Thanks to Population Matters for this article by Sir David Attenborough.  See http://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2011/04/human-population-essay-food

This Heaving Planet

By David Attenborough

April 27, 2011

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.

Something had to be done. And that group determined to do it. They would need scientific advice to discover the causes of these impending disasters and to devise ways of slowing them and, they hoped, of stopping them. They would have to raise awareness and understanding of people everywhere; and, like all such ­enterprises, they would need money to enable them to take practical action.

They set about raising all three. Since the problem was an international one, they based themselves not in Britain but in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland. They called the orga­nisation that they created the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2011/04/human-population-essay-food

From the May 2011 issue of Population Connection’s The Reporter.  See http://www.populationconnection.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8051 to download the full magazine.

Our Profound Choice: 7 Billion Reasons to Invest in Family Planning

By Martha Campbell and Malcolm Potts

As the global human population reaches 7 billion later this year for the first time in world history, there are several simple things we can (and should) be doing to slow population growth and get on a path toward stabilizing our numbers at 8 billion.

Demographic projections are not predictions. They tell us what can happen if we make a variety of policy choices and investments, most of them pertaining to family planning. The UN high variant projection for the world population in 2050 is 10.5 billion. The low variant is 8 billion. The difference between these two numbers – 2.5 billion – is equivalent to the population of the entire world in 1950. With 2.5 billion more people come farms and factories, mines and ports, and schools and hospitals that must be built and maintained-and energy that must be consumed.

It took nearly 130 years for the world population to grow from 1 to 2 billion, but the recent growth from 6 to 7 billion has occurred in only 12 years. Will the next billion be added so quickly or will we slow the tide toward a more sustainable peak figure?  Since the mid-1990s, international attention has shifted away from family planning. Unless critical changes are made as rapidly as possible, even the high projection of 10.5 billion people in 2050 could be exceeded. In fact, business as usual has us on track to surpass 11 billion in 2050.

Most specialists outside the population field, such as agriculture and climate change experts, assume that world population will reach 9 billion (the UN medium projection) in 2050 and little or nothing can be done to alter this path. This is the wrong approach and every sensible person must ask: Is human population growth some phenomenon beyond our control, or are there policies and  investments that would enable global population to stabilize at the lower projected number?

Continue Reading »

Thanks to Leon Kolankiewicz for an article (“Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing”) that provides systematic evidence for methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale gas extraction.  To download the paper, link to https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5F-idWfw7TeYmJlNWYyMjUtOWU1Ni00NzE3LTg5OTYtM2IwMmE3MjAwYmUz&hl=en_US

See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/01/cuadrilla-resources-fracking-uk-earthquake_n_869594.html

Cuadrilla Resources Halts Fracking In U.K. Fearing Possible Earthquake Connection

By Jill Lawless

June 1, 2011

LONDON — A mining company has halted drilling for shale gas in England after scientists said two small earthquakes might be linked to the controversial process, known as “fracking.”

The British Geological Survey recorded a 1.5 magnitude quake Friday near Blackpool in northwest England, within 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) of the gas exploration site. A 2.3 magnitude quake was recorded last month.

The geological survey’s head of seismology, Brian Baptie, said Tuesday that the two quakes appeared to have “a similar location and mechanism.”

Cuadrilla Resources said it had stopped hydraulic fracturing, or fracking – the process of extracting gas by pummeling rocks deep underground with high-pressure water, sand and chemicals – while it studied data from the quakes and consulted with experts.

“We expect that this analysis and subsequent consultation will take a number of weeks to conclude and we will decide on appropriate actions after that,” said chief executive Mark Miller.

Shale gas extraction, pioneered by the U.S. and Canada, is forecast to boost global recoverable natural gas resources by 40 percent. But ecologists are alarmed by its environmental impact.

To read the full article, please click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/01/cuadrilla-resources-fracking-uk-earthquake_n_869594.html

Thanks to Leta Finch for this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.  See http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/scientists-group-raises-alarm-over-threats-to-climate-researchers

Scientist’s Group Raises Alarm Over Threat to Climate Researchers

June 29, 2011

The world’s largest general scientific body, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says it’s getting alarmed by a growing pattern of threats against climate researchers. In a written statement issued on Tuesday, the AAAS said it was seeing a “hostile environment that inhibits the free exchange of scientific findings and ideas and makes it difficult for factual information and scientific analyses to reach policy makers and the public.” The association said the statement, its first on the subject in more than a year, had been prompted by incidents that include a conservative group and the attorney general of Virginia’s seeking documents from a prominent climate scientist formerly at the University of Virginia, as well as personal threats in Australia against climate scientists at the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, and Australian National University, leading some to hire additional security.

Thanks to Fred Stanback for this article.  See http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55527

The Nuclear Cost Shell Game

By Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, May 6, 2011 (IPS) – The nuclear energy industry only exists thanks to what insurance experts call the “mother of all subsidies”, and the public is largely unaware that every nuclear power plant in the world has a strict cap on how much the industry might have to pay out in case of an accident.

In Canada, this liability cap is an astonishingly low 75 million dollars. In India, it is 110 million dollars and in Britain 220 million dollars. If there is an accident, governments – i.e. the public – are on the hook for all costs exceeding those caps.

Japan has a higher liability cap of 1.2 billion dollars, but that is not nearly enough for the estimated 25 to 150 billion dollars in decommissioning and liability costs for what is still an ongoing disaster at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Seven weeks after the tsunami caused the disaster, radiation levels continued to spike higher.

No one knows when the reactors will finally be in cold shutdown, or when the costs of the Fukushima disaster will stop piling up. One report suggests decommissioning will take 30 years.

Japan’s credit rating was downgraded because of the accident, noted Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based energy and nuclear policy analyst who has worked in Japan. “The Japanese know it’s just a matter of time before another large earthquake occurs,” Schneider told IPS. “Japan will never build another nuclear plant.”

On Friday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered the undamaged Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant, about 200 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, to cease operations over future earthquake concerns.

To read the full article, please click here: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55527

Thanks to Australian Member of Parliament Kelvin Thompson for this article on the impact of population growth on wildlife.

THE IMPACT OF POPULATION GROWTH ON WILDLIFE: SPEECH TO WARRNAMBOOL FIELD NATURALISTS 27/4/11

Some years ago there was a bumper sticker that said “At least the war on the environment is going well”. It was a biting satire on the quagmire that had developed in Iraq. But the suggestion that we have declared war on the environment, that we have declared war on thousands of other species, is alarmingly close to the truth. While the human race grows exponentially, spreading into every corner of the globe, pretty much everything else is in retreat and decline.

Here are some examples of just how successful the war on everything else has been.

· Ten thousand years ago, the mass, the weight, all of the humans on the earth, plus all our pets, plus all the livestock we keep to feed ourselves, was 0.1% of 1% – one tenth of one percent – of the mass, the weight, of all the mammals on the earth. The rest of the mammals – elephants and tigers and rhinos and whales and kangaroos etc – made up 99.9% of the mass of all the mammals on the earth.

By 200 years ago, humans, our pets and our livestock had increased from 0.1% to 10-12% of the mass of the mammals of the earth.

Now, we, our pets and our livestock make up 96% – 98% of the mass of the mammals of the earth. The poor old elephants and tigers and rhinos and whales and kangaroos and all the rest of the mammals have gone from 99.9% to just 2 – 4%.

Continue Reading »

Greetings from San Francisco, where I have several meetings over the next two days.  This article is from the June 2011 issue of Studies in Family Planning.  This paper finds that the number of children people want is based on the family environment in which they live, especially attitudes by family members as to what is normal for family size.  See https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5F-idWfw7TeNWQzMDJjNjAtYjQ3ZC00MzI4LWFkOTQtYWEyY2IyOWU2YzNk&hl=en_US

Congratulations to Bob Engelman, long-time population advocate, for his appointment to lead Worldwatch Institute.  See http://www.worldwatch.org/worldwatch-institute-names-new-leaders

Worldwatch Institute Names New Leaders

Robert Engelman Is Executive Director, Ed Groark Board Chair; Christopher Flavin Named President Emeritus

Washington, D.C.-The Board of Directors of the Worldwatch Institute has named Robert Engelman as the Institute’s new Executive Director and Ed Groark as the Board’s new Chair.
Engelman is a veteran researcher, author, and former journalist who had served as Worldwatch’s Vice President for Programs since 2007, providing strategic direction for the organization’s research. Groark, who founded and led information technology service companies, is a long-time member of the Board.
Christopher Flavin, who has served as Worldwatch’s President since 2000, was named President Emeritus and will continue researching and writing at the Institute, where he has worked since 1977. Both Engelman and Flavin will serve on the Institute’s Board of Directors. Groark succeeds Tom Crain, former managing director of a global investment management firm. Crain had been Chair since 2008 and remains on the Board.

“I am deeply honored to be asked to lead the Institute and its creative and dedicated staff,” Engelman said. “I will give all I can to move the Worldwatch Institute successfully and prosperously into the coming months and years. As I do, I want to acknowledge the leadership of Chris Flavin over the past decade. Chris brought to the Institute a strong focus on environmental innovation. His intellect and foresight have kept Worldwatch on the cutting edge of the trends that are changing our world.”

Continue Reading »

Greetings from Los Angeles, where I have a series of meetings.  This article is from the June 2011 issue of Studies in Family Planning.  To download this paper, link to:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5F-idWfw7TeNjlkODg1YjEtZWU5My00OWIwLTg4ZjUtODBhOGQ1ZTc3ODE1&hl=en_US

This paper mentions the impact of the Tanzanian radio serial drama, Twende na Wakati, on contraceptive use.  I was involved in this project and facilitated the research that measured its effect.