanted pregnancy. Chongqing Municipality and northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have come up with textbooks on sex, offering instructions on how to avoid getting pregnant. It is society's responsibility to help teenagers establish a correct attitude toward sex.     rw 005874
  • March 13, 2003   The Advocate Online (Baton Rouge Louisiana)   Wetlands Need Plenty of Help, Cash.   Louisiana's coastline can only be restored to a maintainable level with $14 billion in federal aid. Wetlands devastation in the state can be traced back to decisions on control of the flooding of the Mississippi River and to aid oil and gas projects in the region said Karen Gautreaux, chair of the state's wetlands restoration panel and executive assistant to the Governor. The state benefited from those decisions, but cannot deal with the problems. The administration and Congress have to be made aware that Louisiana's coastal losses affect defense and the economy for the country. Backers hope to see federal funding get through Congress in 2004 with a commitment to spend that much over time.     rw 005880
  • March 13, 2003   Population Action International   New Action Network Web Site.   Action Network utilizes the power and speed of the Internet to help people take action online for the environment and gives busy people who are concerned about the environment a way to get involved and feel empowered. It features action alerts from us (Population Action International) and more than 170 other environment, population and public health organizations and coalitions. With over 800,000 activists and growing, the site is among the largest and oldest online activism hubs on the World Wide Web. 005881
  • March 12, 2003   Boston Globe   Saliva-based Fertility Tests Now Widely Available.   Saliva-based fertility tests indicate ovulation when a woman's saliva forms a pattern on the test lens. They cost between $27 and $120 and can be used over and over. The FDA has issued waivers to other companies applying for approval because they are similar to products already approved. The saliva-based tests are looking to the approximately $41 million market for fertility products which is growing 6% to 7% per year, also women want a cheaper and more convenient option to other testing products. However, saliva testers have not yet caught on although they are less expensive but they are also less specific. Women with irregular periods or high estrogen levels could receive incorrect results from saliva-based tests.   [Note: such fertility tests would help women who use 'natural' birth control, also known as the 'rhythm' method, which has been shown to be somewhat effective for couples age 30 and over, but not as much for younger couples, who are more likely to be impetuous.]  rw 005802
  • March 12, 2003   Associated Press   Money for Border Security Said Lacking.   Homeland security officials told Senate subcommittees they don't have the resources to hunt foreigners who stay beyond the 90 days allowed those without a visa. They have no numbers as to how many stay beyond 90 days. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, it was difficult to uncover visa violators with only 2,000 investigators. Some lawmakers called for an end to a mutual visa waiver program with 28 countries, but supporters said this would chill relations with some of the nation's best allies in the war on terrorism and would burden U.S. consulates with more visa applications and cost millions of dollars. Congress voted last year to purchase technology for tracking students and visitors and for documenting immigrants in the country. Parts of an automated system are to be in place at all ports by 2005. This became the homeland security responsibility when immigration functions shifted to the new agency.   WOA!! is interested in illegal immigration because it adds to the fast growing population of the U.S. - to the detriment of the U.S. environment and its plant and animal species, and adding more super consumers to the world. While immigration should be allowed to some extent, there is a limit to how many people the country's environment can sustain.  rw 005832
  • March 12, 2003   Business World   Philippines: Almost 600,000 Women Get Loans for Micro Businesses.   595,899 poor women in the Philippines availed themselves of President Arroyo's loan program for micro-business enterprises in 2002, an increase of 160% from 2001. The administration will reach out to one million poor women, more than 300,000 new borrowers, yearly to 2004. It serves 79 provinces, 113 out of 114 cities (Cotabato City still unserved) and 1,083 of 1,496 towns. It provides credit with training, product development, market access, new technologies, and social insurance. The President aims to serve remote and conflict areas, and the elderly, disaster victims, and the disabled.     rw 005869
  • March 11, 2003   New York Times*   'Emergency' Birth Control: Access Issues.   Only 4% or 5% of women ages 18 to 44 have used emergency contraception because of limited access to the pills, but policy makers are increasing access to the morning-after pills. 35% of drugstores stock emergency contraception products. A few states have done away with prescriptions for emergency contraception. New York is considering a bill requiring pharmacies not stocking emergency contraception to post signs so women do not wait in line. Opponents argue that morning-after pills cause abortions and should not be available. Doctors know that birth control pills can work after intercourse but the packages do not include instructions on how to avoid pregnancy after intercourse. Half of New York City pharmacies carry emergency contraception. Washington State and Alaska have regulations on the books that allow doctors or nurse practitioners to delegate their authority to prescribe specific medications. The California version was achieved with a new statute and a year after it took effect, 13% of the state's pharmacies were offering emergency contraception. Pharmacist assessment, counseling and referrals are crucial. The debate involves whether emergency rooms provide access to contraception to women after being raped.     rw 005852
  • March 11, 2003   Afrol News   African Women Cry Out for Condoms on Women's Day.   The average African women gives birth to six children but she'd gladly use contraceptives as one in 15 women dies due to birth complications. Women are aware of their risks, but men can always marry again. Between 1995 and 2000, 700,000 women died of unwanted pregnancies, more than the half of abortions. Most could have been prevented by giving women access to contraceptives. 350 million couples want to use contraception but have not the means to do so. African women are crying out for condoms. The average fertility rate in Ethiopia is 5.9 children but the number of children desired is lower. Husbands and families pressure the female head of family as social status increases for men with a high number of children and health risks are a women's issue. In Kenya the total fertility rate has sunk from 7.5 children in the 1980s to 4.2 children today. Of all African couples, some 7% stick to the pill, another 4% percent use IUDs, 1% use condoms. The shift in US family planning policies has changed the situation in the field in Africa. While African and donor governments continue having different moral views on family planning matters, African women continue to give birth to more children than their bodies and their local environment can sustain.     rw 005858
  • March 10, 2003   Agence France Presse   Half World's Population Could Lack Adequate Water by 2025.   30% of the world does not have enough water, and if we continue it will become 50% in 2025 and that is not sustainable. A report setting out 3,000 successful community or international "World Water Actions" is to be published showing that if communities take action, things move faster. Water scarcity has been increasing over the last 100 years because of the tripled increase of population and water consumption increased by a factor of six or seven. Population growth is greatest in impoverished areas where water is scarce. There won't be enough water if the world lives at the same level as the US. Terrestrial eco-systems need almost as much water as the amount required to produce food and the total amount is more than the amount of water on the planet. There is a need for reassessment of the way food is produced, some semi-arid countries depend on food imports from countries with more water. The Middle East imports food that would need two Nile rivers.     rw 005795
  • March 10, 2003   The Press Trust of India   India: Maternal Mortality.   To check infant and maternal mortality in rural areas, the Indian Government will give women who go to health centres for delivery Rs 500 for a boy and Rs 1000 for a girl. The two rates are because of female foeticide. The major reasons for high infant mortality are nutrition, maternal and newborn care, respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases and vaccine preventable diseases. The main causes of maternal mortality were haemorrhage, complications during delivery, anaemia, abortion and pregnancy induced hypertension and obstructed labour. A low level of female education and lack of access to health services were also contributing factors.     rw 005856
  • March 09, 2003   The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg VA)   ALL and Judy Brown.   Judie Brown, whose anti-abortion group American Life League (ALL) assists lobbyists, cites the International Planned Parenthood Federation as "really in favor of no parenthood, if you're poor," and the World Health Organization as never having a good thing to say about a child. She says USAID "is in cahoots with a lot of people that don't really like families, even though they say they're in favor of families." A similar group, the Population Research Institute (PRI), spearheaded a campaign to get the White House to cut funds to the UNFPA because of alleged involvement in human-rights abuses. [The Bush administration cut the funds even though his own fact-finding team could not substantiate PRI's claims.] PRI contends that the U.S. shortchanges other programs so it can funnel money to governments and organizations for family planning. In a 1999 report, the group concluded that population-control programs should be abolished.     rw 006396
  • March 09, 2003   The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg VA)   A Life-and-Death Issue - Unintended Or Unwanted?.   The assumptions and motives of research by organizations concerned with human population are sometimes questioned by social conservatives. Judy Brown of the anti-abortion group American Life League (ALL) says "the word 'unwanted' is a subjective, judgmental term that negates the value of the child. There's no such thing as an unwanted child." But the United Nations reports otherwise: of the 200 million pregnancies each year, one-third are unintended and unwanted; tens of thousands of these result in the death of the woman. Americans tend to overlook the risks many women and their children face because of unplanned pregnancies, says Dr. Anne Peterson of USAID's Bureau of Global Health. Maternal and child mortality is very high in poor countries. With good population programs, maternal mortality can be decreased by as much as 25%, and enabling families to space out pregnancies significantly reduces mortality rates for infants and young children. 25% of USAID's development-assistance funds go to population programs, representing less than 1% of all U.S. development expenditures. These programs are cost-effective: for every dollar spent on family planning, governments save up to $16 in reduced expenditures on health, education and social services. Citing India and Bangladesh as examples, Barbara Crane, in USAID's population division when Clinton was president, said "you don't need to wait for development to get the benefits of family planning." The consensus from the landmark 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo, Egypt,stressed women's health and equality, and highlighted maternal mortality as a major public-health issue. Still, 8 years later, lack of sufficient funding means the full range of modern family-planning methods remains unavailable to at least 350 million couples worldwide, many of whom say they want to space or prevent another pregnancy. The Global Health Council, a public-health alliance, reported almost 700,000 women died because of more than 300 million unintended pregnancies between 1995 and the end of 2000. 65% of these died from unsafe, unsanitary and/or illegal abortions. The Council also reported a leveling off of number of births worldwide at 131 million a year, but the number of women dying as a result of unintended pregnancies had increased from 112,883 in 1995 to 115,619 in 2000. 006399
  • March 08, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   AIDS Major Cause of Maternal Deaths in South Africa.   Non-pregnancy infections including HIV are the major causes of maternal deaths in South Africa. 5 million of the population of 46 million are suffering from HIV/AIDS. In 33.6% of cases where other diseases factored in maternal deaths, the HIV status was not known. In developing countries, maternal deaths account for up to 25% of deaths among women of reproductive age. Africa accounted for 40% of the world's maternal deaths. The maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births in Europe was 36; 140 in the Americas; 390 in Asia; 560 in Central Asia and 1,000 in Africa. Contributory factors were linked to socio-economic conditions. Many women suffer from malnutrition and parasitic infections. They lack access to family planning, quality prenatal care or services when a complication arises. Most of the maternal deaths are preventable; they are related to the behavior of women themselves or within their community.     rw 005789
  • March 07, 2003   Sacramento Bee   Sierra Nevada Logging May Double.   The U.S. Forest Service has proposed revisions to the Sierra Nevada Framework which could double logging, allow more cattle grazing, and aggressively thin forests in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Trees up to 30 inches in diameter could be cut in old-growth forests, well over the usual limit of 12 inches. Decades of environmental degradation in the area would not be redressed. A standoff between the Forest Service and enviros would result in a legal "train wreck," said Sierra Nevada Protection Campaign Director Craig Thomas. 005786
  • March 07, 2003   Grist Magazine   U.S.: Suburban Crawl: Even with Jobs in Suburbs, Commutes Get Longer; More Counties Have a Large Share of Imported Workers and 'Bedroom' Residents..   70% of Arlington County, Virginia workforce work somewhere else. Meanwhile, nonresidents come in to the county to do their jobs. 17 counties from Florida to Massachusetts export and import half their workforce on a weekday. Even though jobs are following Americans into the suburbs, jobs and workers end up far apart. It explains why a growing share of Americans are crossing county lines to reach their jobs. Jobs move out to the suburbs, and employees move to exurbs. 23% of Americans worked outside their county of residence in 2000. Much of this rise comes from workers' desire to live in less congested places, but in some residential markets workers can't afford to live near their work. San Francisco County imports nearly half its workforce. Workers' skills also affect commuting. Arlington County, the home of the Pentagon, attracts highly skilled workers who may choose to live in more exclusive areas. At the same time, its housing may prove too costly for the people who staff the county's low-end service jobs. The automobile's dominance means little room for new gains from public transportation or carpooling. Compounding the problem, immigrants are moving quickly from public transportation to cars and to the suburbs.     rw 005787
  • March 06, 2003   Women's Health Weekly   Emergency Contraception: Knowledge of Pregnancy Prevention Alternatives Lacking Among Danish Women.   A recent study of 1514 Danish women showed that 44.7% women knew both the correct time limit and where to acquire the EC. These were typically younger, better educated and more often singles, nulliparae (no pregnancies), and users of contraception. 24.1% had used it previously. The general knowledge has not improved during the last few years and there is still need for information about the correct use of EC.     rw 005738
  • March 06, 2003   Economist   Median Age of the Population.   According to the U.N., the median age of the earth's population has increased from 23.6 in 1950 to 26.4 in 2000. Half of the world's people are under age 26.4 and half are over. By 2050 the median age is expected to reach 37 and, in 17 developed countries, age 50. 005752
  • March 06, 2003   Planned Parenthood   US California: Budget Woes Continue; Family Planning on Chopping Block.   California estimated a budget deficit of $34.6 billion and proposed revenue increases and cuts, including cuts to health care programs. The most devastating is the Medi-Cal rate cuts, which the governor has proposed reducing by 15% and includes contraceptive coverage. A number of teen pregnancy programs were also hit, including the Male Involvement Program and Teen SMART. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has projected a shortfall of about $8.5 billion less than the governor’s and the Assembly will wait before adopting cuts to the Medi-Cal program. It is clear that some tough cuts will have to be made. Republicans continue to reject tax increases, while Democrats are working to protect social programs. Planned Parenthood is working with other health care groups to restore the cuts and benefits.   [For op-ed on this subject, click here.]  rw 005772
  • March 05, 2003   National Academy of Science   Effects of Oil and Gas Development Are Accumulating on Northern Alaska's Environment and Native Cultures.   A study on the cumulative effects of oil and gas exploration over the past 30 years, mandated by Congress, was recently released by the National Research Council, the principal operating arm of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. This is the first study to examine " how these [environmental, social and economic] effects add up over time, which has not been studied much until now". The area under study is the North Slope, 89,000 square miles, which includes the National Petroleum Reserve and parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a web of oil fields connected by "roads, pipelines and power lines". Despite advances made by the oil industry and regulatory agencies in reducing environmental effects, drilling has had a significant impact which is likely to persist even after oil and gas production has stopped. Effects on wildlife have been considerable. The noise of seismic exploration has forced bowhead whales to alter their fall migration route. The increasing human population and their refuse has increased the populations of scavengers – bears, foxes, ravens etc. – which in turn has reduced the numbers of their prey, chiefly birds, whose existence has become endangered and threatened. The network of trails has harmed local vegetation and caused erosion of the tundra. The natives have experienced profound social and economic changes. Although various social services have improved, including schools, health care and housing, elements of their traditional culture have been lost and the incidence of alcoholism and diabetes has increased. Change in migration patterns of whales has forced the Inupiat Eskimos to travel further out to sea to catch them and greatly increased the risk to the fishermen. They also worry that a major oil spill would threaten their culture and livelihood. The committee recommends further research into "air pollution and contamination of water and food resources" from drilling and also into the effects of global warming on "the relationship between oil development and the environment. Copies of Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope will be available this spring from the National Academies Press; tel. (202) 334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu     st 005750
  • March 05, 2003   Associated Press   Sponge Contraceptive Goes on Sale Again.   The Today Sponge is back again - it is available from Canada on the Internet and could be on U.S. shelves in a year or so. Rights for the polyurethane sponge was bought by Allendale Pharmaceuticals from the drug company that discontinued it. At about US $2.90 each, sponges will be on the shelves at 4,000 Canadian pharmacies, Wal-Marts and other stores. The U.S. will take longer due to need for Food and Drug Administration approval. About 250 million Today Sponges were sold before it was taken off the market in 1995 after problems were found in the production. The sponge's safety and effectiveness were never questioned. In a 1995 episode of the TV comedy series "Seinfeld", Elaine is concerned about a shortage of sponges in New York. She finds a case of the sponges at a pharmacy and stretches the supply by setting standards for whether her boyfriend is "spongeworthy," before she would have sex with him. Two other types of sponges are already available: the Canadian Protectaid lacks a withdrawal cord, making it difficult to remove; the French Pharmatex, which costs twice as much as the Today Sponge. The sponge covers the cervix, and it contains a spermicide. Easy to insert and remove, and easily kept in a purse, it does not limit sensitivity, can be bought without a prescription and can be inserted well in advance of having sex. It does not have to be fitted by a doctor - a drawback of the diaphram. However sponges do not offer protection against STDs and do not come anywhere near the 99.1% to 99.5% effectiveness of the pill. For faithful users of the sponge, 9% who have never had a child and 20% who have had a baby will become pregnant over a year. 005760
  • March 05, 2003   Deutsche Presse-Agentur   Political Inertia Causing Global Water Crisis, U.N. Report Charges.   A United Nations report on the state of the world's water resources declares that they will continue to diminish because of population growth, pollution and climatic changes. At the heart of the crisis is the inertia of political leaders and the lack of awareness of the problem. Many countries find themselves in a critical situation in terms of freshwater. The poorest areas are Kuwait, the Gaza Strip, the United Arab Emirates and the Bahamas. 1.1 billion people lack access to clean water while 2.4 billion lack sanitation. More than 2 billion people died in 2000 from impure water and inadequate sanitation. 2 million tons of waste per day are disposed of within receiving waters, including industrial wastes and chemicals, human wastes and agricultural wastes. The poor are the hardest hit. The water crisis is at the heart of the survival of our planet.     rw 005761
  • March 05, 2003   UN Integrated Regional Information Network   Uganda: Malnutrition Rates High Among Displaced Children.   Children under five are suffering from malnutrition in northern Uganda. In Pabbo camp, which hosts 45,000, 18% of under fives were suffering from acute malnutrition. Difficulties of access impede the provision of aid. Heavy military escorts are required to move food supplies to the area. Insecurity caused by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group has caused 70% of the populations of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader to flee from their homes, loosing their harvest in August and preventing them from replanting in October. They are living in 53 imrpovised camps, where living conditions are very poor. In a best case scenario, they will remain dependent on WFP for food until the next harvest in August 2003. The assessment revealed that 180,000 mt of food were required to feed people in northern Uganda. The government had made a cash contribution of 1 billion Ugandan shillings (about US $550,000), and WFP had received donations to cover one third of the needs.     rw 005762
  • March 05, 2003   UPI   Coal Fires Threaten Environment.   In China's Inner Mongolia, underground coal fires are putting harmful chemicals into the air and perhaps affecting climate on a global scale. Chlorine and sulfur emissions have been found from fires in Wuda and they contaminate groundwater with chlorine and sulfur and produce acid rain. Inhaling the droplets that have acid contamination will cause lung irritation and respiratory damage. In the U.S. about 120 coal fires are burning but the impact on environment and health has not been asessed. Underground coal fires are burning in India, the U.S. and Indonesia. In 1962, a decision to burn trash in an abandoned strip mine ignited an underground coal fire in Centralia. The fires in Wuda, China are the result of mining activities. There is evidence of coal fires several million years ago in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming.     rw 005768
  • March 04, 2003   New York Times*   God, Satan and the Media.   Nearly all of the news business is out of touch with 46% of Americans who call themselves born-again Christians. America is experiencing a religious revival like those that have periodically swept America in the last 300 years. President Bush doesn't believe in evolution and a poll shows that 48% of Americans believe in creationism, only 28% in evolution. Acording to a recent Gallup poll, 68% believe more in the devil than evolution. There are negative consequences to this religious influence. Evangelicals' discomfort regarding sex has led to policies that lead to more people dying of AIDS, more pregnancies and abortions. Fundamentalist Christianity is racing through the developing world and the boom is among charismatic Pentecostalists. One of the deepest divides in America today is the gulf of suspicion that separates evangelicals from secular society, and policy battles over abortion and judicial appointments will aggravate these tensions further. Both sides need to display some of the wisdom of Einstein, who wrote "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."     rw 005665
  • March 04, 2003   Push newsfeed   Philippines: Catholic Church Praises Arroyo’s Natural Family Planning Campaign.   The Roman Catholic Church welcomed efforts by the government to spearhead an extensive campaign to promote natural family planning methods. The government admitted that it is advocating natural family planning in accordance to the Catholic Church’s encouragement. The campaign targets 20% of couples within five years. The health department has allotted P150 million for the program. Meanwhile, the last shipment of contraceptives purchased by the United States Agency for International Development for the Philippines arrived in Mandaluyong City. USAID is gradually reducing its condom shipments as part of an effort to build the country’s self-reliance in providing contraceptives to Filipino couples. USAID is also set to cut back its supply of pills, IUDs, and injectables to the country until 2006. Reduced amounts of each type of contraceptive will be channeled directly to government clinics for poor couples.     rw 005674
  • March 04, 2003   Push newsfeed   Thailand: Pollution Up.   An increase in illnesses from air pollution in Bangkok is leading doctors to question the reliability of pollution reports by the government. The number of school students afflicted by illnesses linked to air pollution increased by 30% between 1995 and 2000. A lawsuit was filed against the Pollution Control Department and the Bangkok Mass Transport Authority for failing to control air pollution. Students who have asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema were found to have been exposed to more pollution. Many lived on the regular routes of air-polluting buses. The Pollution Control Department had publicised a sharp decrease in pollution since 1997 but had failed to continue to clearly report whether it remained as low as pre-’97 levels. Pollution was emerging as a problem, as the number of vehicles exceeded pre-1997 levels. People today were afflicted by respiratory disease more than ever. Mortality rates for people with lung diseases have been rising. Reports on deaths and illness caused by heavy smog have shown the potential for an outbreak in Bangkok, The elderly, children, and those with heart and respiratory diseases are most at risk.     rw 005746
  • March 04, 2003   Grist Magazine   US California: State Close to Giving Up on Electric-car Requirements.   California moves to eliminate the requirement to sell a fixed number of electric cars in the state. The change would allow manufacturers to earn credits for low-emissions hybrid vehicles and acknowledge that hybrids are more economical and appealing than electric vehicles. Shell will unveil the first hydrogen fuel-pump in Washington, D.C. for six General Motors fuel-cell minivans. Most electric cars can travel only 75 to 125 miles on a charge and the batteries remain expensive. Major automakers have pulled the plug on their electric car programs and hybrid cars have matured faster than hoped. Unlike battery-powered electric vehicles, hybrids are powered by a combination of batteries and a small gasoline engine. They recharge by the turning and braking of the wheels. The Prius, at $19,999, gets 45/52 mpg and emits 75% less smog than a Corolla. The air board staff propose that automakers build and sell about 250 fuel cell vehicles in California by 2008. Finally, the air board staff will recommend that experts report back in 2008 on the status of battery technology. Vehicles account for roughly 50% of California's smog.     rw 005765
  • March 04, 2003   Los Angeles Times   US California: Orange County Pushes Water Program.   Orange County Water District has launched a project to promote adding treated sewer water to drinking supplies. The campaign includes announcements on five cable stations and three rounds of mailers. The Groundwater Replenishment System, the first in the country, will use treated wastewater that will go through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection and be sent to ponds where it filters into the groundwater. Phase I is expected to begin supplying about 20% of the groundwater in 2006 or 2007 being complete by 2020 when water demand will rise 20%. Sources of imported water that the district relies on are expected to cut back the amount they are willing to sell. Newport Beach gets 75% of its water from the groundwater supply managed by the Orange County Water District who had not realized chemicals could get past reverse-osmosis and therefore has added the third treatment using ultraviolet light. The project will be paid for partly by government grants, partly by increased costs to customers.     rw 005784
  • March 04, 2003   PRNewswire   US Michigan: Growth: 400,000 New Homes Needed by 2030.   The population of southeast Michigan will reach 5.5 million by 2030, a growth rate of 1/2% per year, says the Southeast Michigan Council of Government (SEMCOG). This will demand 400,000 additional residences in the seven county area in the next 30 years. This will strain the resources of available housing. Buildable land is 38% of total acreage. The demand is getting attention in Lansing. There is too much infrastructure for housing of one unit or fewer per acre, water, sewer and electricity costs increase with large lot zoning. Remodeling or rebuilding of older homes will be necessary to provide accessibility as the population ages. A regional government would alleviate difficulties in dealing with different set of requirements in different areas. The current population and the local government must plan for growth.     rw 005785
  • March 04, 2003   Detroit Free Press   Kids' Energy Could Be a Reliable Source of Power.   An engineering professor at the University of Michigan has an idea to collect the energy of children to generate electricity for remote Third World schools. Dr. Raj Pandian's idea to harness energy from playground equipment is simple and inexpensive. He has developed working models in the Laboratory at U-M Flint. The energy from repetitive movement of playground equipment is stored in batteries. His idea is being patented and is the latest in a series of projects that would tap into people power to provide electricity to remote areas of developing countries. A San Francisco organization has developed a computer powered by a bicycle. The system also enables isolated villages to make phone calls using Internet technologies. Using Pandian's modified playground gear several children playing as they usually do should generate the same amount of power as 1,000 AA batteries.     rw 005871
  • March 03, 2003   Independent (London)   Bangladesh: Govt to Ensure Every Delivery by Skilled Birth Attendants.   Bangladesh Health and Family Welfare Minister assured all cooperation from the government to ensure mother and child health. The Bangladesh government has implemented the pilot program to reduce maternal death and ensure obstetric care at grass roots level. The training of the trainers on the subject has already been completed at the Institute of Mother and Child Health and Mother and Child Health Training Institute in Dhaka. Under the training program a six month practical training on skilled obstetric care would be provided to the Family Welfare Assistants and Female Health Assistants.     rw 005677
  • March 03, 2003   Nation, The (Thailand)   Thailand Ranks Poorly in UN Water Report.   The global water crisis will reach unprecedented levels if political inertia continues. The World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP) launched an up-to-date report on the situation. Despite evidence pointing to the problem, political commitment to reverse resource management trends are lacking. Several targets have been set to improve water management, but hardly any have been met. Many countries are in a state of crisis. By the middle of this century seven billion people in 60 countries may face a water shortage depending on population growth and national policies. The UN report ranked 122 countries and Thailand was 100th. The lowest-ranking was Belgium, which suffers from industrial pollution and poor treatment of waste water. 50% of people in developing countries are exposed to polluted water. Asian rivers are the most polluted carrying three times the bacteria from human waste as the average. Asian rivers carry 20 times more lead than rivers in industrialised countries. Per-capital water supplies decreased by a third between 1970 and 1990. Water availability per person per year in Thailand is 6,527 cubic metres. Greenland has the most water, 10,767,857 cubic metres per capita per year, and Kuwait the lowest, with 10 cubic metres per capita per year.     rw 005739
  • March 03, 2003   Washington Post   Experimental Pill Puts Menstruation on Hold.   Seasonale is an experimental regimen of the birth control pill intended to suppress menstruation. It is expected to receive approval from the FDA this year. But Seasonale has contraversial: is it wise to manipulate a woman's reproductive cycle with hormones for a long time? Proponents of Seasonale say it will be a godsend for millions of women, offering not merely convenience but a way to avoid cramps, migraines, bloating, crying jags, anxiety and other problems that affect them about every four weeks. The only difference between traditional birth control pills and Seasonale is that each packet contains 84 hormone pills instead of 21, followed by seven placebo pills, suppressing the reproductive process for three months instead of three weeks. Surveys indicate it could be popular, and has widespread appeal.     rw 005740
  • March 02, 2003   Women's E-News   Experts Question Wisdom of Micro-credit for Women.   Provide small loans as seed money to the poor, especially women, and they will find a way to work their way out of poverty. By 1997, this new-style banking system was being hailed as a miracle tool. Everywhere, the poor were raising chickens to sell eggs, opening small retail businesses, buying sewing machines. Loans were repaid on time at rates that would astonish bankers. From 13.5 million clients in 1997, the number of borrowers had jumped to 54.9 million, drawn from the poorest of the poor. But experts warn that the approach has limitations. Interest rates are at 20% or more as commercial banks get into the business. Loans may produce income, but there are other deprivations that condemn millions to a life of subsistence, among them a lack of education, low social status or discrimination. Lending to the poor had to be accompanied by training, information and access to land. More than 47 million borrowers are Asians, compared with 4.5 million Africans. In India, the Self Employed Women's Association was already doing similar work, but it had to negotiate services such as water supply or day care. The George Foundation gives women a quarter-acre of land to farm and pays them wages, withholding some money as savings that will allow them to buy the land within five years. Some women take loans from several sources at high rates, and have a hard time as they use new loans to pay off old debts. Younger Asian women are questioning how much control women actually have over the money they get. Once in the household, it is often handled by the men. Women generally take small-scale loans some of the bigger loans go to men. Are Micro Credit loans really empowering women?     rw 005737
  • March 01, 2003   National Wildlife Federation   Legislative Update From National Wildlife Federation.   While population has increased over 150 million since 2002, the amount allocated for for family planning and reproductive health has not changed. Click on the headline for the action alert. Or go to www.nwf.org/nwfWebAdmin/binaryVault/PWWReport.pdf for more information at the NWF web site 005736
  • March 01, 2003   Financial Times (London)   The Old World - Shrinking with Age: Population Decline Will Transform Europe.   The world's population will be higher in 2050, though growth is slowing. Growth will be in the less-developed countries, as the population of richer countries levels off or even falls. This will have far-reaching consequences for Europe. By 2050, the number of Africans will more than double to 1.8 billion, a fifth of humanity. Asians will be in the majority, having risen from 3.7 billion to 5.2 billion. The richer countries of Europe and North America will have hardly grown at 1.2 billion. Europe's population, will fall to 632 million in 2050, while the US will rise to 409 million. Countries such as Britain and France will continue to grow, and in countries in southern and eastern Europe numbers will fall. Italy is likely to lose a fifth of its population, Hungary a quarter and Estonia 52%. Europe's fall may be temporary, as people wait until later in life to start a family. On the forecast trends, the median age will have risen to 47.7 in Europe by 2050, while staying below 40 in the US. The ageing of the European countries will strain welfare as more than a third of their population will be over 60 and more than half over 50. Economic growth will fall behind that of the US where dependency ratios will be lower. European countries will also have to choose between decline and replenishing populations through immigration.     rw 005741
  • March , 2003   Independent (London)   Water Scarcity Could Affect Billions: is This the Biggest Crisis of All?   According to the World Water Development Report, published by the UN in advance of the World Water Forum to be held in Kyoto, Japan later this month, mankind’s most serious challenge in the coming century may be the lack of fresh water. Although water "is the commonest stuff on earth, only 2.53% of it is fresh", the remainder being salt. The world’s supply may decline drastically in the coming decades for a number of reasons. Two thirds of the world’s fresh water is found in glaciers and snow cover. The only available fresh water – in "lakes, rivers, aquifers ... and rainfall run-off" -- is under increasing demand from a number of factors. The main one is population growth. In the past half century, the ballooning of the human population to 6 billion "almost doubled" water consumption; and the world’s population is expected to increase by 50% more in the coming 50 years. Further, there is increasing demand for water for industrial use in developed countries and for agriculture in developing countries. Crop irrigation "in hot dry countries [requires] 70% of all the" world’s water use. Pollution from industrial, agricultural and human waste which is diluted into bodies of fresh water currently contaminates about 8 times its volume. Thus as the population increases in the next 50 years, the current 12,000 cubic kilometers of waste water will balloon to 18,000 – " almost 9 times the amount all countries currently use for irrigation". Global warming, UN scientists calculate, "will probably account for 1/5 of the increase in water scarcity". Further, cities tend to concentrate waste; and, with increasing urbanization of the world’s population, increasing amounts of fresh water will be needed to deal with waste. The primary effect of increasing water scarcity will be threefold. The health effects will be substantial. Contaminated water leads to an increase in water-borne illnesses producing diarrhea. In addition, vector-borne illnesses, including malaria and schistosomiasis, will spread. The dearth of fresh water caused by the damming of about 60% of the world’s largest rivers is threatening 24% of mammals and 12% of birds as well as fish species. Surprisingly, the study is somewhat more sanguine about the possibility of "water wars". Historical studies of conflicts over water scarcity over the past 50 years suggest that only a small percentage result in "water wars", most being settled cooperatively. To order a copy of this report, go to   st  st 005753
  • March 2003   Earth Policy Institute   World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based on Unsustainable Use of Water.   The World Water Forum begins in mid-March in Japan. Although the main interest of the 10,000 participants is water scarcity, they will indirectly be discussing food scarcity, since 70% of the world’s fresh water is used for irrigation. Water tables all over the world are falling, as "world water demand has tripled over the last" 50 years. When these aquifers are depleted, food production worldwide will fall. These aquifers are inexorably being depleted in ways that are "largely invisible, historically recent, and growing fast", and "the near-simultaneous depletion of aquifers means that cutbacks in grain harvests will ... [occur]... in many countries at more or less the same time". The aquifers of China, India and the US, which together produce one half of the world’s grain, are rapidly being depleted. The water tables of China, India, Pakistan, Mexico and Yemen are dropping by 1 to 3 meters per year, as are those of the US, especially in the southern Great Plains where "thousands of farms ... have gone dry". Since one ton of grain requires 1000 tons of water, this water deficit will cross international borders in the form of increasing grain prices worldwide. "Importing grain is the most efficient way to import water". Grain shortages are likely to occur soon in China, where the grain harvest is shrinking as a combined result of "aquifer depletion, the diversion of irrigation water to cities and lower grain support prices". This could "destabilize world grain markets." There are 4 potential solutions to the problem of increasing water deficits. Raising irrigation efficiency and recycling urban wastewater is being practiced with some success in some countries. More permanent solutions require raising water productivity and, most importantly, stabilizing the world’s population.  st 005754
  • March , 2003   Earth Policy Institute   Deserts Advancing, Civilization Retreating.   One third of the world’s land is threatened by desertification, a process which is affecting 1 billion people in 110 countries. "Millions of hectares of cropland and rangeland" become desert annually. "Human-induced desertification" is accelerating the natural expansion and contraction of deserts, because of the pressures of the rising world’s population, their cultivation of marginal land producing soil erosion and overgrazing by "some 3 billion cattle, sheep and goats." Africa is most severely affected; "almost half of its land area [is] at risk". In Nigeria, 350,000 hectares (hec) are lost to desert each year; in Kenya, "over 80% of the land is vulnerable". In both countries, exploding populations and inappropriate land use and management are at fault. But other parts of the world are also undergoing desertification. In the Sistan basin of Afghanistan and Iran, more than 100 villages have been abandoned because of windblown dust. In northern Afghanistan’s Amu Darya River, both drought and the loss of protective vegetation has led to the "formation of a sand dune belt ... 300 k long and 30 k wide". In Kazakhstan, overplowing of marginal land and soil erosion has led to the abandonment of 25 million hec of grainland. In China desertification is leading to economic losses of $6.5 billion and "threatens the livelihoods of millions". In NW China, "prolonged dry weather, overgrazing of pastures, and rampant harvesting of wild plants" are leading to the "merger" of the 5 million hec Bardanjilin and the 3 million hec Tengry Desert, the country's 3rd and 4th largest deserts. A similar situation is occurring in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where vegetation is being lost by excessive upstream dam building and water withdrawals for agriculture. In addition to its effects on China, desertification has led to massive dust storms beginning in China and Mongolia, produce massive air pollution in Japan and S. Korea and affect even the western US. According to the secretariat of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, if this process is not arrested and reversed, 1/3 of the arable land in Asia, 1/5 in S. America and 2/3 in Africa will be lost. This will "[reinforce] poverty and food insecurity ... and [add] to the ranks of environmental refugees". The prevention of desertification and the restoration of marginal lands requires a multipronged approach which depends on "local climatic and social conditions". Raising the incomes of the 1 billion impoverished people worldwide, reducing family size and increasing education will lower "pressure on the land and foster stewardship". Restoring vegetation to stabilize soils, practicing no-till or low-till farming to maintain soil organic matter and moisture, carefully managing livestock to protect the grasslands are all key to halting the progression of the deserts. The increasing use of alternative sources of energy will also diminish the reliance of 2 billion people on wood and crop residues for cooking. The loss of income from desertification is substantial and the "benefits from slowing [it] and rehabilitating degraded lands are at least 2.5 times higher than the costs of letting sands take over". For further details, see the original article and for the original data see .  st 006278
  • March , 2003   New Scientist   Rising Clouds Leave Forests High and Dry.   The baseline altitude of clouds is rising. This was first noted in 1999 in the Monteverde cloud forests of Costa Rica, which were observed to form higher up on the mountains than they used to. Although initially "attributed to rising sea temperature in the Caribbean, caused by global warming", it has been found to result from "drier air moving up from the lowlands", resulting from deforestation. Andrew Richardson of Yale University has recently observed a similar phenomenon in the northeastern states of the US, which could "severely disrupt" Appalachian Mountain forests. His conclusion, based on measurements of the cloud ceiling at airports located along the SW to NE axis of the Appalacian Mountains, show that the cloud ceiling has risen by 6 m per year since 1973, or 180 m over 30 years. The significance of this is that evergreens, spruce and fir trees in particular, will not scavenge water from the clouds, which normally drips down to the forest floor and supports "moisture-loving animals such as toads and salamanders". Over the longer term, the deciduous-coniferous boundary, including sugar maple and yellow birch, will move to higher latitudes. Although this effect is most likely due to deforestation and urbanization in the northeast US, it may ironically be amplified by cleaner air, with its lower level of particulates which act as condensation nuclei.     st 006279
  • March , 2003   New Scientist   Composting Toilets Key to Global Sanitation, Say Scientists.   Although the UN hopes to connect more than 1 billion people in developing countries to modern sanitation systems in the next decade, sanitation scientists at the World Water Forum in Kyoto believe that large water-based sewer systems "could be disastrous for [the people] and their environments". According to Bengt Johansson at the Swedish International Development Agency, conventional sewer systems are "expensive; they pollute rivers; they use a lot of water [that could be used} for drinking; and they deprive farm soils of sewage nutrients". Aid agency experts believe that a better sewage system is based on "ecological sanitation" or EcoSan. This system "involves composting sewage and is cheap, water efficient and non-polluting". The techniques are varied and include "toilets that store and compost sewage", community systems which recycle urine, feces and waste water separately, irrigating and fertilizing fields; and others that ferment sewage to biogas for cooking. However, water industrialists want large infrastructure projects and the investment that goes with them as well as the construction of large dams, projects which have been put on hold by a World Bank moratorium which was lifted in February of this year.   This is yet another instance in which the interests of the multinationals conflict with those of the environment and people  st 006280
  • March , 2003   EurekaAlert!   To Control Climate Change, Alternative Energy Technologies Must Be Developed.   Policy decisions about how aggressively to address the problem of global warming have been delayed because of uncertainty in how rapidly atmospheric warming will occur in response to a particular increase in the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). A study in the 28 March Science however suggests that halting global warming will require "huge reductions in fossil-fuel carbon emissions" by 2050. Researchers at Univ. of Illinois, Lawrence Livermore National Lab and New York University report that "even if climate sensitivity is in the low end of the accepted range" (i.e., even if large increases in atmospheric CO2 produce only small degrees of global warming), stabilizing the climate will necessitate a "massive transition to CO2 emission-free energy technologies" within the next 100 years. For details, see http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/299/5615/2052 (registration required)     st 006340
  • February 28, 2003   Public Broadcasting System   PBS 'American Experience' Film Explores History, Cultural Influence of Oral Contraceptives.   PBS aired a film, titled "The Pill," that chronicles the development of oral contraceptives. The film explores the work of Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick, scientist Gregory Pincus and gynecologist John Rock. It includes interviews with the first women who used the pill, and the impact on their lives. The program's Web site includes a synopsis of the film, a timeline of oral contraceptive history, an index of the people and events in the film, and a poll about whether health insurance should cover oral contraceptives.     kg 005725
  • February 28, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   Tanzanians Need Family Planning on Children.   Tanzanian Prime Minister urged Tanzanians to have family planning in order to offer good education to their children. He stressed that many children can not receive secondary education because their parents cannot support them. It is a burden to have many children today and it is estimated that in the countryside one family usually has six children.     rw 005726
  • February 28, 2003   IRIN News (UN)   Swaziland: Women at Forefront of Food Aid Distribution.   In Swaziland, where 300,000 people are dependant on food aid, World Food Programme (WFP) has initiated a programme to put women in charge of the response to the crisis, targeting families in need, distribution of food, and the management of resources. 179 Women Relief Committees, of 13 members each, were set up at food distribution points. Women did the cooking and were trained to identify people most in need of assistance. Food aid was calculated from this information based on 400 grams of maize, 25 of oil, and 60 grams of beans per person per day. The committee members distributed the food and cut back on wastefulness and corruption. The women were told that every qualified recipient is entitled to free food. Small children were not being taken to clinics where food supplements are available, and they are too young to participate in school feeding schemes. High-protein Corn Soya Blend is promoted because Swazis have preferred white maize and soya beans which is a good way to provide sustenance to malnourished children and people with AIDS. The womens committees may also disseminate information on AIDS - hearing about it from neighbours will make a difference. The programme will train 2,327 committee members who in turn each will train 50 women from their community. These management skills can be extended to business ventures and community projects.     rw 005731
  • February 28, 2003   The Advocate magazine (USA)   Congressmen Call on Bush to Abandon Mexico City policy.   Twenty members of Congress have sent a letter to Colin Powell calling on the administration to abandon the policy, which prevents U.S. funds from going to any international group linked with abortion. The lawmakers expressed their concern that the policy is harmful to international AIDS efforts because many agencies offer family planning services alongside sexually transmitted disease prevention and treatment. Such a policy will make authorization of a global AIDS bill a difficult proposition and will complicate the year 2004 Foreign Operations bill. The Administration has not responded to the letter from the members of Congress. The lawmakers who signed the letter include Rep Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Joe Hoeffel (D-Pa.), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Donald Payne (D-N.J.), Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Fortney Stark (D-Calif.), Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.), William Pascrell (D-N.J.), Howard Berman (D-Calif.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).     rw 005733
  • February 28, 2003   New York Times*   U.S. Seeking Cleaner Model of Coal Plant.   The Energy Department plans to build an experimental power plant that runs on coal but emits no carbon dioxide. The technology is essential if coal reserves are to be used without adding to greenhouse gases. Coal-fueled plants produce 40% of the 23 billion tons of carbon dioxide each year. Coal will be a principal fuel in the 21st century. The administration will proceed with or without partners, but is seeking assistance from 20 coal rich countries, including Australia and China. The technology would not change the status quo unless new emission standards force plant owners to buy new equipment. President Bush has called for voluntary measures to curb emissions unless research reveals clearer environmental risks. For the pilot power plant, governments would cover 80% of the cost, and industry the rest. Officials from power companies said that committing $200 million would be hard without a guarantee that Congress would allocate the government's share. The new design would extract hydrogen to generate electricity or to power fuel cells and pump carbon dioxide into the earth. There are major technical challenges but that they are surmountable. The prototype plant would generate 275 megawatts of electricity and be located near coal reserves where waste gases can be pumped into natural repositories.     rw 005734
  • February 27, 2003   Deutsche Presse-Agentur   Family Planning Survives Indonesian Crisis, Fundamentalism.   Indonesia's population increased to 215 million in 2002. In the mid-1970s the government set up the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) which helped lower the country's fertility rate to 2.3 in the year 2000. In 1997-98, the BKKBN budget was cut 60%. Fertility figures for 2000 were encouraging because of two factors. Contraceptives have become a necessity among the people and donor assistance. Donor assistance is drying up, because the private sector is doing an adequate job and because of concerns that the commodities are really going to the poor. Experts estimate that 70% of contraceptives, injections and pills are supplied by the private sector, at prices similar to subsidized commodities. The BKKBN has focused on the poorest population. Birth control is in the hearts of the women but after two decades the programme is now facing challenges. Vice President Hamzah Haz, has three wives and 15 children and publicly opined that education was more important than family planning. The country's first female head of state, has said little about family planning and steers clears of topics such as unwanted pregnancies and abortion. BKKBN is seeking a bigger budget for contraceptives. District chiefs don't realize the importance of family planning and when the districts take charge they will be inclined to spend more on infrastructure than on social services.     rw 005714
  • February 27, 2003   Atlanta Journal-Constitution   US Georgia: Schools Deluged by Residential Projects.   Atlanta Georgia reports a tidal wave of residential development that leaves no provision for neighborhood schools. When developments are planned, schools for some reason are left out and create a tough situation for the school system. The most recent example is the 1,250-home residential and commercial development in Holly Springs. School officials point to a rise in surrounding property values making it hard to buy land for a neighborhood school. The developer agreed to donate $920,000 but it's only enough to purchase portable units for the estimated 970 students. An elementary school costs $12 million. Holly Springs city manager said another elementary school would exacerbate the congestion. School officials plan to purchase 21 portable units. The current schools have been ruled out because of crowding. A septic field prevents any additional portables at one school. Students could attend schools miles away from their homes. Other developments include more than 400 new homes in Woodstock and a 1,200-home development in south Cherokee. Woodstock middle and high schools are over capacity and could become candidates for double sessions. This is a race with the growth. Once the economy improves, it will get worse.     rw 005720
  • February 27, 2003   Reuters   U.S. Immigration Ineffective at Deporting Illegals.   The Immigration and Naturalization Service is ineffective at deporting illegal aliens and fails to expel foreigners who may include terrorists. Only 13% of illegal aliens who have been ordered out of the country have actually left. The INS has removed almost 94% of illegal aliens who are being held in the agency's custody. As of June 2002, 355,000 illegal aliens not in INS custody but who had been ordered out of the country had failed to leave. The INS was ineffective at expelling high-risk groups of illegal aliens. Only 6% of illegal foreigners from countries identified as "sponsors of terrorism" who were not under arrest ever left. The INS expelled 3% of the illegal aliens whose applications for asylum had been denied. Several individuals convicted of terrorist acts in the United States requested asylum as a part of their efforts to stay in the country. The agency dedicates insufficient resources to removing illegal aliens, most of its effort is to remove criminal aliens.   Note: the inability of the INS to sort out terrorists from other immigrants sours the idea of immigration for most Americans and makes legal immigration extremely difficult.  rw 005721
  • February 27, 2003   San Jose Mercury News   U.S.: Groups Sue Forest Service Over Fees Plan for Livestock Grazing on Public Lands.   Eight environmental groups sued the Forest Service for not completing a plan to increase ranchers fees to graze livestock on public lands. They say that below-market fees have resulted in taxpayer losses and damaged landscapes. According to the Department of Agriculture, the price in the 16 western states to rent private land is $13.50 per cow per month. Western ranchers who rent federally owned land pay $1.35 a cow a month. In California, 20 million acres is owned by the Forest Service in the Sierra Nevada and grazing is allowed. Livestock grazing on public lands is claimed to be one of the major causes of species endangerment. Ranching groups called the suit misguided. A lot of them are under economic stress, and there are public benefits to having grazing on public lands, such as helping rural economies, controlling invasive weeds and patrolling remote public lands. Under the plan, developed during the Clinton administration, the Forest Service proposed tripling fees to at least $3.96 per cow per month. Forest Guardians said they and others are pushing Congress to set up a voluntary buyout program to remove cattle from environentally sensitive public lands.     rw 005722
  • February 27, 2003   Charlotte Observer   US North Carolina: Paper Plant Closes, Environment at Risk; State Enforces Order to Look After Waste Lagoon.   A papermill run by RFS Ecusta Inc., southwest of Asheville, stopped production following a labor dispute. The plant manager told officials he'd been ordered to shut down the mill. The state says that somebody has to tend the lagoon of wastewater and sludge. Pumps have to keep rainwater from flooding a landfill and pollutants from spreading into groundwater. There are drums of chemicals that must not be allowed to leak. An injunction orders Ecusta to keep electricity running and continue environmental monitoring. Mill employees have complied and prepared an inventory of chemicals, some hazardous. A lawyer for Ecusta said the company will obey the injunction until the mill is sold. Ancefin Ltd. bought the mill and has offered no assurance it will continue to operate the mill's environmental systems. The state has catalogued 1,836 contamination sites. Of those, 404 have been cleaned up and work is underway at 95 others. Owners cannot abandon contamination sources, they have to submit plans for disposing of contaminated sludge. The cost of cleanup of the Ecusta site is estimated at $70 to $200 million. Regulators fear one of the landfills could dump coal fly-ash into a French Broad tributary if pumps are turned off.     rw 005723
  • February 27, 2003   advertising trade magazine   U.S.: Television's Promotion of Sex and Its Denial of Contraception Ads.   In one part of the TV industry, frank advertising for contraceptives is unheard of -- the Fox network denied a contraceptive company advertising time during its sexual-adventure show Temptation Island. Fox's ad policy is that disease-prevention claims are acceptable but messages about unwanted pregnancy are not. In 1997, the FDA changed its policy and there has been a flood of ads for such products as Viagra, so why not open up the airwaves to contraceptives? The networks' claim it's a matter of taste and respect for community standards. There are no regulations prohibiting ads on TV for condoms, spermicides, or birth control pills. In recent years, ads have begun appearing for Ortho Tri-Cyclen, a birth control pill, which spent $13 million in advertising compared with the $20 million for Viagra. Ortho Tri-Cyclen has been approved as a treatment for acne, that makes its message more palatable to the networks. Condom ads are focused on disease prevention, not contraception. Nearly two-thirds of television programming had of sexual content last season. Why shouldn't networks let a little reality creep into contraceptive advertising? Sex sells--but so could birth control.     rw 005724
  • February 27, 2003   Agence France Presse   U.S.: Greenspan Says Population Aging to Affect Fiscal Position.   Alan Greenspan said that the aging of the population may hurt the US fiscal position but the US economy is suited to making adjustments. Greenspan said programs such as Social Security and Medicare will become unsustainable in the next decade, when the Baby Boomers retire. Measures that could limit the impact are an increase in immigration, acceleration in productivity, a rise in the age of eligibility for benefits or the use of general revenues to fund benefits. Though Greenspan acknowledged the daunting challenges, he said the changes projected are "not so severe" as those for Europe and Japan.   [Question: Will immigration solve the growing unemployment problem? What happens when the immigrants get old? What happens when we run out of clean water, oil, open spaces, and good farmland? Greenspan should consider switching from Kensian economics to green economics.]  rw 005727
  • February 27, 2003   Agence France Presse   Climate Change Boosting Flood, Disaster Peril for Billions.   By 2025, half the population will be living in areas that are at risk from weather extremes. The economic cost will be huge, especially for poor countries. Most countries aren't ready to deal with natural disasters. Rivers and aquifers are being hit by pollution, sewage disposal or excessive extraction. This worsens water quality, inflicts shortages and, even exacerbates the risk of war. Water supplies could be badly affected by climate change. The expected climatic change during the 21st century will intensify the hydrological cycle, with shorter rainy seasons in some regions and droughts in others. This could endanger species and crops and lead to drops in food production. Another result will be more frequent, brutal, storms and extreme weather. The economic cost is severe and will rise, hitting poorest nations the hardest. From 1971-1995, floods affected more than 1.5 billion people. There were six major flood disasters in the 1950s; seven in the 1960s; eight in 1970s; 18 in the 1980s; and 26 in the 1990s. Droughts are becoming more severe. 45% of deaths from natural disasters between 1992 and 2001 were from droughts and famines. Unprecedented droughts may signal widespread climate change.     rw 005728
  • February 26, 2003   New York Times*   U.N. Cuts Back Its World Population Projection.   Demographers of the UN have reduced their population prediction for 2050 from 9.3 billion estimated 2 years ago to 8.9 billion. This reduction is due to both declining fertility levels in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America and to the increasing death rate from AIDS. Nevertheless, the primary source of the population increase is still a steady rise in the population of the developing world from its current 4.9 billion to 7.7 billion by 2050, while the population of the developed nations will hold steady at 1.2 billion. Half of the projected population increase comes from just 8 countries: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, the US, China, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Congo. The populations of 33 countries, including Japan and Italy, will shrink by 14 and 22%, respectively. The decline in fertility will exaggerate the "rapid aging of the population in developing countries".     st 005658
  • February 26, 2003     Philippines: Foundation Gets P26 Million Grant for Family Planning Initiative.   ReachOut Foundation received a three-year grant of P26 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to assist the Philippine government in its family planning program. It will promote modern methods of contraception that are now being used by only 33% of women of reproductive age and 21% of married women who do not use them because they lack knowledge or fear side effects. The project is expected to increase the use of contraceptives by providing information. The multimedia package builds on a project begun in 1990. ReachOut will use radio public service announcements (PSAs) to men and women 18 to 45 years old. The United States Agency for International Development will lessen commodity support to the Philippine family planning program. Starting this year, there will be no more condom shipments and by September next year there will be no more supply of pills in government clinics. The DoH hopes people will buy their own contraceptives which ReachOut aims to promote through radio, TV and press releases. ReachOut will continue to tap national broadsheets, tabloids and radio and TV programs, other nongovernment organizations and donor agencies.     rw 005699
  • February 26, 2003   Guardian (London)   Scotland Launches Drive to Draw in Foreign Workers.   Scotland's population has fallen 2% since 1981 and a drive was launched to encourage foreign workers to move to Scotland. The first step will encourage foreigners seeking work permits to move to Scotland. Students from overseas who study in Scotland will be encouraged to stay when they graduate. Since 1981 young people under 15 fell 18%, people over 75 grew 29%. Scotland is one of the least racially mixed parts of Britain. Visas to Britain are expected to increase from 100,000 to 140,000 over the next few years, and a proportion of these new workers are wanted to set up home in Scotland. The Home Office is asked to look at ways of making it easier for the 13,000 foreign students who graduate each year from Scottish universities to stay. But there are refugee doctors, engineers, nurses who can't get jobs even when they have visas. Employers are put off because they don't have UK work experience, or because of the media coverage surrounding asylum seekers.     rw 005700
  • February 26, 2003   Washington Post   Remember Afghanistan; the U.S. is Still Far From Achieving a Lasting Humanitarian Victory.   A strict interpretation of Islamic law is being nurtured in the post-Taliban era. Attempts are being made to include the harshest and most discriminatory laws in the new judicial system. The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has reemerged. Abuses against women continue, with the support of police and courts. Women and girls have the opportunity to go to school, but attacks and threats keep many away. There is misguided activism by Afghanistan's chief justice, including the endorsement of amputations and corporal punishments and public death threats to non-Muslims. On-the-spot beatings by religious police organizations, blasphemy charges against reformers, torture and maltreatment of prisoners resulting in deaths, mistreatment of refugees and displaced persons, including forced repatriation. Religious freedom and human rights protections for Afghan women and girls must be guaranteed in any new constitution. The new constitution may lessen the human rights protections of the 1964 constitution. Several key cabinet posts have gone to members of extremist groups. Vigilance is needed under the Karzai government. It is recommended that the United States appoint an official with the responsibility to promote, and report on the implementation of international standards of human rights. This envoy would show that security and respect for human rights must go hand in hand. What we do in Afghanistan is a prelude to Iraq. We must not let the opportunity to advance religious tolerance and human rights slip through our grasp.     rw 005719
  • February 26, 2003   Pakistan Newswire   Pakistan: Population a Hurricane for Country.   The growth rate of population of Pakistan will "burst and no doubt set a real rot". In 1974 there were barely 32 million, but the country now has 155 million. The increase is said to be the consequence of the government's emphasis on other problems. In General Ayub era, family planning department made relentless efforts but rural areas under the influence of illiterate cleric opposed it. UNFPA projected in 1994 that Pakistan is heading towards 282.4 million with the growth rate of 3.9% by 2020. UNFPA is providing a grant of US$ 35 million to Pakistan for population development and welfare, out of which the Punjab would receive a grant of US $ 17. The goals for the covering 2004-2008 will be focused on improving health of mothers through better quality services, child spacing information education and social awakening about birth control. Critics revealed that the population program also needed the services of strong leader.     rw 005729
  • February 25, 2003   UNICEF   UNICEF Calls for Global Campaign Against Female Circumcision.   UNICEF has urged all countries to end female circumcision by 2010. Female genital mutilation constitutes violation of human rights, said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. An estimated two million girls are at risk. This practice is a violation of every child's rights and has serious consequences for a girl's health. In Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and North America, between 100 and 130 million women have suffered. Governments need to openly demonstrate commitment to ending female genital mutilation.   [Note: Not only does female circumcision detract from a girl's or woman's sense of self worth, but it often obstructs birth]  rw 005690
  • February 25, 2003   BBC News   US and China Join Fusion Project.   EU, US, China, Russia, Canada, Japan, China and the US are officially joining to develop fusion power. The International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor, (ITER) will be built at a cost of $5 billion. The US had withdrawn from ITER but the US and China have agreed to develop fusion energy. ITER provides a cost-effective way to fusion research with the collaborating parties sharing in the cost. In a fusion reaction, energy is produced when light atoms are fused to form heavier atoms. It is necessary to heat a gas to over 100 million C when the gas becomes a plasma which fuses releasing energy. A commercial power station will use the heat to generate electricity. The fuels are isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium from water and tritium from lithium. One kilogram would produce the same energy as 10,000,000 kg of fossil fuel. The goal of ITER is to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds during each fusion experiment and demonstrate technologies for a commercial reactor. ITER officials will decide where the reactor will be based within the next few years and weill meet in Vienna in May.   [Comment: While fusion is theoretically possible, it is a very long way from being practical and there must be some doubt as to whether it will ever be the "great savior' of the energy industry. I cannot but feel that the setting up of this research is a clear indication that the respective governments are searching desperately for alternative power sources.]  rw 005695
  • February 25, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   UNIFEM Unveils New Web-site.   United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), in collaboration with the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), have unveiled a new web-site as part of its commitment to reversing the AIDS pandemic. Gender equality is at the core of the fight against HIV/AIDS, one of the most powerful HIV vaccines is women's empowerment. Women provide care for families and children, but are last in line to receive care and information for themselves. The on-line center was designed to improve the support for the millions of women living with HIV and affected by the infection. It is interactive and offers research, training materials, surveys, advocacy tools, current news and opinion pieces by leading experts.     rw 005698
  • February 25, 2003   Associated Press   U.S.: Ashcroft: Help Needed to Stop Sex Traffic.   Investigations in 46 states and U.S. territory resulted in the prosecution of 76 alleged sex traffickers in the last two years - three times as many as in the previous two years. Many originated in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and nations in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The State Department estimates that 4 million women and children are sold into the sex trade or forced labor. 50,000 are brought into the United States and held against their will in brothels, sweatshops and private homes. This brings the hard criminals $7 billion a year and will outstrip the illicit trade of guns and narcotics within a decade. It feeds other criminal activities like document fraud, money laundering and migrant smuggling. Countries identified as having failed to make a significant effort to halt the practice could be penalized. Most traffickers exploit their victims fear of being discovered as illegal immigrants and deported. But many are eligible to receive special visa status and the Immigration and Naturalization Service has helped hundreds of victims process special visa applications that allow them to receive benefits similar to those given refugees.     rw 005701
  • February 24, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   Nepal Tries to Bring Down Growing Population.   The Nepali government is introducing a population management program in a bid to bring down the country's fast-growing population. The program aims to encourage the Nepalese people to plan a small family and mobilize manpower needed for population control initiatives. The country will see a drastic decline in population after this program is carried out at the local levels. Initially the program will be implemented in five of Nepal's districts, and then in the remaining 70 districts. Training will be provided to the district administrators and secretaries of the village development committees. A two-week training for the officials will focus on the current population situation, reproductive health, women empowerment and gender equality. Nepal's current population is 23 million and is growing by 2.24% annually.     rw 005685
  • February 24, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   Chinese TV Series to Promote Sex Education.   China has its first TV series on sex education for young people, starring high school students. It has aroused attention among the self-conscious Chinese. In traditional Chinese culture, "sex" is a word few would discuss openly. Most Chinese children enter puberty between 12 and 13 years, but lack information on sex, due to evasive replies to their questions. Teachers and parents should enlighten them properly to safeguard their health. Juvenile pregnancies, drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases have risen in recent years. The series will provoke society to watch out for children's sexual health, provide them with guidance and teach them how to care for themselves. Middle schools in major Chinese cities have included sex education courses into their curriculum. The country's first set of sex education textbooks was published in the northeastern city of Harbin.     rw 005686
  • February 24, 2003   Salt Lake Tribune   Power Diesel Engines on America's Highways.   Circle Four Farms intends to build a $20 million facility to convert swine manure into biodiesel fuel. This can solve half its waste disposal problems, create more jobs, clean the air and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Circle Four's hog farms produce 500,000 pounds of solid hog feces daily. It is channeled into plastic-lined lagoons where it decomposes in an anaerobic process. But Circle Four has been fined $45,000 for waste problems and the lagoons emit nitrogen and ammonia. The company will operate a mixed mesophilic digester system at Circle Four that will pipe hog wastes to a series of digesters, that will convert it into methanol. The methanol will be mixed with waste oils, such as cooking oils, to produce biodiesel, which can be burned in conventional diesel engines. The plant would produce 7,500 gallons of methanol each day, with an energy equivalent of 6,600 gallons of gasoline. Biodiesel emits 50% less carbon monoxide, 30% less particulate matter and up to 80% fewer hydrocarbons. The company pledged $65 million over the next 20 years to implement "environmentally superior technologies" to improve waste-treatment at its hog operations.     rw 005689
  • February 23, 2003   Washington Post   Spinning AIDS.   The White House plans to extend the "Mexico City policy", meaning clinics that receive U.S. money to combat AIDS could not discuss abortion as part of family planning. If the administration follows this plan, AIDS treatment and prevention would be hampered. In many places AIDS treatment and family planning happen in one clinic. People feel less stigma about going to a general health clinic than a stand-alone HIV/AIDS clinic. Abortion is sometimes a choice of last resort, a pregnant woman comes into a clinic weak with AIDS. Her choices are bleak: her other children orphaned, or an abortion. In a negotiation with Asian regions officials tried to delete a mention of condom use and substitute abstinence-only. In the context of AIDS it is myopic and dangerous. White House officials said they might give money to integrated clinics and ask them to refer their AIDS patients elsewhere for family planning, unfortunately there is often no elsewhere, but at least it would give clinics some flexibility. The president's budget offers a tentative start, pledging only $ 500 million in the first year of Mr. Bush's promised $ 10 billion. With his latest proposal he risks letting political considerations blur the focus on the emergency work which is helping people with AIDS."     rw 005678
  • February 23, 2003   Sunday Telegraph (London)   U.K.: Safe-Sex Policy 'Spreads Disease Among Young'.   The British Government's policy on sex education has been blamed for a rise in sexually transmitted diseases that threatens to cause increasing infertility and cancer. Critics claim the Government's concentration on "safe-sex" rather than "no-sex" - designed to cut teenage pregnancy rates - has deprived millions of people of the information to protect their health. There are more teenage pregnancies, many ending in abortion, and more sexually transmitted disease. Some infections are incurable, others can lead to infertility and there is a proven link between early sex and cervical cancer. The number of people suffering from STDs has risen sharply since 1995. One in 10 women under the age of 25 is now infected with chlamydia. More than 22,500 people contracted gonorrhoea and rates of syphilis have increased. The report is expected to blame the increase in STDs among women on female drinking and one-night stands.     rw 005683
  • February 23, 2003   The Press Trust of India   Women's Health Remains Dismal in India.   Maternal health, safe motherhood, spacing children and safe abortion are all issues involved in the empowerment of women - a big factor in achieving population stability in developing countries. Women's health remains dismal in India while the worst scenario is in the sub-Saharan Africa. There is a lot to be done to improve the status of women especially in rural India which has a maternal mortality rate 100 times more than developed countries. Unfortunately, in South asian countries, policies are implemented by government authorities, and obstetricians and gynaecologists are only consulted on a few issues. The best results have been achieved in countries where policies are guided by professionals for example in the Philippines.     rw 005687
  • February 22, 2003   Washington Post   Russians Feel Abortion's Complications; Used as Birth Control in Soviet Times, Practice Has Led to Widespread Infertility.   The Soviet health system for decades has viewed abortion as the main form of birth control and it is one of the primary causes of infertility. 13% percent of Russian married couples are infertile, and infertility is on the rise. In three out of four cases, it is attributed to complications from abortions which have been declining for 15 years because of the availability of contraceptives. For every live birth there are 1.7 abortions, compared with three births for every abortion in the U.S. Russia will drop from 143 million people to 104 million by 2050. The number of women who use contraceptives has doubled since 1988. The government offers no funds for contraceptives and leaves sex education up to individual schools. State-funded clinics provide free first-trimester abortions and second-trimester abortions for medical or social reasons. The rate of abortions in Russia dived by 45% from 1992 to 2001. The number of women who died from them also dropped by one-half in the 1990s.     rw 005676
  • February 21, 2003   Contra Costa Times   California Teen Birth Rate Reaches Lowest Recorded Level.   Teenage girls in California are less likely to be mothers and their birth rates now rank below the national average, having fallen consistently and touching girls of every race. By 2001, the state's teen birth rate had reached its lowest level around 45 births per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 down from a 1991 high of 73 births. Researchers warn that gains may be lost as poverty rates increase and budget deficit threatens programs. Teen birth rates were highest in the Central Valley and Inland Empire east of Los Angeles and lowest in the San Francisco Bay area and counties of the Sierras. While publicly funded programs have helped, other factors may be at play, including a decline in teen sexual activity, increased use of contraceptives and welfare reform. The 1991 peak may have been inflated because the government granted legal residence to several million Mexican workers, who then invited their wives or girlfriends who may have been teens to join them. Teen prevention programs accounted for more than $400 million last year.     rw 005666
  • February 21, 2003   Asia Pulse   Vietnam to Put US$29.7 Million for Family Planning Project.   Viet Nam will pour VND445 billion (US$29.7 million) into population and family planning work in 2003 to reduce the birth rate by 0.4 per thousand and the child malnutrition rate to below 27% this year. It also targets to reduce abortion by 5%, to provide care to 80% of orphans, to cut the number of children living on the street by 10%, child sexual abuse by 20%, and child drug addiction by 10%. It will give priorities to isolated areas. Last year, 1.21 million babies were born, an increase of 1% over 2001, 2.91% weighed less than 2.5 kg and 11% had their mothers under 22. Over the past decade, the country completed primary universalisation and illiteracy reduction, cut the population growth rate to 1.36%, and death rate among children under five to 42 per thousand. Ninety-three% of children from one to six were immunised, 70% of cleft palate children received surgery and all mountainous districts had boarding schools. The child malnutrition rate decreased to 33.1% in 2000 from 51.5 per cent in 1990.     rw 005667
  • February 21, 2003   BBC News   Synthetic Trees Could Purify Air.   Synthetic trees could purify air but they look like goal posts with Venetian blinds. They would draw carbon dioxide out of the air, retain the carbon and release oxygen. One synthetic tree could remove 90,000 tonnes of CO2 in a year, a thousand times better than a living tree. For now, it is still a paper idea. Carbon sequestration technology must be part of the long-term solution as global reliance on fossil fuels will not decrease any time soon. The technology calls for seizing and storing CO2. A synthetic tree would have an absorbent coating on its slats that would seize carbon dioxide and retain the carbon. The biggest expense would be in recycling the absorber material. A synthetic tree could be planted anywhere, on the lawn to balance out the CO2 emitted by one person or family. A device the size of a barn would sit near repositories for transportation and storage of carbon. 250,000 synthetic trees worldwide would soak up the 22 billion tonnes of CO2 produced annually. Some feel this will not hold together on this scale, as you would expend more energy in capturing the CO2 than you would save and more research was needed.     rw 005673
  • February 21, 2003   Washington Post   Russian Women's Health and Abortion.   Russian experts say the abortion legacy has created a problem because the resulting infertility contributes to a low birth rate. For every live birth there are 1.7 abortions, compared with more than three births for every abortion in the United States. The government must take better care by promoting contraceptives instead of abortions and fighting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases which are the second-leading cause of infertility. Abortion-related infertility is one piece of a health care crisis. Russia's health care system is in a state of collapse.     rw 005742
  • February 20, 2003   Christian Science Monitor   How to Feed the World.   A greater share of people eat better although hunger persists. Now we face a 50% increase in population before it levels off at 9 billion in 2050. In the 1700s, Europe fed its population by expanding agriculture, especially in the colonies. Now under cultivation is a third of the land surface, further expansion looks environmentally suspect. Organic agriculture can't produce enough food and biotechnology is running into skepticism. Some observers forecast that the world could conquer malnutrition this century. The problem lies with the fertilizers and pesticides that foul drinking water, increase insects' resistance. Nearly 4 million acres lost each year due to salinization and more than 40% of agricultural land has degraded soils. Irrigation takes 70% of the fresh water and will lead to competition between farmers and urban dwellers. Between 1950 and 1960, US grain yields increased 45%, by 1990 only 10%. Organic farming has quadrupled since 1992, but is a tiny share. Organic agriculture can't feed today's world, much less the nearly 3 billion extra people expected by 2050. If the US, wanted to go totally organic, it would have to increase its cattle herd ninefold to create enough manure. We wouldn't have space for crops or National Parks. Biotechnology, which has run into opposition and the European Union moratoriums on biotech crops could determine how quickly the technology spreads. Last year, biotech acreage rose 12%. Will agriculture move to make biology the first line of action? Consider the South's fight against cotton pests. In the late 1980s, Southeastern states began using new technology and old-fashioned chemicals that proved controversial but the weevil's disappearance has allowed farmers to cut back on other pesticides.     rw 005660
  • February 20, 2003   New York Times*   Better Child Health Is Seen as Environment Ills Decline.   Children's health has improved where the government has taken aim at environmental hazards but there is a need to study the link between mercury, which is tied to I.Q. deficits, motor skill dysfunction, and is suspected in attention deficit disorder and autism. Data indicates an increasing amount of mercury in food and water, but it is too early to draw links between the types of diseases. 3.8 million children had asthma in the past 12 months, and the costs are an estimated $14 billion a year. Outdoor air quality has improved, leading to examining indoor air quality and the effects of immunization. A decline is seen in children's exposure to second-hand smoke, which is known to cause upper respiratory disorders, asthma and middle ear infections. The level of blood lead poisoning in children has dropped in the last 30 years. 300,000 to 400,000 children ages have lead in their blood, compared with 890,000 in the last study. Cancer is diagnosed in 12,500 children and 2,300 children and teenagers die from cancer.     rw 005661
  • February 20, 2003   Associated Press   US Pennsylvania: Snow Salt, Debris Could Harm Rivers.   Snow salt, debris could harm rivers. Stone flies just beginning to emerge in Pennsylvania’s rivers could be threatened by the salts used to melt snow along the state’s roadways. These organisms are part of the food chain in the streams. They break down leaves, provide organic matter, and part of the food chain for a lot of our game fish. With little space to pile snow, Philadelphia decided to dump it into the rivers as a last resort.     rw 005662
  • February 20, 2003   Globe and Mail   China's Water Diversion Raises Eco-activist Alarm - Huge Network of Canals Would Sweep Pollution Across Country, Critics Warn.   Environmentalists are preparing to fight China's megaproject: a network of dams and canals that will dwarf the Three Gorges, be twice as expensive and would be the biggest hydraulic engineering project in history. China argues that the diversion is essential to relieve the water shortages in northern cities such as Beijing. 320,000 people will have to be relocated and activists warn of environmental risks as polluted water from the industrial heartland is swept northward. China has been planning the project for more than half a century. It will take water from southern sources, including the polluted Yangtze River, and divert it northward to 39 cities and 245 towns. The eastern and central routes are under construction and the first stages could be finished by 2007 and 2010. Environmental groups are planning to target banks or lending agencies that finance the scheme. Chinese leaders favour massive new projects, rather than cheaper and more effective water conservation. China argues that the project will benefit the environment, since water shortages in the north have led to overexploitation of groundwater, surface water, wetlands degradation, dry-out of lower reaches of the Yellow River, and serious pollution. By easing the water shortages, the diversion project will lessen the pressure on the environment.     rw 005663
  • February 20, 2003   United News of Bangladesh   Millennium Goal.   Millennium Development Goals are aimed at combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. Representatives from Bangladesh, North Korea, Iran, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Timor Leste, Cambodia and Vietnam are to prepare strategies for meeting the Goals in their countries. Halving the number of people living in poverty will never be achieved unless nations are committed to freeing the human race from hunger, want and inequity. More than 1.2 billion people are living on less than US$ 1 per day, and many are living in Asia. Progress has slowed in Asia since the targets were set. Providing universal primary education remains a challenge, while the fight against HIV has lost ground. Child mortality has been reduced and school enrollment for girls has increased.     rw 005668
  • February 20, 2003   US Newswire   HHS Urged to Use Science, Not Sectarian Beliefs, to Shape Policy.   Preserving Core Values in Science is a guide for government decision-making in public health, endorsed by over a hundred organizations representing more than 120,000 leading health professionals. It expresses concern over decision-making based on ideology, not science. Agencies like the FDA and CDC should have advisors with the best qualifications, free from the burden of political censorship. Appointments to scientific panels now seem to be driven more by sectarian beliefs than excellence. It cites examples in which public policy development based on scientific and medical evidence have been ignored, and reflects a widespread concern that this Administration is undermining fundamental scientific principles. It asks the administration to use evidence-based, peer-reviewed science, not sectarian ideology, as the basis for decision-making in science and public health.     rw 005669
  • February 20, 2003   New York Times*   US New York: Highlands Area Needs More Protection.   The York-New Jersey Highlands is worthy of protection from overdevelopment, but less than half is protected. Its population increased by 11% from 1990 to 2000, and 100,000 acres face development. The government has not said how much should be taken out of private hands for preservation, and who should pay for it. The Highlands Coalition proposed saving 180,000 acres in New York and New Jersey at a cost of $750 million. At the same time, Congress provided only $7 million to save 25,000 acres. Several Congressional representatives made it a requirement in budget appropriations that the secretaries of agriculture and the interior come up with recommendations about how to preserve the highlands. Those recommendations may be made public soon. There is an awareness of too much development, and there is now more talk in many quarters, about how to save the Highlands.     rw 005670
  • February 19, 2003   BBC News   Ghana Gold Workers 'Paid in Condoms'.   Ashanti Goldfields in Ghana says it has reduced Aids infection rates among workers by 75%, by giving condoms in pay packets. The number of infections fell from 271 in 1998 to 62 last year. The scheme was chosen as an effective way of getting the message across to all staff who are periodically given a condom in their pay packets. Some staff had asked for more but it would be too expensive to hand out condoms on demand to all 7,000 employees. Female staff get female condoms. Miners often live away from their families and at risk of contracting HIV. In South Africa, where HIV rates are higher, some mining companies have started distributing anti-retroviral drugs to their HIV-positive employees.     rw 005581
  • February 19, 2003   New York Times*   If Trees Are Family, an Oil Pipeline Is Ungodly.   A new oil pipeline will run just north of Mongolia, into China. Oil companies and government officials say it will bring money and forge a new trading tie. But bulldozers will tear up the land, trees will be cut down and sacred places risk being violated. Ms. Prushenova, a teacher in the local school is incensed as the pipeline will run through the Tunkinsky National Park. The ministry of natural resources in Moscow confirmed that the territory cannot be used for the pipeline. But the oil company argues that this penalized the dwellers of the valley, who were banned from cutting wood for their stoves. A pipeline, they argue, will generate jobs. Ms. Vecher, a physics teacher turned activist does not believe the promise of jobs. Moreover, fees to be paid for damages during construction have been obliterated by inflation. Friends of the oil company published an article asserting that the environmentalists plotted to thwart Russian economic interests on behalf of America. Ms. Prushenova has a more immediate concern: firewood, costly on her tiny budget, is the only source of heat. The oil company argues that taxes will breathe life into the region. Ecological degradation began years ago, when the national park could no longer fend off illegal timber cutters. The Yukos pipeline, would bring cash, and might lead to gas supplies in the region, now heated with wood. The forest is being chopped down, and wood poachers are a greater danger than the pipeline. In midnight thefts, men cut down large swaths of forest to sell to China.     kg 005583
  • February 19, 2003   Manteca Bulletin   US California: Sierra Club Leader Keeps Wary Eye on Manteca.   Manteca's urbanization isn't escaping the attention of the Sierra Club. Sprawl has been the biggest concern - low-density unplanned growth that spreads into agricultural and wildlife lands. Eric Parfrey of the Sierra Club's Motherlode chapte lamented the paving over of prime agricultural land and said that it watered down to developer's campaign contribution money corrupting or at least paralyzing elected officials. In neighboring Tracy, he said, the sprawl is an abomination and highway 205 is becoming a bottleneck. Air quality will soon put it out of the running for federal funding, which will push back widening ten years. It is bad management by the city but affects all in the Valley especially Manteca which has a responsibility to lead change, but is not taking up that mantle. It is suggested that fees are charged developers to upgrade the freeways, or use the money to set aside land for greenbelts to act as barriers between cities. The north of Stockton and the south of Lodi are indistinguishable and that isn't what Manteca wants. Manteca and Lathrop should work together and create one wastewater plant between them. It would save money, the environment, and protect the quality of life. Manteca's 3.9% growth cap is a start. When growth overcomes services there begins a deterioration in the quality of life. Manteca can be a positive force for the county's future.     rw 005585
  • February 18, 2003   Agence France Presse   Starvation Lingers in Impoverished North Korea.   An estimated one-eighth of North Korea's population has died from famine since the 1990's, and the problem lingers with the government's response 'woefully inadequate'. Foreign aid has dwindled. Mothers and children are hit hardest, said Siri Tellier, of the United Nations Population Fund. Access to foreign visitors is highly restricted, so death toll estimates range anywhere 500,000 to three million. North Koreans grew up with socialist economics, but are now turning to the marketplace to swap commodities for food, and people are also traveling relatively freely from one place to the other in search of means to survive. Others go fishing, even when they are supposed to be working. North Koreans will see a shortage of 1.43 million tonnes of grain this year, say South Korean estimates. Daily rice rations were 700 grams (24.5 ounces) before the famine and have never returned to that level. In the early 1990s, North Koreans were urged to "eat only two meals a day". Only 14% of the land area is arable. Various leaders have called for inappropriate crops to be grown to save the country. North Korea has never been a food-self-sufficient country. 005569
  • February 17, 2003   New York Times*   Helping Poor Countries.   President Bush is proposing to increase and overhaul foreign aid spending. America ranks last among wealthy countries in foreign aid, less than 1% of the budget, and most of it goes to support strategically important friends - mainly Israel, Egypt, Colombia and Jordan. The new program is designed to provide aid to countries well-governed enough to use it correctly and to induce others to institute reforms. The new program must not become a substitute for helping the miserable. After the first two years, nations with incomes of nearly $3,000 per capita qualify, allies like Russia and Egypt - rather than Bangladesh and Mali would take most of the money. High percentages of national budgets must be spent on education and health, basic vaccinations. Deficits and inflation must be kept under control, and a short startup time for new businesses. The President is proposing only a $550 million increase over the AIDS money in this year's spending bill. His 2004 budget for the Global Fund, $200 million, actually cuts in half what Congress is likely to do in 2003. Mr. Bush has also cut nearly $500 million from child health. With the budget dominated by defense spending and tax cuts, the White House should not be forcing the babies of Africa to pay for their parents' AIDS drugs.     rw 005563
  • February 16, 2003   The Boston Globe;   US Massachusetts: On the Road to Cleaner Air: School Vehicles Retrofitted to Reduce Diesel Emissions.   Boston public school buses are having their mufflers replaced with new filtration systems that eliminate up to 90% of diesel emissions, in response to a February 2002 study that looked at children's exposure to diesel exhaust from school buses. The EPA has launched a push for the use of pollution control and low-sulfur diesel fuel and has dedicated $1.4 million won in an April settlement with Waste Management of Massachusetts. 100 Boston school buses are being outfitted with particulate filters. 200 buses at the Readville yard are running on ultra-low sulfur fuel. Together this will eliminate 540 pounds of diesel particulate matter, 2,480 pounds of hydrocarbons, and 17,380 tons of carbon monoxide in Boston each year. The work is being targeted to the most polluted areas of Boston. Nationally, 600,000 school buses carry 24 million children to school daily. Children annually spend 3 billion hours on school buses, but the majority run on diesel fuel. Diesel exhaust contains 40 pollutants, including particles of carbon toxic gases. People with existing heart or lung disease, asthma, or other respiratory problems are most sensitive, but children are susceptible because they breathe 50% more air per pound of body weight than adults. Each retrofitting costs $9,000 and takes two days.     rw 005567
  • February 15, 2003   New York Times*   Bush Eases Ban on AIDS Money to Pro-Abortion Groups Abroad.   President Bush has proposed $15 billion over 5 years to fight AIDS in 12 African countries and the Caribbean countries of Haiti and Guyana. Organizations which integrated health clinics that included both AIDS treatment and abortion or abortion counseling would be ineligible for funding, but organizations in which the AIDS treatment program and the family planning activities were conducted and financed completely separately would be eligible. This is considered a step back from the Mexico City policy of barring foreign aid to groups that offer abortion services and counseling along with other family planning services. The so-called Mexico City policy was first imposed by President Ronald Reagan but later suspended by the Clinton administration, and then reinstated by the junior Bush as one of his first acts as President. Bush offered the compromise to insure the wide distribution of the AIDS money. Some groups that work on health and family planning issues said the policy may be too restrictive because it would mean they must choose between providing a full range of health services, including family planning, and taking the AIDS treatment money from the United States. 005570
  • February 14, 2003   SIECUS   Calling ALL Young People! Write for the Siecus Report.   SIECUS is looking for young writers for a new report "Young People Talk about Sex." Topics are: Sexuality Education, HIV/AIDS. Applicants should be between 15 and 20 years old. Write and article between 1,000 to 1,500 words andsubmit it with the entry form by February 14, 2003. 005212
  • February 14, 2003   The Boston Globe;   What About the Death Toll?.   Beth Osborne Daponte, an analyst for the U.S. Census Bureau, was nearly fired for her estimates on the Iraqi civilian death toll in the first Gulf War. Strong support from civil libertarians and statisticians helped her keep her job. Daponte said, "People were sold on the idea of clean war," but her figures showed how dirty the first war really was. She estimated that a total of 158,000 Iraqis were killed, including 40,000 soldiers in battle, 40,000 women and 32,000 children.. She estimated that 70,000 Iraqis died after the war through easily preventable diseases that were suddenly made lingering and lethal by the bombing of water and power supplies, sewage systems, and roads. In a second report published a year later in the publication of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, Daponte estimated the final death toll to be 205,500, including 56,000 deaths to soldiers and 3,500 to civilians. 35,000 died in internal postwar fighting. After the destruction of the nation's infrastructure, 111,000 died, including 16,500 women, 70,000 children, and 8,500 senior citizens. This would mean that far more Iraqi children died than Iraqi soldiers. Daponte, now a teacher of population and policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh said that those deaths occurred in what was a war meant only to force Iraq out of Kuwait. Now the junior Bush threatens to strike deep into the heart of Iraq. The White House should make its own projections of the "damage to Iraq so Americans can make their own calculations of whether we have done everything to avoid war discussion of whether this war is the best thing we can do," Daponte said. "If our goal is to eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, I haven't seen any detailed plans on how we do that without destroying the infrastructure for the people of Iraq." 005491
  • February 14, 2003   BBC News   Coal Fires are 'Global Catastrophe'.   Hundreds of coal fires are pumping pollutants into the atmosphere. They are most severe in China, India, and Indonesia, although smaller fires are burning in Colorado and Pennsylvania. Sunlight and oxygen can cause spontaneous combustion but they are frequently caused by humans. The burning coal may be in abandoned mines or waste piles, or coal seams ignited by heat from above-ground fires set to clear the landscape. In Indonesia, forest fires that began during 1982 started fires in outcrops of coal that still burn today and threaten national parks as well as a nature reserve used as a reintroduction site for the endangered orangutan. In 1997-98, of the resulting coal fires that started from a forest fire in Borneo, 159 are still burning and 106 have been extinguished. Goodson and Associates Inc has produced a mixture of sand, cement, fly ash, water, and foam that can be pumped around burning material to cut off the oxygen sources. Satellites are used to try to gauge the scale of the problem and are helping China detect and monitor the fires in the northern regions. Curbing coal fires could be a way of reducing CO2 emissions. Estimates suggest the Chinese fires account for 2-3% of the annual emissions of CO2 from fossil fuels.     rw 005494
  • February 12, 2003   Xinhua General News Service   Unsafe Birth Claims One Woman Every Two Hours in Nepal.   Birth complications in Nepal have resulted in the highest maternal mortality in the world - 539 per 100,000 births, or 4,000 per year. Arju Rana Deuba of the Safe Motherhood Network said, "More than 80% of the women die before reaching hospital due to ignorance about birth preparedness and complication readiness prior to delivery." 20% die after they are taken to hospital. In rural areas most women are uneducated and unaware about safe motherhood.   Half of the population of Nepal lives in the roadless mountains. Access to obstetric services is very limited. 005476
  • February 12, 2003   Chicago Tribune   Planned Parenthood Reaching Out to Men.   Planned Parenthood is making an effort to expand their patient care to men. Six clinics in the San Antonio area have provided a range of sexual and other health-care services for men including cancer screening, testing for diseases and family-planning. One reason was the number of women they served with recurrent sexually transmitted diseases. "We found ourselves treating only half the problem. It was a no-brainer to try and do more," said Jeffrey Hons, president of Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas. Photos of both a woman and a man appeared in ads. 979 men were seen in the various clinics in 2001, accounting for about 3.7% of all clients, and a 25% increase from 1999 to 2000. While it makes sense to offer care to both women and men, Title X, the Federal Family Planning Program, requires organizations that receive federal funding to offer services to men and women. Clinics are not abandoning their message of family planning and sexual health. Planned Parenthood had long counseled the less than 9% of its clients who are 16 and younger that it is safest and healthiest to postpone sex. But with most clients ranging in age from 18 to 34, preaching abstinence-only would be "medically inappropriate."     rw 005481
  • February 12, 2003   The Independent (London)   How Catastrophe Threatens the 12 Million Children of Iraq.   With the threat by the U.S. of massive force against Iraq in the coming months, Iraq's 12 million children will be "at grave risk of starvation, disease, death and psychological trauma" Children are already suffering "significant psychological harm" from the threat of war, according to a survey by psychologists of 100 Iraqi families where they found the overwhelming message to be one of fear and the thought of being killed. 16 million of Iraq's 22 million civilian population - half of them children - depend on rations distributed by the Baghdad regime. Bombing of bridges over the Euphrates and Tigris rivers would stop food distribution and as war starts, the World Food Programme - which plans to feed 1 million Iraqis - would have to pull its staff out of the country. 12 years of sanctions means that there are no stockpiles of food and that children are already malnourished. They would be pushed into starvation when war interrupts supplies. Bombing of power stations would disable the country's main water treatment plants causing the rivers to become contaminated with sewage and an already vulnerable population subject to deadly diseases such as E-coli and typhoid. Iraq's health care system was described as "first class" by the World Health Organisation before 1990, but the ensuing Gulf War and sanctions crippled the healthcare system and thus in a decade doubled death rates of children under five - 70% of the deaths caused by easily avoidable bowel diseases and respiratory infections. 005482
  • February 12, 2003   New York Times   U.S.: Threats to the Forest.   A Senate-House conference has approved a bill loaded with anti-environmental riders and the House should remand it to the committee for repairs. The worst of the amendments would open Alaska's forests for logging and one would exempt 14 million acres from protection that prohibits commercial development in roadless and unlogged areas. A second would rescind a protective plan approved in 1999. A third would shield from public appeals and judicial review an unfavorable decision regarding wilderness protection for parts of the Tongass. The most troubling amendment, involving the entire forest system, would broaden the reach of the forest stewardship program, under which, timber companies are allowed to harvest trees as payment for road clearing or the thinning of underbrush to prevent forest fires. In each case they either overrule existing law or seek to narrow or suspend rights of appeal and judicial review. Democrats and Republican moderates are organizing a counterattack.     rw 005484
  • February 11, 2003   IRIN PlusNews (UN)   South Africa: Focus on Growing Interest in the Female Condom.   In observance of Natinal Condom Week, the South African government announced that last year it had distributed only one million subsidized female condoms compared to 220-million free male condoms. However interest in the female condom (FC) is growing. The social marketing campaign for the product was so successful that the Society for Family Health (SFH) ran out of stock in July 2002, with pharmacy sales rising 33% in a year. FC is distributed by more than one experimental programs, some are distributed free and others are sold at half their cost. While the FC gives women a measure of self-control, there is some confusion about the size and shape of the condom. Women complain that the sheath is big and baggy and looks strange. Young people between 15 and 21 see it as unattractive. But older women in stable relationships are more able to negotiate its use. Most men complain that male condoms inhibit sexual pleasure, but the female condom does not seem to provoke this complaint. 005477
  • February 11, 2003   New Orleans Times-Picayune   6 States Aiming to Reduce Dead Zone.   Six states that feed water to the Mississippi agreed to experiment to reduce nutrients that cause a "dead zone" that can be 10 to 120 feet deep along the coast of Louisiana and Texas and is bigger than the state of Massachusetts. This occurs when nutrient-rich freshwater forms a layer over saltier Gulf of Mexico water in the spring and summer, causing huge blooms of algae that use up oxygen as they decompose. Shrimp, crabs and fish avoid the low-oxygen water, and bottom-dwelling organisms are killed. Oxygen returns after tropical storms or frontal systems mix the layers. The nutrients are fertilizer and sewage from the 42 states and parts of Canada that drain into the Mississippi. 7% come from Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, the states represented at the first meeting, in New Orleans, of the Committee on Hypoxia. An official said a federal-state plan to reduce nutrients is 18 months behind schedule. A plan adopted in 2000 called for reducing the dead zone to 2,000 square miles by 2015 by cutting nitrogen entering the river by 30%. Researchers have focused on determining the areas responsible, and how to reduce them. The projects would be similar to one in Louisiana in which farmers are told how best to manage nitrogen use, and provided with detailed instruction.     rw 005485
  • February 09, 2003   Washington Post   Mixed Messages.   The Kaiser Family Foundation reported more sex on TV, even during the family hours. But more shows mentioned safe sex; including the risks and responsibilities. These are shows where sex talk is ubiquitous and occasionally laced with angst, or maybe a condom joke. Teen pregnancy rates are at their lowest since the 1970s. Sexual activity by teens is down and contraceptive use is up. The number of college students who say it's "all right to have sex if two people have known each other for a long time" has plummeted to one-third. Mr. Bush increases money for very few programs, but he doubles funding for abstinence-only education. There is no study showing that this type of sex education is effective. There is evidence that a different kind of program works - such as Teen Outreach Program or Pathways/Senderos in Connecticut, which emphasize abstinence before marriage but provide accurate information about contraceptives and have proven success rates. These are the kinds of programs that make policymakers uncomfortable, because much like the television networks, they send mixed messages.     rw 005429
  • February 07, 2003   United Nations Environment Program   North America's Environment: a 30-year Review.   North America moved to reduce CFC emissions to nearly zero by 1996. Sulfur dioxide emissions declined 31% between 1981 and 2000. Between 1986 and 1997 there was an 80% reduction in wetlands loss compared to previous decade. Between 1988 and 1993, over 850,000 hectares (2.1 million acres) of wetlands were protected in Canada. Emissions of 6 point source water pollutants were cut by 29%. There were reductions in wind and water erosion. Total energy use grew 31% between 1972 and 1997 due to 27% population growth, largely because of a 30% increase in miles driven. 21% of 43 groundfish stocks in Canada's North Atlantic are in decline. One-third of U.S. Federally managed fisheries are overfished. Non-point nutrient loads in water supplies have increased. 65% of coastal rivers and bays are degraded by nutrient pollution. While North America annually grows 255 million cubic meters more timber than it harvests, eastern forests have become fragmented, and western forests are threatened by insect invasions and catastrophic fires.     rw 005395
  • February 05, 2003     US Seeks Cuts in Health Programs Abroad.   Although the Bush administration has promised more money for foreign AIDS, programs promoting child and maternal health would be cut from $495 million to $386.6 million, and infectious disease excluding AIDS from $185 million to $104.4 million. A US Agency for International Development adviser, Felice M. Apter, said the cut could mean the child survival program, a mainstay of the USAID health efforts for 30 years, would be eliminated. 10.5 million children die each year from causes that can be prevented at low cost. Child immunization had increased from 5% to almost 80% between 1970 and 1990. But recently vaccination coverage has dropped dramatically in some countries. Some life-saving interventions are very inexpensive: 33 cents for a dose of oral rehydration salts, 26 cents for a dose of a measles vaccine, and 12 cents for some anti-malarial tablets. Senior administration officials claim that the tripling of funding for AIDS to $15 billion in five years would come from new funding. Daulaire, a former senior USAID official, said, "simply shifting money into AIDS is at very best a neutral shift, or a relabeling of money, which is contrary to the intent of the president to provide additional funding. It also could make the situation worse by undermining the ability of health delivery systems to get the jobs done." 005368
  • February 05, 2003   Associated Press   Afghan Bakers Challenge Women's Barriers.   In a program supported by the United Nations World Food Program, in the conservative city of Kandahar, the Women's Bakery Project produces 34,000 loaves of bread daily. The employees are women who would be otherwise confined to their homes, unlikely to leave unless covered head to foot in the sack-like burqa and accompanied by a male relative. Their pay is about $65 a month, enough to support a family but not enough to save for the future. The main purpose of the project is to empower women. Although draconian restrictions on women's freedoms under the former Taliban have been scrapped, conservative religious leaders retain considerable influence in the new interim governmentstill maintain influence. Some girls' schools have been attacked and the wearing of the burqa remains almost universal. 005369
  • February 05, 2003   BBC News   Alien Species 'Cost Africa Billions' - Water Hyacinth Forms Vast Green Mats.   Plants and animals from other continents are costing African wetlands billions of dollars. The alien species, which include micro-organisms, arrive without their native controls, like predators, parasites and competitors. The water hyacinth, a native of the Amazon has now spread to most of the continent's lakes and rivers, and forms mats of floating vegetation. They cut off light and oxygen, and reduce the variety of fish. It can make fishing impossible and affect water supplies, shipping and power generation. It grows faster than cutters can clear it. Herbicides work, but endanger wildlife. The best option is control using two beetle species, a moth, a mite and pathogenic fungi. The floating mats of Azolla, the red water fern are a haven for mosquito larvae and snails carrying bilharzia, which infects about 300 million people. A flea beetle and a weevil, both leaf-eating insects, clear azolla. The water lettuce or Nile cabbage, and the water fern, known as Kariba weed are also a problem. A prickly shrub, the giant sensitive plant grows close to water, developing into thickets which smother other plants and prevent animals from reaching the water's edge. The Louisiana crayfish destroys native plants, snails and crustaceans, it can travel long distances over land, and the burrows it digs damage dams and reservoirs. The common carp is a valuable food source but it eats local fish, invertebrates and vegetation to extinction. The cost of the worldwide damage from invasive species at $400 billion a year and are one of the greatest threats to Africa's wildlife. The Nile perch, an alien introduced to Lake Victoria constituted 1% of the annual catch soon after its introduction in the 1960s. It is now 80% of the catch, and is thought to have driven more than 200 native species to extinction.     rw 005379
  • February 05, 2003   SIECUS   U.S.: Help Stop Abstinence-only-until-Marriage Funding Increase!.   Click on the headline to help. A letter has been sent by SIECUS and 41 other organizations to members of the Appropriations Committee who will be making a decision on SPRANS abstinence-only-until-marriage funding. Let your Senators and Representatives know that you don’t support any increases in this ineffective and potentially harmful program. 005419
  • February 04, 2003   BBC News   UN Urges 'Drastic' Cuts in Mercury; More Extreme Weather Could Exacerbate the Problem.   70% of mercury comes from burning coal and incinerating waste materials. Mining, industry and power generation are adding more mercury that can travel long distances. By 2005 we can phase it out worldwide. Mercury commonly affects people in one of its organic forms methylmercury, symptoms include numbness and unsteadiness, tiredness, ringing in the ears, and problems with vision, hearing and speech. It is a risk to pregnant women and their foetuses, infants, children, and people whose diet includes a lot of fish. Almost five million women in the US had mercury above the safe level. Animals and birds that prey on fish are also at risk. Mercury levels in Arctic ringed seals and beluga whales have risen by between two and four times over the last 25 years. There is evidence that mercury is damaging the soil over Europe. 4-500 tonnes comes from mining gold and silver. Higher temperatures, more extreme weather will increase mercury in soils and sediments. In Sweden, 50% of the lakes contain pike whose mercury limits exceed international health limits. Technologies are available which will reduce mercury emissions from power stations by about 80%.     rw 005366
  • February 04, 2003   BBC News   Psyching Up the Green Consumer: Everyone Wants Their Own Bit of Earth.   The UN Environment Programme (Unep) is working to understand what makes consumers tick. It wants to make sustainable living something consumers will desire. But only 5% of people in developed countries have chosen to live sustainably. Making people feel guilty about their lifestyles is achieving only limited success. We should try to prevent trouble, not just remedy it. Traditionally we've looked at the impact on the environment and tried to work from there to sustainability. Now we want to look at human needs and see how to meet those needs more sustainably. Examples of the positive ways to influence consumers include a car manufacturer which provides a bike with every car urging buyers to use the bike for short journeys. Or European detergent makers who tell consumers to switch to low-temperature washing liquids and powders, because it is good for their clothes.     rw 005373
  • February 03, 2003   This Day (Nigeria)   Nigeria; Empowering Women for National Development.   Women in rural areas, surviving mostly on agriculture and petty trading, are being provided micro credit facilities by Women Organisation For Gender Issues (WOGI). The NGO grants small loans to women who have viable business proposals. They are expected to repay the interest free within a year, and over half pay their loan within the stipulated period. 250 women have received micro-credits. WOGI's emphasis is to ensure that rural women provide enough poultry meat for themselves and a surplus for sale to city people. Loans repayed are pooled and lent to other women who also want to their own business or venture. The success rate of the program is attributed to the communal nature of the villages where borrowers are well known to each other. Loans may be made for poultry keeping, yam and cassava cultivation as well as soya milk making. In addition, young girls are trained to acquire skills such as hairdressing or tailoring. 005364
  • February 02, 2003   Agence France Presse   27,000 Nepalese Children Die From Disease Every Year.   Tens of thousands of Nepal's 23.2 million children die each year from disease while even more work against their will. Poverty and daily violence have made life difficult for Nepalese children, according to a study by Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Centre. Diarrhoea caused by poor drinking water is one of the leading causes of death. 47% suffer from malnutrition. 60,000 children worked as slaves, as of last year, indentured by debt. Last year the government made child slave labor illegal, but for most nothing has changed - 40,000 children remain bonded labourers. 2.6 million children do some kind of work. About 5,000 children live on the streets. 34% of the marriages in Nepal are to children under age 15. About 12,000 women or girls are trafficked out of Nepal each year for prostitution, mostly to India. On the other hand, 90% of Nepal's children are immunised and 80% of them attend school. And the Maoist rebels and the Nepal government agreed to a ceasefire last week, which is expected to result in a reduction of the violence and abductions. 005361
  • February 01, 2003   New York Times*   Study Finds Lower Level of Old Toxins but New Trends Are Worrying.   Blood and urine collected in 1999 and 2000 from 2,000 volunteers showed that 8% percent of American women 16 to 49 had levels of mercury exceeding 5.8 parts per billion and this justified finding ways to cut women's exposure. The study examined 116 chemicals and measured exposures by age, sex and ethnic background. It disclosed that children had higher levels of residues from secondhand smoke, pesticides and plastics than adults, and Mexican-Americans have three times the levels of DDT of other Americans. The study used new methods to detect the traces of chemicals in blood and urine including dozens of products of pesticides and plastics as well as long-lived compounds that are now banned but persist in the environment. In an investigation of leukemia, the levels of tungsten, were found to be higher than in the 2001 overview and researchers now have to determine this can be the cause. The study confirmed findings on DDT; tobacco residue, lead and other toxic compounds that have been measured for many years. All concentrations have continued to drop. Environmental campaigners highlighted the need for more work. Industry groups said the data showed longevity and health have been steadily improving even with trace exposures.     st 005358
  • February 2003   Associated Press   Food Shortages Grip Africa Again, So How Can the World and Africans End It?.   Hunger is nothing new in Africa, yet Africans periodically suffer food shortage, 23 million in the south, 13 million in the Horn of Africa and 2 million in the west and center were without food. An emergency operation staved off starvation in six southern countries. People tend to overestimate the importance of climatic factors as causes of hunger but war, bad governance, disease, and poor infrastructure play important roles. Famines occur in countries that have plenty of food. Famines almost never occur in cities or large towns, where incomes don't depend on agriculture. Farmers in western Ethiopia produce bumper crops, while crop failures in the east bring food that usually leave 5 million to 10 million people hungry. If their crop fails they can't afford to buy other sources. It is often cheaper to ship food from the United States rather than truck it across country.  rw 005363
  • February 2003   New Scientist   Contraceptive Science on the Edge.   Genetic engineering might be able to control species by altering the fundamentals of wild animal reproduction. In Australia, scientists are introducing genetically modified (GM) carp into the wild that are all male, and it's hoped that this will wipe out the European carp that represent 90% of the fish in the Murray-Darling river system. The problem is that that "daughterless" GM-carp may be introduced into other rivers, and indigenous wild carp decimated. In Australia, female rabbits infected with a transgenic myxoma virus will produce antibodies blocking fertilization, a process called immuno-contraception. They will use a "crippled" virus that cannot replicate itself, so it cannot spread from animal to animal. Unfortunately a mistake with replicating virus would be difficult to contain. Another concern is what might happen if someone created an immuno-contraception virus for humans that replicated itself quickly and easily. Australian scientists have announced that a small change made to a "mousepox" virus made it incredibly more virulent and totally resistant to normally effective mousepox vaccines. They note that the same change can also be made to the human smallpox virus, with predictable results.     rw 005385
  • February 2003   Patrick Burns   When Tigers Need Viagra.   As late as the 1950s there may have been 4,000 tigers in China. Mao Zedong led a campaign that lauded villagers for killing them in order to put more land under the plow to feed China's burgeoning human population. Thanks to improved government policies, a decline in birth rates, and increases in agricultural production, the government is planning to convert 16 million acres of farm land back to forests. The government has created a Chinese tiger studbook to make sure genetic variation is preserved and inbreeding reduced. There are only 56 Chinese tigers left, half are too old to reproduce and come from a tiny gene pool established through only six wild-caught tigers. They are all third and fourth generation descendents. The immediate goal is to raise the number to 120 breeding tigers established from thirty founders. With 120 tigers, scientists believe they will have the genetic diversity to sustain the tiger indefinitely. They are planning to send cubs to South Africa to habilitate to hunt on their own. They will be returned to China and released into the new tiger reserves - in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, for which the tiger will be a mascot.     rw 005387
  • February 2003   Denver Post   Colorado Residents Overwhelmingly Support the Use of Renewable Resources Over Fossil Fuels.   By a 3-to-1 ratio, respondents said Colorado should meet its demand for electricity through energy efficiency rather than generating more power. All age groups, political parties and regions showed a strong preference for renewables over fossil fuels but the executive VP of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association had concerns about the survey's and accuracy. The poll has a margin of error of 4.1%. A bill in the legislature would require utilities to produce a portion of their electricity from renewable sources.Respondents were aware that most of Colorado's electricity is produced from coal, although this is the fuel source they would least prefer. Wind was cited by 37.5% as the preferred method of generating power. Solar 36.2%, natural gas 9.7%, hydropower 8.4%, and coal 4.8%. Participants rated coal as the best fuel for reliability and affordability but the worst for environmental protection.     rw 005566
  • February 2003   Guardian (London)   Advisers Tell Bush Climate Plan is Useless Strategy 'Lacks Vision, Goals, Timetable and Criteria'.   An expert panel of 17 environmental experts selected by the US National Academy of Scientists found that President Bush’ plan for research on global warming "lacked vision" and "wasted time and money on research questions that were resolved years ago". This research plan was introduced after the US withdrew from the Kyoto protocol, preferring instead to further study of global warming over the next decade. The panel countered that the president’s plan "lacks most of the basic elements of a strategic plan: a guiding vision, executable goals, clear timetables and criteria for measuring progress". In addition the panel said, the president’s plan indicates an ignorance of the research done over the past 30 years including observations on monitoring methane in remote regions and the effect of forest fires on carbon emissions. "The experts also call[ed] for ‘greatly increased’ spending on ... climate change, far above the $1.7 billion per year earmarked".     st 005659
  • February 2003   UNFPA   Experts Plan Reproductive Health Response as HIV/AIDS Compounds Food Crisis in Southern Africa.   Poverty and food shortages compounded by HIV are harming sexual and reproductive health. In Southern Africa the scale and depth of the crisis indicted that hunger was a symptom of a deeper emergency. HIV is diminishing the capacity of Africa to respond to any crisis. AIDS is worsening the food crisis and the food crisis is worsening HIV. Hunger and diminished access to health services, including reproductive health care, are having a devastating effect on maternal health. Malnutrition renders pregnant women susceptible to infection, miscarriage, premature labour, and increases the likelihood that pregnant and lactating women who are HIV-positive will transmit the virus to their children. It is contributing to a decrease in the number of women seeking family planning services and antenatal care. HIV rates in Southern Africa are the highest in the world. Food production plummets by more than 50% in households with HIV. Reducing food intake can be fatal for them as malnutrition weakens their immune systems. Traditional support has been decimated as those not having the disease must provide for children of those who have. UNFPA is procuring and distributing reproductive health kits including male and female condoms and training providers to distribute them. Country offices will intensify their efforts to address the shortage of condoms by establishing an inter-agency committee to address procuring and distributing supplies and equipment. UNFPA will work to meet the needs for relevant population, development and reproductive health data, for better planning and targeting of emergency interventions.     rw 005743
  • February 2003   Center for Health and Gender Equity   Women, HIV, and the Global Gag Rule: the Dis-integraion of US Global AIDS Funding..   President Bush, in his recent State of the Union Address, announced an ‘Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief’. This announcement was met with some skepticism since the organizations and methods useful for the prevention of AIDS/HIV are the same as those which prevent unintended pregnancies. "Unprotected heterosexual sex is the leading factor in HIV transmission [in] the world today." Half of the HIV infections occurring worldwide occur in women, and 58% of those infected in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest HIV rates in the world, occur in women. The same factors which promote unintended pregnancies also promote new HIV infections. These factors are "sexual violence and coercion by ... intimate partners, discriminatory cultural practices such as child marriage and dowry, and economic dependence on men [which] leave even monogamous married women ... vulnerable to both unsafe sex and to infection due to" their husband’s behavior. Thus both unintended pregnancies and HIV/AIDS are best treated by an "integrated HIV and family program that offer a range of services", including access to contraceptive methods, training in "partner communication", "access to voluntary counseling and testing" as well as programs to reduce sexual violence and coercion. "WHO, the World Bank, the European Union, and ... USAID, all strongly support integrated prevention strategies". Thus, the skepticism mentioned above was warranted and was not inappropriate. Last week, the Administration announced that the "’Mexico City policy’ or ‘global gag rule’ will now be applied to all integrated family planning and HIV prevention programs". Specifically, the policy will terminate funding to any international organization that "performs abortions in countries where they are legal, ... or [that] collects data on, provides referrals for abortion services or advocates for changes in laws regulating abortion". These restrictions will be applied "wholesale" to "integrated HIV and family planning programs", including "foreign NGOs implementing US funded family planning within HIV/AIDS programs". This announcement appears to expand the existing policy and potentially will affect millions of women in the world dependent on family planning programs for disease prevention and treatment and for access to contraceptive information and supplies. For a more complete discussion of this development, download the complete article in Adobe Acrobat format at www.genderhealth.org.   [Note: one option under discussion is to allow organizations that are involved i both abortions or abortion counseling and family planning to provide HIV/AIDs programs if the family planning/abortion programs are managed independently of the HIV/AIDs program.]  st 005756
  • January 31, 2003   Gallon electronic newsletter   Iraq War: Time to Step Back and Reflect.   In his State of the Union address, President Bush did not present evidence to launch a war against Iraq. The war with Iraq should not be entered into lightly. Some 200,000 American troops and more than US $200 billion would be committed to such a war. In a democracy, a representative government should listen to its allies and people before going to war. The minds of the administration would be diverted from the domestic issues (environment, economy, education, etc.) In addition to death and the destruction, the war will divert resources away from education, farming, inner-city social issues, drinking water supplies, etc., and it will do long-term harm to the natural environment and its life-support systems in the Middle East and worldwide (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil wells)     rw 005405
  • January 31, 2003   Population Connection   New York: Religious Organizations Sue State Over Contraceptive Coverage Law.   The new state law requiring health insurers to provide coverage for contraception is being challenged by Catholic and some Protestant faiths who say they are being forced to undermine their own religious principles. The law contains an exception for religious institutions that "primarily employ and serve members of that faith," but would require such institutions as hospitals, which employ and serve individuals of various religious backgrounds and beliefs to provide the coverage. 005411
  • January 30, 2003   Agence France Presse   World Bank Sees Increased Need to Finance Water Infrastructure.   The World Bank foresees an increase in financing water infrastructure in the developing world, as water becomes scarce due to climate change, industrialisation and population growth. 16% of the 20 billion dollars in loans is for water projects and is expected to increase to 24%. Only 1% of water resources are exploitable by humans and one billion people do not have access to drinkable water and two billion to water with adequate sanitation. There is a lack of infrastructure such as dams and irrigation systems in many developing countries. Available water is under-utilized for generating electricity. In industrialised countries 75% of viable water for electricity generation is used, in Africa 3%. One model would involve the 11 countries through which the Nile flows developing a programme for the river. A hydropower plant in Ethiopia could be used by Egypt and other countries downstream in exchange for surplus water which would otherwise be lost through evaporation.     rw 005341
  • January 29, 2003   Hampton Roads Daily Press   U.S.: Federal Appeals Court Overturns Judge's Ruling Prohibiting Permits for Dumping of Mine Waste.   A federal appeals court has overturned a ruling prohibiting the government from issuing permits to dispose of waste from mountaintop mining operations into mountain streams as being overly broad and sent the case back further review. Rock and dirt is dumped into valleys, often covering streams. In 1999, a ruling prompted West Virginia coal companies and miners to warn that it would shut down the industry--and was overturned. The court ruled the Clean Water Act outlaws valley waste piles, and that a proposal to allow this was inconsistent with the law. The appeals court said that none of the parties sought a declaration that the new rule was illegal or inconsistent with the Clean Water Act. This stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Kentuckians against the Army Corps of Engineers over permits issued in Martin County, Ky. The Martin County Coal Corp. proposed permanently burying more than six miles of stream bed and temporarily blocking another three. The decision was not unexpected because the 4th District is the most conservative appeals court in the country. The West Virginia Coal Association praised the ruling, as recognizing the environmental integrity of their operations.     rw 005343
  • January 27, 2003   BBC News   UN Makes Water Point.   The United Nations is publishing a report on global water supplies that relies on graphics, supplemented by CD-ROMs. It illustrates the world's waste of water, the reduction in supplies, and the fall in size of the Aral Sea, Lake Chad and the marshlands of Mesopotamia. There is good information on water resources in Europe and North America, gaps in the data for Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia. In 2000, agriculture and domestic use each wasted 800 cubic km of water, and industry 400 cubic km. By 2025, the report estimates, those figures will have risen to 1000, 1100 and 500 cubic km respectively and an estimated 300 cubic km of water will be lost through evaporation from reservoirs, up 50% from 2000. Global water use has tripled since 1950, and one person in six has no access to safe drinking water. 41,000 children die every day because of unsafe water. But drinking water supplies would be doubled with a 10% improvement in the efficiency of irrigation. The number of people with improved water supply rose from 79% of the world's population to 82% in 2000.     rw 005331
  • January 26, 2003   Earth Policy Institute   Eco-Economy Indicators: Trends to Track.   Population size is the universal denominator being the best single measure of the pressure on the environment. It combines the effects of population growth and individual consumption. ... Economic Growth - with consumption-driven economy, economic growth is the best single measure of the mounting pressure on the earth’s environment. ... World Fish Catch measures the health of the oceanic ecosystem where demand is outrunning sustainable stocks. ... Forest Cover - the shrinkage of forests means that capacity to supply wood products is diminished, also the capacity for flood control, soil protection, and the purification of water. ... Carbon Emissions provide clues about the kind of world for future generations. ... Grain Production reflects population growth and its rise in consumption of grain-fed livestock products. ... Water Scarcity - data shows that aquifers are depleted and the water supply is reduced. ... Ice Melting is one of the visible effects of rising temperature; its melting raises sea level. ... Wind Electric Generating Capacity - the rate at which wind generating capacity is expanding compared with fossil fuels gives us a sense of how fast the eco-economy is unfolding.... Bicycle Production - sales measure our ability to reduce traffic congestion, lower air pollution, increase mobility, and provide exercise. ... Solar Cell Production - solar cells are years behind wind power, but sales in 2001 represent by far the largest annual sales to date. As it continues to fall, the cost will cross a critical threshold where production will begin to jump.     rw 005383
  • January 25, 2003   Agence France Presse   European Cows Better Off Than Most Third World Citizens.   The organization Social Watch reports farmers are given a subsidy equivalent to 2.2 dollars a day for each cow they own, while half of the world's population survives on less than two dollars a day. Poverty reduction goals in the world for 2005 will not be met because of the decrease in the transfer of financial resources from developed countries to poor countries.     rw 005320
  • January 24, 2003   Washington Post   Slowdown is a Global Out-of-work in Progress.   The economic slowdown has resulted in 20 million people loosing their jobs, a total of 180 million worldwide, a 12.5% increase while world population growth is 1.2% a year. The number of working people earning less than US $1 a day, has risen to 550 million, its highest since 1998 with grave consequences for the stability of parts of the world. The slowdown started when the technology bubble burst, and worsened after the Sept. 11 attacks. Diminished demand in the wealthier nations has led to cutbacks in the industries of developing nations. In the United States about 6% of the workforce are jobless. Many European countries, including Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom, now have lower unemployment rates than the United States, but France and Germany have higher rates. High unemployment accompanies civil strife. In Afghanistan, for example, about 25% of the workforce is unemployed, and in Colombia about 16%.     rw 005315
  • January 23, 2003   Environmental News Service   U.S.: Advisory Panels Stacked, Scientists Warn.   Many scientists fear that the current administration is manipulating the membership of scientific advisory committees, whose purpose is to give the best advice based on the available scientific data, in order to advance its own political agenda to a degree that is unprecedented. This is accomplished by screening prospective members with "political litmus tests", by "eliminating committees" likely to advise against the adminstrations favored policies and by packing committees to advance the interests of particular industries. According to the associate executive director of the American Public Health Association (APHA), "a broad array of across the country" feel this way. Ideally, scientific advisory committees give impartial and valid advice that establish rules governing "clean air and water, food safety and pesticide use" and thus have a great impact on our lives. There are numerous examples of the recent misuse of expert panels to advance political ends. The Bush administration replaced several members of the CDC’s Committee on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention with people with close ties to the lead industry, one of whom has stated publicly that "lead is only harmful at levels 7 – 10 times higher than [those blood levels currently permitted by the CDC]". Fifteen of the 18 members of the committee which advises the National Health Center of Environmental Health on the health impact of exposure to environmental chemicals were replaced; "one of the new members is the former president of the Chemical Industry Institute for Toxicology." A committee "charged with analyzing the federal system for protecting human research subjects and another which gives the FDA advice on the genetics testing industry" have both been disbanded. A scientist serving in an HHS peer review study section which advises OSHA on workplace safety was rejected because of her support of an ergonomics rule overturned last year by the current administration. This policy has several adverse effects. First, according to Dr. David Michaels, of George Washington University’s School of Public Health, is not that these committees will give advice "far out of the mainstream" but that they will conclude that there is too much uncertainty to give any advice at all. Second, it could reduce public trust in science and in the government’s recommendation on public health issues. And third, it may dissuade scientists, who get "no glory" and are only "compensated for travel and accommodations", from giving expert advice.   st 005245
  • January 23, 2003   Earth Policy Institute   Population Growth Leading to Land Hunger.   By 2000 the area in grain had fallen to 656 million hectares from its historical peak of 732 million hectares. With population expanding, the area per person shrank from 0.23 to 0.11 hectares as farmland was also covered by urban sprawl. When prices fall, farmers stop farming marginal lands. Farmers in Malaysia cultivate 0.03 hectares for each resident. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan each harvest less than 0.02 hectares and import more than 70% of their grain. Egypt harvests 0.04 hectares and imports 40%. In India, 16 million people are added each year and the grain area per person is 0.10 hectares, Pakistan, 0.09 hectares, China, 0.07 hectares. China imports grain, but cannot guarantee that additional demand will not increase prices. Rwanda's population tripled to 6.8 million and per capita grainland fell to 0.03 hectares, resulting in farm fragmentation, land degradation, deforestation, and famine, which ignited ethnic strife. If world grainland stays the same as 2000, the 9 billion people projected to inhabit the planet in 2050 would each be fed from 0.07 hectares of grainland. By 2050, India and Nigeria would cultivate 0.06 hectares of grainland for each person. China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia would drop to 0.04-0.05 hectares. Egypt and Afghanistan to 0.02 hectares, the Yemen, the Congo, and Uganda, to 0.01 hectares. With most of the planet's arable land already under the plow and with additional cropland being paved over and built on each year, there is little chance that the world grain area will rebound.   Comment: With so many countries dependant on imorting grain, has any concern been expressed as to how we can ship grain when there is insufficient fuel oil to opereate the grain carriers. Back to sailing ships? or just let the people starve?  rw 005396
  • January 22, 2003   Glen Kaye   Mexico's Population Growth - the Driving Force of Emigration.   In the 1940s and 1950s the fertility rate in Mexico reached seven children per woman. Mexican leaders in 1977 approved a family planning policy including free birth control services and mandatory sex education. Mexico's fertility rate has declined and in 1999 averaged 2.5 children per woman. Unfortunately Mexico still adds more than a million people each year. Because of the number of women entering their reproductive years, the population will grow as fertility rates decline. The impacts are significant. Soil erosion affects 70% of the agricultural lands. A tenth of the irrigated acreage is salinized. More than 1,000 square kilometers are abandoned each year and one and a half million acres are deforested. The Rio Conchos is being diverted for agricultural use, and soon in Big Bend National Park it will be dry part of the year. Mexico quadrupled its grain production, but its population grew to 99.6 million by mid-2001 and Mexico is again a food importer. Migrants head for the cities and cross into the United States. The 21st century will see unprecedented migration across the face of the Earth; over 90% of population growth will be in the poorest nations of the world.     rw 005679
  • January 17, 2003   Science magazine   The Policy Drought on Climate Change.   In an editorial in Science, Donald Kennedy, its chief editor, called the current administrations plan for climate change, as outlined in the US Global Change Research Program and the Climate Change Research Initiative, a "wait and see document" which "merely urges more study on the role of anthropogenic sources in global warming". He underscored its failure to analyze trade-offs involved in improving fuel efficiency in autos, to submit a plan to reduce CO2 emissions and to study sequestration technologies. He calls the evidence for global warming "now beyond doubt", citing "one careful study after another" which have proven the "role of anthropogenic sources of ... greenhouse gases in global warming", shown the effect of "climate change on marine and terrestrial ecosystems" and "measured rates of glacial melting in the Arctic, the Antarctic, and on the tops of low-latitude mountains." Nevertheless, he finds some encouragement in the fact that certain oil companies, British Petroleum in particular, and electric power companies are already voluntarily responding to the threat of climate change and that hybrid vehicles are slowly becoming available. He notes that Congress may be slowly recognizing the potential political popularity of US energy independence and that some states, particularly California, are ahead of the federal government in initiating carbon emissions standards despite opposition from auto manufacturers. Particularly important is an upcoming "independent review of the administration’s plan by a National Research Council panel" which hopefully will reveal to this government "what is missing from the report". He notes that the "nonparticipation of the US in the global effort on climate change is more than a national embarrassment. It’s dangerous".   st 005244
  • January 17, 2003   Common Dreams   'Ecological Meltdown': Huge Dust Cloud Threatens Asia.   An "ecological meltdown" in the form of massive dust storms stretching for thousands of miles over Asia are threatening China. The current storm is unprecedented in both size and number. According to the Chinese Meteorological Agency, there were only 5 major storms in China during the 50s; this rose to 23 in the 1990s and to 20 during only 2001 – 2002. The Gobi desert expanded by over 20,000 miles in the last half of the 1990s and now affect 40% of China’s land sharply reducing grain harvests which had previously quadrupled between 1950 and 1998. The Earth Policy Institute (EPI) attributes the desertification to "over-cultivation, overgrazing, over-cutting and over pumping". The dust represents "millions of tons of topsoil from Chinese fields and pastures ... which will take centuries to replace". It causes respiratory difficulties in millions of people and ruins thousands of acres of crops. It is evidence of decreasing cropland in the face of China’s large and rising population. Lester Brown of the EPI observes that China has thus far "compensated for its falling harvests by eating stocks", but dwindling grain production will soon force the country to buy on the world’s grain markets. This will rapidly raise grain prices and "impoverish more people in a shorter period of time than any event in history". For more on the China’s dust bowl, see http://www.earth-policy.org/Alerts/Alert13.htm ; for more on the world’s falling grain harvest, see http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update3.htm   st 005246
  • January 16, 2003   USA Today   U.S.: West Grows Less Thrilled with Drills - as Population Changes, So Do the Attitudes Toward Energy Exploration.   In the West, land users are putting lifestyle ahead of development. In Colorado residents have sued the oil and gas commission over a natural gas project they fear would harm water supplies. In Montana officials are battling in court after the planning board denied gas exploration near Bozeman Pass. In Wyoming the Bureau of Land Management is about to approve an increase in gas exploration but ranchers are angry and want the legislature to give them more power to negotiate with energy companies. In New Mexico, ranchers protested callous behavior by energy companies. Public officials have welcomed the economic benefits of energy production but the region is a magnet for those who value aesthetics and recreation. Officials blame environmental groups and believe local concerns can be addressed through consultation and education. There is little local approval for energy products but more natural gas is needed or the economy will shut down. Delta County has no gas development in a decade, but the state authorized a project that could spread 600 gas wells over western Colorado's Grand Mesa. The federal government retains control of mineral rights and property owners have no recourse if the government issues gas or oil leases on their land. At issue is methane in coal seams near the surface. It costs less than conventional gas, which requires deeper drilling. Five basins are thought to contain more than 42 trillion cubic feet of gas. Extracting the gas can require pumping water to the surface which can contain salts that damage pastures and fields. The West's reserves are important given the nation's dependence on foreign energy but the drive to maximize energy production is clashing with clean water, unspoiled vistas, high property values and peace and quiet.     rw 005295
  • January 15, 2003   Associated Press   Bangladesh: Filtering Water Can Halve Cholera Cases.   Using a filter made from old saris can reduce cholera by about half, according to a study in Bangladesh and the sari filters may also reduce other gastrointestinal illness. Sari cloth is cheaper and more effective than nylon mesh. In laboratory studies, most of the cholera bacteria in standing water was attached to or in the gut of a copepod, a type of zooplankton. When people drink unfiltered water, they swallow the copepods and introduce cholera bacteria into their system. Filtering the copepod reduced the cholera rate by at least half. There also was evidence that other types of germs were removed because with sari-filtered water, there was less diarrhea and other problems. Cholera is easily controlled, but the untreated disease kills 50% to 80% of those infected. The Bangladesh villages where the system was tested are hours of travel from medical care. It is estimated that there are a million cases of cholera in Bangladesh annually and thousands of deaths. Old sari cloth filtered better than new cloth. As the sari is washed the spaces between threads narrow and trap finer particles. Folded eight times it filters particles as small as 20 microns.     rw 005286
  • January 15, 2003   Anchorage Daily News   ANWR Reports Called Inflated. Critique: Researchers Say Much Less is Likely to Be Recoverable..   The amount of oil likely to be recoverable from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been overstated according to 35 news reports or articles surveyed between December 2000 and September 2001. The media overstated the recoverable reserves by a factor of three. The numbers traced back to those from the U.S. Geological Survey in 1998. These were created by factoring in the price of oil, discovering oil fields of a particular size, the limitations of oil pumping and the oil from nearby private and state lands. The media reports cited the upper end of that range as 16 billion barrels. Only Newsweek mentioned the possibility of zero oil being recovered. Most reports gave different estimates leaving the reader with the impression that the truth is somewhere in between. A geologist said that the USGS analysis understates the recoverable oil. The USGS said the argument arises because they figured only about a third of ANWR's oil would be technically recoverable. Figuring prices from $15 to $25 a barrel (1996 dollars) economically recoverable resources estimates range from zero to 5.6 billion barrels. However, three-dimensional seismic imaging and precision drilling have proven themselves since USGS completed its last ANWR assessment. Along with recent higher oil prices, the mid-range economically recoverable estimates are up to near 10 billion barrels.     rw 005289
  • January 14, 2003   Push newsfeed   Hong Kong Veiled by Smog.   Hong Kong was covered in smog and the government warned people with respiratory and heart diseases to stay away from heavily polluted areas. Levels were highest in Causeway Bay reaching 140, in Central at 111 and in Mong Kok at 118. Everyone is advised to stay indoors if the figure of 200 is reached. Hong Kong has been plagued by smog, due to high levels of nitrogen dioxide which cannot be disperse because of calm weather. The government has various measures to tackle the problem including reducing motor vehicle emissions, and requiring taxis to run on cleaner liquefied petroleum gas. Last year there were more than 4,000 deaths in 2000 due to cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, arising from persistent air pollution. There were also 17,555 hospital admissions in 2000 as a result of cardiovascular and respiratory problems.     rw 005282
  • January 13, 2003   Deutsche Presse-Agentur   Grown Kids Should Live with Parents to Save Environment.   Researchers from Michigan University said the increase in single households has contributed toward the destruction of biological diversity. Each new single household is less efficient than a larger house with six or more people. The research concentrated on 76 countries where biological diversity has been eroded or threatened. There was a connection between the drop in biologic diversity and a high number of independent households even in countries with dropping birthrates. In the 76 countries with threatened biological diversity, 155 million new households have been founded since 1985 and will grow to 233 million by 2015. The phenomenon occurs even in countries with dropping birthrates, such as Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain.     rw 005275
  • January 13, 2003   The Boston Globe;   U.S.: Environment Pays Price as More Live Alone.   The proliferation of smaller households is straining the world's natural resources. Housing units create a need for building materials, appliances, and energy, and produces more waste. In the U.S. one of every four households is inhabited by one person. In countries with environmental problems, such as the U.S. the rise in the number of households from 1985 to 2000 outpaced population growth, explaining the environmental stresses as the number of households grew by 3.1% each year, while the population rose 1.8%. In other countries, the population and household growth rates were the same at 1.7% a year. In countries where the population is shrinking, the number of households is climbing. In China, many young adults are staying single longer and moving away from their parents. Governments should provide incentives to encourage more efficient use of living space. In the United States, the government should consider tax incentives to share homes, or penalties for people who choose to live alone. Government should also discourage urban sprawl. Cohousing is better for the environment, and offers advantages of a village-like atmosphere. Lawmakers should consider a tax on household energy.     rw 005277
  • January 13, 2003   Planet Ark   Californian Senators Seek to Limit Mexico Utility Emissions.   California's two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, introduced legislation to ban Mexican power plants from using the state's natural gas supplies unless the plants meet its strict air pollution standards. It applies to natural gas-fired generators within 50 miles of the California-Mexico border that produce over 50 megawatts of electricity. Tight natural gas supplies contributed to California's power crisis of 2000-01, which spurred blackouts and bankruptcy of the state's biggest utility. The legislation would affect two new plants planned for Mexicali, Mexico. Both are owned by U.S. companies.     rw 005279
  • January 13, 2003   San Francisco Chronicle   California Takes a Closer Look at Making Sea Water Drinkable.   California is turning to desalination as a source of drinking water. Five desalination plants are planned with construction to begin by 2005, pending environmental reviews. They will cost about $300 million each. Critics say that desalination remains too expensive, because of the power requirement, and also that the process damages the environment. The highly remaining concentrated salt water goes back to the sea and can kill small sea creatures. Supporters, say desalination is a crucial part of California's search for water. The state's population is expected to grow by 6 million by 2010. Israel and Kuwait have relied on desalination for decades, as have military vessels and cruise ships. More than a dozen small plants were built along California's coast during the early 1990s. Nearly all were shut down because of high operating costs. Since the 1980s, the price of desalination has dropped from $2,000 an acre-foot to $800 per acre-foot.     rw 005285
  • January 10, 2003   BBC News   Polar Bear 'Extinct Within 100 Years'.   The Arctic-dwelling polar bear is susceptible to climate change because they use the sea ice as a floating platform to catch prey and travel across it on their way to their dens. Arctic summers could be ice-free by 2050 and that could spell doom for the polar bear. Ultimately, the species will have to change its eating habits or die out. As the sea ice changes in distribution and pattern it will have fundamental changes on the ecology of polar bears. There have been cases of polar bears scavenging in bins for food but they need seal fat to get through the winter. Populations in Hudson Bay are at most risk of dying out. Bears stand most chance of surviving, in isolated groups, in the western Arctic or the Canadian archipelago.     rw 005265
  • January 10, 2003   Los Angeles Times   Don't Throw Out Birth Control with the Budget Bathwater.   California's first round of budget cuts trim Medi-Cal rates, medical supplies, and media to prevent unintended pregnancies - essentially meaning less birth control and more babies. "We're just biting our fingernails," said Kathy Kneer, a Planned Parenthood executive who feared even more damage today when the governor releases details on sweeping budget cuts and tax increases. California anticipates population growth, and no one is asking how many people are too many. The budget gap is partially due to the spending binge during the short-lived dot-com revenue windfall, but also due to unchecked population growth. The Bush administration and Congress propose a policy of abstinence, arguing that a faith-based life will stem the urge -- a nice thought, but the author says he spent his years at Catholic school thinking of nothing but sex. The author is not saying we should shut the door on immigration or growth, because it made California one of the most interesting and productive places on the planet. But if policy promotes open borders to provide cheap labor, California ought to demand that the feds pay a share for the education and care of the working poor. And hand out more condoms. One in three California children is born to an unwed mother, and the number of out-of-wedlock births to teenagers is as high as two out of three. Some estimate that for every dollar invested in birth control, the state saves $3 or $4 on the cost of unwanted pregnancies. Although teenage birth rates dropped every year between 1991 and 2001 in California (probably due to successful programs in prior years), they are still too high.    006377
  • January 09, 2003   New York Times*   McCain and Lieberman Offer Bill to Require Cuts in Gases.   Senators John McCain, and Joseph I. Lieberman joined forces to challenge the administration on global warming. They offered their bill to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases claiming that the US is responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. That assertion was a challenge to Mr. Bush, who relies on voluntary reductions. The bill would require that by 2010 industries cut emissions of carbon dioxide to 2000 levels and by 2016 to 1990 levels. It would create a system under which companies that failed to meet the goals could buy "credits" from companies that exceeded them. The program would apply to utilities, industrial plants, transportation and large commercial enterprises. Mr. Bush set a policy that would rely on voluntary measures until 2012. He said more research was needed to clarify the potential risks before taking stronger measures. Senator James M. Inhofe said the causes of global warming were open to question. Many people criticized the administration for saying it needed more research. Mr. Lieberman said the administration’s approach would allow greenhouse-gas emissions to keep increasing. James R. Mahoney of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that we have evidence of global change but there are uncertainties about causes and warned that the McCain-Lieberman approach would lead to years of litigation. The McCain/Lieberman bill was a political statement, said Frank Maisano representing the Business Coalition on Global Warming. Maisano predicted widespread opposition.     rw 005254
  • January 09, 2003   New York Times*   US New York: Pataki Backs Wind and Solar Power.   Gov. George E. Pataki said that within the next decade, 25% of the state's electricity supply will come from sources like solar and wind power. New York already produces 17% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, achieving an additional 8% would mean construction of 4,000 megawatts of generation across the state and suppliers like Con Ed will be required to buy the energy. 400 to 500 megawatts of wind power are being approved, but have gone nowhere because lenders cannot be certain anyone will buy that power. Mr. Pataki's announcement guarantees a market. New Jersey has pledged to get 6.5% of its electricity from green sources by 2012, and Texas 2.2% by 2009. Individual NY electricity customers will pay their bills as before. Mr. Pataki also wants NY to adopt standards for automobiles to reduce carbon dioxide. If the California plan for cars sold in that state for 2009 goes forward and New York follows suit, the impact would be significant.     rw 005255
  • January 09, 2003   The Orlando Sentinel   US Florida: Sea-Cow Endangered.   According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife 95 manatees were killed by watercraft last year, 14 more than in 2001. Overall manatee deaths in the state fell, to 305 in 2002. The findings are likely to fuel a fiery debate about whether the manatee's status should be changed from endangered to threatened. Advocates say the increased deaths simply reflect a larger population, but conservationists say the species is at risk and deserves stricter protection. Since 1999, 902 Florida manatees have died, 254 of them from collisions with watercraft, out of a total known population of 3,276.     rw 005256
  • January 08, 2003   New York Times*   Environment and Science: Danes Rebuke a 'Skeptic'.   The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty, a branch of the Danish Research Agency, found that Bjorn Lomborg, a professor of political science and statistics at the University of Aarhus, displayed "scientific dishonesty" in his book "The Skeptical Environmentalist". The evaluation of the book was prompted by severe criticism from many environmental scientists, most recently in an extended critique published in Scientific American in 2002, who disputed his rosy portrayal of current environmental conditions. After a 6-month review, the Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty concluded "that the book displayed 'systematic one-sidedness' ... ... 'is deemed to fall within the concept of scientific dishonesty’ as defined by Danish rules for scientific integrity". Lomborg was recently appointed director of the Danish Institute for Environmental Assessment and, despite his concerns, was assured by government officials that his job was not in jeopardy. For the full story, see the original article and summaries noted below.   st 005166
  • January 08, 2003   Push newsfeed   China to Speed Up Urbanization, Resolve Farm Issues.   China will develop urbanization with Chinese characteristics to resolve issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers. While Urban construction is booming, living standards in rural areas lag far behind. The income of farmers in 2002 was 2,470 yuan (US$298), while the average income of urban residents exceeded 7,500 yuan (US$906). Speeding up the urbanization process would boost urban economies and produce more jobs for rural residents. China must integrate urban development with new industries to readjust its economics and reduce the differences between urban and rural areas. Cities must advance in harmony with people, natural resources and environment. Cities and towns in China must develop for common prosperity. Urbanization would increase the number of cities and urban populations, but produce changes in social and economic structures. China’s urbanization hit 37.7% of the population by the end of 2001, 7% over that of 1998. China has 662 cities and 20,358 towns, with a total urban population of 481 million.     rw 005225
  • January 08, 2003   Environmental News Service   Lomborg Ignored Key Issues and Set Up Straw Men and Knocked Them Down.   Bjørn Lomborg established a short list, ignoring key environmental issues. He tossed out climate change as too big a problem and too expensive to fix. He used gross numbers to mask species loss, for example, in proclaiming fisheries were not declining because the gross annual catch was up. He focussed his criticisms on the publications of the Worldwatch Institute, and the views of its former President, Lester Brown. See http://www.gristmagazine.com/books/lomborg121201.asp. The Danish Ecological Council gathered a group of twelve Danish scientists - publishing a critique that is available in English version at the website http://www.ecocouncil.dk/index_eng.html .     rw 005398
  • January 07, 2003   Push newsfeed   Cambodia Faces Loss of Aid After Expelling Monitors.   The Cambodian government told aid donors it was terminating its contract with Global Witness, for defaming the country and inciting violence. It was hired in 1999 to document the regulation of companies holding logging concessions. But in their reports the group has accused Hun Sen’s government of ignoring illegal logging by companies with financial and familial links to officials responsible for overseeing forest use. The World Bank has expressed regrets at Phnom Penh’s decision saying the group had made a contribution to forestry reform. The bank said it would have to reconsider financial support for forestry reform. Companies holding logging concessions were required to submit environmental analysis of their plans for inspection by September 2001. When they finally submitted them a year after deadline, the government gave the public only 20 days to comment on them. Then, the government sent police armed with electric truncheons to disperse activists who had come to Phnom Penh to seek a meeting on logging policy.     rw 005213
  • January 07, 2003   The Washington Post   Iraq: War Could Displace, Imperil 10 Million Civilians.   The U.N. estimates a campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein could place 10 million civilians in need of assistance because a decade of UN sanctions has made the Iraqi population dependent on government handouts. Conflict would halt oil production, degrade the power network, and disrupt the distribution of food. It would also lead to diseases in epidemic proportions. The UN fears it may be impossible to deliver relief to Iraqi civilians in the initial weeks after the outbreak of war. The sanctions have increased dependence on the government. The information was obtained by the Mennonite group, which opposes war against Iraq. The U.N. preparations have been cloaked in secrecy because officials feared it might appear they were backing the efforts to topple Hussein. The UN Children's Fund, the World Food Program, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees are stockpiling food, blankets, tents, and other equipment in Iran and other countries for more than half a million people.     rw 005214
  • January 07, 2003   New York Times*   Primary Schools in Kenya, Fees Abolished, Are Filled to Overflowing.   Kenya's new government began revamping policies starting with public education and human rights, as it sought to rebuild a country. Mr. Kibaki, the new president, fulfilled his promise today to eliminate the fees primary school students were required to pay. But students found overflowing classrooms as many parents took advantage of the new rules. In Kibera, a vast slum, angry parents threatened the principal's office after officials announced that classes were overflowing and no more children could enroll. The old government was so corrupt and inefficient that by simply running Kenya honestly the new government could find the estimated $65 million needed for free primary education. Mr. Kibaki has said that as a start he will have his ministers declare their wealth. The influx of new students was just one sign of change. The government announced it will set up a commission to look at unsolved killings and major corruption cases. Among them are the killing of Julie Ward, a British tourist, and the killing of Robert Ouko, a former foreign minister. Another case is the Goldenberg scandal, a shady government scheme in which millions of dollars disappeared.     rw 005215
  • January 06, 2003   USA Today   Dioceses Fight N.Y. Over Contraceptive Law.   Roman Catholic dioceses in New York are suing to block a new state law that requires them to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives. New York is the 20th state to require coverage of contraceptives. Churches and seminaries would be exempt but not Catholic schools, hospitals and social service agencies. New York exempts only institutions whose primary purpose is teaching religious values. The plaintiffs seek a court injunction to exempt them from the requirement. A similar lawsuit in California, is pending before California's Supreme Court. Advocates say religious-affiliated hospitals and other institutions employ and serve people of other faiths, accept public funds and must abide by the same laws as secular institutions. Bush had campaigned on expanding the role of religious groups in using federal dollars for social services. But Democrats objected to provisions that would exempt religious-based charities from anti-discrimination laws. In challenging the New York law, the Catholic Church is arguing that its health care is part of its religious ministry.     rw 005198
  • January 06, 2003   The Washington Post   Bizarre Weather Ravages Africans' Crops - Some See Link To Worldwide Warming Trend.   The African kingdom of Lesotho has been afflicted with hailstorms, tornadoes, torrential rains, and an early frost in recent times, destroying crops and leaving one-third of its 2.1 million people on the brink of starvation. Lesotho is almost entirely dependent on rain-fed subsistence farming, with almost no irrigation. Average farm yields have declined by more than 2/3 since the 1970s. Soil erosion is spreading fast, and soil fertility is deteriorating even faster. Those people, with nearly 40 million other Africans facing famine, may be the first victims of climate change. Experts are reluctant to blame any particular event on climate change; many concur that the weather plaguing Lesotho and other African nations are consistent with predictions of how weather systems will behave in a warmer world. Predicted for the region are water shortages, disease outbreaks and food crises that are expected to be intensified by global warming. Scientists expect the situation will only get worse, and as crop failure becomes commonplace, food shortages in the region will become chronic, rather than one-time emergencies. In Lesotho, climate change problems are compounded by the fact that one-third of the working-age adults have HIV, and about 73,000 of the children are AIDS orphans. About half the children under 5 show signs of stunted growth and many are too weak to walk to school.     rw 005217
  • January 06, 2003   San Jose Mercury-News   Salmon Kill Blamed on Water Sent to Farmers .   In the largest die-off of adult salmon ever recorded in the West, 33,000 dead salmon stacked up along the Klamath River in Northern California, the result of the administration's decision to divert water from the river to farming interests, say California biologists. 25% of the river's fall chinook run died from overcrowding. There is also risk of more kills if the divertion to farmers continues. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would conduct its own investigation.     rw 005218
  • January 06, 2003   The Washington Post   U.S.: FDA Policies for Gene-Altered Foods Faulted in Report.   Genetically modified food could contain dangerous compounds because of the failure to regulate the production of such foods. The Food and Drug Administration made errors in reviewing GM crops, and the agency will not ensure the safety of food as more companies market transgenic foods. Experts fear "anti-nutrients," or harmful compounds, could appear in higher concentrations in genetically altered crops. These are common in miniscule amounts, the amount could increase when plants are genetically altered. The FDA has not established guidelines for testing in GM foods.     rw 005228
  • January 04, 2003   ft.com   Action Urged on Water Shortages.   By 2025, two-thirds of the world's countries will face a serious shortage of water. Water is likely to become a growing source of tension and competition between nations, but can also be a catalyst for co-operation. The 3rd World Water Forum, in Kyoto next March will attempt to to halve the number of people without access to water and sanitation by 2015. The researchers graded 147 countries to show which have the best and worst water situations. The countries lowest on the index - Haiti, Niger, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Djibouti, Chad, Benin, Rwanda and Burundi - are in the developing world. But the US and Japan, scored poorly in the water rankings, while two developing countries, Guyana and Surinam, were among the world top 10. The US received a low ranking because it was inefficient at using water, with the highest per capital water consumption. The highest-ranking countries were Finland, Canada, Iceland, Norway, Guyana, Surinam, Austria, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland.     rw 005188
  • January 03, 2003   Earth Policy Institute   Forest Cover Shrinking: Forests Provide Annual Wood and Services of $4.7 Trillion Worldwide.   Forests provide more than US$4.7 trillion a year in wood, pulp, soil erosion control, food, flood protection, etc - 10% of the gross world product. Forests also supply food and medicines. Only 290 million hectares of forest are protected from logging, but they are threatened by illegal exploitation. Illegal logging has devastated forests around the globe, reducing incentives to invest in sustainable forestry and accumulating losses of some $15 billion annually. Forest plantations cover less than 5% of forested areas, but account for 20% of current wood production. Growing demand will be from tree farms. A satellite-based survey found that 80% of forests are located in 15 countries. 88% of forest areas are sparsely populated, making them targets for conservation.     rw 005180
  • January 03, 2003   Berkeley Lab Science Beat   Climate Change Impacts May Cost the United States $3 Billion a Year in Corn Production Losses.   Increased precipitation, from climate change, may cause losses of US corn production to double over the next 30 years. Total precipitation in the US has increased over the last 100 years, especially the last two decades. The increase of precipitation expected in a changing climate could lead to increases in crop damage. The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation paid out $21 billion between 1981 and 2000. Increased damage will result in an increase in payments from government insurance programs.     rw 005187
  • January 03, 2003   Aetna Intelihealth.com   India's Home Minister Says Government Shocked Over Growing Numbers of Female Fetuses Aborted.   The government of India said that because of the preference for sons, the practice of aborting female fetuses is growing. It has been illegal for more than 100 years but census reports and activists say that data shows some 20 million to 40 million girls were aborted or killed in infancy. The laws against misuse of the ultrasound technology to determine pre-natal sex have been strengthened. A plan for a National Register of Citizens, with identity cards for all of India's 1.05 billion people may help, as no woman would be able to get such tests without identifying herself, and the results tracked.     rw 005205
  • January 03, 2003   San Francisco Chronicle   Activists Sue Over Relaxed Tuna-label Rules.   Conservation organizations said the Commerce Department's announcement relaxing labeling standards for "dolphin-safe" tuna ignored the evidence that tuna fleets are harming dolphins. This is called a political gift to Mexico at the expense of dolphin lives. The Department ruled imported tuna caught with nets can be sold as "dolphin safe," as long as no dolphins were killed or injured. The change will primarily affect Mexico because its boats drop nets on dolphins that swim above schools of tuna. Fisheries Service director Bill Hogarth said that the netting does not have a "significant adverse impact" on the dolphin population but onboard observers have underreported dolphin kills and failed to account for deaths caused by stress and the separation of baby dolphins from their mothers. Congress prohibited U.S. fishing boats from dropping nets on dolphins to trap tuna and imposed the same standard for foreign tuna imports in the 1980s In 1990 they prescribed the dolphin-safe label for tuna caught without netting dolphins. Major U.S. brands including StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea have promised not to buy tuna caught by netting dolphins.     rw 005208
  • January 02, 2003   New York Times*   Global Warming Found to Displace Species.   Global warming is altering the range and habits of numerous species worldwide in ways that could significantly disrupt ecosystems, according to findings of two research groups reporting in the current issue of Nature (Jan 2, 2003). The groups analyzed data on hundreds of species, particularly plants and animals which had been "carefully studied for many decades", and found a "clear [and unambiguous] ecological effect of rising temperatures". These effects included shifts in the ranges of species of "60 miles or more in recent decades" as well as alterations in habits such as the timing of egg laying and migrations. Dr. Richard P. Alley, an expert on past climate shifts at Penn State University, noted that one major problem arises from the fact that plants and animals that previously relied on one another may develop migration patterns which disrupt that relationship. This and similar changes could in the future lead to "substantial ecological disruption, local loses of wildlife and extinction of some species". Moreover, human activities could "amplify the effects of climate change". These findings are of great concern for a few reasons. First, average global temperature has risen only 1 degree in the past century but is predicted to rise 2.5 – 10 degrees in the next. If the ecological effects of only one degree are measurable, the effects of the predicted rise may be catastrophic. Second, global warming of this magnitude has occurred previously but over a much longer period of time (18,000 years since the depths of the last Ice Age) and was therefore more easily adjusted to. And third, these data put the theory of global warming on a firmer foundation and, with other data, confirm that these ecological changes have "a 95% chance of [resulting from] climate warming and not some other factor".   st 005162
  • January 2003   Push newsfeed   Australia: Nappy-shy Men Hold the Key to Declining Fertility.   Research shows men are a key to fertility. Parenting behaviour spurred by job insecurity is contributing to women’s declining fertility. A study found 40% of men between 30 and 34 would be childless at 35. 21% of women the same age were childless. Men are most likely to have children in their mid-thirties, while 70% aged 25 to 29 have no children. The median age of fathers in 2000 was 29.8 years. Job insecurity affected men’s decision not to have children. Young men in their late 20s and early 30s don’t have the responsibilities of their counterparts 20 or 30 years ago. The men least likely to commit to families earned low incomes. This is thought to contribute to the inability of women to find a man. This is a serious issue relevant to the declining birth rate, but also the implications of having these young men on the loose. Even in their forties, men were less likely than women to have a child and more likely to have fewer children. "At age 50, almost 20% of men are childless. The estimate for women is about 13%.     rw 005200
  • January 2003   Push newsfeed   Giants of World Economy Are Full of Eastern Promise: China and India’s Influence on the Global Stage is Set to Increase.   China is becoming the low-cost producer of products, while India is exerting downward pressure on service sector prices. Both countries face challenges in the form of public sector reform, demographic trends and World Trade Organisation membership, if their full potential is to be realised. After two decades of near double- digit expansion, China’s output now exceeds the combined output of South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The adoption of free market principles in the 1970s allowed the development of a manufacturing sector in the coastal provinces. The relocation of manufacturing from Hong Kong was followed by investment from Taiwanese companies. Transforming the coastal provinces has been straightforward, but the rest of the country is at a geographic disadvantage. The authorities have to overcome a banking system weighed down by loans to unproductive state-owned enterprises and ultimately the government will have to take responsibility, with implications for public finances. India's development has been less spectacular, but impressive in a global context with a growth of 5-6%. India has begun to reduce tariffs and became market-oriented. Low direct investment has inhibited the growth of manufacturing but the country has enjoyed a demand for its services. China’s "one child" birth control policy means the country faces demographic trends similar to many European countries. Between 2000 and 2050, the proportion of Chinese population above the age of 60 will rise from 10% to 30%. In 2040, India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country, and the ratio of workers to old people will be favourable. The adoption of a western consumer lifestyle, could make India’s growth more attractive than China’s. To realise its full potential, India needs more reform: the bureaucratic public sector has stifled enterprise and discouraged investment; state lending, aimed at the agricultural sector, has saddled the banks with bad debts; coalition governments have not pushed aside vested interests. If India restructures and China introduces further reform then they will transform the rest of the world.     rw 005203
  • January 2003   BBC News   Australia Plans World's Tallest Tower.   Energy company Environmission plans to construct a 3,300 foot solar tower in the Australian outback. It has the backing of the Australian government at a cost of about $500 million. The tower will provide electricity from solar power for 200,000 homes and save more than 700,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases. It is part of a campaign to encourage renewable energy. The structure will have the width of a football field and stand in the centre of a huge glass roof spanning 4.3 miles. The sun will heat the air under the roof, and as it rises will be sucked through 32 turbines that will generate power 24 hours a day. It was invented by German structural engineers Schlaich Bergerman, who built a demonstration power plant in Manzanares, Spain, in 1982.     rw 005207
  • January 2003   The Alan Guttmacher Institute;   EC Played Key Role in Abortion Rate Declines.   Overall, 110,000 fewer abortions occurred in 2000 than in 1994 and 46% of women having abortions were not using a contraceptive.The most common reasons were that they did not think they would become pregnant (33%), concerns about methods (32%), did not expect to have sex (26%). Other reasons included the following that they had not thought about it or begun using a method (22%); they had problems accessing contraception (12%); they were ambivalent about pregnancy (5%); they did not want their parents to know they were sexually active (2%); and they were forced to have sex (1%). More than half of were using a contraceptive method in the month they became pregnant, mainly condoms, 28% of all abortions and contraceptive pills (14%). They became pregnant because they had used the method inconsistently (76% of pill users, 49% of condom users). 42% of condom users indicated that the condom had broken or slipped out of place. Women aged 15-44 who use the pill correctly have only a 0.1%-0.5% chance of becoming pregnant. Couples who use condoms correctly have only a 3% chance of becoming pregnant. 7% of all women aged 15-44 do not use contraceptives and account for about half of all abortions.     rw 005209
  • January 2003   Patrick Burns   In a First, U.S. Puts Limits on California's Thirst - Commentary.   California's, population grew by more than 4.2 million between 1990 and 2000, 60% from direct immigration. The addition of 2,405,430 immigrants between 1990 and 2000 represents 58.5% of the growth but misses illegal immigrants. The primary consumer of water in California is agriculture and industry. Much agricultural water is wasted. Farmers pay about $70 for every acre-foot of water. Higher prices encourage investments in irrigation systems and a change in crop selection. It will cost $300 per acre-foot in Utah to deliver water to farmers and will produce crops worth about $30, but cost farmers $8. Farmers use more water than they would if market forces were allowed to guide the use of water. On a national level, we are using LESS water today than we did 20 years ago. While the population of the U.S. increased more than 16% between 1980 and 1995, water consumption declined 10%. Even a slight increase in the price of water or energy results in pressure to conserve water. The primary consumers are irrigation and industry, both have curtailed their water usage. Increased consumption is evident in the public supply and livestock. Population growth across the nation needs to be brought under control. population growth in the American West is a problem -- a huge problem. Arizona's population growth rate compares to Pakistan, Tanzania, and Honduras while Colorado's is similar to that of Ghana, El Salvador, and the Philippines.     kg 005211
  • January 2003       Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) plan to unveil a proposal that would force industries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. All industries to limit their emissions to 2000 levels by 2010 and 1990 levels by 2016. McCain has scheduled a plans to send a proposal to the Senate floor later this year. That proposal is bound to face stiff opposition.     rw 005219
  • January 2003   Xinhua General News Service   EU Gives Grant to Fund Uganda's Forestry Program.   The European Union (EU) has granted Uganda 13.7 million $US to fund a forestry program for the next five years. The program which began recently would protect biological diversity in forest reserves, establish plantations and provide facilities. The private sector must be encouraged to plant trees and improve their living conditions through export of products. Forests were threatened by Uganda's increasing population growth rate currently estimated at 3.4% that means that the population will double in the next 17 years.     rw 005224
  • January 2003   New York Times*   Pollution Linked to Low Birth Weights in African-Americans.   Researchers from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University have found that babies born to mothers living in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx who were exposed to ambient levels of air pollution during pregnancy had smaller babies with smaller than average head circumferences. Exposure of the mothers to air pollution was measured with air monitors worn by the women during pregnancy, and the levels of air pollutants and pesticides in the infants’ blood as well as their body and head sizes were measured at birth. Low birth weight and diminished head circumference were noted (only) among African American babies exposed to high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. But exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos produced low birth weights in babies born to both groups. The babies growth health and mental development will be followed for at least 5 years. 005243
  • January 2003   MSNBC.com   California Sues Grocers Over Mercury in Fish.   California is suing grocery chains, demanding they warn customers that tuna, swordfish and shark often contain mercury in higher amounts than other fish. The suit asks the court to prohibit the stores from selling the fish until they post a mercury warning. The grocers violated Proposition 65, that requires businesses to provide warnings before exposing people to known carcinogens and reproductive toxins. The defendants could face millions in civil penalties. Each defendant is liable for penalties of up to $2,500 per day for each violation. A warning system, not monetary fines, is the main objective and the state was trying to reach a mutual resolution.     rw 005316
  • January 2003   MSNBC.com   Dutch to Test Urban Wind Power Atop Buildings: 50,000 Sites, Quick Payback Cited as Advantages.   A windmill on the roof of a technical school barely whispers in a brisk winter breeze. High-tech turbines, are poised to be fused into building designs barely noticeable from a distance. Germany, Finland and Denmark have been experimenting with the technology, but the Dutch are pioneers, mainly because of their lack of space. Dutch cities plan to install urban windmills in 2003, small-scale projects with fewer than a dozen turbines each to test the system. Research has indicated there are 50,000 locations in the Netherlands where small turbines could be installed. The new windmills pay for themselves in about five years. The smallest models weigh 440 pounds, can be installed in a few hours and cost $5,000 to $12,000. The Netherlands generates less than 1% of its electricity from wind. Denmark generates 18%; Germany 4%; U.S. less than 1%. Holland has 245 days per year with wind of 13 to 19 mph, which can power the biggest turbines. The new urban turbines can begin to operate at 5 mph and require less maintenance. They generate close to where energy is consumed, less is dissipated in transmission lines. A building that accelerates wind through an integrated turbine was recently constructed in England. One theoretical danger, runaway windmill blades, could be averted by covering the turbines with gratings but effect of vibrations is still unknown. Other projects are underway to use the minimills for lifeboats, streetlights and portable generators.     rw 005326
  • January 2003   The Boston Globe;   In New England, Acid Rain Recovery Slow.   New England lakes and streams have been slow to recover from the effects of acid rain. The amount of acid found in precipitation in New England fell 30% during the 1990s, compared to a 40% drop nationwide. The number of "acidic systems" in the region fell just 2%. The number of acidic lakes in the upper Midwest fell 68%. The number of acidic lakes in the Adirondacks and Northern Appalachians fell 38% and 28%. One leading theory is that years of acid rain damaged the ecosystem's ability to bounce back. There is a need to cut back further on pollutants that cause acid rain.     rw 005344
  • January 2003   The Washington Post   Hydrogen-Powered Vehicles at Least a Decade Away.   President Bush promised $1.5 billion over five years to make hydrogen cars a reality. Hydrogen is clean, abundant, and could free the U.S. from foreign oil. The technology is in its early stages and expensive. Fuel-cell cars won't be a truly clean unless the hydrogen is generated by clean energy. Ford Motor Co. has a prototype that uses hydrogen in an internal combustion engine until fuel cells are fully developed. General Motors Corp. has a fuel cell-powered car - four wheels attached to a platform less than a foot thick, to which any kind of car body could be buckled. BMW has refitted 10 of its sedans with engines that burn either gasoline or liquid hydrogen and could mass produce them by the end of the decade if there are enough factories to produce the fuel, pipelines and trucks to distribute it and stations to store and sell it. Environmentalists dream of solar or wind power to produce hydrogen but costs would be prohibitive. Hydrogen from natural gas or coal is possible but the carbon dioxide would have to be injected underground to avoid greenhouse-gas emissions. Scarcity of oil and gas will eventually make hydrogen cost competitive. The Clinton administration launched a $1.5 billion venture to produce an 80 mpg car. The Bush administration halted it in favor of hydrogen strategy. Some contend the hydrogen option is a way of deflecting criticism over policies favoring energy production but others say it does not go far enough. Bush's plan is a $500 million increase over his current budget and would support research on fuel cells, vehicle technology and distribution. The magnitude of the goal demands an effort equal to the Apollo Moon project.     rw 005345
  • January , 2003   Women's Health Weekly   Contraception: New Women’s Condom Available at 20,000 German Pharmacies.   A latex women’s condom, V-Amour, is available at 20,000 pharmacies in Germany. The V-Amour is heralded as an advancement in AIDS prevention. Requests for V-Amour have been made from England, France, Italy, Thailand, Indonesia, Spain, countries in Africa, and others. It is awaiting approval from the U.S. F.D.A. V-Amour is based on the condom design and manufacturing techniques developed 10 years by A.V.K. Reddy of Princeton, N.J - who designs condoms as pleasure-enhancers to ensure their consistent use.     rw 006664
  • 2003     Reproductive Health on PBS.   This Fri, Bill Moyers' NOW program (at 9 pm on public TV here in California) is going to be on reproductive health. 006649
  • January 8, 2003   Grist Magazine   It's Time Americans Hit the Brakes on Consumption .   Holiday 2002 was a "failure," according to CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and Alan Greenspan. Americans didn't spend enough at the end of the year. However 2002 may be the year that Americans started questioning the need to consume. It may result in gloom-and-doom stories and dire predictions about the future. But less holiday consumption is good for us and our environment.     rw 005227
  • January 4, 2003   Agence France Presse   Six Percent of China Urban Residents in Extreme Poverty.   Six percent of China's 320 million urban residents receive only US $7.3 per month in government aid. There were 19.98 million urban dwellers living in poverty as of November. In 2002, the government provided urban poor with aid totaling 10.5 billion yuan, a record sum. 28.7% of city dwellers think it's difficult for them to find a job, 25.9% think the medical expenses are too high and 17.3% think education for their children is a burden. 12.8% have living space of less than five square meters and 33.7% have disabled family members. The average aid is 61 yuan, but in poor areas only 10 yuan per month. The Xinhua news agency reported that more than five million Chinese live in poverty in cities and do not receive help from the government. The 5.45 million urban dwellers have incomes of less than 152 yuan (18 dollars) per month, which qualifies them for basic living subsidies which must start being paid by the end of June. The problem is severe in China's northeastern area where workers have lost their jobs as inefficient state companies close down. There are 30 million rural poor in China.     rw 005202
  • January 1, 2003   Ralph Woodgate, Brewster NY   Happiness, Life, Or Wealth?.   The article by Bjorn Lomborg and Oliver Rubin in the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of Foreign Policy Magazine takes a simplistic, one-sided view of a complex situation and from this the authors attempt to define its eventual outcome. In doing so they are careful to omit any evidence that does not agree with their assumptions. For example the comment that "Vital minerals ---- should have been exhausted now. But they aren’t." A search of the Internet pages will quickly show that this is not the case, for example there is concern that lack of certain metals may limit fuel cell production. Some metals are likely to be depleted by the middle of this century. The comment "Yet food prices have never been lower" is not evidence that there is enough food in the world. A recent report states that 800 million people are undernourished or starving. Would the world’s food prices have been lower if all of these people had been fed? Development and changing weather patterns are reducing permanently the amount of arable land and a growing population is demanding more food. Then there is the comment that "Few (of the world’s) resources have turned out to be essential". Water is essential and the supply for both domestic and agricultural purposes is becoming critical in many countries, including our own. Some states are looking to de-salination as the solution, but this and pumping water over long distances demands more electrical power. With our growing population there is an increasing problem of pollution of our drinking water sources and water treatment is an option that also demands an increase in the amount of power available. Much of that power is generated from oil and natural gas. New reserves will continue to be discovered but a recent detailed report states that we now find one barrel of oil for every four we consume and new gas findings will peak in 2020. So here is another resource that is essential and for which we have no clear alternative. In spite of the efforts of technology we have no alternatives for oil and gas. The wind generators being installed are only estimated to produce a small proportion of our present and ever growing power needs. As the authors suggest, technology will change the picture, but can only help us to use our limited resources as efficiently as possible. Technology cannot replace limited resources. We could, if necessary, live without personal transport, but we cannot live without food and water, and our lifestyle will totally change without available power. Nowhere in the entire article is there any attempt to consider the ultimate way of life of the peoples of the earth, for example the phrase "For starters, global warming does not have remotely the same impact on wealth as would a theoretical exhaustion of essential world resources." Are we then linking the well being of our people only to wealth? Towards the end there is the comment that "had the emission of carbon dioxide posed a real threat to future growth, the global community would be capable of significantly limiting carbon dioxide emissions with the technology at hand." Have the authors failed to notice the many very costly efforts being made to reduce the levels of carbon dioxide, yet there is still a need for even further reduction. Finally there is the comment that "corruption, barriers to trade and war are the real threats to growth and prosperity". This suggests that growth and prosperity go hand in hand and if we continue to grow and prosper then in some strange but undetermined manner everything else will take care of itself. We will all be fed, the oil will flow and we will all have water in plenty no matter how much our population grows. This is so obviously impossible that perhaps the authors prefer not to look at hard facts. On the other hand they may believe that the birthrate will in some undetermined manner automatically fall. But according to their paper that would then be "too low to sustain a vibrant workforce", which would threaten "growth and prosperity". We must determine what lifestyle we want for the foreseeable future and only then can we determine the population level that we can support in that manner. We can then begin to plan the future for our world. Of course it will be difficult, it will take years to reach our goals and there will be many changes en route, but we will have some objectives to measure our performance. It is sad to see so many half truths and distortions of facts on such an important subject. 005161