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September 2002   Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)   Zimbabwe; Eighteen Percent of Cash-strapped Parents Withdraw Children From Schools.   In the last two months, 18% of Zimbabwe's families have removed their children from school citing a shortage of cash for school fees because the little money they have is used to buy food. Zimbabwe this year received 71 000 tonnes of food and 335 000 tonnes of grain but 850,000 people are still in need of food assistance. 49% of the population are in need of food aid and the country is looking for an extra 486,000 tonnes between now and March. Zimbabwe and South Africa agreed to open the Beitbridge border for 24 hours partly to ease the transportation of food aid. Officials criticised SADC governments for failing to remove bureaucracy in the movement of humanitarian aid.     rw

August 29, 2002   U.S. PIRG   USA: Annual Summer Smog Study Shows Persistent Public Health Threat in Nearly Every State: EPA Changes to Clean Air Regulations Would Exacerbate Already Dire Problem.   As the Bush administration eases up on regulations governing clean up of pollution from power plants and refineries, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S.PIRG) has released Danger in the Air, a study containing data from more than 1000 ozone monitors in 42 states and the District of Columbia, which "recorded more than 4600 instances during which Americans were exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution in 2001". Moreover, "partial 2002 data shows that the number of exceedances will triple or even quadruple in some states compared to 2001". "Ground-level ozone or ‘smog’ is a dangerous respiratory irritant" which, according to extensive research, is strongly linked to mortality from strokes as well as to the occurrence of millions of asthma attacks each year. In brief, the study found several things. In 2001, the concentration of ozone exceeded the current standard (0.08 parts per million [ppm] averaged over an 8-hr period) on 4,634 occasions in 42 states and Wash., D.C, and the number of exceedances in 2001 was 20% higher than it was in 2000. The smoggiest states were CA, PA and TX, but OH, MD, NJ, NC, WI, MI and VA were close behind. In general, the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states were smoggier in 2001 than in 2000. Preliminary 2002 ozone data from 20 states and Washington D.C. showed that the situation was getting worse. "The number of ozone exceedances ... in these 20 states combined" had doubled the number of ozone exceedances for all of 2000 and had risen by 60% over that recorded in these states for all of 2001. As of mid-August, 2002, IN, NC, IL and S.C. had already experienced 2.5 to 4 times the number of ozone exceedances which each of those states had experienced during all of 2001. In at least 12 other states, the number of ozone exceedances had risen significantly from the past two years. Rebecca Stanfield, co-author of the report, suggests that we begin intensifying our use of pollution control technologies. The report suggests "five policy solutions" to mitigate the problem. First, aggressive enforcement of the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program by the states and US EPA. Second, the designation of areas which are not in compliance with ozone standards. Third, the reduction of emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and mercury from power plants. Fourth, adoption of federal emission standards for diesel engines used off-road in construction and farm equipment and for the development of new standards for diesel fuel. And fifth, adoption of mandates and incentives to develop and market vehicles using electric, fuel cell and hybrid cars.     st

August 29, 2002   Los Angeles Times   U.S.: Sprawl Adds to Drought.   A report says that sprawl is worsening water supply problems. Development in Atlanta produces around 133 billion gallons of polluted runoff that would otherwise be filtered through the soil to recharge aquifers, streams and lakes. The report claims to show the magnitude of the problem and urges the Geological Survey to embark on a thorough study. Drought experts said that development exacerbated water shortages, but the extent was impossible to quantify. 40% of the country is suffering drought, especially the East Coast and Southwest. In arid regions, where much water comes from snowmelt, covering the ground with roads and buildings, decreases the reabsorption of rainwater which is important because ground water can seep into depleted bodies of water. The report said the problem can be mitigated if new road building is curtailed and open spaces--such as farms and forests--are preserved. They also urge the adoption of techniques to facilitate the absorption of storm water. The construction industry called the report a blatant effort by environmental groups to increase regulations on development as modern developments use sophisticated strategies to avoid the perils of runoff.     rw

August 29, 2002   Toronto Globe and Mail/Common Dreams   Give Solar Energy $50-Billion Boost, Gorbachev Group Says.   Mikhail Gorbachev's group Green Cross urged the World Summit on Sustainable Development to set up a $50-billion fund to promote solar energy, The money to come from subsidies, tax breaks and loan guarantees paid to coal, oil, gas and nuclear energy. The Green Cross supports investment in photovoltaic cells, hydrogen, wind and geothermal energy. The goal is for 20% of the world's energy to come from renewable sources and to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels. The United States and Canada are under pressure to ratify the Kyoto protocol. Ottawa spends $12-million a year supporting renewable energy, big business and environmental organizations, are pushing for more. Canada produces 0.1% of its electricity from wind. If Canada could produce 10% from renewable sources that would deliver 13% of Canada's commitments under the Kyoto protocol. Canada has spent $6-billion on nuclear technology, $40.4 billion on oil, gas and coal. The Canadian government has written off $2.8-billion of loans and investments in the non-renewable sector and $2.4-billion in export charges on oil. The Institute for Sustainable Development, said these figures would be higher if they included the environmental costs of burning oil, gas and coal.     rw

August 29, 2002   New York Times*   Lack of Basics Threatens World's Poor.   The United Nations says 1.1 billion people lack clean drinking water and 2.4 billion lack sanitation. More than 2.2 million people die each year from these causes, the number in India is staggering. Halving the number of people without clean water by 2015 will not be easy. Madagascar reported only 33% of their people had access to water. Uruguay said 35% had sanitation There is a need for the international transfer of technology, but John Hilary, adviser for Save the Children, warned against privatizing water supplies, that often put children at risk by raising rates.     rw

August 29, 2002   Grist emagazine   Got Sun? Marketing the Revolution in Clean Energy.   Environmental writer Bill McKibben said "Renewable energy is no longer the stuff of noble visions and pipe dreams: It's available, inexpensive and increasingly normal." But, "The gap between what we could be doing and what we are doing has never been wider." Solar and wind industries have grown almost 40% a year in the last 4 years. But solar and wind together account for less than 1% of the U.S.'s electricity production. Renewable energy is still more expensive than traditional energy sources, but just as important -- most consumers are turned off by the "purist, hippy-dippy" marketing methods used to sell renewables. Amely Greeven, a marketing consultant currently working on campaigns for Nike, Gucci, and Yves Saint Laurent says "Like it or not, the face of 'green' needs a makeover." BP - British Petroleum (aka "Beyond Petroleum") - has changed this, launching a "high-profile, high-concept, mega-bucks clean energy campaign". BP, America's largest supplier of oil and natural gas, is also the world's third-largest solar producer. In the new ad campaign, hip, straight-shooting urbanites say something like "Oil is old news. It's time for a new era." Or - "Think about your children. They're breathing the air I'm breathing, that you're breathing, and it's bad. And down the line, they will suffer. ... You know, if you have alternatives, invest the money in alternatives. You'll still make money. It won't make you a Communist. It'll just make you a better human being." BP has pledged to grow its solar business to $1 billion by 2007 and has predicted that renewable energy sources, which are now only 0.5% of America's energy production, will reach 50% of world production by 2050. BP had committed in 1997 to reducing its own greenhouse emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2010, but has already reached that goal. In response, other energy companies including Shell and ChevronTexaco have started public climate initiatives and investments in the solar, wind, and fuel cell industries. And in the last year, Shell has become one of the world's top solar producers.

August 29, 2002   New York Times*   Women's Rights.   Women farmers are doomed to remain impoverished, and the developing world's food supply precarious, if women are not given title to their own farms. It is key to maintaining and expanding the world's food supply. In many indigenous societies, women have been in charge of the agricultural production while men worked as warriors or hunters or, in later years, migrated to cities in search of work. About 80% of indigenous women now work as farmers, said Vicky Cali-Corpuz, who represented the indigenous peoples of Asia at the World Summit. But cheap produce imports by wealthier nations compete heavily against the indigineous. Getting credit and loans for such farmland is virtually impossible. Without loans, cash crops are difficult to produce. In addition, bringing a water tap to a village could save women hours of daily walking to bring water home; using solar energy to cook food could save them from having to collect firewood. "Empowering women guarantees more of the desired results for children," said Remi Paris, a poverty reduction expert for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

August 28, 2002   Push newsfeed   Australia: Putting a Foot Down on Population.   Some argue that Australia must dramatically increase its population numbers to expand the economy, maintain the tax base, and present a credible defence strategy. But Australia is the driest continent on earth, and ecologists such as Tim Flannery say that Australia's population should be less, around 8-12 million, not more. By looking at Australia's ecological footprint (EF), i.e. how much energy is used, how much food is consumed, how many resources are used in infrastructure (schools, roads, houses) and how many resources are being used to deal with all our waste, we can make a measurable determination of a sustainable population size. With 10 billion hectares of bio-productive land and 6 billion people in the world, that figures to 1.7 hectares of bio-productive land per person. Energy consumption is another component of EF. Australia is the third highest per capita energy consumer in the world, with the U.S. number one and Canada second. Australia’s per-capita footprint is 7.8 hectares. We in Australia should halve our energy consumption to halve our footprint. We could do this by either halving our population size or halving our rate of energy use. If we want to double our population to about 40 million we will have to consume one quarter of the energy we currently use (per person). This would mean drastically changing from households with two cars, two fridges and three TVs since our supplies of water, agricultural soil and fossil fuels will remain limited. Op-ed by Derek Eamus

August 28, 2002   San Francisco Chronicle   Diaphragm Put to Test Against HIV; Gates Foundation Helps UCSF Researcher Evaluate Birth-control Device in Africa.   HIV infections in southern Africa could be reduced by at least 33% if women used diaphrams and male HIV infections could be reduced by at least 50% by the use of male circumcision - researchers hope to substantiate this using a grant of $28 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. UCSF researcher Nancy Padian's study will enroll 4,500 women in Zimbabwe and South Africa to test the simple latex diaphragm used for birth control. Many women in Zimbabwe cannot get their partners to wear condoms. Dr. Jay Levy of UCSF said "I felt certain that if you could block virus-infected cells from the cervix, you could reduce transmission dramatically." Padian called the cervix a "hot spot" of susceptibility to HIV infection. The diaphragm's protection of the cervix also blocks diseases such as syphilis, which causes lesions that serve as gateways into the bloodstream for HIV. Women will often be able to use the diaphram without their sexual partner's knowledge, providing "female-controlled" barrier to HIV. The diaphragm costs about $25. In addition, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health will study male circumcision in Uganda, which can be performed for about $4.50. The male foreskin has up to six times the number of HIV-susceptible cells as the female cervix, studies have shown. Another part of the grant will go to the Eastern Virginia Medical School's Contraceptive Research and Development Program to test the effectiveness of microbicides that also would work as contraceptives.

August 28, 2002   San Francisco Chronicle   Altered Fish in a Battle for Survival.   Two California bills imposing strict controls on genetically modified fish are opposed by the biotechnology, grocery, and agriculture industries. A consumer right-to-know bill requiring the labeling of unpackaged transgenic fish in retail stores, and a bill designed to keep live transgenic fish out of state waters are in front of the California legistlature. The U.S. National Research Council has issued a warning of the dangers posed by live transgenic fish to wild populations. The bills are supported by the Ocean Conservancy, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club. Opponents include the Biotechnology Industry Organization, California Chamber of Commerce, California Farm Bureau, Grocery Manufacturers of America, National Food Processors Association, California Retailers Association and other trade groups.

August 28, 2002   London Guardian   Africa: Climate Foes Bury Hatchet.   In the first week of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Greenpeace International and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, have agreed to join forces. The two groups believe that the threat of human-induced climate change requires strong efforts by all sectors in a common international framework. Green Cross, the environmental group headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, is urging delegates to set up a $50 billion fund to promote solar energy, out of government subsidies now given to coal, oil, gas, and nuclear energy companies. The U.S. is trying to keep human, environmental, and freedom of information rights out of the action plan to protect multinational companies from litigation that could undermine security measures imposed after Sept. 11.  rw

August 27, 2002   ENN   Global Climate Change Threatens the Insurance Industry.   Losses from natural disasters have increased 15-fold since 1960. The insurance industry paid out $15 billion for Hurricane Andrew and seven companies went bankrupt. As the oceans warm, hurricanes are created in more places and travel farther. The world is projected to warm five degrees by 2050 and New York would be as prone to hurricanes as Miami. In 1997, after an unprecedented drought, a forest fire in Indonesia burned an area the size of South Korea. The consensus is that natural disasters will increase, in severity and frequency. The insurance industry is not prepared since U.S. law requires companies to base their rates on past events. The nonprofit ISO believes a storm of Andrew's magnitude would drive 36 percent of American insurance companies into bankruptcy and the average price of insurance would triple. If a mega-catastrophe hit the country buying property insurance would representing a threat to property values. Claims on federally offered insurance have grown 600 percent in the last three decades and the Bush Administration is attempting to deny insurance to people hit by floods more than twice in 10 years.     rw

August 27, 2002   Christian Science Monitor   Developing World Wants Action, Not Talk, at Summit.   It has been a challenge to change attitudes about environmental protection in the developed world and improving the quality of life in the less developed world. But now the question is how to pay for these improvements. Rich and poor countries are divided over aid funding and free trade. What is needed is an action plan spelling out greater access to clean water, better sanitation, and support for sustainable energy, along with specific committments and investments towards that plan. Developing countries want more direct aid and lower trade barriers. They say rich nations subsidize their own farmers and business but threaten to cut off aid to developing countries that do not eliminate their own subsidies. Overseas development assistance has fallen from 0.33% in 1990 to 0.22% in 2000, while the UN's goal has been far above that at .7%. While the EU says it will to open its markets to 47 of the world's poorest countries, and the U.S. promises to increase aid by more than $5 billion over the next three years, these funding promises need to be made in writing.

August 27, 2002   San Francisco Chronicle   U.S.: California: White House Accepts Water Ruling: More Could Flow to Central Valley Farmers, Less to Fish and Wildlife.   The Bush administration has made a series of decisions that threaten the environment - more logging in national forests to wildfire hazard, pushed for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supported weakening standards on arsenic in drinking water and resisted imposing a federal ban on oil drilling off the California coast. Now the administration supports a ruling by a federal court judge which may provide more water to Central Valley agriculture at the expense fish and wildlife in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Delta system. The 1992 Central Valley Water Project Improvement Act, which provides 800,000 acre-feet of water annually for bay/Delta fisheries, was challenged by the Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre irrigation district in the western San Joaquin Valley, which said the rules for environmental water releases was unfair.

August 27, 2002   Wall Street Journal   New Abstinence-Based Sex-Education Program That Focuses on Health, Not Moral Issues.   Scott & White Hospital is offering a program called Worth the Wait that teaches students "there isn't such a thing as safe sex for a teenager," giving "genuine health reasons" why teenagers should not be sexually active. For example, a part of the material reveals sexually active teenage girls have a higher risk of cervical cancer resulting from human papillomavirus than do adult women. Middle school students and some high school students in 31 Texas school districts are receiving the course. Sexually active students are advised to "discuss with a health care professional," but homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, condoms, or contraception are not addressed. SEICUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council wants to "send a loud and clear message" to federal lawmakers that no additional money should be spent on "unproven and harmful abstinence-only-until marriage programs," and has recently announced its "No New Money" campaign to that end. SIECUS partners with Advocates for Youth and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in this effort. President Bush has proposed spending an additional $135 million on abstinence-only education programs in fiscal year 2003, bring the total spent on abstinence-only to $500 million.

August 27, 2002   The Boston Globe   A Pain of Labor That Never Ends; in Africa, Women Suffer Needlessly From the Complications of Childbirth.   Fistula is a childbirth complication that happens when babies are too large to pass through the pelvic area and labor is long, resulting in tears or cutting off the blood supply to the tissue in the mother's body, either between the bladder and vagina or between the rectum and vagina. This condition, if not corrected, leaves the young women in a condition of incontinence or constantly soiling themselves, social outcasts, abandoned by their husbands, and hounded by hungry hyenas that can smell their wounds. Two million women annually are affected- 50,000 to 100,000 new cases each year - usually those under age 16 - the "overwhelming majority" of whom are in Africa. Child marriage, early childbirth, scarcity of prenatal care; the stunting of a women's growth by poor nutrition, and "the low status of women," are the usual factors. Nigeria has 1 million victims. More than one third of Ethiopian girls marry before the age of 15. One in 16 women die in childbirth or of pregnancy-related complications in Africa. Fewer than 10% of pregnant Ethiopian women have a skilled health-care worker attending their labor. 150 years ago fistula was common in Europe and the United States. Two years ago the Ethiopian government increased the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18. Of fistula victims receiving treatment for the condition, 90% were cured with the first surgery. 7% will need additional surgery. Three percent cannot be helped. In Ethiopia only about 1,500 of 8,000 fistula victims are repaired annually.

August 27, 2002   Village Voice   A World Without Water.   During the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, thousands of anti-globalization activists and environmentalists will be trying to call attention to the dangers of privatizing the world's water supplies. Only 5% of the world population receives water from corporations and activists want to stop the process. In 1998 the World Bank predicted the global trade in water would generate up to $800 billion a year. Two years later, water companies, backed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) strong-armed the UN into defining water as a human need (sold for profit by private companies) instead of a human right (people are ensured equal access on a nonprofit basis). Private companies had a green light to lease, buy, or enter into agreement for existing water systems from which they profit by charging for water; some also provide sewage disposal, and implement water treatment plants. Many of these companies have guarantees written into their contracts, so profits cannot fall below a predetermined number and they can sell any surplus to the highest bidder. Two conglomerates, Vivendi Universal and Suez, based in France, have 70% of the world water market. Suez operates in 130 countries, Vivendi in more than 90. The UN identifies approximately six places where water is so scarce that human life may not be sustainable and conflict may arise over the dwindling resources. Water giants like Vivendi insist that for-profit companies are wealthy enough to invest in new technology and improvements to aging systems while poor governments are not. Activists like Barlow say that for-profit companies are not set up as sustainable enterprises or to conserve resources and there is no source to replace the water that modern humankind consumes. Desalination has proven expensive and leaves behind water mostly uninhabitable for marine life. According to the latest calculations, there are only 8.6 million cubic miles of fresh water left on earth, 2.6% of the 330 million cubic feet of total water. The UN predicts that two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-scarce regions by 2025. Much of the problem is due to river damming and the Green Revolution that replaced drought-resistant crops with water-guzzling varieties. Farmers were forced to forgo sustainable irrigation and deep wells became the norm, pulling groundwater out of water-scarce areas. Developers tried to solve the irrigation problem by building big dams. According to Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project, there were 5000 large dams (more than 15 meters high) worldwide in 1950. There are now 45,000. The Ganges, Yellow River, Nile, and Colorado dry up before reaching the ocean, and water that would feed aquifers runs into the ocean without moisturizing forests and marshlands. The Ogallala Aquifer, which stretches from the Texas Panhandle to South Dakota is believed to have contained 4 trillion tons of pristine water. It is now mined by over 200,000 wells that pull out 13 million gallons per minute, 14 times faster than nature's replenishing rate. Each year since 1991 the aquifer's water table has dropped three feet. By some estimates, more than half its water is gone. The Department of Water Resources of California says that if more supplies aren't found by 2020, residents will face a shortfall nearly as great as the amount consumed today. "Water scarcity is a source of conflict in many places," says Barlow. "Almost every country in the Middle East is facing a water crisis." Israel has aggressively mined water, severely taxing water systems in Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian townships. Turkey has caused tension with plans to dam the Euphrates River, diverting much of its flow to Syria and Iraq. Bangladesh, is suffering because India has diverted and dammed so many of its water sources. In Africa, relations between Botswana and Namibia are strained by Namibian plans to construct a pipeline to divert water from the Okavango River. Ethiopia plans to take more water from the Nile, although Egypt is dependent on those waters for irrigation and power. As water tables fall in the North China Plain as well as in India's Punjab region, experts are bracing for a highly combustible imbalance between water supplies and human needs. The U.S., Canada, and the European Union want the UN to start adopting trade agreements similar to those put forth by the WTO. They're pressuring the UN to implement "voluntary partnerships" with private companies to take over government-run industries devoted to public health, clean air, and water. Representatives from the companies reassure officials that they can privatize and conserve at the same time. But several developing countries landed in WTO court for trade violations that were permitted under UN accords. Poorer nations want to know which entity has ultimate power, and they hope it's the UN. Unfortunately, says Barlow, the shadow summits probably won't have much impact on the WSSD outcome. The bigger goal, she says, is to derail the privatization trend at the World Water Forum scheduled for next March in Japan. Developed nations are taking from each other. The Bush administration is considering using the oil-pipeline infrastructure in the Northern Provinces to flow Canadian water to the American Midwest, which, under the North American Free Trade Agreement, is legitimate. Once Canada opens the taps, it can't turn them off again without violating NAFTA accords.     rw

August 27, 2002   TASS (Russia)   Children's Death Rate in Russia to Decrease 20 Percent.   Russia's Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced the goal to decrease infant mortality by 6.5%, children's death rate by 20% and women's illnesses by 5% by 2003-2006.

August 27, 2002   Associated Press   Malaysia Defends Immigration Laws.   Malaysia relatively wealthy compared to its poorer Southeast Asian neighbors, become a magnet for migrants. Illegal foreign workers have been subjected to whipping, crowded detention centers with little food or water, and large fines since an August 1 crackdown. Up to 600,000 illegal workers were in Malaysia before the laws were introduced. Another 300,000 fled Malaysia before the August deadline. Indonesia and the Philippines have objected to the mistreatment of their peoples. Three Filipino children died recently during deportation due to dehydration or overcrowding. One Phillipines senator, Ralph Recto, called the measures "ethnic cleansing."

August 27, 2002   New York Times*   Iran Legislators Vote to Give Women Equality in Divorce.   Even though its passage by the hard-line Guardian Council is unlikely, the approval in Iran's reformist Parliament of a bill that would grant women an equal right to divorce is considered a big victory both for women and reformist politicians. The bill would replace the post 1979 revolution civil code which says "a man can divorce his wife whenever he wishes," with a more strict but equal criteria for permitting divorce: addiction, mental illness or violent behavior. Another bill that would have raised the legal marriage age for girls from 9 to 15 was blocked by the Guardian Council, which said it went against Islamic law. However, the Expediency Council, which resolves differences between Parliament and the Guardian Council, approved raising the minimum age to 13. Women in Parliament proposed that Iran join the U.N. Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), but dropped the idea when clerics in the religious city of Qum declared that the convention was against Islam.

August 27, 2002   Vietnam News Briefs   Vietnam: Social & Cultural Issues: PM Calls for Lower Population Growth.   Vietnam's population is rising at 1.2%, or 1 million people, per year, with 113-122 million expected by 2050. The country's Committee for Population, Family and Children wants to decrease this rate to 1.16% by 2005. At the same time the goal is to reduce the number of malnourished children from 30% to 25% and also reduce the numbers of street and drug- addicted children. 77,000 people are living on the street and three million are handicapped.

August 27, 2002   New York Times   Chinese Will Move Waters to Quench Thirst of Cities.   China intends to rechannel water from the Yangtze basin to the north, using three pathways of nearly 1,000 miles each. The official price tag of $58 billion, is more than twice that of the Three Gorges Dam. Some officials speak of delivering water to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. The plan will uproot 370,000 people. This venture raises questions, including how to deliver clean water across a polluted landscape. Perhaps toughest of all is how to provide for those who will be moved. For many who live around the Danjiangkou Dam their travails parallel China's ambition to meet its water needs. Bitterness survives from earlier rounds of resettlements. Chinese officials are working feverishly on two routes to begin in the coming year. Northern cities have begun to raise water prices and reduce waste, to provide solutions. Provinces are fighting over how water will be shared, because some will require expensive cleansing. The demand has become urgent throughout the densely populated north-central area. Over-pumping of groundwater in some areas has caused sinking of land. Urban consumers take water from farmers, while planners warn of restrictions on industry. China's arid northwest, is being destroyed by drought and overuse. The western route would channel water from tributaries of the Yangtze to China's northwest. But taking water from Tibetan regions may stir political controversy, and pose engineering challenges and costs estimated at $36 million. The coastal route will require 13 pumping stations, and consume large amounts of electricity. It cuts across the world's most soiled river basins. The canal that is still in use, bustles with barges, its shores lined with primitive houseboats, home to hundreds of thousands of people. It also receives untreated sewage from towns and villages and the effluence of thousands of factories. "If you drink the water you get rashes and diarrhea". The cleanup plans include the closure of thousands of dirty factories, many owned by local governments and the building of sewage plants in each of 119 counties along the canal. The government has not said what is to become of the decrepit flotilla and the multitudes who live on or near the canal. Along the central route, pollution will not be a problem. But this plan calls for diverting water north by a new canal from the Han River. But the Danjiangkou dam and reservoir will have to be raised, displacing about 300,000 villagers. The reservoir will not hold enough water to feed the north and meet regional needs and will have to be replenished by a new canal to bring water at enormous expense from the Three Gorges Dam —reducing its electrical capacity by 6 percent or more. Villagers have heard nothing about relocation. The new moves may destroy forests and grasslands and will require bringing drinking water, electricity and roads to those moved in the 1970's.     rw

August 27, 2002   Village Voice   California Water Shortage.   According to the California Department of Water Resources, if more supplies aren't found by 2020, residents will face a shortfall nearly as great as the amount consumed today.

August 26, 2002   London Guardian/Common Dreams   Ecological Decline 'Far Worse' Than Official Estimates Leaked Paper - OECD's Grim Warning on Climate Change.   A leaked document prepared for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development from the UN, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and academic papers as a preliminary to the Johannesburg meeting on sustainable development showed a worse than unexpected ecological decline. Aid for environmental protection and social services has declined. Subsidies for industry and agriculture in wealthy countries are affecting development in poor countries. 80% of global finance went to rich countries in 2000, the African continent receiving less than 1%. Unrestricted market access would increase the incomes of more than 2 billion people in the most populated countries by 4% a year. If the EU, Canada, Japan and the US allowed migrants to make up 4% of their workforce, the returns to poor countries could be $160 billion to 200 billion a year. Extinction of species is now reaching 11% of birds, 18%-24% of mammals, 5% of fish, and 8% of plants. OECD reports nearly 50% of all fish stocks are fully exploited, 20% are overexploited· Only 2% of global fisheries is recovering. By 2025 15% of all forest species will be extinct. Over the next 18 years, global energy use will expand by more than 50%. "The non-renewable fossil fuel resource base is expected to meet demand to 2020," the report says. OECD countries subsidize the emission of global warming gases by $57 billion and reducing climate change emissions would have no effect on the global economy. 60% of the world's population lives in ecologically vulnerable areas, 3 million die each year due to air pollution and 5 million from unsafe water. Global water withdrawals will rise 31% by 2020, while being replenished at a rate of 0.1% to 0.5%.     rw

August 26, 2002   London Guardian   Earth Summit: Issues Facing the UN's World Conference on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.   The world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg aims to reconcile development and growth with sustainability, in a world growing in population, with increasing demands for food, water, shelter, sanitation, energy, health services and economic security. To achieve this, developing countries must avoid damaging the environment as they expand industries. Richer countries must cut differences in wealth between the wealthiest and poorest nations. There is a strong presence from firms such as McDonald's, Rio Tinto, Nike, Nestle and British American Tobacco. The UN has identified five areas where results are essential, water, sanitation, energy, agricultural productivity, biodiversity, ecosystem management and health. Developing countries want more aid, more money to protect the environment, greater trade liberalisation. Delegates must address the fact that the world's water will run out in 30 years. Britain's environment minister wants to focus on sustainable energy for the developing world. The richer countries want liberalisation in other markets. Environmental groups accused the US delegation of obstructing attempts to impose new targets and timetables on relieving poverty and promoting development.     rw

August 26, 2002   New York Times   The Environmentalists Are Wrong (by Bjorn Lomborg).   The developed world worries that human activity is defiling the earth and may end up killing itself. This is not supported by the evidence. Resources are more abundant, more food produced. Only 0.7% of species are expected to disappear in the next 50 years. Environmental pollution has been exaggerated and can be cured by accelerating growth. Despite evidence, the West focuses on sustainability. Carbon dioxide has increased global temperature, yet the debate aims at reducing emissions without regard to cost. The Kyoto treaty, aims for Europe to cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2012. This will have less impact in industrialized nations than developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol will cost $150 to $350 billion annually and this cost for one year could provide every person with clean water. The focus should be on development, not sustainability. The developed world prioritizes the future at the expense of the present. The U.S. administration should focus on clean water, better sanitation and health care and the fight against poverty. If the United States is willing to commit the resources to ensure development, it could emerge as the savior.   [Note: this article is by one of the chief naysayers of population and the environment. Rebuttals submitted to WOA!! are always welcome -- in fact we even intend to develop a special Bjorn Lomborg page.]  rw

August 26, 2002   Inland Planet   US Citizens Launch 34 Million Dollar Campaign for UN Population Fund.   Inland Planet, a West Coast outgrowth of the Planet Campaign, is asking folks to make a $1 dollar contribution to the UNFPA as a show of support for the UNFPA and as a protest of Bush Administration's decision to end U.S. funding for the UNFPA. People can send their $1 contribution (if check - payable to US Committee for UN Population Fund) to: 34 Million Friends Campaign US Committee for UN Population Fund 220 E. 42nd Street 28th Floor NY, NY 10017

August 25, 2002   Sierra magazine   Freedom (from Oil) Option Package.   This two page brochure from the Sierra Club describes several ways to improve the fuel economy of vehicles, and suggets that consumers demand these technologies. They are, Continuously Variable Automatic Transmission, Variable-Valve-Control Engine, Integrated Starter-Benerator, and Fuel-Efficient Design. Also given are the addresses of the Web Sites that provide information on the technologies involved.     rw

August 25, 2002   New York Times*   In Race to Tap the Euphrates, the Upper Hand Is Upstream.   The waters of the Euphrates River are in short supply, as Syria, Turkey, and Iraq battle for a share of the river. Similar struggles are taking place all over the world, from Texas to China, as water resources grow scarce and competition for them mushrooms. Less than 1% of the world's water supply is suitable for drinking or agriculture, and demand has increased six-fold over the last 70 years; meanwhile, the supply itself might be shrinking due to the erratic weather patterns caused by global warming. Researchers estimate that by 2015, at least 40% of the world's population will live in countries where it is difficult or impossible to satisfy basic water needs. According to the World Bank, dwindling water supplies will inhibit economic growth, and the U.N. and a Central Intelligence Agency advisory group predict that competition for water will lead to an increasing number of conflicts worldwide.     rw

August 24, 2002   Time magazine   Time Magazine Green Century Poll.   Population growth leads all others as posing the greatest threat to the enviroment in a CNN/Time poll. Take a look and put in your vote.

August 24, 2002   International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis   Population at Johannesburg.   The United Nations (UN) World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg should figure population as a key component of sustainable development. But the topic is absent even after four preparatory meetings. If we do not put the human population at the core of the sustainable-development agenda, our efforts to improve human well-being and preserve the quality of the environment will fail. This is one of the basic conclusions of the Global Science Panel on Population and Environment, an independent body of experts organized by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population and the United Nations. Two key policies are needed, investment in voluntary family planning and education of women, in order to reduce fertility. Details are available at www.iiasa.ac.at/gsp. Subjects covered are Population in Sustainable Development, a Demographically Diverse World, Population Matters to Development and Environment Research, Policy Must Account for Differential Vulnerability Within Populations, Empowerment Through Education and Reproductive Health Benefits, People and the Environment, Strengthening Interdisciplinary Training and Research.     rw

August 24, 2002   The Economist;   Differing Demography of United States, Western Europe.   The United States is becoming younger, while Europe's population is aging. Between 1960 and 1985, the U.S. rate dropped to 1.8 births per woman. In the 1990s the rate rose to just below 2.1 births per woman - possibly because of "higher-than-average fertility" among immigrants and the U.S. "economic boom,". Europe's women average fewer than 1.4 births in their lifetime.     rw

August 23, 2002   New York Times*   Amazon Forest Still Burning Despite the Good Intentions.   The Amazon basin accounts for more than half of the world's tropical forests. The assault on its resources continues, with Brazil in the lead. 10 years ago agreements were made aimed at protecting forests, oceans, the atmosphere and wildlife. Within three years, however, the deforestation rate in the Amazon, had doubled, to an area the size of Maryland. Since then, the government of Brazil has begun numerous initiatives aimed at curbing the cutting and burning of the forest. But the Brazilian jungle is disappearing at a rate of more than 6,000 square miles a year and will accelerate as the government moves ahead with a program aimed at improving the livelihoods of the people. Soybean production has begun to play a big role in the deforestation. China is the world's biggest importer of soy products and Brazil is rushing to meet that demand. No one knows exactly the quantity of greenhouse gases Brazil is already pumping into the atmosphere as a result of such efforts to tame its vast jungle. Uncontrolled logging is still practised in many areas.     rw

August 23, 2002   New York Times*   U.S.: S.U.V. Haters Pitch a Curbside Battle.   A group concerned about global warming has begun distributing mass-traffic ticket look-alikes to S.U.V's. Two women let the air out of the tires of S.U.V.'s and were sentenced to 50 hours of community service. Some vicitims see activism as harassment. E-mail from victims called Earth on Empty members names such as tree-huggers, elitists, freedom-removers, losers, homosexuals, Democrats and filthy people. John, who runs the Earth on Empty Web site, says the group wants to stigmatize S.U.V. owners the way animal lovers stigmatize women who wear fur coats.     rw

August 22, 2002   London Guardian   Cows Are Better Off Than Half the World: the Growing Chasm Between Rich and Poor is Threatening Global Security.   The average European cow receives US$ 2.20 (pounds 1.40) in subsidies a day while 2.8 billion people in the world live on less than US$ 2 a day. The richest 25 million Americans have an income equal to that of almost 2 billion people, while the assets of the world’s three richest men is greater than the combined income of the world’s least developed countries. Sierra Leone, at the bottom of the United Nations’ human development index has a per capita income of US$ 130 per year - less than the dollar-a-day level considered subsistence level. The average Sierre Leonian has a life expectancy of 37 while 30% of the children die before their fifth birthday. As television, now available to the poor, brings home the enormous income gap, the rich may have to lock themselves in gated enclaves to keep out the dispossessed and angry masses. The brightest from the developing world migrate to seek better opportunities elsewhere. With borders increasingly sealed against economic migrants, the trafficking of people has become more lucrative than drug smuggling. The goals of the UN millennium summit 2 years ago - halving global poverty over the next 15 years, eradicating hunger, reducing under-five mortality by two-thirds and getting every child of primary school age into a classroom - can be accomplished with 40-60 billion dollars over current aid spending - about a sixth of what the west currently spends on subsidising its farmers. 33 countries, most in Africa, totalling a quarter of the world’s population, are likely to miss half these targets. It make take 130 years to rid the world of hunger if living standards don't raise faster than the current snail's pace. Halving poverty in sub-Saharan Africa would require a per capita growth of 4% in the next 15 years. It can be done: in 1990 24% of the world's poor lived in poverty, compared to 20% today - due to rapid growth in east Asia. Compare Senegal to South Korea. Both countries had a GDP of US$ 230 in 1960. South Korea is now a hi-tech leader supplying components for America’s computer industry and sees a per capita GDP of $US 8,910. Senegal, on the other hand, has barely improved, with GPD now at US$ 260. Blighted by debt, conflict and unfavourable geography, Africa's future seems to be at a disadvantage compared to east Asia. In addition, while South Korea was allowed to protect its infant industries from being overwhelmed by more mature competitors, Africa is being required to open up its markets by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

August 22, 2002   The Guardian (London)   The Quest to Grow Without Grime: Providing Power to the Poor Without Destroying the Planet is This Century's Biggest Challenge.   Providing power without causing climate change is the biggest challenge and as conditions worsen the poor will suffer its worst impacts. Already the costs of natural disasters are escalating. Excess heat and uncertain rains, that aid insects such as mosquitoes, and lower crop yields, are spreading disease particularly in Africa. Deserts are spreading, through climate change, bad farming, overgrazing and forest destruction. Billions of gallons of water released from melting glaciers, plus the expansion of the oceans is causing a rise in sea level. But more than 2 billion people are cooking on wood, dung and charcoal, collecting heating fuel and destroying tree cover. Air pollution, from cooking fires, causes 1.8m deaths a year. The world's richest nations set a target in 1999 to give electricity to 1 billion people but this has been abandoned, due to lack of enthusiasm from the US. New technologies such as wind, wave and solar power would be harnessed, while inefficient coal and oil would be phased out. The US, which produces 25% of the world's greenhouse gases, will have to be persuaded to rejoin the process. Renewable sources of energy are being developed worldwide but fossil fuels still dominate. Last year, coal, oil and gas power stations produced 64.5% of the world's power, 19% came from hydro-power, nuclear power stations 16% and only half of 1% came from renewables, including geothermal power. Since 1663 - when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can first be reliably measured, the amount of this greenhouse gas has been rising steadily. In 1663, there were 279 parts per million in the air and last year it rose to 370.9ppm. Wind power is the world's fastest growing energy industry and there are now enough wind generators to power 12 million European homes. Solar works well, though expensive, while wave power has potential. Europe is developing its renewables fast. Brazil, the central American states and Indonesia are championing a campaign in Johannesburg that would require all countries to fix the use of "new renewables" at 10% of their energy mix by 2010.     rw

August 22, 2002   London Guardian   A Vision of Dystopia.   By mid-century nine billion people will be generating $140 trillion a year. That will reduce the 1.2 billion people living on less than a dollar a day, but can bring environmental catastrophe and lower living standards for everyone. Economic growth is vital for tackling poverty, reducing infant mortality and giving every child an education. Global coordination will be critical if gains in incomes, literacy rates and access to sanitation are not reversed by population growth. A World Bank report warns we could be confronted by dysfunctional cities, dwindling water supplies, inequality and conflict with even less land to feed us. The biosphere's capacity to absorb carbon dioxide has been compromised by the use of fossil fuels. Nearly 23% of all crop land, pasture, forest and woodland have been degraded, a fifth of tropical forests cleared. Developing countries should promote participation and democracy; rich countries be less selfish by increasing aid, debt relief, opening their markets and transfering technologies to prevent diseases, increase energy and bolster agriculture. Firms should focus on sustainability and profit while advancing environmental and social objectives. Four open questions are posed in the conclusion to the report. When is consumption overconsumption? What is the future of genetically modified products? How can the interests of patent holders be balanced against those of the users of products? What are the prospects for global migration?     rw

August 22, 2002   Planet Ark/Reuters   Kenya, Tanzania to Sell Maize to Zambia .   After rejectin genetically modified maize, the Zambian government will buy maize from Kenya and Tanzania who have offered to supply natural maize to ease the problem the country is facing from the current shortage. Purchases from Kenya, which has a maize surplus, and Tanzania are expected to fill all of Zambia's current requirements. Zambia faces a deficit of 630,000 tonnes. Drought and floods in key growing areas has reduced Zambia's food production. Four million people in Zambia faced starvation. Last month Zambia would not accept GM maize until it determined whether it was safe for human consumption. 42,000 tonnes of GM maize destined for Zambia would be diverted to other southern African countries. Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho unconditionally accept GM maize.     rw

August 22, 2002   The Guardian (London)   Earth: the Shackles of Poverty: Too Little Schooling. Too Many Mouths to Feed: the Poor Are Trapped in a Viscious Circle: Population.   Ten years ago in Rio population growth was unmentionable, because of the Vatican's objections to birth control. By 2050, the population is expected to reach 9.3 billion with most born in the poorest countries of the world. More than half the world's population - 3.7 billion - live in Asia in some of the most overcrowded and primitive conditions. The key to population control is the education of women, and improvement in healthcare. A child born in an industrialised country will add more to consumption and pollution than 30 to 50 children in developing countries. The 49 least- developed countries will nearly triple in size in 50 years to 1.86 billion people, while the largest generation of young people in human history, 1.7 billion people aged between 10 and 24, is now at or reaching reproductive age. But discussion on controlling population growth will again be taboo in Johannesburg because of a coalition between the Vatican, Islamic states and Christian fundamentalists. The UN believes a huge effort is needed to prevent more and more people being born into poverty, and into worsening conditions where escape is more and more difficult.     rw

August 21, 2002   BBC News   Cities to Drive World Economy.   The World Bank says the global economy could expand by 400% in the next 50 years, reaching $140,000 billion and that living standards "could be much higher" with world population stabilizing at 9-10 billion. [??!!] But for gains to be equally shared the gap between rich and poor will have to be tackled, as will the problems of urban slum dwellers and the rural poor living on "fragile lands". Current production and consumption patterns," are not sustainable said Nick Stern, the World Bank's chief economist. The gap between rich and poor countries has doubled in the past 40 years. The average income in the richest 20 countries is 37 times higher than the income in the poorest 20 countries. Switzerland has 7 million people and an economy worth $266 billion, while the whole of sub-Saharan Africa has 700 million and an economy of $316 billion. 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty, on $1 per day. one quarter of people in developing countries (1.3 billion in all), including many of those in extreme poverty, live in zones with fragile ecosystems, including forests, arid regions, mountains and wetlands. Since the 1950s, 23% of all cropland, pastures, forest and woodland have been degraded, while every 10 years 5% of tropical forests disappear. Today 1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and by 2050, half the world's population may lack such access. 40% of the population in the Middle East, North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa live in areas that cannot sustain them. The bank has made a controversial proposal that water should be privatized, but poor people must be given prior property rights to water, with the choice of whether to use it for farming or to sell it. And governments must go beyond the market in deciding how much water must be kept back for environmental reasons, to maintain river levels. Hugh gains will be made, says the bank, if population growth shifts to low. While 2 billion will be added in the next 20 years, only 1 billion is expected to be added in the 30 years after that - as better educated women decide to have fewer children. By 2050, 65% of the world's population will live in cities, and in the developing world there will be 54 megacities - those containing more than 10 million people - compared with 15 now. Urbanisation has its advantages and disadvantages, increasing the "catchment area of markets and the returns to economic endeavour", and supporting risk-taking, innovation, and technology, but also lacking water access, sanitation, and electricity, and hosting shanty towns where people are poor and have no legal title to land. 837 million live in shanty towns or slums- 50% the urban residents in Africa, 33% of those in Asia, and 25% of those in Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Bank advocates better tools to measure the effects of the depletion of resources on the economy. Market failures must be addressed by governments.

August 20, 2002   New York Times   Managing Planet Earth; Experts Scaling Back Their Estimates of World Population Growth.   [Note: the projected peaking of the world's population at 10 billion is not news. The estimate of 10 billion was announced early in the year 2000. This article is misleading in that regard.] Demographers have been stunned by a plunge in birth rates which was totally unexpected. Although they once predicted a peak in earth’s population of 12 billion by 2200, they now believe it may peak at 10 billion. The world’s current population of 6.2 billion is increasing by 77 million people per year, 97% of which is occurring in developing countries. In order of growth rate, the countries with the most rapidly growing populations are India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. By 2050, "India will have 100 million more people than China", because of both its growth rate and its current large population base. The US now ranks seventh in growth, comparable to that of developing countries, 80 % of which comes from immigration. These observations contradict some previously held beliefs. One of these is that education and the increasing economic participation of women were preconditions for a drop in fertility rates. A second incorrect belief is that religion and culture would "thwart efforts to cut fertility". However, Italy’s rapidly shrinking family size and Islamic Iran’s success with family planning contradict this belief. Nevertheless, three trends which have been observed are continuing -- urbanization, the graying of societies (with some exceptions due to high mortality among young adults due to AIDS), and increasing stress on governments, societies and natural resources by rapidly growing populations. The latter situation is particularly acute in Asia, which "already has 56% of the world’s population living on 31% of its arable land, and more than 900 million people exist[ing] on less than $1 a day." It seems inevitable that Asia will experience "acute water scarcity, a significant loss of biodiversity and more urban pollution". In addition, "by 2020, ... Asia will be producing more carbon dioxide emissions than any other region." This web site contains a interactive graphic showing current predictions of world population growth by 2025.     st

August 20, 2002   New York Times*   Managing Planet Earth; Forget Nature. Even Eden is Engineered.   Vladimir I. Vernadsky, a Soviet geochemist, wrote nearly 70 years ago that, through technology and sheer numbers, people were becoming a geological force, shaping the planet's future just as rivers and earthquakes had shaped its past. Fast-growing countries including China and Mexico are cutting air pollution, and the potential exists to spread the benefits of development to the poor majority without depleting resources. Population will increase 50% but the demand for food will double. Greenhouse gases have contributed to a warming climate and thousands of plant and animal species are likely to become extinct. People have altered more than one-third of the landscape. But if managed correctly 20% of the forest area could provide the world's needs for wood and pulp. Two-thirds of fish species are fully exploited. People use half the world's fresh water and water is a prime focus at Johannesburg. Humans have become the dominant driver of evolution. One challenge is to double agricultural production without using more land. Family size drops in urban areas because of access to health care, schools and other basic services. Energy is used more efficiently, and drinking and wastewater systems can be built easily. Some say that Western endless growth must cause environmental damage. But optimists say that cleaning the environment and reducing poverty are required because they are in humanity's self-interest. Hundreds of businesses have added sustainability managers to their executive roster. It may be that local communities lead the way in harmonizing people and the planet     rw

August 20, 2002   Seattle Times   U.S.: Breathing Uneasier: 'Smog Days' on the Rise Nationally.   In 2001 there were 4,634 times when smog levels exceeded health standards. California leads the nation in dirty air, followed by Texas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. Preliminary data suggests most places are getting more smog than last summer. High temperatures and drought have added to the smog problem. The Bush administration asked Congress to adopt a voluntary cap and emissions-trading system to address smog-causing emissions from power plants aimed at cleaner air while easing the cost. Environmentalists claim it will give loopholes to avoid clean-air requirements. The Edison Electric Institute, said that air quality has been improving since the Clean Air Act in 1970. The report is based on statistics from the E.P.A. which determines whether counties meet minimum pollution levels. The data show an increase in the number of times ozone levels exceeded federal health standards in the 20 states from New England to Texas.     rw

August 19, 2002   KCRA web site   Contraception Information on the Web.   See what local news media can do towards sex and reproductive health education.

August 19, 2002   forums.ibsys.com   Join the Discussion: the Growing "Child-free" Movement: Is It Necessary?.   A discussion group about being child-free.

August 19, 2002   The Washington Post   China's One-Child Policy Now a Double Standard; Limits and Penalties Applied Unevenly.   Under China's one-child policy, women were fitted with IUDs after their first child, sterilized after their second. In Yushui province the punishment for an extra child is a fine. But education, contraceptive choice and fines are not universal. Elsewhere in China, birth quotas lead to abortions and sterilizations. Growing numbers enjoy freedom in deciding when and how many children to have, but others are constrained by family planning workers. The Bush administration withheld funds from the UNFPA because the agency's activities in China maintain coercive abortion. The European Union, boosted funding for UNFPA, saying it moved China to more humane family planning. In Yushui province, local officials used to pressure women to have abortions and evaluated family planning workers by the number of women sterilized. A project to limit births by expanding health services for women, provide more information about contraception and allow couples to make their own decisions was approved by Beijing. UNFPA provided funding and training to 32 rural counties, including Yushui, that eliminated birth permits and stopped promoting abortion. Four years later, population growth in Yushui has remained steady. Many Yushui residents said they have fewer children because of shrinking land holdings and rising school costs. They want to concentrate resources on one or two children, allowing them to perhaps go to college and escape life in the countryside. Nearly a quarter of China's people have eliminated birth permits and quotas over the past five years. Half the population lives in jurisdictions that allow women to choose which type of contraception to use. An team sent by Secretary of State Powell visited UNFPA counties and found no evidence of coercive abortions or sterilizations. The Bush administration noted that even in the UNFPA counties, the government fines couples who have unapproved children. The law describes the fines as "social compensation fees" to cover the cost to society of an additional child and those who have unapproved children should suffer disciplinary measures. In the 32 UNFPA counties, the fines as set by local regulations and are from one to eight times the annual local income. UNFPA hopes to persuade the government to review them. Chinese officials acknowledged the fines are coercive, but said they are justified.     rw

August 17, 2002   La Trobe University Release   Sex Education Website for 10-12 Year Olds .   "The Hormone Factory" is a new website for children aged 10 to 12 years explaining sexual and reproductive development and the physical, emotional and social changes associated with puberty. The Australian national curriculum and standards framework for heatlh and physical education was used as a basis. The Bertarelli Foundation funded the website.

August 16, 2002   UNFPA Press Release   UNFPA Rejects False Allegations About Its Work in Afghanistan.   Now the Population Research Institute (PRI) is claiming that the United Nations is funding "abortion campaigns" among Afghan refugees. Stirling Scruggs, Director of UNFPA's Information and External Relations Division says that "This disinformation puts the lives of women, United Nations staff and international relief workers in danger. ... UNFPA is providing life-saving services, which are urgently needed because one in 17 Afghan women dies during childbirth. ... No United Nations agency has provided funding for abortion or forced sterilization in Afghan refugee camps or anywhere else." The UNFPA has just opened a mobile hospital in Kabul to offer emergency obstetric care while a damaged maternity hospital is being rehabilitated with UNFPA support. UNFPA will continue to provide medical supplies, safe motherhood services, family planning and midwifery training. PRI has engaged in a stated ongoing campaign to "drive the final nail in the coffin" of UNFPA. None of their allegations have ever been supported. PRI has also accused UNFPA of being a partner in "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, throwing food aid off airplanes to make room for abortion supplies, supporting forced sterilization in China and Peru, and promoting genocide in Afghan refugee camps. In Peru, UNFPA helped form a commission to stop coercive family planning practices. In China, three separate fact-finding missions, including one by the United States State Department, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by UNFPA.

August 15, 2002   Associated Press   Birth Rates Rise in Poor Countries.   Carl Haub, in the 2002 World Population Data Sheet from the Population Reference Bureau, said "The relationship between poverty and fertility is hardly a surprise... But it is taking on added importance with the increasing cost of maintaining national family planning programs in a time of world economic slowdown." In poor nations women average four or more children, compared with one or two in industrialized countries. Poor nations must train more health workers and increase purchase of contraceptives to achieve lower birth rates and improve infrastructures so their economies can grow. From now to 2050, richer countries will increase by only 52 million people, but less developed countries will jump from 5.018 billion to 7.873 billion. Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Niger, Palestinian territory, Uganda and Yemen are projected to have the largest population increases while Botswana, Bulgaria, Estonia, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Ukraine will see the largest population losses (In Botswana, 38.8% of adults are infected with AIDS). While AIDS has resulted in some population decline in some African countries, the Africa continues to lead the world in projected growth.

August 14, 2002   Journal of the American Medical Association   U.S.: Contraceptive Law Seen as Detrimental to Girls.   In 1998, Congress considered legislation that would have required parental notification or a court order for minors to obtain contraceptives by prescription from federally funded clinics, and 10 U.S. states have considered similar laws. In a survey of 950 girls, the majority who said they stop using sexual health care services if a law existed and they also said they would not stop having sex. Many also doubted they would switch to condoms or other nonprescription alternative contraceptives.

August 13, 2002   Los Angeles Times   Kabul Schools Run Out of Room.   The numbers of street children in the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, have increased to 38,000. They sell small items, gather bits of paper or wood to sell as fuel, or clean people's cars. Some of them learn thievery. Approximately 1.5 million refuges from the Taliban have returned from Pakistan, Iran, and other countries; most are unable to return to their farms because of drought and because the Taliban destroyed the irrigation system and orchards to eliminate cover for its enemies. In Kabul the returnees suffer overcrowding, high costs and scarcities. Their children suffer loss of childhood and education - except the education of the streets where they learn violence and hatred. School enrollment in grades one through six has gone from 1.2 million to 2.6 million children, much of it due to the reregistration of girls, but most of it due to returnees. Some children are being turned away - there are so many and food and health assistance has a higher priority. One-third of promised emergency food aid, or $90 million, has not been paid, mostly from the European Union and Japan.

August 13, 2002   The Journal (Montomery County, MD)   Montgomery Woman Labors to Scuttle 'Looney' Treaty.   [NOTE: To responde to this article, mail the editor at: http://www.jrnl.com/cfdocs/new/mc/writealetter.cfm.] Cecilia Royals, raising her eight children with her husband in Bethesda, is president of the small group called National Institute of Womanhood (NIW). NIW, working to ensure the 'dignity and respect' for women in our culture, is in opposition to militant feminist 'anti-family' organizations that denigrate normal women in favor of some anti-family, androgynous, Amazonian ideal - like the National Organization for Women. NIW is also against the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which is before the U.S. Senate for ratification. NIW gives examples of 'discrimination' as defined by CEDAW committee: the failure by China to legalize prostitution, Belarus' reintroduction of such symbols as Mother's Day which the committee sees as encouraging women's traditional roles, Ireland's bringing religious faith into formation of public policy. The U.S. Department of Justice has labeled CEDAW as simply "bizarre."   [Note: for the text of the CEDAW treaty, go to http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm. If you find anything on the website advocating the elimination of Mothers Day, Ireland's policies, or China's prostitution, please let me know - I've looked ... kgp]

August 13, 2002   Agence France Presse   Earth Summit: the State of the Planet.   There are 6.1 billion in the world today, expected to grow to around 9.3 billion by 2050. ... 49 countries - the world's least-developed - will triple in population to 1.86 billion. Population will not start to fall until the latter part of the century, barring major wars, famines or other disasters. 2.8 billion live on less than two dollars a day, with 800 million being undernourished. Fifteen percent of the world's population own 80% of it's wealth. WWF International says resources are being used 20% faster than they can be replenished. Resource overuse may reach 220% by 2050. By 2050, the overuse of natural resources could be as much as 220%. A UN panel says that CO2 levels are at 370 ppm, 30% higher than in 1750, and could reach 500-1000 ppm by 2100. Many experts think the climate change has already become and that worst case predictions could lead to catastrophic impacts. 11,000 species face extinction due to habitat loss - 25% of mammals and reptiles, 20% of amphibians, 30% of fishes, and 12% of birds. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that forests have shrunk by 2-4% since 1990, and the World Resources institute says that 40% of the remaining ancient forests will disappear in 10-20 years. 1.1 billion people lack acces to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion to improved sanitation, mainly in Africa and Asia. ... India, China, West Asia, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and the western US have seen shrinkage of water tables and half of the rivers in the world are either depleted or polluted. An area biggger than the US and Mexico combined suffers degraded soil - through overuse or salt buildup due to poorly managed irrigation. A third of the planet's fish stocks are overfished - classified as depleted, overexploited, or recovering. North Sea cod and other species may now be commercially extinct due to trawler subsidies.

August 13, 2002   Sierra Club Population News listserve   August 2002 Legislative Update.   House of Representatives and the Senate are on August recess until September 3. In the Senate there are various legislation affecting family planning that have been addressed but not acted upon. Here is a chance for activists to contact their legislators back home from the break about five important issues: 1) EPICC - Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, which would require health insurance plans that cover prescription drugs to also provide coverage for prescription contraceptives; ... 2) CEDAW, the international "Bill of Rights" for women - on July 30th, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed CEDAW, with a vote of 12-7 ... 3) Title X, Health and reproductive health for poor women; ... 4) funding for USAID for 2003, ... 5) revision of the Kemp-Kasten amendment which left a legislative loophole permitting President Bush from releasing the funding for UNFPA. The proposed amendment clarifies that "Kemp-Kasten" can ONLY be invoked by the President if an organization "DIRECTLY participates in the practice of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization." Click on the headline link above for the full alert with details on what an activist can do.

August 13, 2002   Family Health International   Female Condom Research Summaries.   The female condom is offers protection from pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted infections (STI) including HIV/AIDS. It is a significant new alternative that women can use to better protect themselves. But: Is the device affordable? Will it be accepted beyond an initial novelty interest? FHI's Female Condom Information Dissemination Project provides scientific, objective, and unbiased information on programmatic implications of the female condom.

August 12, 2002   Associated Press   Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Calls U.S. Decision to Cut Funding to U.N. Family Planning Agency "Insulting".   Puerto Rico Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oscar Arias, speaking at a peace conference, said that the lives of poor women were being put in jeopardy by president Bush's decision to withhold $34 million from the UNFPA. Bush decided to withhold the money after hearing accusations that the UNFPA supported Chinese coercive programs involving abortion. UNFPA denies the allegation and a U.S. government fact-finding mission found no evidence of its veracity.

August 08, 2002   NPG   California: Housing Costs: No Easy Answers .   Annually California's population grows by 560,000 people while housing production falls 100,000 units short. In the coming 18 years, less than 60% of the new housing needed will be built. Every 8 months the equivalent of a city the size of Sacramento is added. 1 million residents will be added to the Bay Area by 2020. Suggested "smart growth" approaches are: building denser housing, building in already developed areas, laws that promote new housing and changing laws that are obstacles to it, and housing subsidies. This November California voters will be asked to approve a record $2.1 billion housing bond to pay for up to 27,000 new and refurbished affordable housing units annually for five years. In the Bay Area a regionwide traffic-relief ballot initiative would include incentives or mandates for more housing. Residents of neighborhoods designated for denser housing say the approach would ruin their quality of life and embolden cities to force landowners to sell their property for redevelopment. Smart growth can't ease the housing crunch to the extent supporters hope because of two economic obstacles: consumers' preference for single-family homes over apartments or condos, and a lack of sufficient profit for developers. The Bay Area Council has been quietly questioning how much land is truly feasible for "infill" housing. Just because an aging strip mall is zoned for housing doesn't mean developers will step up to build there. Costs often are prohibitive. California's voter-approved tax system, called Proposition 13, has had the unintended consequence of contributing to the housing shortage. Most of the of the property tax generated by new housing goes to the state for education and other programs, which means makes it difficult for cities to pay for services such as fire patrols or libraries. So cities shun housing and woo retail development which generates sales tax and requires fewer services than housing. Some recent legislation would provide incentives and disincentives for cities in planning their fair share of new housing. Each proposal for easing the housing shortage has its drawbacks, and the most controversial approach is to address California's anticipated population growth. One of the solutions that has some backing would be to to enforce laws against illegal immigration and limit legal immigration. But "immigration is linked at the high end and the low end to the economic engine of California and no one wants to turn it off," said Bruce Cain, director of UC-Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies.   [The article did not address tackling California's high birth rate of 2.4. There are and will be more births than immigrants in the years to come. And a large portion of those births are unintended.]

August 08, 2002   Christian Science Monitor   The People Equation.   "We are inside a bottleneck of overpopulation and wasteful consumption," says Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson. In his book The Future of Life, he observes that our planet is now in a race between "forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it." The world's population grows by more than 75 million each year, with most of the increase in the least developed countries. Meanwhile, 1.1 billion people in less developed countries lack access to clean water. Some 95% of sewage is dumped into surface waters, contaminating the supply. In the world's poorest countries, 160,000 people migrate to towns and cities every day. Cities face health challenges from traffic congestion and people crammed too closely together lacking access to sanitation and health services. Natural disasters are intensified by the poorest people in the poorest countries being forced to occupy the most fragile land. Heads of states convened in Johannesburg, on Aug. 26 to assess progress since the 1992 Conference in Rio de Janeiro. There has been a strange silence on population issues that are at the very core of the coming deliberations. Without expanded efforts to stabilize population growth sustainable development cannot be achieved.     rw

August 07, 2002   Sidney Morning Herald   Australia: Producing Fewer Children in a Crowded World May Well Be a Service, Not a Sin .   (opinion) The fertility hounds are at it again, trying to persuade, seduce, bully, bribe, or shame women into having more children, for the good of the country or to provide more souls for some god. But the world cannot sustain such high rates of fertility in the long run. Some demographers tend to forecast an irreversible downwards spiral leading to the depopulation of Australia, but unhealthy population decline tends to be self-correcting. This was evident at the end of World War II and also early last centry in NSW. Producing children is a natural function but it is not a duty (witness the huge number of sperm in any ejaculation). If producing children threatens the future of humanity, we need to learn how to live with fewer of them.

August 06, 2002   Earth Policy Institute   Water Deficits Growing in Many Countries - Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages.   Falling water tables are not highly visable. Often the wells are dry by the time the deficit is discoverd. In the last 50 years demand for water has tripled with the rapid worldwide spread of powerful diesel and electrically driven pumps. Aquifers replenish slowly and pumping faster than replenishment is unsustainable. The water we are consuming now belongs to future generations. Yemen's water table is falling by 2 meters a year and in some parts (in Sana, the capital) by 6 meters a year. World Bank official Christopher Ward says "the rural economy could disappear within a generation." After looking for water in deeper and deeper wells, the choice now is to look at coastal desalting plants, or to relocate the capital. In northern Iran's agriculturally rich Chenaran Plain the water table was falling by 2.8 meters a year in the late 1990s. In 2001 the aquifer dropped 8 meters after a three-year drought and the new wells being drilled for irrigation and to supply a nearby city. In Egypt, the Nile is reduced to a trickle upon entering the Mediterranean. Ethiopia and Sudan compete with Egypt over the waters from the Nile. The population of the area is projected to grow by 58% by 2025. In Mexico's state of Guanajuato, the water table is falling by 1.8-3.3 meters a year. Mexico's population of 104 million adds 2 million a year. China's North China Plain loses 37 billion tons of water a year, enough to produce 37 million tons of grain and feed 111 million Chinese. The needs of cities and industry often divert water from agricultural irrigation, leading to the importing of grain (a ton of grain = 1,000 tons of water). Iran and Egypt import 40% or more of their total consumption of grain. Morocco imports 50%. Algeria and Saudi Arabia - over 70%, Yemen - 80%, and Israel - 90%. Irrigation accounts for 70% of all water use, industry uses 20%, and residences use 10%. China's grain production has gone from 392 million tons in 1998, to below 350 million tons in 2000, 2001, and 2002, with the deficits drawing down the country's grain reserves. If China is forced to import grain, prices will rise dramatically as they did in 1972 when the Soviets, after a poor harvest, imported grain, driving prices of wheat from $1.90 per bushel to $4.89 in two years. Solutions are to stabilize aquifers and stabilize population. Subsidies that create artificially low prices for water must be removed while raising water prices to the point where they will reduce pumping to a sustainable level by forcing water usage effiency. Low-income urban consumers would have "lifeline rates" to provide for basic needs. Meters could be installed on pumps. Population growth can be slowed quickly by investing heavily in female literacy and family planning services. If this is not done, there may not be a humane solution to the emerging world water shortage.

August 05, 2002   CRLP   Peru's Apology for Forced Sterilization Feared Part of a Strategy to Limit Family Planning Options.   An apology was issued for the forced sterilization of 200,000 indigenous women during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori. The apology was issued by Peru's Minister of Health following a report from Peru's Congress confirming the violations and recommending that sterilization be banned as a method of family planning. The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) is concerned that Peru's high-ranking right-wing officials, tied to ultra-conservative Catholic Church groups, may be up to limiting family planning options in Peru and using the violations of the Fujimori administration as an excuse. Luisa Cabal of CRLP said "Women deserve voluntary, comprehensive reproductive health services and the government of Peru has an obligation to ensure access to all methods of family planning." CRLP, the Latin American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM), and the Flora Tristan Women's Center first documented various forms of violence against women being perpetrated in Peru's public health care facilities in 1996. "We call on the Toledo government to ensure justice for those women whose rights were violated while the Fujimori policies were in place and to ensure appropriate, unbiased reproductive health services, including voluntary sterilization for all Peruvian women," said CRLP's Kathy Hall Martinez.

August 05, 2002   Nando Times   Company Won't Resume Norplant Sales.   Norplant, a device worn under the skin of the arm that releases contraceptive hormones for five years, and used by 100,000 women at one point, was pulled by Wyeth pharmaceutical two years ago amid concerns that some lots might not be effective. Now, even though tests have shown that the lots in question were working as intended, the pharmaceutical company has decided not to resume sales. A limited supply of some ingredients is the official reason, but some observers point to the lawsuits from women injured having Norplant removed or disturbed by side effects such as irregular spotting and bleeding, which experts explain by reporting doctors failed to explain side effects in advance. The product is still sold by another company in about 30 countries. The federal Department of Health and Human Services' latest survey on birth control methods ranked Norplant the most effective. Norplant was developed for the Population Council who has since developed and obtain FDA approval for a more comfortable successor product with only two rods called Jadelle. Never distributed in the U.S., Jadelle is sold or distributed by aid programs in four East African countries, Indonesia, Thailand and Finland. Wyeth may begin selling Jadelle in this country and has refined the insertion device to make it more comfortable.

August 05, 2002   IRIN News Briefs (UN)   Afghanistan: Number of Malnourished Children Growing.   UNICEF estimates that one out of every two children in Afghanistan is moderately to severely malnourished. The economic situation is bad and people have no clinics or doctors in mountainous regions difficult to access. Many NGOs have had to leave the eastern region due to insecurity. Save the Childen says that one in every four Afghan children will die before their fifth birthday. Most women are ignorant of recognising health problems and are therefore unable to detect the condition in children until it shows physically. Feeding centres supported by WFP cannot do enough.

August 01, 2002   Africa News Service   Uganda: Only 5 Million Women in Country Use Birth Control Methods.   Only 5.3 million (21.8%) women in Uganda who are in a sexual union use family planning methods. This figure is expected to rise to 8.5 million by 2015. The injection at 6.4% is the most common method followed by the pill at 3.2%. Measure Communication, part of Population Reference Bureau, conducted the study. Shortages of condoms and other contraceptives are increasing in less developed countries due to the combined effects of growing numbers of contraceptive users, the spread of HIV/AIDS, declining levels of donor funding, and weakness in logistics systems. Uganda's total fertility rate is 6.9 children per woman.

August 2002   U.S. Newswire   New Report Warns U.S., Canada Face Tough Environmental Choices.   The USA and Canada's improvement to their environment has come at the expense of global effects. Each citizen consumes nine times more gasoline than any other person in the world. With 5% of the world's population, both countries account for 25.8% of emissions of carbon dioxide. The two countries have reduced by 71% the chemicals discharged into the Great Lakes. About 13% of their land area is set aside as protected areas. Over 70% of Canada's wetlands are protected. Sulphur dioxide emissions in the USA have declined 31% from 2000. Both countries reduced CFC consumption to nearly zero. However Canada and the U.S. face challenges before North America is on a sustainable development path. Soil and wetland losses outpace the gains, the region's aquifers are being depleted. Both countries need changes toward more fuel-efficient technologies, and to curb urban sprawl.     rw

August 2002   Inter Press Service   WSSD: "Family Planning" Foes Keep Population Growth off Agenda.   The summit in Johannesburg contained no direct reference to population growth because the USA and some Latin American and Arab nations equate "family planning" with "abortion". The Bush government cut off funds to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), accusing it of promoting abortion in China. UNFPA denied the charge. Slowing population growth is the hope for heading off ecological disaster. It took thousands of generations to arrive at the billionth human being, but just 170 years to add an additional five billion. The attacks on family planning aim to torpedo the work of the United Nations by crippling the UNFPA. The world population is growing by 77 million people yearly and future population growth will be dominated by six developing countries: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Human beings are living beyond the earth's means. The earth is inhabited by 6.2 billion people and there will be at least another one billion and possibly two or three billion more before our human numbers level off. It is a race between destroying the environment and saving it.     rw

July 31, 2002   Africa News Service   South Africa: Births Grow By Only 1.8 Percent; AIDS Blamed.   The number of new births in South Africa grew by only 1.8% since 2000. University of SA demographer Carel van Aardt explained that HIV/Aids in its later stages affects the biological capacity of a woman to have babies. In the second or third stages, a woman would start losing interest in sex, and later her attractiveness as a partner. In addition, with increased urbanization, more women enter the labour market, opting for either postponing children or settling for smaller families. By 2010 the country may see zero growth. The use of contraceptives was not common among the majority of the population.

July 29, 2002   commondreams.org   Grim Reaping: the Industrialization of Agriculture is Killing the Land.   Industrialization of food production is destroying the health of the land and the rural communities that both sustain and are sustained by the land, says George Pyle, a director of the Prairie Writers Circle, a project of the Land Institute. Soil erosion is one result of industrialization of agriculture – 5.6 tons of topsoil per cultivated acre per year. With the soil is washed away "nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals" which necessitate detoxification plants in cities and which produce "’dead zones’ in coastal waters". The remaining soil is of "ever-decreasing quality" necessitating increasingly greater amounts of chemicals. Salinization of the soil ensues as water evaporates leaving behind salts. All of these factors accelerate soil degradation; healthy soils require much organic material, which is destroyed by increasing salt concentrations and weed and pest killers. The author observes that "fewer people on farms is both cause and symptom of degraded land [which is] rapidly losing its ability to produce healthy food".     st

July 28, 2002   San Francisco Chronicle   Russia on Brink of AIDS Explosion: Ignorance and Inaction Threaten Catastrophe.   Infection rates rarely seen outside sub-Saharan Africa could happen in Russia as a result of the fastest growing epidemic of HIV infection in the world reports the United Nations AIDS program. Unless current trends are curtailed, more than 5 million Russians could have HIV by 2007, said Vadim Pokrovsky, Russia's top AIDS researcher, and between 5 million and 10 million people may be dead from AIDS by 2015, according to estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. $65 million is needed immediately for programs to prevent and treat HIV, but the government has devoted only $5 million to it. HIV started in 1987 through sex between gay men - an illegal and taboo practice. It spread through intravenous drug use. Now the practice of unsafe sex among heterosexuals is the fastest growing souce of infection. Even in 2002, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the nation's overall health crisis but made no specific mention of HIV or AIDS, even thought the known infection rate has increased by more than 500% since 1997. Russia spends $45 per reported HIV case per year, compared with the $10,000 to $15,000 spent per HIV patient annually in the United States. Russia has a sense of pride about such things, having refused a $150 million loan from the World Bank for the prevention and treatment of HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis, a disease that kills 30,000 Russians a year. "Most people believe that the disease only affects the scum of the earth." The number of people who said they had no idea how they contracted the disease is also steadily growing - up to 43% in 2001. People continue to believe they are immune to the epidemic.

July 24, 2002   Salon.com   A $34 Million "Political Payoff".   Colin Powell, who was forced to defend a decision contradicting his own staff's recommendation and everything he himself has ever said about the Population Fund wrote the following: "Regardless of the modest size of UNFPA's budget in China or any benefits its programs provide, UNFPA's support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion."

July 23, 2002   United Nations Population Fund   UNFPA Funding Cut: Statement by Thoraya A. Obaid.   "It is with deep regret that I confirm the loss of U.S. funding this year for the United Nations Population Fund. It is especially troubling since the fact-finding mission that was sent to China by the United States found quote: "no evidence that UNFPA has supported or participated in the management of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China," as has been charged by critics." ... "In the past, the U.S. Administration chose to fund UNFPA with the condition that no U.S. funds were spent in China. We have honoured this stipulation by putting U.S. money into a separate account. We could have done the same this year, which would have allowed U.S. taxpayer dollars to provide life-saving services in the other 141 countries where we work." .... "We estimate that $34 million for reproductive health and family planning would be enough to prevent: * 2 million unwanted pregnancies * nearly 800,000 induced abortions * 4,700 maternal deaths * nearly 60,000 cases of serious maternal illness, and * over 77,000 infant and child deaths." .... "UNFPA does not support or promote abortion anywhere in the world. The services we promote reduce the incidence of abortion. Abortion rates are actually declining in the 32 counties in China where we operate." ... "Balanced population growth benefits the world and the goal of sustainable development so there are enough resources to meet the needs of current and future generations."

July 22, 2002   New York Times*   UNFPA Money to Go to USAID Family Planning.   Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has decided that, instead of sending the $34 million to the United Nations Population Fund, the administration should send it to the United States Agency for International Development. Richard A. Boucher chief State Department spokesman said that "the U.N. Population Fund monies go to Chinese agencies that carry out coercive programs."   [While UNFPA works in over 140 countries around the world, USAID works in fewer than 70. International family planning funding would need to rise from its current level of $480 million a year (FY 2003) to over $675 million a year simply to return to 1995 levels as adjusted for inflation. Patrick Burns, National Audubon Society Population & Habitat Program]

July 22, 2002   Population Action International   Bush Denies UNFPA Funding.   The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted a FY 2003 bill last week allowing $50 million for UNFPA and rewriting the Kemp-Kasten amendment to disqualify only those organizations that "directly participates" in coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.

July 22, 2002   Gulf News   Population of United Arab Emirates Climbs 7.4 Percent in 2001 .   The UAE (United Arab Emirates) is encouraging UAE nationals to have more children and at the same time foreign workers are migrating to the area. The country grew from 3.24 million to 3.48 million in one year. 67.6% of the population is male; 25% is under age 15. UAE's GDP grew by only 1.3% in 2001, lowering the per capita income 5.7%, according to the Planning Ministry estimates. Still the 2001 per capita income is one of the highest in the world and is expected to remain so since the UAE is expected to produce more oil. Abu Dhabi was the most populated emirate at 1.36 million, followed by Dubai with 1.02 million. Ajman had the highest growth rate at about 9.4%. Labor was mostly concentrated in the trade, construction, manufacturing and government services sectors. Consumption rose from around Dh112 billion ($30.5 billion) in 2000 to nearly Dh116.5 billion ($31.7 billion) in 2001.

July 22, 2002   Population Council   Youth Survey Question Bank .   Development of the bank of questions suitable for use in youth surveys began in 1999, as both the Frontiers and Horizons Programs started work on operations research studies of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs for young people in developing countries.

July 22, 2002   Seattle Times   Scientists Blame Deadly Africa Famine on Pollution From North America, Europe, Asia.   The severe drought and consequent starvation during the period between 1970-1985 in the Sahel region of Africa may have been caused by aerosols, tiny particles of pollution of sulfur dioxide generated by "factories and power plants ... in North America, Europe and Asia", according to a study released by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian government research agency. Leon Rotstayn, lead author of the study, believes their data suggest that these aerosols "alter the physics of cloud formation miles away and reduce rainfall in Africa" by 50%, a process call teleconnection. It is possible that the same process accounts for the current drought affecting parts of the US. These sulfur dioxide particles create "condensation nuclei for cloud formation" which "remain suspended in clouds rather than [condensing] into fewer larger droplets and falling as rain". They also reflect solar energy, cooling the surface of the North Atlantic, which reduces evaporation from the ocean and total cloud moisture. The researchers admit that their computer simulation does not completely explain the droughts, and other scientists have criticized their work on the grounds that the simulation is "too simple" and because the simulated pattern of global rainfall "does not match up with actual rainfall observed...around the world". Rotstayn’s group still believes that pollution may account in part for the "more recent, more intense drought". They note that when "the industrialized West reduced aerosol pollution" in the 1990s, ... rain returned to the Sahel".     st