1 in 4 Hotline Callers Report Birth Control Sabotage, Pregnancy Coercion - Difficult Topics

What may be the first national survey to determine the extent of “reproductive coercion” was released on February 15 by the National Domestic Violence Hotline and Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund. The survey found that 25 percent of callers to the National Domestic Violence Hotline reported that they had experienced this form of domestic and dating violence.

Reproductive coercion is defined as threats or acts of violence against a partner’s reproductive health or reproductive decision-making. It includes forced sex, a male partner pressuring a woman to become pregnant against her will and interference with the use of birth control. The women who reported this form of abuse said that their male partners either would not allow them to use birth control or sabotaged their birth control method (such as poking holes in condoms or flushing pills down the toilet). Some of the women said they had to hide their birth control.

India overtaking China? Not so fast, FT blog

3:35 pm by Akanksha Awal

As census results from the world’s two most populous countries pour in, the China India demographic transition debate rages on.

The rate of population growth in China has slowed to less than 6 per cent over the past decade, while in India it surged ahead by almost 18 per cent. India’s population is on track to become the biggest in the world by 2030.

Natural catastrophes grow 6% annually, by Rianovosti Russian News

Global warming has long become one of the hottest topics for scientists, politicians and mass media. While it is posed as a serious threat to humanity, there are many experts who believe that the idea of global warming is being promoted in order to avoid addressing more significant issues or even benefiting from it. Arkady Tishkov, deputy director of the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, claims that any climate change is cyclical and humankind’s contributes very little to it.

Good afternoon, Mr. Tishkov. We all remember the unusually hot summer of 2010 when virtually half of Russia was engulfed in wildfires.What does this year have in store for us? Will we see a repeat of that apocalyptic scenario?

There is no reason to expect major problems like those we experienced last summer. But summer 2011 will be hot. Supposing the scale of mismanagement in Russia’s agriculture and forestry sector has remained unchanged, we should expect numerous grass fires, potentially spreading to forests and communities. Last year showed us that most fires started in abandoned fields, and that initial grass fires eventually escalated into forest fires.

But it is quite obvious that global warming is underway, and that this process is irreversible. Temperatures are rising world over, and it’s very convenient to blame everything on mismanagement. Is that being done in order to avoid addressing more serious problems?

I am talking about the fact that not all Russian regions were hit by the fires. There were no fires in areas where agricultural development was managed correctly. But here, to an extent, you have a point: whatever we do, both the number of fires and their intensity will increase. Although territory affected by fires was not at its highest in 2010, European Russia, forest steppes and steppes, which had never seen wildfires before, burned. That is why attention was drawn in particular to the large number of fires.

Does this mean that humankind is doomed, and that our actions have led to irreversible climate change?

No. Any climate change is cyclical. Humankind’s influence on nature boils down to the fact that it has created the conditions for more dramatic climate change. We should primarily fear dramatic changes in climate. Neither people nor the economy will be able to adapt to these changes in time. The state loses tens of billions of rubles each year because the economy and humans are unable to quickly adapt and adjust to these changes in climate. For example, fires have become more frequent, and the number of other catastrophic phenomena increases by 6% annually. Although recent developments in Japan bear little relation to climate change, given the effects of the earthquake, tsunami, and industrial disaster, we can speak of a natural catastrophe.

GABRIELA: Population control does not solve unemployment, BEA CUPIN, GMA News

A women’s rights group has criticized the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for aligning with government’s population control policy to address unemployment and poverty.

“Urging women to limit their number of children in order to have a job, to increase their productivity, or to receive incentive bonuses at work is discriminatory, deceptive and downright ‘anti-choice,’" according to a statement released by GABRIELA late Tuesday.

As of this posting, Director Nicon Fameronag of the DOLE Communications Office could not be reached for comment.

Labor Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte had said in a press briefing on Monday that the department would convince workers to think about family size, saying that work productivity is affected by family size. She added that family planning and responsible parenting is part of the Labor Code.

Transmonte said that their plan, which GABRIELA said is part of the six-year Philippine Labor and Employment Plan, puts them on the side of Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

Read more: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/218894/nation/gabriela-population-control-does-not-solve-unemployment

China to keep birth rate low: president, Xinhuanet english news

BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China will stick to and improve its current family planning policy and maintain a low birth rate, President Hu Jintao has said.

Hu, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks Tuesday at the 28th group study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Population is a key factor in economic and social development that concerns the success of China's reform and opening up, as well as the future of the Chinese nation, Hu said.

This heaving planet by David Attenborough, for the New Statesman

Sophie Elmhirst's interview with "David Attenborough - not over, not out",

Half a century ago, the WWF was formed to help save endangered animals. Today, it’s human beings who are increasingly at risk, through overpopulation and food scarcity. Can we bring our birth rate under control and avert potential catastrophe?

Fifty years ago, on 29 April 1961, a group of far-sighted people in this country got together to warn the world of an impending disaster. Among them were a distinguished scientist, Sir Julian Huxley; a bird-loving painter, Peter Scott; an advertising executive, Guy Mountford; a powerful and astonishingly effective civil servant, Max Nicholson - and several others.

They were all, in addition to their individual professions, dedicated naturalists, fascinated by the natural world not just in this country but internationally. And they noticed what few others had done - that all over the world, charismatic animals that were once numerous were beginning to disappear.

The Arabian oryx, which once had been widespread all over the Arabian Peninsula, had been reduced to a few hundred. In Spain, there were only about 90 imperial eagles left. The Californian condor was down to about 60. In Hawaii, a goose that once lived in flocks on the lava fields around the great volcanoes had been reduced to 50. And the strange rhinoceros that lived in the dwindling forests of Java - to about 40. These were the most extreme examples. Wherever naturalists looked they found species of animals whose populations were falling rapidly. This planet was in danger of 
losing a significant number of its inhabitants, both animals and plants.

Frontier Economics - Forbes

Growing Pains by Brink Lindsey

In an earlier column I explained the very real threat of a long-term slowdown in U.S. economic growth (and check out this column for why that matters so much). Demographic factors are the main culprit.

First, the employment-to-population ratio rose steadily for a century but now is falling. Second, high school and college graduation rates have been stalled for a generation. Growth in both the quantity and quality of labor has slowed to a crawl, and that puts a sizable drag on the growth of GDP per capita.

Let me now put these specific problems in a larger context. As I’ve explained in a recent paper for the Kauffman Foundation, what’s happening in the United States is part of a larger, global pattern of historical development. Specifically, as a country’s economy grows richer and more advanced, it eventually exhausts the easiest opportunities for growth, or what economist Tyler Cowen calls the “low-hanging fruit.”

The cost of climbing the protein ladder

Global grain production is under duress, because of aquifer depletion, severe soil erosion, climate change, severe weather events

Over the next fifty years, as we add another 4.5 billion people to the world’s population, global demand for food will increase almost 70% if population growth predictions are correct.

Already approximately 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night.  Somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds - most are children under the age of five.

U.S. State's population outpacing jobs

The Associated Press

DENVER — Colorado's population is outpacing the number of new jobs, economists and demographers say. The growth is attributed to both births and new arrivals.

  Economists predict the state will gain between 10,000 to 20,000 jobs this year, while demographers say the population is expected to grow by 85,000, including births, The Denver Post reported.

   The state lost 130,000 jobs from 2008 to 2010 but that didn’t keep people from wanting to move to the state. An estimated 145,000 people moved to Colorado during that time from other states. 

   The trends likely won’t help the state’s high unemployment rate, said Martin Shields, a regional economist at Colorado State University. In March, the statewide jobless rate stood at 9.2 percent with about 246,000 people out of work.

 ‘‘If the labor force continues to grow faster than the economy creates jobs, then we’re going to see prolonged unemployment,’’ Shields said. 

Film Review: Mother: Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma

Winner Best Colorado Film, Boulder International Film Festival 2011

Recently I attended a premier showing of a new film "Mother; Caring Our Way Out of the Population Dilemma" and I was very moved by the film.  This film documents important aspects of the global problem of overpopulation.  It does not focus on fixing blame for overpopulation: Instead it tries to educate the viewers so that people can find a humane way out of the most difficult problem facing our world today. The film explores many different facets of the population dilemma in the developing world as well as in the developed world.

http://www.motherthefilm.com/

A century of population change in the U.S. - Link to Interactive Map

The U.S. from 1910 to 2010. 


An interactive map from the U.S. Census Bureau showing the state-by-state change over a century in population, density and Congressional representation.


Click: http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/flash/9193970/

The Union of Concerned Scientists advice for policymakers

MESSAGES FOR POLICYMAKERS AND THE MEDIA

            The world's biodiversity encompasses the vast array of genes, species, and ecosystems that sustain and give meaning to human life. Clean air, uncontaminated water, healthy crops—all of these depend on the diversity and maintenance of our biological resources.


            Human activities are now affecting species of all types and habitats, at all points of the globe, and pushing many toward extinction


            According to best estimates, extinction rates during the past century range between 100 and 1000 times faster than the background rate of species extinction.


            The bulk of evidence suggests that human population growth is an important underlying cause of biodiversity loss.


            The growth of our species' numbers is tightly coupled to rising demand for food and shelter. Increasing the supply of these essentials affects biodiversity.


            Much of current rapid human population growth is occurring in the vicinity of some of the world's biologically richest yet most vulnerable habitats.


            According to the most recent projections, by the end of the 21st century human population could reach as high as 16 billion or as low as 5.5 billion. Where our numbers end up in this range could make a critical difference to the prospects for conserving the remainder of the world's biological diversity.


            Among global trends affecting biodiversity, the most hopeful is the recent slowing of human population growth. Stabilization of human numbers, a possibility within the next forty years, would dramatically improve the prospects for saving wild species and the ecosystems in which they live and evolve.

                        The United States made a commitment at the United Nations Population Conference in Cairo in 1994 to support international family planning efforts. The United States should re-establish a leadership role in family planning funding and set an example for both donor and recipient countries.

For full article: http://www.ucsusa.org/ssi/biodiversity/population-and-environment-series/population-biodiversity.html

The Union of Concerned Scientists - leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world.

A Table for Nine Billion, by IPS News

By Aprille Muscara.

WASHINGTON, Apr 14, 2011 (IPS) - As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund convene for their annual Spring Meetings here, soaring food prices are high on the agenda, prompting some analysts to fast-forward to 2050 and the question of how to nourish the mid-century's estimated world population of 8.9 billion people – the majority of whom will live in developing countries.

"More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and volatile food prices," warned World Bank chief Robert Zoellick on Thursday, who noted that some 44 million people have already been driven into poverty since last June alone due to the skyrocketing cost of food.

16 local scientists polled on environmental perils

By Scott Harper

Today is Earth Day, the 41st anniversary of the unofficial start of the American environmental movement, a time when many roll up their sleeves and plant trees or clean up streams, or simply reflect on the state of the planet.

With the latter in mind, The Virginian-Pilot asked 16 local scientists two basic but pertinent questions:

- What is the most underrated environmental problem facing the world today?

- And, which is the most overrated?

While no real consensus emerged, the scientists - from Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University, Virginia Wesleyan College and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science - made some intriguing, and sometimes surprising, observations.

The two problems seen as the most underrated were overpopulation and rising sea levels related to climate change.

We must halt the explosion in population to offer decent life for all, says Sir David Attenborough

By Liz Thomas for The Daily Mail, 22.04.11

Sir David Attenborough has warned that population growth must be stopped in order to offer a ‘decent life’ for all.

The wildlife broadcaster said people were shying away from accepting that the world’s resources cannot sustain current levels of population growth.

‘There cannot be more people on this Earth than can be fed,’ he writes in the New Statesman.

‘The sooner we stabilise our numbers, the sooner we stop running up the down escalator – and we have some chance of reaching the top; that is to say, a decent life for all.’

Sir David, 84, said the global population is over six billion and will hit nine billion in 30 years, but ‘there seems to be some bizarre taboo around the subject’.

He warned of a ‘perfect storm of population growth, climate change and peak oil production’, leading to ‘insecurity in the supply of food, water and energy’.

‘We now realise that the disasters that continue increasingly to afflict the natural world have one element that connects them all – the unprecedented increase in the number of human beings on the planet,' he added.

‘All these people, in this country and worldwide, rich or poor, need and deserve food, water, energy and space. Will they be able to get it? I don’t know.’ 

Sir David said there was a 'taboo' tackling the subject and that people shied away from stating the fact that a world’s resources cannot sustain current levels of population growth.

He said: ‘There seems to be some bizarre taboo around the subject. This taboo doesn’t just inhibit politicians and civil servants who attend the big conferences. 

Capitalizing on population growth: Investor gluttony and future profits

Here is an article by By Larry D. Spears, contributing writer for Money Morning entitled:

Long-Term Investing Strategies: Global Demographic Trends

If you've been an investor for more than a few months, you've almost certainly heard the adage "the trend is your friend."

This bit of wisdom has been proven correct so often that it has assumed a place as a universally accepted stock market "rule."

Most of us think of trends as market momentum - a shorter-term manifestation that lasts from a few hours to a few weeks. But there's another kind of trend - one that's both longstanding and quite powerful - that can deliver hefty profits to those who understand its value.

Investors interested in long-term investing strategies can take a close look at global demographic trends.

8 Top Trends to Invest In

When we talk about "demographics," we're referring to the dominant characteristics of the human population in a given region, or of the world as a whole.

A precise listing of all the latest demographic trends is difficult - not because of a lack of research, but because many of the conclusions are skewed by the beliefs of the groups conducting the analyses. For example, environmental concerns often score higher marks in studies done by environmental advocates than in surveys taken by more independent-minded agencies.

In fact, this represents one of the few real risks of trend investing: In the rush to be "first" on a given trend, you may end up jumping aboard a hot new trend that really isn't a trend at all. Still, there are more than enough studies of shifting national and global demographics to crosscheck results and come up with a few emerging and strengthening trends that can't be disputed.

We looked at a variety of reports from government agencies like the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the National Intelligence Council, quasi-governmental units like the U.N.'s World Health Organization and the International Monetary Fund, several international banks and business groups and some independent institutions like the Pew Research Center, and came up with eight rising demographic waves on which they nearly all agree:

1. The world's population is growing faster than ever - in numerical, if not percentage, terms - and it's getting older.

2. The geopolitical leadership of the world is shifting.

3. The "middle class" is emerging in the developing nations, driving an unprecedented shift of wealth from the West to the East.

4. The population growth and burgeoning middle class is creating a steady rise in demand for energy and consumer products, which will keep prices moving higher.

5. Population growth is steadily magnifying the need for more food and water, which is already generating critical shortages of both in some parts of the world.

6. Human beings continue to be messy creatures, with an ever-increasing need for sanitation and waste-disposal services.

7. Despite major peace initiatives, conflict among the human race continues to persist.

8. And a mushrooming global debt burden stands as a threat to both the world's currencies and its established trade systems.

The economic implications of all eight of these global demographic trends should be fairly obvious - or available in broad terms from other sources, many listed at the end of this story - so we won't go into a lot of detail in defining each trend.

Instead, we'll look at some of the quality stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that stand to capitalize on these trends and provide potentially solid longer-term results for you and other investors.

Be aware, however, that there are very few "pure plays" targeting just one of the major trends, most of which have implications for industries in a number of fields.

Human footprint harms ecosystems - Dal University led study involved researchers around the world

You might think a highly diverse ecosystem like a coral reef would be better prepared to combat stressors—things like overfishing, coastal development, pollution and climate change. After all, if a few select species are removed from such a rich ecosystem teeming with marine life forms small and large, they might not be missed as others sweep in to replace them.

Not so, according to a new global scientific field study. 


“We thought these very diverse ecosystems would be very very resilient,” says Camilo Mora, the Dalhousie researcher who led the study. “But it turns out they are very sensitive to the loss of species.”


Pulling out pieces



To illustrate his point, he compares the coral reef to the computerized device that you’re now looking at to view this story. “Imagine if someone started pulling out pieces from the back, not very many pieces, just one or two. Still, it’s very likely the computer is not going to work anymore,” says Dr. Mora, on the phone from Colombia.

Coral reefs, which develop in shallow, warm water, usually near land, are so specialized and so refined, he continues, “that if you take out one or two species, it will impair the whole ecosystem.”

Researchers reporting in the journal PlosBiology say the situation is alarming. Many people around the world depend on coral reefs for their livelihood, for fishing and tourism, and yet the density of human populations in close proximity to coral reefs is adding to their decline.


The impact of our ecological footprint by vcreporter

It’s been more than 40 years since the first Earth Day, and our country has seen the creation of many great eco-friendly policies and organizations since then, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. The number of rivers, lakes and estuaries deemed safe for fishing and swimming has doubled in the last two decades. Smog levels are down about 20 percent, with tailpipe emissions being 98 percent cleaner since the first Earth Day. A combined 1,400 animal and plant species are now protected on the threatened or endangered list. Clearly, our eco-awareness is on the rise and has resulted in various tangible benefits, but we are far from truly sustainable living.

From small farmers to big levers: how can smallholders best link up to improve their livelihoods?

The Guardian, 21.4.11

Theme sponsored by Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

There are an estimated 450 million smallholder families in non-OECD countries; about one-third of the world's population depends on small-scale farming (up to two hectares) for at least part of its livelihood. Smallholders' ability to earn incomes from farming is crucial not only at family level, but also for food security for a rapidly rising world population. In strongly agrarian economies, profitable smallholder agriculture determines national development prospects and the nature of economic transformation.

Vladimir Putin reveals plan to boost Russia birth rate - BBC Business News

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has unveiled plans to reverse Russia's declining population.

The government will spend 1.5tn roubles ($53bn; £33bn) on raising the birth rate and extending life expectancy.

He announced the plan in a key speech to the Duma on the economy ahead of presidential elections in March 2012.

The prime minister has hinted he may seek to return to the presidency, but it is unclear whether the incumbent Dmitry Medvedev would make way for him.

Mr Putin, widely seen as the power behind the throne in Russia, stood down as president at the last election because of a constitutional limit on his term in office, and backed Mr Medvedev - a close political ally - as his successor.

'Unjustified liberalism'

The speech was seen as an opportunity for Mr Putin to outline his economic policies ahead of the presidential elections, as well as parliamentary elections due in December.

The prime minister positioned himself as a political hardliner, in contrast with Mr Medvedev who has presented a more liberal face and greater openness to the West during his presidency.

The Russian premier, whose government has been criticised in the West for stifling democracy, once again said that political stability was more important than liberalising too fast.

"The country needs a decade of strong, calm development, without different kinds of swings, poorly thought out experiments based on at times unjustified liberalism or, on the other hand, on social demagoguery," he said, reminding voters of the disasters of the 1990s.

Mr Putin emphasised the need for the Russian economy to diversify away from energy and mineral exports, and reduce its economic dependence on the outside world.

"The oil boom we are witnessing only underlines the need to move quickly to a new model of economic development," he said.

"Economic weakness and sensitivity to external shocks result in threats to national sovereignty.

"Let's be frank - in the modern world, if you are weak, there is always someone who will come in and unequivocally recommend which way to go, what policy to conduct, what path to choose."

In a surprise initiative, he called for "demography projects" in a country whose population has fallen 6% since the mid-90s.

"First, we expect the average life expectancy to reach 71 years," he said.

"Second, we expect to increase the birth rate by 25-30% in comparison to the 2006 birth rate."

Human Capital Follows the Thermometer

The New York Times, 

By Edward L. Glaeser - economics professor at Harvard and the author of “Triumph of the City.”

Over the last decade, population growth in the fifth of American counties where January temperature averaged above 43 degrees was over 9 percent, while the population growth in the fifth of American counties where January temperature average below 22 degrees was less than 2 percent. Population growth was over 13 percent in the fifth of counties where more than 21 percent of adults had college degrees in 2000, while growth in the least educated three-fifths of counties was below 3 percent.

The powerful pull of skills reminds us that human capital is the bedrock of local and national success. The message of the Sun Belt is more complicated. Its success tells us a bit about the pleasures of warmth, and a bit about the importance of natural resources and a bit about the impact of limited government.

Population data is from the 2000 and 2010 Census.

Skills data (share of 25+ population with a college degree) is from the 2000 Census.

January temperature comes from ICPSR (Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research) Study No. 2896, “Historical, Demographic, Economic, and Social Data: The United States, 1790-2002,” by Michael R. Haines, which compiles data from various Census sources over many years.

The chart shows population growth across American counties between 2000 and 2010. I have ranked counties both by average January temperature and by share of the adult population with college degrees as of the year 2000. Each point represents one-tenth of America’s counties. The blue line shows the powerful connection between skills and population growth; the red line shows the also-strong connection between January temperature and population growth. Both trends represent longstanding patterns.

Last week, I discussed a new paper of mine jointly written with Giacomo Ponzetto and Kristina Tobio, looking at population growth over the last two centuries. Our longer-run investigation focused on counties in the eastern United States, roughly bordered by the Mississippi, in order to focus on an area that was populated at the time of the Civil War. For more recent decades, we also look at metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

Climate change fatigue as global survey reveals lack of concern

By ClickGreen.

A survey of more than 18,500 people across 24 countries has revealed that concern over climate change is eclipsed by other environmental concerns such as energy security and waste disposal.

Global warming was voted a top priority in just four of the nations polled – South Korea, India, Japan and Mexico.



Energy security is the leading environmental issue for Britons, over and above climate change, according to the new international Ipsos poll of working age adults. 

Half of Britons (50%) feel that future energy supplies and sources is one of the most important environmental issues facing the nation. Other leading issues are waste management (48%); overpopulation (41%).



Prepare for the Next Conflict: Water Wars

By Erik Rasmussen for the Huffington Post.

Every minute, 15 children die from drinking dirty water. Every time you eat a hamburger, you consume 2400 liters of the planet's fresh water resources -- that is the amount of water needed to produce one hamburger. Today poor people are dying from lack of water, while rich people are consuming enormous amounts of water. This water paradox illustrates that we are currently looking at a global water conflict in the making.

We are terrifyingly fast consuming one of the most important and perishable resources of the planet -- our water. Global water use has tripled over the last 50 years. The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages with more than 2.8 billion people living in areas of high water stress. This is expected to rise to 3.9 billion -- more than half of the world's population -- by 2030 in a 'business as usual'-scenario. The status as of today is sobering: the planet is facing a 'water bankruptcy' and we are facing a gloomy future where the fight for the 'blue gold' is king.

A good news blip from Manila. The Phillipines are ahead of the game, so where are we?

Senator backs Aquino’s renewed stand on population bill

By Maila Ager, Inquirer.net

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Panfilo Lacson backed President Benigno Aquino III’s renewed push for the controversial Responsible Parenthood bill, saying the President was on the right track to address the country’s perennial problem of poverty.

“Finding ways to curb our monstrous population growth rate, which has been a major part of our poverty problem, is one sensible approach in poverty alleviation. Advocating population management is not being anti-life. In fact, it is pro-country and pro-people,” Lacson said in a statement on Tuesday.

Population management, he said, was urgent since most poor Filipinos do not have enough food or access to basic services.

“There is not enough food on the table, many are homeless, the poor have almost zero opportunity to have access to education, health care and the most basic social services, which they can otherwise enjoy with an efficient but moral population management program,” said the senator.

Climate change psychology: Coping and creating solutions

Psychologists are offering new insight and solutions to help counter climate change, while helping people cope with the environmental, economic and health impacts already taking a toll on people's lives, according to a special issue of American Psychologist, the American Psychological Association's flagship journal. Climate change "poses significant risks for – and in many cases is already affecting – a broad range of human and natural systems," according to the May-June issue's introductory article, "Psychology's Contributions to Understanding and Addressing Global Climate Change." The authors call upon psychologists to increase research and work closely with industry, government and education to address climate change.

The role psychologists can play may be different from what many people expect. "Psychological contributions to limiting climate change will come not from trying to change people's attitudes, but by helping to make low-carbon technologies more attractive and user-friendly, economic incentives more transparent and easier to use, and information more actionable and relevant to the people who need it," wrote Paul C. Stern, PhD, of the National Research Council.

Water demand will 'outstrip supply by 40% within 20 years' due to climate change and population growth

By the Daily Mail Reporter.

Water demand in many countries will exceed supply by 40 per cent within 20 years due to the combined threat of climate change and population growth, scientists have warned.

A new way of thinking about water is needed as looming shortages threaten communities, agriculture and industry, experts said. In the next two decades, a third of humanity will have only half the water required to meet basic needs, said researchers. Agriculture, which soaks up 71 per cent of water supplies, is also likely to suffer, affecting food production.

Filling the global water gap by supply measures alone would cost an estimated £124billion per year, a meeting in Canada was told. But this could be cut to between £31billion and £37billion by an approach which both raised supply and lowered demand, according to leading water economist Dr Margaret Catley-Carlson.

Around 300 scientists, policy makers, and economists attended the international meeting in Ottawa hosted by the Canadian Water Network (CWN) in the run-up to U.S. World Water Day on March 22.

Smart family planning improves women's health and cuts poverty

By Lester R Brown, founder and president of Earth Policy Institute for the Guardian.

When it comes to population growth, the United Nations has three primary projections. The medium projection, the one most commonly used, has world population reaching 9.2 billion by 2050. The high one reaches 10.5 billion. The low projection, which assumes that the world will quickly move below replacement-level fertility, has population peaking at 8 billion in 2042 and then declining.

If the goal is to eradicate poverty, hunger, and illiteracy, then we have little choice but to strive for the lower projection.

Slowing world population growth means ensuring that all women who want to plan their families have access to family planning information and services. Unfortunately, this is currently not the case for 215 million women, 59% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

These women and their families represent roughly 1 billion of the earth's poorest people, for whom unintended pregnancies and unwanted births are an enormous burden.

Former US Agency for International Development (USAID) official J Joseph Speidel notes that "if you ask anthropologists who live and work with poor people at the village level … they often say that women live in fear of their next pregnancy. They just do not want to get pregnant."

The United Nations Population Fund and the Guttmacher Instituteestimate that meeting the needs of these 215 million women who lack reproductive healthcare and effective contraception could each year prevent 53 million unwanted pregnancies, 24 million induced abortions, and 1.6 million infant deaths.

Along with the provision of additional condoms needed to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, a universal family planning and reproductive health programme would cost an additional $21bn in funding from industrial and developing countries.

Shifting to smaller families brings generous economic dividends. In Bangladesh, for example, analysts concluded that $62 spent by the government to prevent an unwanted birth saved $615 in expenditures on other social services. For donor countries, ensuring that men and women everywhere have access to the services they need would yield strong social returns in improved education and healthcare.

Slowing population growth brings with it what economists call the demographic bonus. When countries move quickly to smaller families, growth in the number of young dependents – those who need nurturing and educating – declines relative to the number of working adults.

At the individual level, removing the financial burden of large families allows more people to escape from poverty. At the national level, thedemographic bonus causes savings and investment to climb, productivity to surge and economic growth to accelerate.

Japan, which cut its population growth in half between 1951 and 1958, was one of the first countries to benefit from the demographic bonus. South Korea and Taiwan followed, and more recently China, Thailand and Vietnam have been helped by earlier sharp reductions in birth rates.

Although this effect lasts for only a few decades, it is usually enough to launch a country into the modern era. Indeed, except for a few oil-rich countries, no developing country has successfully modernised without slowing population growth.

Harsh Reality, The Green Revolution Accomplishments and Apprehensions

Market Oracle - article by Richard Mills

The second half of the 20th century saw the biggest increase in the world's population in human history. Our population surged because:

• Medical advances lessened the mortality rate in many countries
• Massive increases in agricultural productivity because of the "Green Revolution"
• The global death rate has dropped almost continuously since the start of the industrial revolution - personal hygiene, improved methods of sanitation and the development of antibiotics have all played a major role.
  The term Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfers that happened between the 1940s and the late 1970s. The initiatives involved:
  • Development of high yielding varieties of cereal grains
  • Expansion of irrigation infrastructure
  • Modernization of management techniques
  • Mechanization
  • Distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers
  Tractors with gasoline powered internal combustion engines (versus steam) became the norm in the 1920s after Henry Ford developed his Fordson in 1917 - the first mass produced tractor. This new technology was available only to relatively affluent farmers and it was not until the 1940s tractor use became widespread.
  Electric motors and irrigation pumps made farming and ranching more efficient. Major innovations in animal husbandry - modern milking parlors, grain elevators, and confined animal feeding operations - were all made possible by electricity.
  Advances in fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, antibiotics and growth hormones all led to better weed, insect and disease control.
  There were major advances in plant and animal breeding - crop hybridization, artificial insemination of livestock, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
  Further down the food chain came innovations in food processing and distribution.
  All these new technologies increased global agriculture production with the full effects starting to be felt in the 1960s.
  Cereal production more than doubled in developing nations - yields of rice, maize, and wheat increased steadily. Between 1950 and 1984 world grain production increased by over 250% - and the world added over two billion more people for dinner.