From the UN’s e-Newsletter.

Former Chilean president Bachelet to head new UN Women’s agency

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet to head United Nations Women (UN Women), a newly created entity to oversee all of the world body’s programs aimed at promoting women’s rights and full participation in global affairs.

The new body – which will become operational next January – will merge four UN agencies and offices: the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

For full article, visit:
http://www.unicwash.org/Media.aspx?date=2010-09-14#item528

From the OPTIMUM POPULATION TRUST

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release

PAPAL VISIT: GREEN NGO ATTACKS “INHUMANE” CONTRACEPTION BAN

The Optimum Population Trust today urged British Catholics and non-Catholics alike to protest strongly to the Pope about the ban on contraception.

OPT Chairman Roger Martin said: “The Catholic Church does much good in the world, but the effects are nullified by its uniquely inhumane doctrine on, and campaign against, contraception.”
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Thanks to Jenny Goldie of Sustainable Population Australia for this article.
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The world is facing a mass extinction event that could be greater than that of the dinosaurs, new research shows.

Macquarie University palaeobiologist Dr John Alroy used fossils to track the fate of major groups of marine animals throughout the earth’s history.

He compiled data from nearly 100,000 fossil collections worldwide, tracking the fate of marine animals during extreme extinction events some 250 million years ago.

For full article, visit:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/7955459/future-of-species-unpredictable-study

Channel One News featured our electronic game project, Breakaway. Below is a link to view the news piece.

http://www.channelone.com/video/breakaway:-video-game-against-violence/

Thanks to Jenny Goldie of Sustainable Population Australia for this OpEd from the Canberra Times.
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Canberra Times
July 21, 2010
Opinion, page 11.

One of the first actions of our new Prime Minister Julia Gillard was to reject the notion of a ‘big Australia’. She added the word ‘Sustainable’ to the title of the Population Minister. For many of us – environmentalists concerned about habitat loss or greenhouse gas emissions, or ordinary people unable to afford a home – it was sweet relief.
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Thanks to Leta Finch for this article.
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For the 10th-anniversary issue of The Chronicle Review, we asked scholars and illustrators to answer this question: What will be the defining idea of the coming decade, and why?

Henry Petroski

The present state of the American infrastructure-roads, bridges, water supply, and the like-has been given an overall grade of D by the American Society of Civil Engineers, which regularly issues infrastructure report cards. The engineers’ estimate of how much it will cost to raise the grade from poor to acceptable is $2.2-trillion over a five-year period. Such a vast amount of money is unlikely to be available over the next decade.

For full article, visit:
http://chronicle.com/article/Declining-Infrastructure/124137/

The Guardian: Despite repeated pledges to phase out fossil fuel subsidies and criticism from some quarters that government support for renewable energy technologies is too generous, global subsidies provided to renewable energy and biofuels are dwarfed by those enjoyed by the fossil fuel industry.

That is the conclusion of a major report released late last week by analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which analyses subsidies and incentive schemes offered globally to developers of renewable energy and biofuel technologies and projects.

For full article, visit:
http://www.earthportal.org/news/?p=3499

Thanks to David Pimentel for this paper in Human Ecology, published in August 2010, entitled, Will Limited Land, Water, and Energy Control Human Population Numbers in the Future?

To download a copy of the paper, visit: https://docs.google.com/a/populationmedia.org/leaf?id=0B5F-idWfw7TeYmQ0ZjU1ODYtMzZhYS00MmRmLTlkNGUtYjRhZGEyOTJlYjAz&hl=en&authkey=CKWBtO8F

Thanks to Amy Moon for this article from the New York Times.
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Fifty years ago, a billion people were undernourished or starving; the number is about the same today. That’s actually progress, since a billion represented a third of the human race then, and “only” a sixth now.

Today we have another worry: roughly the same number of people eat too much. But, says Julian Cribb, a veteran science journalist from Australia, “The era of cheap, abundant food is over.”

Like many other experts, he argues that we have passed the peak of oil production, and it’s all downhill from now on. He then presents evidence that we have passed the peaks for water, fertilizer and land, and that we will all soon be made painfully aware that we have passed it for food, as wealthy nations experience shortages and rising prices, and poorer ones starve.

For full article, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/books/25book.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Thanks to Rachel M. Stevenson, Co-founder of the HealthTech Blog, for letting us know about this article. Population Media Center’s blog, which includes the articles sent to this mailing list, is listed under “Population Issues.” It can be found at http://www.populationmedia.org/pmc-blog/.

Birth control blogs run the gamut, from educational blogs for teens to religious blogs that are pro-choice or pro-life. Along the way, you might stumble onto blogs that talk about population issues and climate change alongside entries about birth control. But, the hot button issue behind birth control — outside education — is the right to choose, or reproductive rights, which are considered a human rights issue. This list of top 50 birth control blogs contain all these topics and more.

For full list, visit:
http://bestultrasoundtechnicianschools.com/2010/top-50-birth-control-blogs/