Recent News Archives May 2002 -forward Archives Jan-Apr 2002 Archives Sep-Dec 2001 Archives May-Aug 2001 Archives Jan-Apr 2001 Archives Sep-Dec 2000 Archives May-Aug 2000 Archives Jan-Apr 2000 Archives Jul-Dec 1999 Archives Jan-Jun 1999 Archives 1998

May 31, 2001 US DOE/PCI/Global Intersections   World Energy Use to Double by 2020.  Global energy use which is closely correlated with population growth will grow by 59% and CO2 emissions will double during the next 20 years according to a new report, "International Energy Outlook 2001," from the U.S. Department of Energy. The new economies of the developing world will be responsible for more than 80% of emissions by 2010, where the continued use of fossil fuels, coal in particular, might drown any efforts undertaken by the industrialized countries to reduce their emissions. Half of the projected growth is expected to occur in developing nations of Asia, including China, India, and South Korea, and in Central and South America following the economic growth of these areas. Oil is still the primary energy resource but as countries are switching to natural gas, where consumption is expected to double by 2020, the market share of oil is not expected to increase although oil use will increase on an absolute scale. Nuclear power is projected to increase until 2015 after which it will decline. An increase of 53% in renewable energies such as dams is projected, although projected low energy prices (fossil fuels) will tend to hold back investments in renewable energy resources. jlf .

June 11, 2001 Greenlines/Environment & Energy Daily   Oregon USA: Water Crisis 150 Years in the Making.  "Even in a normal year, the water in the Klamath Basin cannot meet the current, and growing, demands for tribal, agricultural, industrial, municipal and fish and wildlife needs," Oregon Governor Kitzhaber said commenting the feud over the basin's resourcers between farmers and the Ecological Society of America. He further commented that "the current water crisis in the Klamath Basin has been 150 years in the making and serves as a reminder to us all that we are stretching our natural resources beyond their limits."   jlf .

June 16, 2001 New York Times*   Energy Disruptions Brighten Future of Coal, a Fossil of a Fuel.  Only a year ago, coal was widely considered a fuel of the past, vilified by environmentalists for its links to acid rain and global warming. Yet, with last years power failures and increasing prices on natural gas the new Bush administration has emphasized more on energy security than environmental protection by rejecting strict controls on the emissions of CO2, a green-house gas and a byproduct of coal burning. Approximately 52% of the electricity of the US is now generated using coal which is a big increase compared to 10 years ago. According to projections from a task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney, coal will continue generate about half of electricity for at least the next 20 years. The task force is largely responsible for the increased popularity of increased dependence on coal burning which have received little resistance from environmental groups more concerned about fighting oil drilling in the ANWR. "If rising U.S. electricity demand is to be met, then coal must play a significant role," the task force reported. Now 16% of the planned generating capacity over the next five years is based on coal. A year ago no coal based generators were planned. This signals an increased dependence on coal, whose reserves are estimated to last for 275 years[*]. Government statistics demonstrate that emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (acid rain) and nitrous oxide (smog and global warming) have decreased by 35% since 1989 either due to the installation of so-called scrubbers which removes these molecules or by using coal with less sulfur in it. However, emissions of carbon dioxide have not been reduced. Although CO2 regulations were one of the promises by President Bush in his electoral campaign, this promise was later broken due to energy concerns. This does not mean that the problem of emission reduction goes away, and because coal-fired power plants are responsible for about 30 percent of CO2 emissions the problem will have to be addressed again in the future. "If the coal industry wants to establish a viable strategy for maintaining its existing role in the energy structure, it's going to have to address these questions about global warming," David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council said. One of the promising new technologies for reducing CO2 emissions is to gasify coal before it is burned. The carbon is then separated and can be stored deep underground. However, only few coal companies are active in this research, enlisting in projects like one founded by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, in Washington. Most others are not pursuing this goal which has frustrated companies who think that coal's newly gained popularity will be temporary unless the industry agrees to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases in some way. [* Resource life times are typically calculated by naively assuming that current extraction rates will keep constant until the resource is totally depleted. It does not account for the increasing difficulty in extracting the resource from increasingly lower grade sources and the increased demand which is due to increased population pressure as well as the expenditure due to replacement of other resources, in this case oil and gas.]   jlf .

June 5, 2001 Associated Press   U.N. Joins 1,500 Scientists to Launch First Study on Health of Planet Earth.  The U.N. and a number of public and private organizations will now cooperate with 1500 of the planet's leading scientists to create the first major study - The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment - of the condition of the Earth. The assessment which is scheduled to last four years and cost $21 million to complete will study grasslands, forests, farmlands, oceans, and fresh waterways. The study is a response to the current lack of comprehensive knowledge which was noted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at last year's U.N. Millennium Summit. jlf .

June 20, 2001 Scripps Howard News Service   The Impact of Autos on the Earth.  According to a new report "City Limits: Putting Brakes on Sprawl," by the World Watch Institute, the growing dependence on road transportation due to city sprawl is the fastest growing source of CO2 emissions. Urban planning, particularly in the developing world, will have a large impact on future emissions. Currently the cities in the United States followed by Australia and Canada are the most fuel consuming in the world. Cities in with low fuel consumption and a good public transportation infrastructure are all located in Asia and Europa. The United states consumes 43% of the world's gasoline despite only holding 5% of the world's population. CO2 emissions from transportation went from 17% in 1971 to 23% in 1997. The use of road transportation is also increasing being responsible for 58% of all transport-related emissions in 1990 and 73% in 1997. As people become more poor they tend to move into the cities and now 2.85 billion people live in urban environments, almost for times as many as fifty years ago. In 2030 CO2 emissions from city-related transportation in China could exceed 1 billion tons, which is about the same amount as was released all road transportation worldwide in 1998. As the car is the only viable mean of transportation in some U.S. cities roughly one third of the people [in those cities] are unable to get around since they are either too young, too old or too poor to drive. Copenhagen(Denmark), Portland (U.S., Oregon), and Curitiba (Brazil) are some examples where city-leaders are favoring pedestrians, and cyclists and making plans so that newly developed areas can easily be reached by public transportation. jlf .

September 2001 Food and Agriculture Organization News   Developing Countries Face Serious Food Shortages.  The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 826 million out of the 6.1 billion people living on Earth are undernourished due to a combination of natural and man-made disasters such as overpopulation, civil wars, population displacements, flash floods, water shortages, dry spells, and pasture damage. The seven most affected countries in East Africa are Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, where millions already depend on food assistance. In western and central Africa affected countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Burundi primarily due to a combination of dry spells and insurgence. While the depth of hunger is larger in Africa the total number of hungry people is larger in Asia. Here Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and Mongolia top the FAO list but also China (water shortages) and India(flash flood) have problems. Since the 1990s the number of hungry people in the world has been reduced by 8 million annually, however, at this number needs to be reduced by least 20 million annually between now and 2015 to end hunger. The problem requires immediate, effective action and not not emergency responses the FAO says in a report entitled "The State of Food Insecurity 2000". The FAO cites Thailand as an example where the focusing on supporting sustainable rural development and reducing malnutrition has caused poverty to be reduced from one third in 1988 to just over 10% in 1996 and severe malnutrition among young children to be eliminated. jlf .

July 3, 2001 Reuters   Saving Crop Diversity Key to Winning War on Hunger.  The U.N. estimates that 800 million people still suffer from hunger daily. It is therefore important to retain the genetic diversity of plants and to develop new crops which are resistant to disease and able to grow under dry and arid conditions to keep up with the increasing population and to provide insurance against the effects of global warming. However, this might prove difficult as plant varieties are going extinct at unprecedented rates. According to Geoffrey Hawtin, director general of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute some 25% of all plant species are threatened in one way or another. This may causes the extinction of 8% of the worlds plant species during the next 25 years. During the last 50 years farmers have replaced thousands of species with high yield monoculture crops across large areas. For instance at the beginning of the green revolution India had some 30000 different types of wheat, yet now 90% of the wheat acreage are covered by just ten different but highly productive varieties. "This reduction in genetic diversity will have notable repercussions in the long term on food security," according to the IPGRI statement. At a recent U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization meeting the framework was laid for sharing and conserving the genetic diversity of plants including access to the world's seed banks. However, it was not possible for the delegates to reach an agreement on patent laws on seed. On one side there are poor countries and environmentalist groups claiming that the patenting of food and seeds threaten food security. On the other side the wealthy countries and companies claim that patent rights are necessary incentives for continued research. A meeting is scheduled 11/2001 to resolve the patent issue. jlf .

July 19, 2001 Reuters   USA: National Parks Wrestle with Traffic Jams.  It is estimated that 58.2 million Americans will visit the national parks in 2001. Each year two million people visit Cades Cove where as many as 6000 people will drive through on the 11-mile one-lane road each day. "One good bear eating along the road can back up traffic for a while," park spokesman Bob Miller said, and rangers are frequently dispatched to clear up such "bear-jams". At the Great Smokies park officials are now looking into options such as electronic messaging boards to inform about jams on the road ahead. Shuttle busses might also provide a solution, however, one bus would have to leave every 90 seconds to keep up the flow of people, however at $300,000 per bus this solution is expensive. In 1997, the Interior and Transportation Departments agreed to improve park transportation using Yosemite, Zion, Grand Canyon, and Acadia National Parks as demonstration sites. For instance now Zion's visitors are required to leave their cars at the gate and travel the park by bus. At Acadia National Park in Maine the bus system is voluntary, but "With visitor levels growing, the park had to help the parking situation or put up gates to limit the number of people coming into the park," said Tom Crikelair, the transit planning consultant who designed the system. In the first year of the system it is estimated that 42000 vehicle trips were eliminated, the following year nine busses were added to the previous eight busses. "Now that we've found that people would use the system, we've got to find out what to do to keep this running and whether we are going to expand to meet demand," Crikelair said. In 1997 after a flood that destroyed bridges, camp sites, etc., in closing down the Yosemite park for 3.5 months is was suggested that people would require reservations to drive into the park. This plan was resisted and scrapped. In 2001 the park service approved restricted parking for day-travelers and instituted an region-wide bus system. However two counties backed out of the deal claiming a negative economic impact and the Sierra Club criticized the use of diesel buses. With four highways converging into a narrow valley the traffic situation in the summer reaches "gridlock proportions", said Scott Gediman, park ranger and spokesman, "People can look for parking for over an hour. It leads to a damaging of the visitor experience." jlf .

August 3, 2001 ENN   Earthquakes: Crowding the Rim.  With increasing population many people have now moved into cities around the Pacific Rim - the so-called "Ring of Fire" - an area marked be tectonic shifting causing erupting volcanoes and earthquakes. As economies grow and become more interdependent disasters will impact on more people, yet for each $1 spent on prevention, $7 could be saved in disaster costs, which become more expensive with increased population density. 160 delegates from 40 different countries recently met to discuss how to avoid future major disasters on the Pacific Rim at an international summit called "Crowding the Rim". The idea was to inform policy makers and give them an assessment of hazards and a realistic idea of what can be done to prevent disasters which they subsequently can apply to e.g. building codes and other requirement of different areas. jlf .

June 5, 2001 U.N. News; World Resources Institute   Four-year "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" Begins.  The 4 year project entitled "Millennium Ecosystem Assessment" began on the World Environment Day, June 5, 2001. It will provide an extensive study of the health of the world's ecosystems on a global, sub-global, and national level and provide information to governments, industry, and local organizations. Preliminary studies indicate that the capacity to sustain human needs is diminishing in many parts of the world and that the threats to biodiversity and human health are growing. At the same time people are becoming more and more vulnerable to environmental disasters. "Ecosystems have a dual role of providing materials and services to meet human needs for food, water, employment, and health, as well as functioning to regulate environmental conditions and quality that make the Earth habitable for humans and other species," said Angela Cropper, co-chair of the MA Assessment Panel. The MEA will help policy makers to assess long-term consequences of their decisions on societies and ecosystems, and as Kofi Annan said when launching the program: "All of us have to share the Earth's fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has to play a role in preserving them. If we are to go on living toge jlf .

September 01, 2001 Christian Science Monitor   World Confronts an Aging Population.  Within the next 50 years, the world’s population will grow much older. There will be nearly 2 billion individuals over 60 in the year 2050. And 379 million over 80 years old. These changes in population will cause strains on public programs such as social services, healthcare and retirement programs because there will be less people in the workforce. There are many economic, political, and social implications that will occur around the globe. Some of them will include; India will become the world’s largest nation with 1.57 billion people, the U.S will remain the third most populous country and will be the only industrialized nation in the tip 10 by 2050. In Europe, North America and Japan there will be no population growth within the next 50 years. In fact, without immigration, populations will decline. The UN indirectly notes that because of shifting population trends, the US could soon set itself apart from other industrialized nations. The US will grow by 114 million by 2050 and Asia will continue to have the largest population. It will contain nearly every 6 out of 10 people on the planer. -rvs .

September 02, 2001    HIV Program in Thailand Cuts Risk.  Thailand has reduced the risk of mother-infant transmission by two-thirds in a new program that treats women for the AIDS virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the test program, run from 1998-2001 reduced the transmission risk from 30% to 10%. Pregnant women are offered the AIDS drug AZT a few weeks before birth and a year’s worth of formula to prevent HIV transmission through breast-feeding. Also HIV testing was given to 100,000 women, of which 1% tested positive. Worldwide, about 2.2 million women and 600,000 infants contract HIV each year. The program is setting a precedent for the rest of the world. Experts from North America, Europe and Africa urged the world's top industrial nations to give more to a new global AIDS fund, saying the $1 billion raised so far is not enough. -rvs .

August 23, 2001 Christian Science Monitor   'Good Wood' Labeling: Can it Save Asia's Tropical Forests?..  Consumers in the US are unwittingly contributing to the destruction of Indonesia's tropical forests. According to a WWF report seven-tenths of all trees cut down in Indonesia are felled without permit. "Lauan", which is the trade name for tropical hardwood from Indonesia and Malaysia, accounts for 80% of all tropical timber sold in the US. According to the World Bank, deforestation in Indonesia has gone from 2.47 million to 4.2 million acres per year during the past decade. At the current rate of consumption this means that these rainforests will be gone and made into furniture in just four years. This has already happened to the Philippines. "There is no forest left in the Philippines, and Indonesia is going down the same road, just 15 years later," says Lisa Curran from Yale University. Now the world's three biggest buyers of lumber (Home Depot, Lowe's, and IKEA) vow to buy "green". The idea is to follow the practice of "fair trade" which have been successfully employed for coffee, cocoa, and bananas. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the most rigorous one of the various certification systems that are now monitoring which forests are being most sustainably logged. Accordingly to wood coming from these certified areas is higher priced. The strict criterias of certification are hard to achieve. Legitimate companies seeking certification are hampered by illegal loggers trespassing into their forests and as a result they can not get FSC certification. It is a wide-spread problem and in some instances concession owners have even blown up bridges and restricted access in other ways to keep trespassers out. "Market demand can change forest practices," says Rod Taylor, from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Asia. Therefore consumers now have to be informed on where the wood comes from and the associated environmental costs. The costs are not trivial. During the past decade the world's population of orangutans have been reduced by half. The Sumatran tiger is close to extinction, and millions of people in Indonesia are now subject to more flooding, mudslides, and wildfires. There is a problem, however: "Something that even the NGO's don't want to accept is that there has to be a dramatic cut in consumption," says Tim Keating executive director of the Rainforest Relief, and continues "There's been this rush to certify, but they're going to have to water down their standards if they're going to meet demand." .. "We're working with suppliers to make sure there are alternatives if there isn't enough certified wood by the end of next year," says Suzanne Apple, vice president for community and environmental affairs, at Home Depot whose 2000 sales were $45 billion corresponding to about a third of Indonesia's gross domestic product. Unfortunately the amount of certified wood is still quite small. Only about 200 patches of global forest (17,000 square miles), representing only a tiny part of the world demand, have been certified. "If Home Depot came on board tomorrow, they'd exhaust the global supply of certified wood in about a day," says Rod Taylor. jlf .

September 2001    . 

The Time Bomb by George Emmett Our population’s steady climb Means we are running out of time, For, if this earth gets overmanned, Nature herself may lend a hand, Subject us to some dreadful scourge That could our numbers vastly purge; Thus better to this problem wise Before she cuts us down to size And risk she opens some floodgate That could Mankind eliminate; So, though you might think this a shame, We’d only have ourselves to blame. poetry-moods.com

.

September 04, 2001    New PPFA Ad Urges Western Women To Support Worldwide Access To Reproductive Health Care.  "Dream," a new Planned Parenthood Global Partners public service announcement, urges Western women to visit their Web site to find out how to help millions of women around the world who do not have access to basic reproductive health care. The ad features women of several nationalities holding globes, while a female voice-over invites Western women to "dream of a time when everyone can be as fortunate as you" and "discover that millions of women are denied access to regular check-ups, tests and birth control." The ad concludes, "Defy the voice inside that keeps you quiet. Demand that everyone have vital reproductive health care. Millions of women around the world need you to make a difference." .

August 30, 2001 UN News   Slowing Global Warming Despite Treaty Controversy.  Despite the stalled U.N. Climate Change Convention talks in The Hague last year due political disagreements over the science and the need for legally binding reduction targets, industry and organizations are leading to small but still significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Energy Council reported. According to WEC projection new initiatives will save at least one billion tonnes of CO2 annually*. A survey of 91 countries suggest that the actual savings might be even twice that. "China has, despite economic growth estimated at 36%, managed to reduce its carbon dioxide emission by 17% since 1997," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UNEP. At the climate talks in Bonn, Germany, government leaders finally reached a compromise on the Kyoto protocol, which was almost scrapped after a U.S. decision not to support the treaty due to the lack of reduction programs for developing countries. Now developing countries are required freeze their production of CFCs at 1995-97 levels and beginning from 2003 they are commited to to reduce consumption of all major ozone-depleting substances: CFCs, halons, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform, and methyl bromide over a three year period. * Currently emissions are about 20 billion tons annually.   jlf .

September 6, 2001 The Economist   Seed v Seed; Mass-producing Some Drugs May Require Green Fingers.  Epicyte, a company based in San Diego, is growing antibodies designed to kill human sperm and anti-herpes in genetically modified maize. When the seeds have been harvested, the antibodies can be extracted and turned into a gel which can be applied by the woman to prevent pregnancy and/or herpes. .

September 13, 2001 The Globe and Mail   Hatred of the United States is Rooted in Oil.  Much of the hatred that emanates from militant Islamic terrorist groups such as Mr. bin Laden's can be traced back to a single thing: the U.S. government's desire to maintain control over the vast quantities of oil that exist in the Middle East. Some Islamic groups have said U.S. stationed troops in Saudi Arabia, "the land of the two holy places" (Mecca and Medina), during the Gulf War was an affront to Muslims. Many political analysts believe that the war against Iraq was fought largely to ensure that the oil would continue to flow from Saudi Arabia. Presumably to the protect the Saudi Arabian government of King Fahd from Iraqi attack, the action was designed to justify keeping troops to protect Saudi oilfields. Some Muslim groups believe that the U.S. is in league with Israel in order to control the source of the vast majority of the world's oil. A study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the world will become increasingly dependent on the Middle East over the next 20 years. The oil-rich Persian Gulf nations will have to expand their oil production by almost 80% over the next 20 years in order to keep up with demand, particularly demand from China and India. The potential for terrorism, supply interruptions and outright war will remain high, the study says — adding that getting more oil from Iraq will be "crucial" to meeting the world's demands, since Iraq contains 11% of the world's oil reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia's 25%. .

September 14, 2001 CCMC   U.N. Postpones Children's Summit; Release of State of the World Population Report.  In the wake of Tuesday's terror attacks in the United States, The U.N. General Assembly decided to postpone the Children's Summit, originally scheduled to take place on September 19-21 in New York, to an undetermined date. Also, the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) release of the 2001 State of the World Population Report, "Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change" has been rescheduled for November 7, 2001. For more information and to enquire about embargoed copies, please contact Corrie Shanahan (Tel: 212-297-5023) or Victoria Rector (Tel: 212-297-5022). Please be advised that telephone voice mail at UNFPA headquarters is still not functioning. .

September 28, 2001 UNFPA   Un Population Fund Launches Emergency Effort To Save Afghan Women's Lives.  The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is asking international donors for $4.5 million to counter health risks confronting Afghan refugee women and a total of $584 million for humanitarian assistance, both within Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries. Facing possible military action inside Afghanistan, thousands of pregnant women are among the tens of thousands Afghan civilians who have fled their homes in recent days and are massed along the country's borders, hoping to enter Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan. They lack shelter, food and medical care, and face unsanitary conditions, posing a serious risk to these women and their infant children. Even before the current crisis, poor health conditions and malnutrition made pregnancy and childbirth exceptionally dangerous for Afghan women. UNFPA is preparing to position emergency relief supplies and reproductive health care services in the countries bordering Afghanistan and inside Afghanistan, if possible. Without help, "A terribly high number of Afghan women and girls are likely to die from easily treatable pregnancy complications," says UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid. Afghan women need access to a safe delivery environment and to be protected against sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancy and violence. United Nations staff and NGOs have been withdrawn from the country, and borders are closed. Relief operations to more than 5 million people have all but stopped. When winter sets in, up to 7.5 million Afghans could require outside aid to survive, the UN estimates. Support would include clean delivery supplies; sanitary napkins and clean undergarments to protect essential hygiene; support for border area hospitals receiving referrals with pregnancy and childbirth complications; and counselling for victims of trauma. Longer-term assistance after the emergency phase will include training for local health-care providers and basic health education for women and young people. UNFPA has worked for several years inside Afghanistan, and with Afghan refugee women in Pakistan and Iran, with support from United Kingdom and Italy. UNFPA is the world's largest multilateral source of population assistance. Since it became operational in 1969, the Fund has provided more than $5 billion to developing countries to meet reproductive health needs and support sustainable development efforts. .

September 30, 2001 Los Angeles Times*   California: Abstinence-Based Sex Ed Is Failing, Teens Say.  Santa Ana, in southern California, has one of the highest rates of teenage motherhood in the state. Santa Ana students are asking that their schools teach about contraception and relationships, because, they say, the school district's abstinence-focused curriculum for sex education isn't working. They are tired of seeing their friends get pregnant and drop out, and are asking the school board to change the way it teaches about sex. "We want them to teach contraception, and how to deal with relationships," said Maricela Sandoval, a senior. A majority of students are having sex and they need to be told that you can get pregnant the first time. Funded by a grant from the California Wellness Foundation, a Campfire USA Orange County Council Speak Out program to research teenage pregnancy in the city is represent by 15 teenagers who volunteered their time for 18 months, surveying fellow high school students about their sex habits and polling parents and teachers about what they would like to see taught in schools. 12 groups around the state have received such grants from the Wellness Foundation. The Santa Ana students plan to go before the school board next month and demand that health teachers begin giving students more information about prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and how to get birth control pills or condoms in addition to counseling abstinence. Their study found that three out of five teenagers in the district say they are sexually active and 76% of teenagers in the district believe the curriculum needs to be changed, and 90% of Santa Ana parents said they would support efforts to revamp it. Students in Santa Ana are currently given basic biological information, but the programs emphasize abstinence. Teachers can tell students where to find numbers for family planning clinics in the phone book. In 1996 more than 8% of girls ages 15 to 17 had babies each year, UC Berkeley study found. Other hot spots were Long Beach, Watts and San Bernardino. Many of the teenagers surveyed thought girls are pressured into having sex by their boyfriends, and they need more help in saying no. In June, a 2-year study by the U.S. surgeon general found little evidence that teaching abstinence deters teenagers from having sex. Those who had taken sex education courses were more likely to use protection than those who were told only to abstain from sex. Arcy Alvarez, an 18-year-old student didn't think she could conceive the first time she had sex. She, her 19 month old daughter, and her parents and and father of her child now all live together. She had planned to attend a four-year-college but has had to give up that dream. .

September 30, 2001 Los Angeles Times*   Famished Afghan Children Fade Away.  Twenty-two years of war and four years of drought have devastated Afghanistan, leaving millions facing hunger and the threat of starvation. Now tens of thousands are fleeing cities for fear of bomb strikes from the U.S. which is targeting Afghanistan in its campaign against international terrorism. The U.N. emergency relief coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, called Afghanistan the site of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Life expectancy in Afghanistan is 46 years and that it has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, according to the UN, which has appealed for $584 million to feed 7.5 million Afghans suffering from hunger and displacement due to war and drought. .

September 5, 2001 John Hopkins CCP   Johns Hopkins POPLINE Database Now Available Online.  Need a journal article on adolescent reproductive health and HIV/AIDS? Trying to track down an article on population and the environment? The answers to these questions and much more are now just a few mouse clicks away at POPLINE, the world's largest bibliographic database on population, family planning, and related issues. .

September 5, 2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch   Exporting the Abortion Debate.  At the United Nations Special Session on Children beginning Sept. 14 in New York they discussed child slavery, AIDS orphans, starvation, child soldiers, disease, illiteracy, and child labor. Over than 75 countries were in attendance. At first, the administration of George W. Bush threatened to boycott the conference, attempting to turn the event into a debate on abortion. The State Department sent cables to ambassadors in Central and Latin America, telling them to join the U.S. effort to remove the phrase "reproductive health services" from conference language. In the case of girl soldiers raped or used as sex slaves, the concern was not for the girls, but rather for language that might be construed as providing reproductive health services, which might include abortion. Reproductive health services include AIDS testing and prevention, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and childbirth, not always abortion. The United States now also objects to explicit sex education overseas, favoring a Sudanese measure supporting abstinence education exclusively. .

September 7, 2001 Negative Population Growth   USA: School Enrollments Continue to Rise.  USA: School Enrollments Continue to Rise Enrollment in Texas public schools increased by 24% over the last decade and outpaced the national growth rate by nearly 40%, according to a new report from the Texas Education Agency. In Boston, Lowell High School has begun serving lunches at 9:25 a.m. to accommodate an overflowing student population. The schedule may be a violation of federal education regulations, which require that school lunch periods be between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Headmaster William Samaras said the early lunches were "the best solution to the problem of an overcrowded student population and a jammed schedule." The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday that five Pennsylvania suburbs doubled in population between 1990 and 2000. "The pressure on school districts has been tremendous," wrote the paper. "The nearly 18,000-student Central Bucks School District, now the third-largest in the state, is growing by an average of 800 to 900 students annually. The 5,500-student Spring-Ford Area School District, which includes Limerick and Upper Providence, has seen an average of 280 to 300 students added to its rolls every year since the mid-'90s." .

September 5, 2001 Santiago Times/Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health   Chilean Health Ministry Approves Distribution Of Emergency Contraception.  The Chilean Health Ministry decided to uphold the Institute of Public Health's approval of a German company's emergency contraception even though the country's Supreme Court banned a different company from dispensing the pill. Antiabortion groups charge that emergency contraception is similar to abortion. Abortion is illegal in Chile. Antiabortion NGOs also consider intrauterine devices to have abortive effects, but say they have no plans to appeal the legal distribution of IUDs because the device has been used in Chile since the late 1960s. [Note: emergency contraception is no more abortive than contraception - they both prevent pregnancy before the embryo is implanted in the uterus.] .

September 10, 2001 Population Reference Bureau   2001 World Population Data Sheet from PRB.  PRB's 2001 World Population Data Sheet contains the latest population estimates, projections, and other key indicators for 200 countries, including births, deaths, natural increase, infant mortality, total fertility, life expectancy, urban population, HIV/AIDS prevalence, contraceptive use, GNI PPP per capita, land area, and population per square mile. .

September 21, 2001 Christian Science Monitor   UN Report Says World's Coral Reefs Dying Faster Than Once Thought..  According to a detailed survey from the World Conservation Monitoring Center of the UN Environment Program coral reefs are both smaller and dying faster than previously thought. The world's reefs occupy just 294,533 km2 (113,720 square miles) corresponding to about 0.1% of the total surface area. "They are rapidly being degraded by human activities", says Klaus Toepfer, the UN Environment Program's executive director. Such activities include the use of dynamite or cyanide to catch fish and the continued dumping of sewage and fertilizer which promote damaging algae growth. A large fraction of the world's reefs are threatened: Thailand and the Philippines(97%), Indonesia(82%), Malaysia(91%), Papua New Guinea(46%), and Australia(32%). The three countries with the largest reefs are Indonesia 52,835 km2(20,400 square miles), Australia 50,722 km2 (19,584 square miles), and the Philippines 25,899 km2 (10,000 square miles). As well as providing vital ecosystems and preventing coastal erosion, reefs also benefit the economy by attracting tourists. Furthermore species living on coral reefs also provide an important source of medicine e.g. the HIV drug, AZT.   jlf .

September 2001 The Asian Development Bank   Asian Development Bank: Asia Pacific Has Achieved Population Slowdown.  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that the Asia Pacific has achieved a slow-down in population growth rates. The ADB Bank released a report looking at key indicators of growth and change in the region. The report, titled "Growth and Change in Asia and the Pacific - Key Indicators 2001," is available online. .

September 21, 2001 Negative Population Growth   Residents Fight Population Growth in California.  In California, several civic and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit to block a project that would add at least 4,300 new homes, shopping centers and schools in a rustic area between Beaumont and Calimesa. The lawsuit says the additional population will strain water supplies, clog roads, and destroy important wildlife habitat. A second lawsuit has been filed in Los Angeles, by a coalition of homeowners who say the city’s plan to accommodate 611,000 more residents by the year 2010 fails to adequately protect existing residents from traffic gridlock. The suit also says that the city has insufficient water, sewage facilities, and open space to accommodate the projected population growth. Meanwhile, amid warnings of a looming water crisis, the California Senate gave final approval to legislation requiring that developers of more than 500 homes prove to local officials that there is sufficient water to supply residents of their proposed developments. Governor Davis is thought to be likely to sign the bill. .

September 21, 2001 Negative Population Growth   Florida Struggles with Population Growth.  As population pressures continue to increase in Broward County, Fla., the area is facing a housing crunch. "Short of posting ‘no vacancy’ signs along Interstate 95, the county is heading for a housing shortage as its population climbs to about 2 million people over the next decade," writes the Sun-Sentinel. "Not only is Broward running out of vacant land for new houses, there are too few existing homes to meet the demand ... Roads are jammed. Schools are crowded. Water resources are stressed." Throughout the state, residents are increasingly up in arms about the effects of overpopulation. The St. Petersburg Times reported recently that "politicians are beginning to hear the cries of soccer moms fed up with overcrowded schools and traffic jams. Specifically: Why do Florida communities keep approving development when schools are already overcrowded? ... Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said the issue will be ‘a top priority’ of Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2002 legislative session." .

October 18, 2001 WOA!!   California: Emergency Contraception Bill Signed: to Be Available Through a Pharmacist without a Prescription .  California bill SB116, which would permit a pharmacist to initiate emergency contraception (EC) drug therapy in accordance with standardized procedures or protocols developed by the pharmacist and an authorized prescriber, has been signed into law by Governor Gray Davis. The bill would require a pharmacist who initiates emergency contraception drug therapy to provide the recipient with a standardized fact sheet developed by the California State Board of Pharmacy, in consultation with the State Department of Health Services, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the California Pharmacists Association, and other health care organizations. The bill would also require that prior to performing this procedure a pharmacist complete a specified training program. In the U.S., 3 million unintended pregnancies occur each year in this country, followed by about a million medical abortions, but if the women knew about and used emergency contraception, at least half of these could be prevented. Only 2% of U.S. women have ever used it and only about 11% know of its existence, even though the method - taking multiple doses of oral contraceptives within a few days of unprotected intercourse - has been known for more than a quarter century. Not having the product available over the counter is a problem if exposure occurs on a Friday night and the woman cannot get to a doctor until Monday. The hormones used in EC suppress ovulation and cause changes in the cervical mucus that can make it impenetrable by sperm. If an egg is fertilized, emergency contraception may interfere with its transport down the fallopian tube, causing it to die before it can become implanted in the uterus. If a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus - the definition of pregnancy - using emergency contraception will not dislodge or destroy it and there is no risk to a developing fetus if the woman should happen to be already pregnant. There has been some concern by some religious groups that EC would be given to teenager girls. However, EC contains the same ingredients that are used in birth control pills, which are already legally given to teenagers without parental consent. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Dede Alpert (D), was signed by the Governor on October 14, 2001. .

September 26, 2001 International Planned Parenthood Federation   New on the IPPF/WHR Website: Emergency Contraception.  Get the facts about how EC works and what IPPF/WHR and its affiliates are doing to expand access in the region to this important contraceptive option. .

September 15, 2001 WOA!!/Alan Guttmacher   Once Again, It's Time for an EPICC (Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage) Vote in Congress .  The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Hearing (HELP) met September 10th to discuss S. 104, the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, and "Improving Women's Health: Why Contraceptive Insurance Coverage Matters" Sponsored by Olympia J. Snow (R-ME), bill would require health plans that cover prescriptions to also cover presecription contraceptive drugs and devices. According to an August 1998 report by Alan Guttmacher Institute: "Providing coverage for the full range of reversible contraceptive methods would result in a total cost of $21.40 per employee per year. Assuming standard cost-sharing between employers and emloyees, employers would pay $17.12, which translates into a monthly cost of $1.43 per employee. This would increase employers' overall insurance costs by only 0.6%. Employees would contribute $4.28 per year, or 36 cents a month." ..."The cost [increase] would be less for those plans that [already] cover at least some of these methods, and there would be no added costs for the many plans that currently cover the full range of FDA-approved reversible contraceptive methods." .

September 21, 2001 Dallas Morning News   Most Texas Hospitals Do Not Offer Emergency Contraception to Rape Victims.  Two-thirds (67%) of Texas hospitals do not provide emergency contraception (EC) to rape victims, according to a new report by the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. However, about half of these do provide referrals to physicians or clinics that dispense the medication. Many hospitals do not provide EC because of a lack of space, public and private insurance issues and "fear of political must be taken within 72 hours of intercourse to be effective. Texas Right to Life's Courtney Facciponte stated that EC is "tantamount to abortion" and noted that hospitals that do not provide abortions generally do not provide EC. Almost 90% of the hospitals surveyed do not provide abortion. See www.not-2-late.com for details on EC. .

September 26, 2001 Ipas/Health and Development Networks   Gender or Sex: Who Cares?.  Ipas and Health & Development Networks (HDN) have produced a resource pack/training curriculum in collaboration with the Instituto de Educacion y Salud. The pack is designed for adolescents and youth workers, with an emphasis on violence, HIV/STIs, unwanted pregnancy and unsafe abortion. It includes a manual, curriculum cards and overhead transparencies/handouts, provides an introduction to the topic of gender and sexual & reproductive health using a progressive focus that works from simpler subjects and exercises towards more complex topics and participatory activities. The curriculum included in the pack was developed through a process of field-testing with more than 400 participants at international conferences in Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Peru, the Philippines, and South Africa. .

October 21, 2001 Negative Population Growth   USA: Michigan Communities to Be Overwhelmed by Population Growth.  The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments’ new 2030 Regional Development Forecast, which predicts 30-year trends in population, finds that in some area communities, there isn't enough room to squeeze in more homes. However, these same communities are expected to see tremendous population growth in the next few decades. For instance, Canton Township’s population (which increased by more than 30% percent from 1990 to 2000) is expected to increase by another 46%t in the next 30 years. .

October 1, 2001 Family Health International   The FamPlan Glossary.  On-line on Family Health International's (FHI) Web site is a family planning terminology glossary in English, Spanish, and French that is shared by the provides a forum for standardizing the translation of family planning terminology in all publications that are produced by member organizations. .

September 29, 2001 Reuters   Indian Project Hopes to Promote Condom Use.  India's Health Ministry will begin a project that will make condoms available in different sizes rather than the currently used single size specified by the World Health Organization and the International Standards Organization.The goal is to reduce the nation's 15%-20% condom failure rate and encourage more men to wear them. India's growing population is second in size only to China. Currently, only 3% of Indian men wear condoms, while 52% do not use any contraceptive method. .

September 29, 2001 Reuters   Indian Project Hopes to Promote Condom Use.  India's Health Ministry will begin a project that will make condoms available in different sizes rather than the currently used single size specified by the World Health Organization and the International Standards Organization.The goal is to reduce the nation's 15%-20% condom failure rate and encourage more men to wear them. India's growing population is second in size only to China. Currently, only 3% of Indian men wear condoms, while 52% do not use any contraceptive method. .

October 1, 2001 Africa News Service   Rwanda; 80% of Women HIV Infected.  The president of the Rwandan Association of Trauma Counselors, Beatrice Karengera said that 80% of Rwandan women are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS. Most of these women were infected after being raped by Rwandan army troops during the 1994 genocide of one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu. An official of the Ministry of Health, Yvonne Kayitesi, said HIV had dented the country's labour force and increased the army of orphans surviving on the streets. .

October 23, 2001 Population Institute   World Population Awareness Week.  U.S. governors, mayors, international and national organizations are uniting to promote awareness about the global population issue, and its vast and compounding consequences, through the 2001 World Population Awareness Week, Oct. 21 through Oct. 27. World Population Awareness Week (WPAW) is an intense educational campaign designed to create public awareness of the patterns in world population growth, its impact on our planet, and the urgent action needed to alleviate the situation. The theme for this year is "Population and the Urban Future," which focuses on the increased global role that cities play. Today, more than half of the urban populations in developing countries live in poverty, subsisting on less than $2 a day. By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities. And by 2015, of the 23 mega-cities with populations of more than 10 million, 19 will be in developing countries such as Nigeria, India and Brazil. Our human population reached the 1 billion mark in 1830; it took from the dawn of human civilization to the 19th century to arrive at this point. Two billion people occupied the world in 1930, then three billion in 1960. We grew to 4 billion people in 1975, 5 billion in 1986 and 6 billion in 1999. We have 6.1 billion people on the planet today, and our global population is projected to grow to 9 billion by 2050. .

October 25, 2001 National Audubon Society   Population Growth Comes Home to Roost.  Since August Audubon activists have sent over 75,000 letters to Congress in support for family planning. Add you voice to the chorus by going here: www.capitolconnect.com/lastflight/ .

October 25, 2001 Sierra Club Population News listserve   Senate Passes Its Version of the FY2002 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill.  The Senate's version of the FY 2002 foreign operations appropriations bill was passed last night. Senator Boxer's (D-CA) provision to remove the global gag rule was included. Additionally, the Senate version is far superior to the earlier passed House version in its reproductive health-related funding levels and family planning policies. The House-Senate Foreign Operation Appropriations Conference Committee could meet as early as the end of next week to set 2002 funding levels and policies for international family planning programs. The President has threatened to veto the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill if it contained Senator Boxer's language trying to negate the global gag rule. .

September 2001 The Alan Guttmacher Institute   Childhood Abuse Leads to Sexual Risk Later On.  Increased exposure to abuse during childhood raises women's chances of having had sex by age 15, of perceiving themselves as being at risk of HIV and AIDS, and of having had 30 or more partners, says a report, "Adverse Childhood Experiences and Sexual Risk Behaviors in Women: A Retrospective Cohort Stud from September/October 2001 issue of Family Planning Perspectives. The authors note that this risky behavior may be an attempt by women to achieve the intimacy that was lacking in their childhood. .

September 2001 The Alan Guttmacher Institute   The Effect of Partners' Characteristics on Teenage Pregnancy and Its Resolution.  More than 17% of teenage women become pregnant during their first nonmarital sexual relationship. .

October 3, 2001 Christian Science Monitor   A New Line on Terrorism [Hang Out Your Clothes; Save the Artic].  This nation's entanglements in Central Asia and the Middle East arise largely from its appetite for oil. This appetite leads to trouble continuously. Already there are efforts in Congress to use the terrorist attacks as an excuse to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, supposedly to make us "energy independent." But it would provide gas for only about 2% of the nation's cars and trucks. Some 5 to 10% of residential energy use in the US goes to washing and drying clothes. Use cold water to wash, and you cut energy use on the washing side by 85%. Hang the clothes to dry and that's 100%t on the drying side. Together it's the energy equivalent of at least a third of the oil in the Arctic refuge. .

October 3, 2001 Financial Times (London)   New Farming Techniques Could 'Cut Food Crises in South Asia'.  Agricultural scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has said that the general adoption of "low-till" agriculture, "which increases yields while reducing the use of water and herbicides", could feed the growing population and reduce water shortages in the "bread basket" regions of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. This method "minimises soil damage done by traditional ploughing". Its use has spread "in south Asia from 3,000 h in 1998-99 to … 100,000h in 2000-2001" and may rise to 4 million h by 2004. The technique has cut herbicide usage by 50%, water consumption by 30-50% while significantly improving yields. Prof. Timothy Reeves, director-general of CIMMYT, said that working directly with farmers "was crucial to the project’s success and avoided the problem of lack of political will by national governments." The consortium which supported this program included the CIMMYT, the International Rice Research Institute and the Dutch and Chinese government. .

October 2, 2001 The Boston Globe   World Bank Sees New Peril for Third World.  An estimated 10 million more people will be pushed below the poverty line of $1 a day and tens of thousands of children will die from easily preventable diseases because the flow of private capital into the developing world would fall significantly because of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, according to World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn. .

October 4, 2001 The Washington Post   FDA Approves Monthly Contraceptive Alternative.  NuvaRing consists of a flexible, transparent and colorless ring about 3 inches in diameter that women insert vaginally once a month. The ring releases a continuous dose of the hormones estrogen and progestin, the same ones used in oral contraceptives. Each ring remains in the vagina for 21 days and is then removed and discarded. A new ring is inserted on or before the fifth day of the menstrual period. It was 98% effective towards preventing pregnancy as shown in clinical trials for the FDA in the United States and Europe. Produced by the Dutch company Organon Inc., the new contraceptive will be available by mid-2002. 14% of women in the clinical trials had vaginal infections or symptoms but some would have had them anyway. .

October 3, 2001 New Orleans Times-Picayune/NPG   Amendment Would Extend Gag Rule to U.S. Family Planning Services.  U.S. Rep. David Vitter (R-La.) has prepared an amendment to a spending bill that would deny federal family-planning financing to groups that perform abortions. The bill would affect agencies that provide family planning services in the U.S. About 40%t of the $250 million in family planning funding provides under Title X each year goes to private agencies, about half of which would be barred from financing under this legislation. .

October 4, 2001 Seattle Times   USA: Washington State Lowers Birth Rate in Welfare Program.  A family planning focus in Washington state’s welfare program has succeeded in significantly lowering the rate of births to women on public assistance. The birth rate has dropped by nearly 30% since the program was implemented. While case managers don’t tell clients not to have children, they provide extensive family planning services. All welfare applicants visit with on-site public health nurses to discuss contraception, and the state will pay for birth control pills, Norplant implants, and tubal ligation surgery if the client requests it. "These numbers don't look like an accident. said Laurie Cawthon, a public-health researcher at the Department of Social and Health Services, regarding the drop in fertility. "They look like a focused trend of women on welfare who have much greater access about family planning." .

October 5, 2001 Negative Population Growth   California Links Water Resources to Development.  The California legislature has approved a bill that requires developers planning 500 or more houses to demonstrate that an adequate water supply exists before construction can start. The bill is awaiting the signature of Gov. Gray Davis. .

October 5, 2001 Xinhua   Phillipine Population Commission Seeks Passage of Reproductive Health Act.  The Philippine Population Commission is urging the Filipino government to implement the Integrated Population and Development Act of 2000, a measure that would allow population and development policies and programmes to improve the reproductive health of women, couples, and individuals. The population of 76.5 million in the Phillippines has created economic pressure on its citizens, with 40% living below the poverty line. The Population Commission provides women with both traditional and modern contraceptives and. aims to reduce infant, early child and maternal mortality and prevent pregnancy and STDs in the young. Most Filipino couples have more than the three children they desire, and with an annual brth rate of 2.23%, the current national population is expected to double by 2035. Currently, 36 infants per 100,000 die each year and 172 women per 100,000 die from pregnancy-related complications. .

October 18, 2001 World Watch Institute   Human Actions Worsen Natural Disasters.  Janet Abramovitz, Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and author of Unnatural Disasters, reports that natural disasters are more harmful to humanity than is conflict. "In the 1990s, …hurricanes, floods, and fires affected more than two billion people and caused in excess of $608 billion in economic losses worldwide", more than "the previous four decades combined". The root causes of these catastrophes were destructive ecological practices and overpopulation. Left alone, natural systems tend to be stable and provide a "complex ecological safety net". But "degrading forests, engineering rivers, filling in wetlands, and destabilizing the climate," disrupts this stability and promotes natural disasters. The expansion of population and the concentration of economic activity along coastlines increase the harm done by natural disasters. One third of the world’s population (2 billion) and "13 of the world’s 19 megacities (with over 10 million inhabitants)" are "within 100 kilometers of a coastline". "Unnatural disasters" disproportionately affect the poor; 96% of "recorded disaster fatalities" occurred in developing countries in the past 15 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that this pattern will continue; particularly in Viet Nam and Bangladesh, although the Mediterranean coast and the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts will experience sea level rise. The absolute amount of economic loss will be large in developed countries, although, as a percent of the national economy, the economic impact will be greater among poor countries. Abramovitz suggests several ways of preventing and mitigating these effects of "unnatural disasters". Most importantly, natural systems, such as "dunes, barrier islands, mangrove forests and coastal wetlands", all of which absorb floodwaters, must be protected or restored. . China is restoring forests to prevent overwhelming human and financial losses from floods and Viet Nam is restoring mangroves to "buffer coastal storms" and to restore "needed jobs in fisheries". In addition, early warning and disaster preparedness plans must be set up in communities; governments should encourage development in areas which are not ecologically sensitive; and debt relief for developing nations would release funds for disaster prevention. .

October 18, 2001 World Watch Institute   Human Actions Worsen Natural Disasters.  Janet Abramovitz, Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and author of Unnatural Disasters, reports that natural disasters are more harmful to humanity than is conflict. "In the 1990s, …hurricanes, floods, and fires affected more than two billion people and caused in excess of $608 billion in economic losses worldwide", more than "the previous four decades combined". The root causes of these catastrophes were destructive ecological practices and overpopulation. Left alone, natural systems tend to be stable and provide a "complex ecological safety net". But "degrading forests, engineering rivers, filling in wetlands, and destabilizing the climate," disrupts this stability and promotes natural disasters. The expansion of population and the concentration of economic activity along coastlines increase the harm done by natural disasters. One third of the world’s population (2 billion) and "13 of the world’s 19 megacities (with over 10 million inhabitants)" are "within 100 kilometers of a coastline". "Unnatural disasters" disproportionately affect the poor; 96% of "recorded disaster fatalities" occurred in developing countries in the past 15 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that this pattern will continue; particularly in Viet Nam and Bangladesh, although the Mediterranean coast and the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts will experience sea level rise. The absolute amount of economic loss will be large in developed countries, although, as a percent of the national economy, the economic impact will be greater among poor countries. Abramovitz suggests several ways of preventing and mitigating these effects of "unnatural disasters". Most importantly, natural systems, such as "dunes, barrier islands, mangrove forests and coastal wetlands", all of which absorb floodwaters, must be protected or restored. . China is restoring forests to prevent overwhelming human and financial losses from floods and Viet Nam is restoring mangroves to "buffer coastal storms" and to restore "needed jobs in fisheries". In addition, early warning and disaster preparedness plans must be set up in communities; governments should encourage development in areas which are not ecologically sensitive; and debt relief for developing nations would release funds for disaster prevention. .

November 02, 2001 World Health Organization - UN   New Global Plan to Stop Spread of Tuberculosis; Afghanistan and Pakistan Among the World´s Worst-Affected Countries .  The Stop TB Partnership, a broad coalition which includes the World Health Organization and the World Bank, appealed to governments of developed and developing countries to support their plans to reverse the worldwide tuberculosis epidemic using DOTS or directly observed [tuberculosis] treatment short-course. They consider TB to be "an imminent public health emergency", associated as it is with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, emerging resistance to anti-tuberculous drugs and a growing vulnerable population of the poor, malnourished and refugee populations in the world. The organization will expand access to DOTS, "the internationally accepted strategy" involving administration of a combination of medications to patients with TB by healthcare workers and community volunteers who assure that these medications are taken regularly and for the proper duration. This method has been proven to be successful. By 2005, this group plans to detect 70% of people with infectious TB and to cure 85% of those cases detected. In addition, the "global plan includes prevention of multi-drug-resistance TB (MDR-TB); research and development of new TB drugs with a shortened treatment period; and strategies to better treat people with TB who are HIV positive." WHO Director-General, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland says that: "22 million people would be cured to TB and 16 million lives would be saved by 2005." World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn said that TB "causes approximately 2 million deaths per year, creates and perpetuate[s] a cycle of poverty and despair." Set up in 1998, the Stop TB Partnership is made up of more than 120 groups including the George Soros’ Open Society Institute which "financed initial development of the plan", which will cost approximately US $9.3 billion to implement and now "faces a funding gap of about US$4.5 billion." "Delegates at the Stop TB Partnership meeting today reaffirmed a commitment made in 1998 by the Group of Seven, the Global Stop TB Partnership, and government ministers from 20 ‘high-burden TB’ countries to meet TB control targets by 2005". .

November 02, 2001    Better Cars, Cleaner Air.  by Daniel F. Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program   William Clay Ford Jr., the new CEO of Ford Motor Company, may lead the way toward improving fuel efficiency in the American auto industry. "His tenure offers real hope for progress on issues like global warming." He has shown a sense of corporate responsibility in the past. In 1999, he withdrew from the Global Climate Coalition, a group of polluting industries which opposed the science proving global warming. General Motors and Daimler Chrysler soon followed. He also began to publish "corporate citizenship" reports, acknowledging that "Ford’s vehicles and factories" emitted 400 million metric tons of CO2, "a first step in informing shareholders about the corporation’s environmental impact." He committed Ford to increase Ford’s SUV fuel economy by 25% by 2005, an important step in curbing global warming, but also in reducing costs for consumers and reducing our dependence on oil. However, the Ford Motor Company needs to do more – and could. It could raise the average fuel economy of its cars and SUVs to 40 miles per gallon by using "modern technology for engines, transmissions and aerodynamics", saving the US one million barrels of oil per day. The danger in not making these improvements may be the loss of market share to Toyota and Honda, who have put gasoline-electric hybrid cars on the market which are in great demand .

October 13, 2001 Economist   A Pregnant Pause: Half a Century After Women Got the Pill, Men May Get One, too.  A contraceptive pill for men may become available within a decade if human clinical trials currently being conducted prove successful. Trials of a the male pill are being conducted on 66 men in Edinburgh, Scotland and Shanghai, China by Richard Anderson and a team from the Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh. The men take a daily pill that contains a gestogen, a synthetic hormone that "shuts off" the chemicals in the brain that direct sperm production. To counteract the effects of the "shutdown" of male hormone production, once every three months the participants are also given a shot of a "slow-release testosterone derivative." So far, after four months of therapy, none of their partners became pregnant. A few side effects such as acne, mood swings and weight gain were experienced. In a survey of 5,000 people in Scotland, China and South Africa, 50% to 66% of male respondents said they would use an oral contraceptive if it were available and 98% of women would trust them to do so. Other researchers are looking at ways of altering sperm maturation, sperm mobility and immune response as a means of inhibiting contraception. .

October 12, 2001 Chicago Tribune/NPG   Paul Simon Warns of Population Growth's Impact on Middle East Water Crisis.  Former Senator Paul Simon warns that population growth in the Middle East will further drain an already dangerously short water supply. "Residents of Amman, the capital of Jordan, can turn their tap water on only one day a week," writes Senator Simon. "Syria faces problems almost as severe, and Israel has had to curtail water use dramatically. Looking at the Mideast population projections, the situation will get much worse. Water is a time bomb and Israeli and Arab leaders know it." .

October 12, 2001 Kentucky Post/NPG   USA: Population Growth Raises Cost of Living, Says Study.  A University of Kentucky study confirms that new residents increase the cost of living to existing residents in a community, the Kentucky Post reported last week. The study, commissioned by Governor Paul Patton's Smart Growth Task Force, examined what it would cost a family of four if 1,000 new residents moved into its county. Although the cost of adding new services (such as police and fire protection, roads, schools, sewers, etc.) varies, "generally, we found that counties that had population more spread out cost more to provide services for them," said Mark Berger, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. "That's really the bottom line." In Pendleton County, one of the counties examined in the study, researchers estimated that an influx of 1,000 new residents would cost a family of four $1,222.39 more per year. .

October 12, 2001 Kentucky Post/NPG   USA: Population Growth Raises Cost of Living, Says Study.  A University of Kentucky study confirms that new residents increase the cost of living to existing residents in a community, the Kentucky Post reported last week. The study, commissioned by Governor Paul Patton's Smart Growth Task Force, examined what it would cost a family of four if 1,000 new residents moved into its county. Although the cost of adding new services (such as police and fire protection, roads, schools, sewers, etc.) varies, "generally, we found that counties that had population more spread out cost more to provide services for them," said Mark Berger, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. "That's really the bottom line." In Pendleton County, one of the counties examined in the study, researchers estimated that an influx of 1,000 new residents would cost a family of four $1,222.39 more per year. .

October 23, 2001  Union of Concerned Scientists   Confronting Climate Change in the Gulf Coast Region .  This detailed report, released by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Ecological Society of America and written by leading university and government scientists, contains links to information on the "impacts of climate change on the Gulf Coast region, … state specific summaries, and issue-specific fact-sheets." Despite its rich ecological resources, which underpin its economic wealth, human activities including climate change threatens the stability of the Gulf Coast region. Climate change in this area "will lead to more extreme rainfall events and longer dry periods, …sea-level rise, increased coastal flooding … with the projected 3-7 degrees Fahrenheit average temperature increase over the 21st century." This will lead to conflicts over fresh water and will threaten "vital agriculture, shipping and tourism industries". The report discusses ways in which the Gulf States can meet the challenges over the coming century. .

October 09, 2001 Shadow Synod Press Release/IPPF   Shadow Synod Calls for Withdrawal of Vatican Ban on Contraception.  Over 100 Catholics from around the world, representing the "Synod of The People of God"(SOPOG), gathered in Rome October 4-7 as a parallel meeting to the Synod of Bishops meeting at the same time. The shadow synod claimed that the Bishops' Synod is not addressing the serious problems in the church and the world today. They called for reforms of church policy including remarriage and the sacraments, human sexuality, and the role of both women and the laity. The synod called for the withdrawal of the ban on the use of contraception. Maria Consuelo Mejia, director of Catolicas por el derecho a decidir/Mexico said, "The church's position on contraception is a sin. Thousands of women worldwide die every year in the developing world because they do not have access to contraception. It is no secret inside or outside the Vatican that in the global north Catholics have ignored the hierarchy's ban on contraception as irresponsible. In the global south people suffer from the ban on contraception as the hierarchy lobbies national governments and at the United Nations against contraceptive choice. This action denies people the protection they need against unplanned pregnancy and HIV/AIDS. The ban on condoms is a tragedy that takes a great toll on human life everyday. Catholics want the ban on contraception lifted as it is killing people." .

October 21, 2001 NPG/Baltimore Sun   USA: "Smart Growth" Failing in Maryland.  Despite Maryland's much-heralded "smart growth" campaign to slow sprawl, two studies released this week find that every county but one in the Baltimore region projects significant development outside of designated growth areas. Each of Baltimore's five suburban counties could lose at least 10,000 acres of farms and forests over the next two decades, according to the studies by the Baltimore Regional Partnership and 1000 Friends of Maryland. An analysis of state and local planning documents and population growth projections shows that nearly 23% of the houses to be built in the region during the next 20 years will be outside the designated growth areas, with the development in rural areas consuming 82,000 acres (an area about the size of Baltimore). The result will be increased pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, strained local government budgets, and less money available to improve already developed areas. "Although the counties designated growth areas, they apparently failed to match them with development plans, which allowed new housing throughout rural areas," reported the Baltimore Sun. .

October 15, 2001 The Washington Times   Starving Tajiks in Afghans' Shadow.  This winter in Tajikistan, a million people face the threat of starvation. America's new ally in the war on terror may have to stand by and watch as trucks full of food roll through on the way to Afghanistan, according to Ardag Meghdesian, director of the World Food Program (WFP) in this former Soviet republic. $600 million for humanitarian aid has been pledged for Afghanistan, but Tajikistan faces a famine caused by a drought that began in the spring of 2000, affecting a broad swath of Central Asia from Uzbekistan to western China and Afghanistan. Soviet authorities once told the people what to plant and when and now "they just don't know how to cope with it." The hunger is most terrible near the Afghan border, where farmers depend heavily on irrigation, and in the Pamir mountain range. The WFP says 90,000 tons of grain, mostly wheat, are needed to provide the poorest 1 million people with a loaf of bread a day. Apparently the ruling elite, which controls the flow of irrigation water, forces farmers to plant cotton in the expectation that foreign aid will see to the food needs of the farm population. They charge so much for water that effectively the farmers work for free," added Benoit Bichet, of the French humanitarian organization Acted. People are sufferning from malnutrician, and 75% have a serious B-vitamin deficiency, and 90% have some kind of stomach disease from eating bad flour. .

October 18, 2001 The Straits Times   Couples in Thailand Postpone Having Babies.  With the economic crunch in Thailand, more Thais are choosing sterilization as a birth control technique. Sterilisations jumped from 123,756 in 1996 to 135,774 in 1998, a period that coincides with Thailand's worst economic crisis. Married couples are increasingly postponing having babies and many are consciously stopping at two children. Last year the population growth rate fell to less than 1%. Women - particularly those working in factories - are apparently worried about not being able to keep their jobs after they return from maternity leave. .

October 17, 2001 Uganda New Vision   Funds for Reproductive Health Programmes in Africa Needed to Reduce Maternal Mortality.  A group in Kampala, Uganda urged African governments to use funds from debt relief to fund reproductive health programmes in order to reduce deaths from pregnancy-related complications, a "common cause as well as a consequence of poverty". Ugandan Health Minister Jim Muhwezi said that his government will establish a "mini-hospital" in every county as a means of ensuring that women who have complications during labour are "rescued promptly." The maternal mortality rate in Uganda is said to be 496 deaths per 100,000 live births or approximately 1 in 200. The world average, according to UNICEF, is 1 out of 75 live births, and for industrialized nations is 1 in 4,085, and for least developed 1 in 16. .

October 18, 2001 Gambia Multimedia Unit   Gambia FPA Establishes Multimedia Unit.  The Gambia Family Planning Association (GFPA) has established a fully digital audiovisual and graphics production outfit under a bilateral agreement between the Government of The Gambia and The Federal Republic of Germany. Its goal is to produce media materials for the health promotional efforts of the Gambia's Department of State (Ministry) for Health, the GFPA and related NGO's. It has the capability to produce videos, radio programmes, posters and printed T-shirts and face caps to books, calendars, annual reports and magazines. The unit has produced a highly-acclaimed family planning documentary that has been shown nationwide on Gambian television and is now working on two more productions looking at family planning in Islam and the relations between family planning and the environment. They have also been commissioned to make the first ever film on the situation regarding sexually transmitted infections in the Gambia. .

October 17, 2001 Africa News Service   Uganda; Six Million Have No Food.  The President of the Uganda National Farmers Association, at a conference celebrating World Rural Women's Day, said that 6 million Ugandans do not have access to sufficient food. Children and women in rural areas were the worst affected and that many people were living below the poverty line. Women who lack alternative means to generate incomes often sell food to sustain their families. Oftentimes, howeverm they are beaten by their husbands who take the farming proceeds to use it for other purposes. The first lady, Mrs. Janet Museveni, wanted women to be included in the modernization of agriculture and to provide accessible outlets for the women to market their produce." .

October 07, 2001 Africa News Service   Ghana; President Markets Family Planning .  President Kufuor said in his "Life Choices" campaign that one of the greatest challenges confronting Ghana is how to manage a high level of population growth. Married couples should plan their families, with the motto "quality not quantity." To this end, he said, the education of women holds the key to development. The youth of the country should take the campaign serious for the plight of street children had become a worrying phenomenon in the country. The USAID Director in Ghana Dr. Frank Young submitted that the support for voluntary family planning and productive health programmes are essential components of US development assistance around the world. However, family planning still remains low in the country, with only 13% of married women using modern methods of contraception. Ghanaian women and their families need to be taught to manage their fertility and determine the timing and number of children they raise. .

October 18, 2001 www.PLANetWIRE.org -- newsroom for journalists   Saving Women's Lives in Afghanistan: United Nations Population Fund Prepares for Massive Emergency Reproductive Health Effort for Refugee Women.  The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is seeking $4.5 million of support from international donors for immediate needs - to save the lives of thousands of Afghan women who face severe reproductive health risks. UNFPA is preparing to send emergency reproductive health supplies to assist Afghan women who are fleeing their homes, particularly those who are pregnant. Even before the current crisis, pregnancy and childbirth were exceptionally dangerous for Afghan women due to malnutrition and a lack of access to health care: 99% of births are unattended and the maternal mortality rate of 17 deaths per 1,000 women is the world’s second highest. Women’s life expectancy is only 44 years of age. Of the total population of 23 million in Afghanistan: 5,675,000 women are of reproductive age (15-49 years), 1,140,000 are pregnant, and 20,000 will require medical treatment in the next 12 months for miscarriage or other serious obstetric and gynecological problems. The emergency services will include obstetric care, basic equipment and supplies for safe deliveries, family planning, training and operational support. .

October 2001 FamilyPlanet.org   You Can Empower the Planet.  This powerful ad is what it is all about. Spread the word! .

October 10, 2001 Africa News/Agence France Press/TOMRIC News Agency   Tanzania: VP Calls for Adult Literacy Push.  The vice president of Tanzania called on African governments to "invest in adult literacy programs and ensure a privileged position for girls’ education." VP Shein reported high numbers of school dropouts, mostly girls experiencing early pregnancies and marriages. "Parents in our continent have not attached much importance to the education for girls," he said. Over 60% of African women are illiterate. .

October 2001 FamilyPlanet.org   Family Planning Counts; A Common Denominator to Environmental Destruction.  In the U.S., forests are falling to farms and freeways, wild rivers are being dammed, and increasing numbers of species are making their way on to the endangered species list. Over 50% of all migrant song bird species are now in decline due to population-driven habitat loss. The world over, cars, factories and electricity-generating plants spew forth greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, even as mile-long gill nets decimate fishing grounds, and raw sewage spills untreated into once pristine waters. Much of this has to do with human population growth, which, when it occurs in countries with weak regulatory systems and little capital for infrastructure investments for land conservation, water treatment, and forest protection, can result in severe environmental damage that reaches beyond borders. The world's population reached 1 billion in about 1830, having taken about 2 million years to reach that number. Yet, it took only 100 more years to add the second billion people, and just thirty more years to add the third billion. Today at six billion, it is predicted that the world population will climb past seven billion within the next 15 years. While it is very likely that population growth will stop sometime, will any part of the natural world that exists today still exist when that inevitability occurs - and how much human misery will accrue while growth has not yet stopped? Countries find it increasingly difficult to house, feed, educate and provide basic health care services to burgeoning populations. Chronic unemployment and poverty lead to dissent, violence and war. With populations doubling every 20 or 30 years, much of the people remain poor,illiterate, and without clean water, health care and transportation; these countries cannot afford to invest in long-term environmental protections. The good news is that we know what works. As the Rev. Martin Luther Kingonce noted, "Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess." So why is it that, while world population has climbed 60% over the course the last 30 years, U.S. support for international family planning has dropped 40% (when calculated as a percentage of the U.S. budget)? The US is only number 21 in the top countries now contributing to international family planning assistance. .

October 10, 2001 The Boston Globe   Massachusetts Legislature Expected to Pass Bill Requiring Insurance Coverage for Contraceptives, Hormone Replacement Therapy.  Bill H 2193, which would require health plans to provide coverage for contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, "appears headed for passage" in the state House, according to State Rep. Carol Donovan (D). This year lawmakers say that the "demand" for equal contraceptive coverage has been "bolstered" by a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling stating that offering coverage for prescription drugs but not prescription contraceptives is a form of sexual discrimination. The state Senate passed a similar measure last year, but the legislation stalled in the House. Seventeen states have enacted laws requiring health plans to cover prescription contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy. .

October 21, 2001 Washington Post Magazine   Greener Than You Think; 'The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World' .  by Bjorn Lomborg ... reviewed by Denis Dutton. Bjorn Lomborg, "a young statistics professor and political scientist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark" wrote "The Skeptical Environmentalist" to show that the arguments of "environmental doomsayers" were "deeply flawed". According to David Dutton, a reviewer for the Washington Post, this he has done in "over 500 pages, supported by nearly 3,000 footnotes and 182 tables and diagrams". According to Dutton, Lomborg claims that poverty and starvation has declined as "our capacity to produce abundant quantities of food" has increased. In addition, Lomborg asserts that we are not running out of energy or of mineral resources; that the "population bomb is fizzling" and that "pesticides and chemicals are improving [human] longevity and the quality of life". With regard to loss of species, Lomborg claims that the "United Nations figures … show an actual loss of between a tenth of a percent and a 1 percent loss … of all species for all of the next 50 years" instead of the more generally accepted figure of 40,000 species annually. With respect to deforestation, Dutton reports that Lomborg has demonstrated a world forest loss of only 20% over the past 8000 years, but that the forested area has scarcely changed since World War II. This estimate of forest loss sharply contrasts with the generally accepted estimate of a loss of "two-thirds of its forests since the dawn of agriculture". With regard to global warming, although Lomborg agrees that it is real, he thinks that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change exaggerates its threats and ignores the benefits of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, which, he believes, "would improve … crop production" in the U.S., China, Canada and Russia. Dutton reports the many other opinions of Lomborg on a range of environmental issues such as waste disposal, environmental contamination, the impact of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming. The reviewer feels that "the book has immense entertainment value".  st.

October 2001    Birthcontrol.com.  This website is a commercial website - "Helping you make the right choices; Providing information and quality birth control products gathered from around the world." It gives you information on the Today Sponge, Panty Condom, Bioself Monitor, and other interesting family planning products. .

October 15, 2001 CCMC   Drought and Poverty.  Drought-causing hunger has pushed more people below the poverty line and is forcing people to migrate to better situations elsewhere. On the eve of World Food Day, Jean Ziegler, UN special rapporteur, said 100,000 people were dying of hunger and its effects every day. Data from the World Food Programme (WFP) indicates that over 300 million children suffer from chronic hunger, most of them girls. In Eastern India, starvation-death is a symptom of what some call the "silent creeping crisis" in India's rural areas. An Associated Press October 11 article reported India's federal government figures showing that 325 million people; early a third of India's billion-plus population live below an officially defined "poverty line," and at least 50 million of these are on the brink of starvation. ccmc .

October 10, 2001 London Guardian   Pakistan: Drought Pushes Another 10% Below Povery Line.  In Pakistan persistent drought along the Indus river has pushed 10% more of the country's population below the poverty line, says the Social Policy Development Centre, an independent think tank based in Karachi. This was in addition to the one-third of Pakistan’s estimated 17 million people who were already living in poverty before the drought. ccmc .

October 4, 2001 AIDS Pandemic Network /AP/Agence France Press   HIV/AIDS.  A report commissioned by the United Nations found that HIV/AIDS has begun spreading rapidly through Asia and the Pacific after more than a decade of relatively low rates of infection there. "Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Nepal and Vietnam...have all registered marked increases in HIV infection in recent years, while in China - home to a fifth of the world's people - the infection seems to be moving into new groups." Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told representatives from 35 countries that "HIV/AIDS has the potential to compound poverty and reverse the gains of years of economic and social development." The HIV/AIDS drug bill could reach $5 billion dollars next year. .

September 26, 2001 Baltimore Sun   Terrorism and Population Pressures.  Werner Fornos, president of the Population Institute, pointed to the 1986 public report of the Vice President's Task Force on Combating Terrorism that warned: "The motivations of those who engage in terrorism are many and varied, with activities spanning industrial societies to underdeveloped regions. Sixty percent of the Third World population is under 20 years of age; half are 15 years or less. These population pressures create a volatile mixture of youthful aspirations that when coupled with economic and political frustrations help form a large pool of potential terrorists." ccmc .

October 19, 2001 NPG   USA: Domestic Gag Rule Amendment Dropped.  Representative David Vitter (R-La.) has dropped plans to introduce an amendment that would have denied federal family planning money to groups that perform abortions. Vitter said he was several votes short of the number needed to get the House Appropriations Committee to incorporate his amendment into a spending bill for education, health and labor programs, but vowed to try again next year. Representative Melissa Hart (R-Pa.) also pulled an amendment she had introduced; it would have barred federal aid for any school dispensing "morning-after" birth control pills to students. Hart was personally asked by House GOP leaders to pull the amendment; she agreed after being promised a stand-alone vote on the proposal next year. .

October 09, 2001 BBC News /NPG   Baby Boom in France.  France is experiencing a mini "baby boom" with more babies being born there than in any other country in the European Union. A report by the French Institute for Demographic Studies finds that the number of French births has risen by 5% in one year. Researchers believe the high birth rate in France is linked to "family friendly" government policies. npg .

November 7, 2001 Reuters   Earth on Edge of a Precipice - UN Report.  The human race is plundering Earth at an unsustainable rate, but the growing power of women over their own futures could save the planet from destruction. The Population Fund's annual report for 2001, "Footprints and Milestones: Population and Environmental Change," revealed that more people were using more resources more intensively than ever before. "It is a crisis of global proportions that needs to be addressed with some urgency," said Alex Marshall, editor of the report. Hope lay in the fact that women were winning the war to control their fertility and had finally gained the ear of government and big business. "Women are getting together as never before and are making changes," Marshall said. "Nearly 60% of women now have access to some sort of family planning -- even if you take China out of that you still have about 40%." The world's population has doubled to 6.1 billion in the past 40 years, and is projected to grow by 50% to 9.3 billion in another 50 years, with all the growth in developing countries whose resources are already overstretched. By 2050, 4.2 billion people will be living in countries that cannot meet the daily requirement of 50 litres (11 Imp gallons) of water per person to meet basic needs. 54% of available fresh water supplies is being used annually -- two-thirds for agriculture. This figure will surge to 70% by 2025 due to population growth alone, and 90% if consumption in the developing countries reaches the levels in the developed world. Water tables in some Chinese, Latin American and South Asian cities are dropping by more than one metre (three feet) a year and water from seas and rivers being diverted with disastrous results. Already 1.1 billion people already do not have access to clean water, and in developing nations up to 95% of sewage and 70% of industrial waste was simply being dumped untreated into water courses. The HIV/AIDS epidemic may swamp Africa and is spreading very rapidly in Asia with four million people already infected in India alone. 15.5 million more people would die from HIV/AIDS over the next five years in the 45 most affected countries than would otherwise be the case. Vital rain forests are being destroyed at the highest rate in history, taking with them crucial sources of biodiversity and contributing to global warming, thereby boosting already rising sea levels. .

October 19, 2001 San Diego Union-Tribune /NPG   USA: School Overcrowding in San Diego.  A $32 million renovation and expansion project was completed at Fallbrook High School last year, but "signs are everywhere that the student population already has outgrown the new space. Too much time is wasted standing in long lines to use the restroom or buy lunch, some students say. Veteran teachers complain that there are too many teachers without their own classrooms, and too many students crammed into classes. Overcrowding prompted the district to turn a corner of the school's cafeteria into a temporary classroom for math teacher Joe Goss. Alan Saltamachio, who teaches biology, said he is frustrated that at least four students in all but one of his classes must sit on folding chairs." .

October 17, 2001 Environmental News Network   Environmental News Network Overwhelmed with Commentary on Overpopulation.  The lead story at the Environmental News Network, the largest environmental portal on the Internet, solicited comments from the public about solutions to overpopulation. The site received so many responses that it is printing them in two parts. npg .

October 2001 Patrick Burns   Immigration the Determinant Factor in U.S. Population Growth.  About 40% of the nearly 33 million increase in the size of the U.S. population during the 1990s is directly attributable to the arrival of new immigrants. This figure is determined by dividing 13 million (the number of new immigrants) by the total increase in the size of the U.S. population (32.7 million). If the figure is 14 million, the immigration impact is 43%. In addition, during the 1990s, immigrant women gave birth to an estimated 6.9 million children. If we add together the number of births to immigrants and the number of new arrivals, then immigration during the 1990s is equal to 20 or 21 million or a little less than two-thirds of the nearly 33 million increase in the size of the U.S. population over the last 10 years. .

October 24, 2001 Center for Immigration Studies/Patrick Burns   Census Bureau: 8 Million Illegal Aliens in 2000.  New Census Bureau data, released yesterday, puts the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. at eight million in 2000. The Census Bureau report with the estimated size of the illegal population can be found at http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/ReportRec2.htm (Appendix A of Report 1 contains the estimates). Steve Camarota at the Center for Immigration Studies said: "The Bureau found 8.7 million foreign-born individuals in the 2000 Census who appeared not to have legal status. However, because records for some legal immigrants are not available from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Bureau estimates that 1.7 million of the 8.7 million already had legal status or were likely to gain it soon. If these individuals are excluded, then 7 million illegals were counted in 2000. The Census Bureau also estimates that roughly 1 million illegal aliens were likely missed in last year's count, meaning that the total illegal population stood at 8 million in 2000." Other information from the Census Bureau report, again courtesy of CIS: The total foreign-born or immigrant population (including legal and most illegal immigrants) grew enormously, from 19.8 million in 1990 to 31.1 million in 2000. The 11.3 million or 57 percent increase in the total foreign-born population in just one decade is almost without precedent in American history both numerically and proportionately. Even during the great wave of immigration from 1900 to 1910, the foreign-born population grew by only 3.2 million or 31 percent, from 10.3 million to 13.5 million. The immigrant population more than tripled in size during the last three decades, from 9.6 million in 1970 to 31.1 million in 2000. .

November 17, 2001 Florida Times-Union   White Powder Mailed to Florida Planned Parenthood Clinic Preliminarily Tests Positive for Anthrax.  A letter addressed to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Stuart, Fla., contains anthrax, preliminary, but inconclusive, testing indicates. Nobody was exposed. Approximately 110 envelopes containing a white powder and a letter stating that the package contained anthrax were sent to private abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide on Monday, according to the FBI. Ninety Planned Parenthood centers across the country reported receiving such letters. The letters contained a return address from the U.S. Secret Service. .