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Saturday, December 05, 2009

Population, Poverty and Development

UNFPA has been works is centralized to the goals to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development in the human society.

Population dynamics including growth rates, age structure, fertility, mortality, migration are the aspects which influence social and economic development of humans. Other areas of UNFPA's work includes reproductive health and women empowerment which mainly influences population trends.

Governments should be able to gather information and analyze the population trends in order to create and manage policies and generate the political will to appropriately address the human needs. UNFPA assists countries for this, from developing capacity in data collection and analysis to participate in national, regional and global policy dialogue to support demonstrative programmes for purpose of up scaling.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Population and Environment.

Since the century began, natural resources have been under pressure, threatening development and public health. Soil exhaustion, water shortages, loss of forests, air and water pollution, and degradation of coastlines have affected many areas. since the world’s population is growing, it has been a global challenge to improve life standard without deteriorating the environment.
Most of the developed countries currently consume resources much faster than they can be regenerated. And also the countries with rapid growth in population are exploiting nature to meet their needs.

Environmental education needed.

Due top Pollution, resource depletion, and overpopulation problems general public is being more concerned about the environment. The best way for effective deeling with the environmental problems is to develop an environmental education system fully. The environmental education should specially focus on children because children are the hosts of the future. Therefore, it is necessary to develop positive attitudes towards the environment since the early childhood. Unfortunately, environmental education has been limited. This is partly because it is a relatively new. One of the major problems is that the current information on the subject is not easily accessible to the people. Another important barrier is the lack of instructional materials. Society needs to develop environmental education not only through the regular school study for children but also for everyone through different public media like television, radio, and the web.

Falling Fertility

Thomas Malthus forecast in 1798 that population growth would outstrip the world's food supply. But with industrialization fertility fell sharply, first in France, then in Britain, then throughout Europe and America. When people got richer, families got smaller; and as families got smaller, people got richer.
Now fertility is falling in developing countries like Brazil, Indonesia, and parts of India. The fertility rate of half the world is now 2.1 or less - the magic number that is consistent with a stable population and is usually called replacement rate of fertility". Between 2020 and 2050 the world's fertility rate is expected to fall below the global replacement rate.
From this the author concludes that "Worries about a population explosion are themselves being exploded."
The transition from a rate of five to that of two, which took 130 years to happen in Britain - from 1800 to 1930 - took just 20 years - from 1965 to 1985 - in South Korea. Mothers in developing countries now have on average three children. Their mothers had six. In some countries the speed of decline in the fertility rate has been astonishing. In Iran, the fertility rate dropped from seven in 1984 to 1.9 in 2006 - and to just 1.5 in Tehran.
For subsistence farmers, who risk falling victim to drought, a family of eight may be the only insurance against disaster.
If you have a generation or two in which fertility is neither too high nor too low and in which there are few dependent children, few dependent grandparents - and a bulge of adults in the middle - you have the recipe for economic opportunity.
Malthus's heirs say there are too many people for the Earth's fragile ecosystems. It is time to stop - and ideally reverse - the population increase. To celebrate falling fertility is like congratulating the captain of the Titanic on heading towards the iceberg more slowly.
If the poor copy the pattern of wealth creation that made Europe and America rich, they will eat up as many resources as the Americans do, with grim consequences for the planet.
In principle, there are three ways of limiting human environmental impacts: through population policy, technology and governance. The first of those does not offer much scope. Population growth is already slowing almost as fast as it naturally could. Only Chinese-style coercion would bring it down much below that.
Mankind needs to develop more and cheaper technologies that can enable people to enjoy the fruits of economic growth without destroying the planet's natural capital.

Natural resources

The natural property of a nation is called its natural resources. The fertile land, Forest, minerals, water sources, fossils fuels, etc. is natural resources. These are the resources of the country naturally available. Planned utilization of natural resources directly effects in the national development.

All of our many manufactured articles are made from the earth's natural resources. We obtain all our materials, and many of the resources which we use to provide energy, from the earth.

Some resources are being constantly produced in the earth. They are called renewable resources.
Others are not being replaced. They are called non- renewable resources.


Planned way of use of Non-renewable Resource:
The problem of a future shortage of some of our important resources must be faced. The answer to the problem will be a combination of four approaches.

(a) Replying more heavily on renewable resources: If a non-renewable resource becomes scarce, its price goes up. This can result in alternative renewable resource becoming cheaper than the non- renewable resource, so the renewable resource will be used instead.

(b) Increasing product lifetime: We must try to make products made from non-renewable resources last longer. For example, most cars are made of steel, which contain large amount of iron. The iron rusts. If every car could be made to last longer, then less iron would be needed by the motor industry.
(c) Recycling: Much of what we throw away could be reused. Glass, for example, can be crushed, remelted and reused. Glass made in this way requires much less energy than glass made from starch. Many people already take their empty glass bottles to bottle banks. If more and more people were encouraged to do this, the amount of resources need to make new glass could be greatly reduced.
(d) Opening up new resources: Improved technology is continually allowing resources which were previously unavailable to be extracted from the Earth.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Most in 2009

Highest Population Density 2009
1 Mumbai
2 Shanghai
3 Karachi
4 Delhi
5 Istanbul
6 São Paulo
7 Moscow
8 Seoul
9 Beijing
10 Mexico City


Fattest people 2009
1. Nauru 94.5 %
2. Micronesia 91.1%
3. Cook Islands 90.9%
4. Tonga 90.8%
5. Niue 81.7%
6. Samoa 80.4%
7. Palau 78.4%
8. Kuwait 74.2%
9. United States 74.1%
10. Kiribati 73.6%

Literacy Rate 2009
1 Cuba 99.8%
2 Estonia 99.8%
3 Poland 99.8%
4 Barbados 99.7%
5 Slovenia 99.7%
6 latvia 99.7%
17 USA 99.0%
17 UK 99.0%
162 Nepal 48.6%

Highest Obese Countries - 2009
1) United States
2) Mexico
3) United Kingdom
4) Slovakia
5) Greece

Most poorest nation -2009 (per capital income)
1.Zimbabwe- $200
2.Congo - $300
3.Burundi- $400
4.Liberia$ - 500
5.Somalia$ - 600
20.Nepal - $1,100

Most Expensive Cities - 2009
Oslo
Paris
Copenhagen
London
Tokyo

Best Visitor Destination - 2009
France
Spain
United States
China
Italy

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Ten Least Wanted

The top ten killer diseases are primarily Third World, celebrity-free, low visibility killers of children:

Acute respiratory tract infections 4.4
Diarrheal diseases (cholera, typhoid, dysentery) 3.1
Tuberculosis 3.1
Hepatitis B 1.1
HIV/AIDS 1 million +
Measles 1 million +
Neonatal tetanus 460,000
Whooping cough 350,000
Intestinal worms 135,000

Source: World Health Organization

Top 10 Countries with the Lowest and Highest Population Densities

Lowest (People per square kilometer)

1. Mongolia (2)
2. Namibia (2)
3. Australia (3)
4. Botswana (3)
5. Iceland (3)
6. Surinam (3)
7. Libya (3)
8. Mauritania (3)
9. Canada (3)
10. Guyana (4)

Highest (People per square kilometer)

1. Monaco (16,205)
2. Singapore (6,386)
3. Malta (1,261)
4. Maldives (1,164)
5. Bahrain (1,035)
6. Bangladesh (1,002)
7. Vatican City (920)
8. Barbados (648)
9. Nauru (621)
10. Mauritius (603)

World POP Clock Projection

According to the International Programs Center, U.S. Census Bureau, the total population of the World, projected to 10/11/09 at 09:47 GMT (EST+5) is

6,789,765,630

Monthly World population figures:

07/01/09 6,768,167,712
08/01/09 6,774,705,647
09/01/09 6,781,243,583
10/01/09 6,787,570,618
11/01/09 6,794,108,554
12/01/09 6,800,435,588
01/01/10 6,806,973,524
02/01/10 6,813,511,460
03/01/10 6,819,416,692
04/01/10 6,825,954,628
05/01/10 6,832,281,663
06/01/10 6,838,819,599
07/01/10 6,845,146,634

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Population and Environment

Population, health, and environment (PHE) programs can play an important role in areas where demographic trends such as growth and migration place pressure on the environment; where degraded natural resources impact the health and livelihoods of local communities; and where a lack of effective health services, including reproductive health, threatens long-term prospects for sustainable development. The key objective of these programs is to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment.

Since 1993, USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health has worked to better understand the synergistic relationship between population, health, and environment. In 2002, the PHE program expanded to include field programming in response to legislative language originally included in the FY02 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill – and repeated in all subsequent bills – stating that under the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund some portion (unspecified) of the funds for family planning/reproductive health {should be allocated} in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species. These field-based projects, often implemented by conservation organizations, have developed innovative models of integrating population, environment, and health where appropriate in and around areas of high biodiversity in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Wilderness

Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. The WILD Foundation goes into more detail, defining wilderness as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet - those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure." Wilderness areas and protected parks are considered important for the survival of certain species, ecological studies, conservation, solitude, and recreation. Wilderness is deeply valued for cultural, spiritual, moral, and aesthetic reasons. Some nature writers believe wilderness areas are vital for the human spirit and creativity.

The word, "wilderness", derives from the notion of wildness; in other words that which is not controllable by humans. The word's etymology is from the Old English wildeornes, which in turn derives from wildeor meaning wild beast (wild + deor = beast, deer). From this point of view, it is the wildness of a place that makes it a wilderness. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being "wilderness." Many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered "wild." This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without very noticeable human interference.

Ecosystems

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms are continually engaged in a highly interrelated set of relationships with every other element constituting the environment in which they exist. Eugene Odum, one of the founders of the science of ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (ie: exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem." The human ecosystem concept is then grounded in the deconstruction of the human/nature dichotomy, and the emergent premise that all species are ecologically integrated with each other, as well as with the abiotic constituents of their biotope.

A greater degree of species or biological diversity - popularly referred to as Biodiversity - of an ecosystem may contribute to greater resilience of an ecosystem, because there are more species present at a location to respond to change and thus "absorb" or reduce its effects. This reduces the effect before the ecosystem's structure is fundamentally changed to a different state. This is not universally the case and there is no proven relationship between the species diversity of an ecosystem and its ability to provide goods and services on a sustainable level: Humid tropical forests produce very few goods and direct services and are extremely vulnerable to change, while many temperate forests readily grow back to their previous state of development within a lifetime after felling or a forest fire. Some grasslands have been sustainably exploited for thousands of years (Mongolia, Africa, European peat and mooreland communities).

The term ecosystem can also pertain to human-made environments, such as human ecosystems and human-influenced ecosystems, and can describe any situation where there is relationship between living organisms and their environment. Fewer areas on the surface of the earth today exist free from human contact, although some genuine wilderness areas continue to exist without any forms of human intervention.

Life

Although there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that the biological manifestation of life is characterized by organization, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli and reproduction. Life may also be said to be simply the characteristic state of organisms.

Properties common to terrestrial organisms (plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria) are that they are cellular, carbon-and-water-based with complex organization, having a metabolism, a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. An entity with these properties is generally considered life. However, not every definition of life considers all of these properties to be essential. Human-made analogs of life may also be considered to be life.

The biosphere is the part of Earth's outer shell — including air, land, surface rocks and water — within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. From the broadest geophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere (air). Currently the entire Earth contains over 75 billion tons (150 trillion pounds or about 6.8 x 1013 kilograms) of biomass (life), which lives within various environments within the biosphere.

Effects of global warming


The potential dangers of global warming are being increasingly studied by a wide global consortium of scientists, who are increasingly concerned about the potential long-term effects of global warming on our natural environment and on the planet. Of particular concern is how climate change and global warming caused by anthropogenic, or human-made releases of greenhouse gases, most notably carbon dioxide, can act interactively, and have adverse effects upon the planet, its natural environment and humans' existence. Efforts have been increasingly focused on the mitigation of greenhouse gases that are causing climatic changes, on developing adaptative strategies to global warming, to assist humans, animal and plant species, ecosystems, regions and nations in adjusting to the effects of global warming. Some examples of recent collaboration to address climate change and global warming include:

* The United Nations Framework Convention Treaty and convention on Climate Change, to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

* The Kyoto Protocol, which is the protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty, again with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases in an effort to prevent anthropogenic climate change.

* The Western Climate Initiative, to identify, evaluate, and implement collective and cooperative ways to reduce greenhouse gases in the region, focusing on a market-based cap-and-trade system.

A significantly profound challenge is to identify the natural environmental dynamics in contrast to environmental changes not within natural variances. A common solution is to adapt a static view neglecting natural variances to exist. Methodologically, this view could be defended when looking at processes which change slowly and short time series, while the problem arrives when fast processes turns essential in the object of the study.

Oceanic activity

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several 'separate' oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean. This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.

The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean (which is sometimes subsumed as the southern portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans), and the Arctic Ocean (which is sometimes considered a sea of the Atlantic). The Pacific and Atlantic may be further subdivided by the equator into northerly and southerly portions. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays and other names. There are also salt lakes, which are smaller bodies of landlocked saltwater that are not interconnected with the World Ocean. Two notable examples of salt lakes are the Aral Sea and the Great Salt Lake.

Geological activity

The Earth's crust, or Continental crust, is the outermost solid land surface of the planet, is chemically and mechanically different from underlying mantles, and has been generated largely by igneous processes in which magma (molten rock) cools and solidifies to form solid land. Plate tectonics, mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes are geological phenomena that can be explained in terms of energy transformations in the Earth's crust, and might be thought of as the process by which the earth resurfaces itself. Beneath the Earth's crust lies the mantle which is heated by the radioactive decay of heavy elements. The mantle is not quite solid and consists of magma which is in a state of semi-perpetual convection. This convection process causes the lithospheric plates to move, albeit slowly. The resulting process is known as plate tectonics. Volcanoes result primarily from the melting of subducted crust material. Crust material that is forced into the Asthenosphere melts, and some portion of the melted material becomes light enough to rise to the surface, giving birth to volcanoes!

Composition of environment

Earth science generally recognizes 4 spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere as correspondent to rocks, water, air, and life. Some scientiests include, as part of the spheres of the Earth, the cryosphere (corresponding to ice) as a distinct portion of the hydrosphere, as well as the pedosphere (corresponding to soil) as an active and intermixed sphere. Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. There are four major disciplines in earth sciences, namely geography, geology, geophysics and geodesy. These major disciplines use physics, chemistry, biology, chronology and mathematics to build a qualitative and quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.

Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.

The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:

* Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.

* Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.

The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an indefinite article), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level.

Alcohol Advertising Ban Urged by British Medical Association to Cut Youth Drinking

All alcohol advertising, including sport and music sponsorship, should be banned to discourage young people from taking advantage of cheap drinks promotions, the British Medical Association said today.

The organisation called for a radical rethink of public health policy, including introducing prohibitions at pubs and bars on deals such as happy hour, two-for-one purchases and "ladies' nights" when women drink for free.

Minimum prices for a unit of alcohol and higher rates of taxation should also be introduced, said the BMA, which represents most doctors.

Its report, Under the Influence, describes Britain as a society "awash with pro-alcohol messaging, marketing and behaviour".

The impact of £800m of advertising a year in the UK has been to "exaggerate pro-alcohol norms", said Prof Gerard Hastings, one of the authors. Young people no longer asked themselves: "Shall I have a drink or not?", but "am I going to get smashed or totally out of my brain?", he added.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the head of the BMA's science and ethics division, said alcohol was now the country's favourite drug. "The government must get away from this cosy relationship with the industry. It's leading to an expansion of marketing which is targeting young people."

Higher prices, she said, would make it particularly difficult for young people to drink so much.

"One of the most invidious things is designer drinks," she added, "things like toffee vodka – so that the sweetness overcomes the sharpness and [youngsters'] dislike of alcohol."

Household expenditure on alcohol grew by 81% between 1992 and 2006, said the BMA. "Given that the alcohol industry spends £800m a year in promoting alcohol in the UK," said Hastings, "it is no surprise that children and young people see it everywhere – on TV, in magazines, on billboards, as part of music festivals or sport sponsorship deals, on internet pop-ups and on social networking sites."

Rather than imposing antisocial behaviour orders on teenagers, they should be "slapped on those responsible for marketing alcohol", he added.

The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, this year called for a 50p minimum price for a unit of alcohol. The proposal was dismissed by the government, although the Scottish government is considering a similar scheme.

The BMA warned that alcohol consumption has been linked to 60 different medical conditions and premature deaths. "Binge drinking is particularly harmful ... and significantly increases the risk of alcohol dependence," it said.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association condemned the report, saying the measures it recommended would "threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people working in the media, advertising, television, not to mention the drinks industry".

Australia: Health Watchdog Unleashed

AUSTRALIANS will be told to drink and smoke less and eat less junk food by a new preventative health watchdog that will begin monitoring the health system within months.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said legislation for a National Preventative Health Agency would be introduced into Parliament within the next fortnight, forming a key part of the Government's plan to reduce preventable illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

The independent but publicly funded agency will be responsible for a major preventative health advertising push, policy advice, health surveillance, consultation and research. It will begin in January, staffed by government-appointed population health experts.

But it is also likely that some of the more extreme policy interventions recommended by the high-profile Preventative Health Taskforce will not be adopted.

Ms Roxon said the Government's strategy would be to take a leadership role, without ''necessarily always having to regulate and tax''.

Although declining to comment on specific proposals, Ms Roxon said: ''I am absolutely focused on how Government action can leverage change within the community rather than pretending that a regulatory approach on its own will solve these quite complex social problems.''

Her comments follow the release last week of the taskforce's 300-page blueprint for preventive health, with a raft of policy prescriptions, including the possibility of higher taxes for unhealthy foods, higher cigarette and alcohol taxes, phasing out television advertising of junk food to children, a ban on all tobacco advertising and phasing out alcohol advertising during sports events.

Ms Roxon said the Government's approach would be to ''engage the whole community'' and ''push, cajole and lead'' families, schools, workplaces, industries, clubs and community organisations to encourage healthier living.

The report said about 32 per cent of Australia's total burden of disease was linked to smoking, drinking, obesity and other preventable risks.

Taskforce chairman Rob Moodie said the preventative health community had been waiting for more than 20 years for such an agency, but it would need to be independent and well-funded to make a difference.

Professor Moodie said that while he did not think Ms Roxon's comments were out of step with the taskforce's recommendations, regulation and higher taxes would have to be an important part of the strategy.

''The point to be made is that in many of the regulatory issues, there is extremely high community support,'' he said. ''I mean, if you look at the work around licensing of alcohol outlets or promotion of junk food to kids, then you've got landslide victories in support of greater government regulation.''

Ms Roxon said a recommendation that the average price of a packet of 30 cigarettes be lifted to $20 within three years would be considered as part of the Government's review of the taxation system being conducted by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. An overhaul of the alcohol excise regime will also be considered by the Henry review.

VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said it was correct that the ''whole-of-community approach'' favoured by Ms Roxon would be needed to tackle obesity and excessive alcohol and cigarette consumption.

The new agency will initially be given $17.6 million of federal funding to cover operating costs over four years, although that does not include any additional cash set aside for specific advertising campaigns and other programs.

Health Care in Japan: Low-Cost, for Now

"Half a world away from the U.S. health-care debate, Japan has a system that costs half as much and often achieves better medical outcomes than its American counterpart. It does so by banning insurance company profits, limiting doctor fees and accepting shortcomings in care that many well-insured Americans would find intolerable…

But many health-care economists say Japan's low-cost system is probably not sustainable without significant change. Japan already has the world's oldest population; by 2050, 40 percent will be 65 or older. The disease mix is becoming more expensive to treat, as rates of cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's disease steadily increase. Demand for medical care will triple in the next 25 years, according to a recent analysis by McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm."

Japan has a stagnant economy, with a shortage of young people that hobbles prospects for growth and strangles the capacity of the debt-strapped government to increase health-care spending. Without reform, costs are projected to double, reaching current U.S. levels in a decade, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

For generations, Japan has achieved its successes by maintaining a vise-like grip on costs. After hard bargaining with medical providers every two years, the government sets a price for treatment and drugs -- and tolerates no fudging.

As a result, most Japanese doctors make far less money than their U.S. counterparts. Administrative costs are four times lower than they are in the United States, in part because insurance companies do not set rates for treatment or deny claims. By law, they cannot make profits or advertise to attract low-risk, high-profit clients.

To keep costs down, Japan has made tradeoffs in other areas -- sometimes to the detriment of patients. Some are merely irritating, such as routine hour-long waits before doctor appointments. But others involve worrisome questions about quality control and gaps in treatment for urgent care.

Japanese hospitals experience a "crowding out" effect, with space for emergency care and serious medical conditions sometimes overwhelmed by a flood of patients seeking routine treatment, said Naohiro Yashiro, a professor of economics and health-care expert at International Christian University in Tokyo.

"Patients are treated too equally," he said. "Beds are occupied by less-urgent cases, and there are no penalties for those who over-use the system."

The government has largely been unable to reduce the length of hospital stays, which are four times as long in Japan as in the United States. Hospital doctors are often overworked and cannot hone specialized life-saving skills, according to recent reports by McKinsey. Statistics show that the Japanese are much less likely to have heart attacks than people in the United States, but that when they do, their chance of dying is twice as high.

There are shortages of obstetricians, anesthesiologists and emergency room specialists because of relatively low pay, long hours and high stress at many hospitals, doctors and health-care analysts said. Emergency room service is often spotty, as ER beds in many hospitals are limited and diagnostic expertise is sometimes lacking. In a highly publicized but not unprecedented incident, a pregnant woman complaining of a severe headache was refused admission last year to seven Tokyo hospitals. She died of an undiagnosed brain hemorrhage after giving birth.

South Africa Launches Child Vaccination Campaign

"The doctor praised for re-energizing South Africa's Health Ministry launched a major campaign Monday to get vaccinations and immunity-boosting vitamins to 3 million children across the country over the next two weeks. Temporary clinics were set up and health workers were going door-to-door for two weeks starting Monday in the campaign aimed at reducing deaths from diarrhea, pneumonia and measles. Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi joined teams of medical workers in a northeastern area, saying 'It is of concern to us that our under-5 children are still dying from preventable diseases' in Africa's most developed country. Motsoaledi, appointed in May, has earned praise for his willingness to listen, acknowledge the mistakes of the past and offer new ideas after taking over a ministry accused of failing -- on AIDS in particular."

Child Mortality Rate Declines Globally

(The New York Times, September 9, 2009)
"The number of children dying before their fifth birthdays each year has fallen below nine million for the first time on record, a significant milestone in the global effort to improve children’s chances of survival, particularly in the developing world, according to data that Unicef will release on Thursday. The child mortality rate has declined by more than a quarter in the last two decades -- to 65 per 1,000 live births last year from 90 in 1990 -- in large part because of the widening distribution of relatively inexpensive technologies, like measles vaccines and anti-malaria mosquito nets. Other simple practices have helped, public health experts say, including a rise in breast-feeding alone for the first six months of life, which protects children from diarrhea caused by dirty water."

FDA Requires Faster Food Safety Reporting

"Food makers must alert government officials of potentially contaminated products within 24 hours under a new rule designed to help federal regulators spot food safety issues sooner. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if they believe one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals. Regulators said the database will help the FDA prevent widespread illness from contaminated products and direct inspectors to plants that pose a high safety concern. 'There's been a lag time; we learn about problems after people get sick,' said Michael Taylor, senior adviser to the FDA's commissioner. 'This is intended to inform us of contamination problems before people get sick.' The law creating the database was passed in 2007, after Congress criticized the FDA for its handling of safety problems with a range of foods and drugs."

Swine Flu Vaccine Works With One Shot

"The swine flu vaccine appears to work for adults with just one shot and within 10 days, a major boost to the widespread immunization campaign that officials are planning to protect people against the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, researchers reported Thursday. Preliminary data from an Australian study found that a single standard dose could produce an immune response in more than 96 percent of recipients, and U.S. studies indicate that the protection occurs in eight to 10 days, scientists reported. The vaccine also appeared safe. The eagerly awaited findings mark the first results from a flurry of studies that scientists have been rushing to conduct to develop a swine flu vaccine.

Driver Texting Now an Issue in Back Seat

"For all the conversations about distracted driving playing out in statehouses and on talk shows, the most heated discussions, and the ones with the most lasting impact, may be happening between family members and friends. Such disputes are an extension of a longstanding source of tension -- sometimes light, other times more antagonistic -- between drivers and their self-appointed watchdogs. It’s just that now, the back-seat driver is going after the BlackBerry. These critics say such devices not only put lives at risk, but also steal attention from passengers hoping for some quality catch-up time. The multitaskers counter with the view that they must, and like, to tend to social and work demands. Safety advocates who favor outlawing multitasking behind the wheel say the new generation of back-seat hawks may be playing a crucial role in changing the culture -- much as they did in helping enforce seat belt laws -- in a way these advocates say laws alone may not be able to."

Young Troublemakers Set on the Road to Antisocial Adulthood

"The idea a person's character is formed in the first few years of life is not new...But the theory that badly behaved children are more likely to grow into troubled adults has been given extra weight by one of the world's most famous and long-running studies of children. The study has found children who persistently lie, steal, are physically aggressive or cruel are at high risk of turning into antisocial and troubled adults. Yet governments are ignoring proven ways of fixing the problem. The study's director, David Fergusson, of the University of Otago in New Zealand, said serious conduct problems that develop by age seven can have far-reaching consequences…The study found that with increasing numbers of early conduct problems, there were increases in rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal behaviour in the young adults. Almost 20 per cent of the children with serious behaviour problems had become parents before they were 20, compared with less than 5 per cent of the low-problem group."

Monogamy as Protection? Think Again

"A large number of unmarried, sexually active Canadian adults aren't using condoms because they think monogamy is as reliable a form of protection, an attitude that puts them at high risk of contracting and spreading sexually transmitted infections -- many of which have no discernible symptoms. The findings emerge from an article released yesterday by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada and Statistics Canada…The main reasons for going without protection pivot around a false sense of security, he said. 'Canadians young and old, including well-educated adult Canadians, haven't got a clue how common STIs are. They also haven't got a clue that most cases of STI have no symptoms. You don't know if you're infected and you don't know if your partner is infected.'"
Free registration required.

New Malaria 'Poses Human Threat'

"An emerging new form of malaria poses a deadly threat to humans, research has shown. It had been thought the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi infected only monkeys. But it has recently been found to be widespread in humans in Malaysia, and the latest study confirms that it can kill if not treated quickly. The work, by an international team, appears in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Although the new form of the disease has so far been concentrated in South East Asia, the researchers warn that tourism to the region could soon see cases appearing in Western countries too. Malaria kills more than a million people each year. It is caused by malaria parasites, which are injected into the bloodstream by infected mosquitoes."

Canada: More Kids Show Poor Eating, Exercise and Lifestyle Habits

"A growing number of children are adopting unhealthy eating, exercise and other lifestyle habits, according to a new report, fuelling fears young Canadians will have a shorter average lifespan than their parents. The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario released a report yesterday that compares the heart health of children across the province to those of a similar national survey conducted more than 10 years ago. It found that fewer children are eating an adequate amount of fresh produce or maintaining physical activity during the winter months compared with the previous report. About three-quarters of children are consuming junk food as much as twice a week, and about 25 per cent of kids eat it more than three times a week, rates that have not improved since the last report was published in 1998. 'This is extremely disturbing given the rising tide of [being] overweight and obesity among Canadian children,' said Marco Di Buono, director of research for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario."

German AIDS Charity in Bed With Hitler, Stalin

"A provocative television ad ready to air next week in Germany suggests that when you have unprotected sex, you could be in bed with the devil himself -- Adolph Hitler…The steamy ad opens in a darkened bedroom with a man and woman in bed, climaxing with a look-a-like of the German dictator's face and tag-line, 'AIDS is a mass murderer -- Protect yourself!' The initiative came from the German charity, Regenbogen…European charities -- including the National AIDS Trust, which coordinates World AIDS Day in Britain -- have distanced themselves from the commercial, saying it further stigmatizes those who suffer from the disease…This controversy comes as the Kaiser Foundation finds that the number of Americans who list AIDS as the 'most urgent health problem' is at its lowest level ever -- only 6 percent, compared with 44 percent in 1995. The April report coincides with one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found the number of Americans newly infected with HIV/AIDS is 40 percent higher than previously reported -- 56,300…the ad targets heterosexuals, particularly women, who, with African Americans, are one of the fastest growing groups afflicted with HIV/AIDS."

Tech Companies Push to Digitize Patients’ Records

"On one proposal for health care reform at least, there is a rare bipartisan consensus: the push to computerize patient records…So even as the Obama administration and Congress struggle with broad health policy legislation, the technology industry is pursuing the opportunity in digital health records as never before. Although most of the government money will not start flowing until next year, the companies hoping to get their share include technology giants…big telecommunications…[and] smaller health technology specialists…To proponents, electronic health records, when thoughtfully set up and deployed, are a modern tool to improve care and help curb costs. They hold a patient’s health history, medications, lab tests and, when connected to databases, treatment guidelines. The potential benefits include fewer unnecessary tests, reduced medical errors and better care so patients are less likely to require costly treatment in hospitals. But doctors in small offices have not moved to digital records, mainly because today’s technology is costly and complex."

With His Top Priority on the Line, President Reframes Critical Debate

"After a month of angry town hall meetings and dire predictions about the state of his top domestic priority, President Obama moved forcefully Wednesday night to take the initiative on health care -- and in the process rejuvenate his presidency and unite his fractious Democratic Party…It is rare for a presidency so young to have so much on the line. No single speech can create consensus on health-care legislation, and in that sense this was not the make-or-break moment described by some commentators. But Obama has staked his presidency on this issue, and his advisers knew it was long past time for him to assert himself in a more demonstrable way or risk seeing the entire enterprise slip away."

Massachusetts: Relief in State Health Plan Sought

"President Obama’s vision for overhauling the nation’s health care looks remarkably like the landmark plan Massachusetts launched three years ago, but in one striking difference he would exempt many small businesses from having to contribute to workers’ insurance coverage. For those small businesses that do provide insurance, Obama’s plan would offer tax credits to offset costs and would create an exchange where employers could buy coverage at competitive prices - two key things Massachusetts has not done. The differences underscore a sore spot for many small business owners in Massachusetts, who have been lobbying for relief under the state’s law, saying insurance has become unaffordable."

Population and Environment

Population, health, and environment (PHE) programs can play an important role in areas where demographic trends such as growth and migration place pressure on the environment; where degraded natural resources impact the health and livelihoods of local communities; and where a lack of effective health services, including reproductive health, threatens long-term prospects for sustainable development. The key objective of these programs is to simultaneously improve access to health services while helping communities manage their natural resources in ways that improve their health and livelihood even as they protect the environment.Since 1993, USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health has worked to better understand the synergistic relationship between population, health, and environment. In 2002, the PHE program expanded to include field programming in response to legislative language originally included in the FY02 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill – and repeated in all subsequent bills – stating that under the Child Survival and Health Programs Fund some portion (unspecified) of the funds for family planning/reproductive health {should be allocated} in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species. These field-based projects, often implemented by conservation organizations, have developed innovative models of integrating population, environment, and health where appropriate in and around areas of high biodiversity in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Friday, September 04, 2009

World Population Growth.

world population growth
The word "population" usually denotes all the inhabits of a specified geographical area at a given time. The size, age structure and distribution of a population is the result pf the interactions of fertility, mortality and migration.

The world's population has been estimated at about 300 million in the year A.D 1, which increased to about 500-800 million by 1750 A.D. The average annual growth rate of population during period 1 A.D to 1750 A.D was around 5.6 per 1000 per year, while the growth rate for the period 1750 to 1800 was estimated around 4.4 per 1000 per year. In the beggining of the 19th century world population was esimated to be around one billion. By 1850 the population has already increased by 300 million i.e world population in 1850 was estimated to be 1.3 billion. By 1920 the population reached 2 billion, which was estimated to be 3 billion by 1960(coale 1974). the next billion in world's population was added by 1975. World reached a population of 5 billion by 1987. It has been estimated that the population of the world reached six billion in october 12,1999. And it has been projected that the world's population will reach 9.2 billion by 2050.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Population Pyramid

population pyramid
A population pyramid, also called age-sex pyramid and age structure diagram, is a graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a population (typically that of a country or region of the world), which normally forms the shape of a pyramid.

It typically consists of two back-to-back bar graphs, with the population plotted on the X-axis and age on the Y-axis, one showing the number of males and one showing females in a particular population in five-year age groups (also called cohorts). Males are conventionally shown on the left and females on the right, and they may be measured by raw number or as a percentage of the total population.

A great deal of information about the population broken down by age and sex can be read from a population pyramid, and this can shed light on the extent of development and other aspects of the population. A population pyramid also tells the council how many people of each age range live in the area. There tends to be more females than males in the older age groups, due to females' longer life expectancy.


Types of population pyramid

Population pyramids for 4 stages of the demographic transition model

While all countries' population pyramids differ, three types have been identified by the fertility and mortality rates of a country.

Stable pyramid - A population pyramid showing an unchanging pattern of fertility and mortality.

Stationary pyramid - A population pyramid typical of countries with low fertility and low mortality, also called a constrictive pyramid.

Expansive pyramid - A population pyramid showing a broad base, indicating a high proportion of children, a rapid rate of population growth, and a low proportion of older people. This wide base indicates a large number of children. A steady upwards narrowing shows that more people die at each higher age band. This type of pyramid indicates a population in which there is a high birth rate, a high death rate and a short life expectancy. This is the typical pattern for less economically developed countries, due to little access to and incentive to use birth control, negative environmental factors (for example, lack of clean water) and poor access to health care.

Constrictive pyramid - A population pyramid showing lower numbers or percentages of younger people. The country will have a greying population which means that people are generally older.


Young and aging populations

Generally a population pyramid that displays a population percentage of ages 1–14 over 30% and ages 75 and above under 6% is considered a "young population" (generally occurring in developing countries, with a high agricultural workforce). A population pyramid that displays a population percentage of ages 1–14 under 30% and ages 75 and above over 6% is considered an "aging population" (that of which generally occurs in developed countries with adequate health services, e.g. Australia). A country that displays all or none of these characteristics is considered neither.

Youth bulge
It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Youth bulge. (Discuss)
This section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (April 2009)
See also: Baby boom
Median age by country. A youth bulge is evident for Africa, and to a lesser extent for South and Southeast Asia and Central America.

The expansive case was described as youth bulge by Gary Fuller (1995). Gunnar Heinsohn (2003) argues that an excess in especially young adult male population predictably leads to social unrest, war and terrorism, as the "third and fourth sons" that find no prestigious positions in their existing societies rationalize their impetus to compete by religion or political ideology.

Heinsohn claims that most historical periods of social unrest lacking external triggers (such as rapid climatic changes or other catastrophic changes of the environment) and most genocides can be readily explained as a result of a built-up youth bulge, including European colonialism, 20th-century fascism, and ongoing conflicts such as that in Darfur and terrorism.[citation needed]

One problem with this line of reasoning is that under conditions prevailing before the introduction of modern medicine, death rates were much higher than they are now, and almost all societies had youth bulges even when their population growth rate was negligible. However, they certainly did not experience such youth bulge as prevails today in some parts of the world or as prevailed in twentieth century Germany or in Africa and the Middle East nowadays.

It is not just that most periods of unrest occurred in societies with youth bulges, but that some of the pre-modern periods of any sort existed in societies with such bulges as well. Nevertheless, since the improvement of medicine and its introduction, the element of youth bulge has become far more salient than before. Therefore, perhaps it cannot explain massacres throughout human history, but it can serve as rather plausible theory to explain the terror, social unrest, and uprisings in today's society.[original research?]

Another problem is that it ignores the social consequences of poverty, corruption and mass unemployment among young males in developing countries, where most of the world's current population growth is occurring. The "youth bulge" is not an accurate predictor of social unrest, war and terrorism, because they are the product of far more complicated and interrelated set of factors ,of which demographics only plays a part. Yet, even when there are other factors and circumstance to enable mass unrest, a youth bulge is likely to be one of them.[original research?]

Youth bulge theory represents one of the most recently developed theories of war and social unrest, and has become highly influential on U.S. foreign policy as two major U.S. proponents of the theory, U.S. political scientist Jack Goldstone[1] and U.S. political scientist Gary Fuller,[2] have acted as consultants to the U.S. government.[original research?]

Afghanistan shows a classical youth bulge.


Angola shows the same, even more pronounced.


China had an extreme youth bulge until the 1960s, when it sharply curbed partly as an effect of the one-child policy.


Compare the population pyramid of the USA which was bulging until the 1960s and has steadily slimmed since.

Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa are currently experiencing a prominent youth bulge. Structural changes in service provision, especially health care, beginning in the 1960’s created the conditions for a population explosion, which has resulted in a population comprised primarily of younger people. It is estimated that around 65% of the regional population is under the age of 30.[3]

The Middle East has invested more in education than most other regions such that education is available to most young people.[4] However, that education has not led to higher levels of employment, and youth unemployment is currently at 25%, the highest of any single region[5]. Of this 25%, over half are first time entrants into the job market.[6]

The youth bulge in the Middle East and North Africa has been favorably compared to that of the Asian Tigers, which harnessed this human capital and saw huge economic growth in recent decades.[7] The youth bulge has been referred to by the Middle East Youth Initiative as a demographic gift, which, if engaged, could fuel regional economic growth and development

Uses of population pyramids


Population pyramids can be used to find the number of economic dependents being supported in a particular population. Economic dependents are defined as those under 15 (children who are in full time education and therefore unable to work) and those over 65 (those who have the option of being retired). In some less developed countries children start work well before the age of 15, and in some developed countries it is common to not start work until 30 (like in the North European countries), and people may work beyond the age of 65, or retire early. Therefore, the definition provides an approximation. In many countries, the government plans the economy in such a way that the working population can support these dependents. This number can be further used to calculate the dependancy ratio in that population.

Population pyramids can be used to observe the natural increase, birth, and death rate.

Biological plausibility

In a recent review in Science, Oeppen and Vaupel (1) documented the steady linear growth in life expectancy over the past 160 years, increasing by approximately 2.5 years for each decade between 1840 and 2000. Oeppen and Vaupel argue that there is no evidence that the rate of increase is slowing down; that is, there are no demographic data on which to estimate a "maximum" human life span achievable at some future date. If these same trends continue, then average life span for both women and men will exceed 100 years later in this century.

A commonly used test of an epidemiologic finding is biological plausibility—does the reported finding "make sense," given our current understanding of how the body works? This is not an infallible test. We can sometimes be misled by its application. But a lack of biological plausibility tends to stimulate a rigorous search for potential biases that might have produced a spurious association. In similar fashion, demographic analyses and projections should have clinical plausibility.

Much of the public discussion about the aging boom proceeds from the unspoken assumption that the old people of tomorrow will be pretty much the same as the old people of today. When projections are made of 4 million United States centenarians in 2050, the discussions seem to assume that those 4 million people will be just like the 80,000 centenarians alive today. To give one example, projections for future prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and other chronic illnesses account for projected increases in life expectancy but assume no change in age-specific incidence of the disease.

Such assumptions are not clinically plausible. Life expectancy increases because people are healthier. What does "healthier" mean? I think most clinicians would assume that a population becomes healthier because the prevalence of acute and chronic diseases decreases, for whatever reasons. This, in turn, produces longer lives. Thus, as life expectancy increases, individuals at any given age—say age 75—will look younger than did 75-year-olds of an earlier era.

Since 1960, life expectancy has increased by approximately 10 years. One should then assume that the average 75-year-old today looks like the average 65-year-old of 1960. Similarly, if we want to picture the 4 million centenarians in 2050, we should think of our current patients in their late 80s, while people in their late 80s in 2050 might resemble those who are 75 today.

Everything I have stated above is a massive oversimplification. While it is an oversimplification, I think it explains at least 80% of the relationship between increasing life expectancy and patterns of health and disability. Robine and Michel have provided the tools to move beyond that oversimplification, and similar oversimplifications by other authors, to try to come to a more complete understanding of how increasing life spans might affect rates of morbidity and disability. What Professors Robine and Michel (2) have done in their thoughtful discussion of population aging is to systematically work through how different clinically plausible theories would affect patterns of disability, and then test those theories against the available evidence. They have identified four elements that affect the disability/mortality relationship. This should assist further discussions. What I found particularly interesting is their emphasis on cultural determinants of health and disability. Both health and disability have a subjective component, and are thus affected by beliefs and expectations. These vary regionally and temporally, as well as by individual characteristics. Thus, "good health" is an interaction of an individual's physiologic state with his or her own expectations of what good health should feel like. Forecasting health and disability then takes on some of the same uncertainties as economic forecasts, which depend so much on individuals' beliefs and behaviors. That subjective component means that, just as in economics, we will always be much better in explaining what has happened than describing what will happen.

Caring for the Earth

This strategy is founded on the conviction that people can alter their behaviour when they see that it will make things better, and can work together when they need to. It is aimed at change because values, economies and societies different from most that prevail today are needed if we are to care for the Earth and build a better quality of life for all.

Over a decade ago our organizations published the World Conservation Strategy. It stated a new message: that conservation is not the opposite of development. It emphasized that conservation includes both protection and the rational use of natural resources, and is essential if people are to achieve a life of dignity and if the welfare of present and future generations is to be assured. It drew attention to the almost limitless capacity of people both to build and destroy. It called for globally coordinated efforts to increase human well-being and halt the destruction of Earth's capacity to support life.

The World Conservation Strategy and its successors

The World Conservation Strategy was published in 1980. It emphasized that humanity, which exists as a part of nature, has no future unless nature and natural resources are conserved. It asserted that conservation cannot be achieved without development to alleviate the poverty and misery of hundreds of millions of people. Stressing the interdependence of conservation and development, the WCS first gave currency to the term "sustainable development".

Sustainable development depends on caring for the Earth. Unless the fertility and productivity of the planet are safeguarded, the human future is at risk. The World Conservation Strategy therefore emphasized three objectives:

* essential ecological processes and life-support systems must be maintained;
* genetic diversity must be preserved;
* any use of species or ecosystems must be sustainable.

Since 1980, the World Conservation Strategy has been tested by the preparation of national and subnational conservation strategies in over 50 countries. In 1987, in its report Our Common Future, the World Commission on Environment and Development advanced our understanding of global interdependence and the relationship between economics and the environment. It contributed significantly to the growing recognition of the need for sustainable development and international equity. Also in 1987, governments adopted an Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond, which defined a broad framework to guide national action and international cooperation for environmentally sound development. In June 1992 they will meet in Rio de Janeiro to agree an agenda for environment and development in the 21st Century.

In the decade since 1980 the complexity of the problems we face has become clearer, and the need to act has become more pressing. In this new document we set out the broad principles, and an array of consequent actions, upon which we believe the future of our societies depends.

We accept that the actions called for in this Strategy will not be taken easily. Inertia is strong within human societies. Governments have to balance the gains of change against the inevitable costs of upheaval, and tend to develop policies through a succession of cautious steps. People cling to what they have, especially if they perceive that change threatens their personal power and wealth. It will be difficult for many communities to switch resources from war to peace, national to global advantage, or immediate gain to future welfare. But the conflicts, famine and strife that persist in an over-stressed world show how essential it is to seek a new approach. This reinforces our conviction that this Strategy must go ahead.

Caring for the Earth has been prepared through a wider process of consultation than was possible when we wrote the World Conservation Strategy a decade ago. It is intended to re-state current thinking about conservation and development in a way that will inform and encourage those who believe that people and nature are worth caring about and that their futures are intertwined. It is also intended to persuade people at all levels that they can do something, or help cause something to be done, that will lead to better care for the Earth.

The actions of our organizations and others will have to be reshaped if we are to ensure speedy and efficient implementation of this Strategy. We urge all governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental groups, and individuals to help achieve that essential goal.

Friday, August 07, 2009

International Migration Trends: Facts and Figures

Global estimates

*In 2005, it is estimated there are between 185-192 million1 migrants worldwide.

*In 2000, there were 175 million international migrants worldwide: one out of every 35 person is an international migrant.

*Migrants represent 2.9 per cent of the global population.

*Of these, almost half (48.6%) are women.

* The stock of international migrants rose from 82 million in 1970 to 175 million in 2000.

Global trends

*Migration flows have shifted in recent years with changing poles of attraction for labour migration.

*In some parts of the world, migrant stock has actually decreased.

*Although the number of Asian migrants has increased from 28.1 million in 1970 to 43.8 million in 2000, Asia’s share of global migrant stock decreased from 34.5 per cent to 25 per cent over the same period.

* Africa has also seen a decline in its share of international migrants: from 12 per cent in 1970 to 9 per cent in 2000.

*This is also true for Latin America and the Caribbean (down from 7.1% to 3.4%); Europe (down from 22.9% to 18.7%) and for Oceania (3.7% to 3.3%).

*Only Northern America and the former USSR have seen a sharp increase in their migrant stock between 1970 and 2000 (from 15.9% to 23.3% for Northern America and 3.8% to 16.8% for the Former USSR). In the latter case however, this increase has more to do with the redefinition of borders than with the actual movement of people.

The stock of international migrants remains concentrated in relatively few countries

*75 per cent of all international migrants are in 12 per cent of all countries.2


Migrant population by regions

*56.1 million in Europe (including European part of former USSR), accounting for 7.7 per cent of European population.

*49.9 million in Asia, accounting for 1.4 per cent of Asian population.

*40.8 million in North America, accounting for 12.9 per cent of the North American population.

*16.3 million in Africa, or 2 per cent of African population.

*5.9 million in Latin America, accounting for 1.1 per cent of Latin American population.

*5.8 million in Australia, accounting for 18.7 per cent of Australian population.

International migrants in selected countries

*Top three migrant receiving countries:

*United States with 35 million migrants accounts for 20 per cent of the world’s migrant stock.

*The Russian Federation with 13.3 million migrants accounts for 7.6 per cent of the world’s migrant stock.

*Germany with 7.3 million migrants accounts for 4.2 per cent of the world’s migrant stock.

*Top three migrant sending countries:


*China with a diaspora estimated at 35 million.

*India with a diaspora estimated at some 20 million.

*The Philippines with some 7 million overseas Filipinos.

*Countries or areas where migrants make up more than 60 per cent of the population: Andorra, Macao Special Administrative Region of China, Guam, the Holy See, Monaco, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

International migrants in developed and developing world

*In 2000, 63 per cent of the world’s migrants lived in developed countries and 37 per cent in the developing countries.

Migration is not a one-way street: most countries are both migrant receiving and sending countries3

*In the U.S., for every 4 persons coming in, 1 moved out.

*In Germany and Australia, for every 3 persons coming in, 2 moved out.

*In Japan and Switzerland, for every 3 persons coming in, 1 moved out.

Benefits of migration. One indicator: International Remittances, General Figures

*Total amount of global international remittances in 2003 was US$ 93 billion4 and reached more than US$ 100 billion in 2004. Twice as much money may be sent through informal channels.

*About 20 per cent of annual global international remittances flow into South Asia.

*Top remittances receiving countries in 2002:

1.Mexico received just over US$ 11 billion, or 1.73 per cent of its GDP.
2.India received US$ 8.411 billion, or 1.65 per cent of its GDP.
3.The Philippines5 received US$ 7.363 billion, or 9.45 per cent of its GDP.
4.Egypt received US$ 2.893 billion, or 3.22 per cent of its GDP.
5.Morocco received US$ 2.877 billion, or 8 per cent of its GDP.

*Top remittance-sending countries in 2001:

*US: US$ 28 billion
*Saudi Arabia: US$ 15 billion
*Germany, Belgium and Switzerland (US$ 8 billion each)
*France: US$ 3.9 billion
*Luxembourg: US$ 3.1 billion
*Israel: US$ 3 billion
*Italy: US$ 2.6 billion
*Japan: US$ 2.3 billion

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Effect on environment by growing population

No driver of environmental deterioration is more obvious than population growth, and none has been more taboo to talk about – especially in recent decades. Even ecologists have often danced around the topic. Although more than 40 years have passed since we wrote The Population Bomb, the book is still attacked daily on blogs, misquoted and excoriated. On the positive side, however, it has received great honors from the lunatic fringe. It was listed by the Intercollegiate Review as one of the fifty worst books of the 20th century, along with John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. In Human Events’ list of the “Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” it came in 11th place ("honorable mention”); even so, it bested Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Such nonsense over four decades has allowed the role of population growth and related issues (especially patterns of rising consumption) as drivers of some of our most serious problems to be largely ignored. That makes a collapse of civilization now seem ever more likely. Climate disruption alone, tightly tied to overpopulation through such activities as fossil-fuel use and deforestation, could make achieving sustainability impossible.

A possibly even more serious problem is the increasing release of toxic chemicals in support of growing numbers of people, each striving to consume more. The releases are done with essentially no cost-benefit analysis; a potentially dangerous compound that might cure cancer is treated much the same as one that strengthens eyelash glue. While there are nut-case plans for “geoengineering” that might be tried if the climate starts to get away from us, there are no such possibilities if synergisms among toxics begin to kill us or our life-support systems. Especially threatening are endocrine-disrupting contaminants with non-linear dose-response curves – synthetic compounds sometimes more dangerous in tiny rather than large doses.

Then, of course, there’s the decay of the epidemiological environment, intimately tied to the increasing absolute numbers of people and of hungry (and thus immune-compromised) individuals – the latter now at a record more than one billion. More susceptible people pushing into the habitats of animals carrying novel (to us) infectious diseases, larger human populations to maintain those diseases, and ever more rapid transportation systems make nasty pandemics increasingly likely.

The Population Bomb, ironically, was much too optimistic about the future. In 1968, when it was published, carbon dioxide was thought to be the only human-produced greenhouse gas, and some climatologists believed that cooling by other pollutants would overwhelm its effect. As a result, we could only write that exploding human populations were tampering with the energy balance of Earth and that the results globally and locally could be dire. Now we know that increasing flows into the atmosphere of a series of anthropogenic greenhouse gas, a consequence of the near doubling of the human population and the more than tripling of global consumption, have the potential to cause catastrophic climate disruption unless rapidly abated.



In 1968, Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina had not yet discovered the potential of chlorofluorocarbons to destroy the ozone layer and make life on Earth’s surface impossible. Norman Myers was years from calling world attention to the destruction of tropical rainforests; when The Bomb was written, the possibility that those forests might be destroyed was essentially unknown. Also unknown were the threats of endocrine-disrupting contaminants. The Bomb also should have paid attention to the potential for resource wars. The 1967 Israeli-Arab war, partly over water, and the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars over fossil fuels may be precursors of many more resource wars with similarly intimate overpopulation connections.

There were of course also flaws in The Population Bomb’s analysis of known threats. The first lines of the Prologue (p. 11) proved to be among the most troublesome in the book: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines — hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." We are often asked about the famines The Bomb predicted, as if the last four decades were a period of abundant food for all. Although hunger became less newsworthy as humanity did try to ameliorate the worst famines, they nonetheless were essentially continuous in parts of Africa. Perhaps 300 million people overall have died of hunger and hunger-related diseases since 1968. But the famines were smaller than our reading of the agricultural literature at the time had led us to anticipate. That was largely because of the medium-term success of the "green revolution," the export of high-yielding grain technology to poor nations. The analysis of the food situation in The Population Bomb was thus wrong in that it underestimated the impact of the green revolution. At the same time, it did correctly recognize that serious ecological risks would accompany the spread of that revolution.

Partly due to the message of The Population Bomb, there has been a highly desirable decline in birthrates in much of the world, but the depressing prospect is that some 2.5 billion people will be added to the population before growth stops and (we hope) a slow decline begins. Those additional people will have a disproportionately negative impact on our life-support systems. Our ancestors naturally farmed the richest soils and used the most accessible resources first. Now significant amounts of those soils have been eroded away or paved over, and farmers are increasingly forced to turn to marginal land to grow food. Instead of extracting rich ores on or near the surface, deeper and much poorer deposits must be mined and refined today, at ever greater environmental cost. Water and petroleum must come from lower quality sources, deeper wells, or the latter often from far beneath the ocean, and must be transported over longer distances. The environmental and resource impacts of future population growth will dwarf those of the past.

In the face of these problems, humanity seems paralyzed on many fronts, but especially in confronting issues of population and consumption. There is a growing movement to initiate a Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB) to globally examine and publicly discuss the failures of cultural evolution to direct society towards sustainability. The population bomb is returning to public prominence, but it remains to be seen whether anything effective and humane will be done about it.

Level and trend of fertility and mortality in the world.

The 1960s marked a turning point in the history of world population growth as the annual rate of increase, which reached 2%, ceased its ascent. Fertility rates have declined sufficiently rapidly to produce lessened growth rates when compared to mortality among 3/4 of the world's population. The maximum growth rate of developing countries occurred about 1960-65, with a value of 2.4% produced by birthrates of about 40/1000 and mortality rates of about 16/1000. The growth rate is now under 2.1%, due to declines of birthrates to 32/1000 and mortality rates to 11/1000. The recent demographic development of 40 developing countries with populations of over 10 million in 1982 is examined in greater detail including 13 African countries, 8 Latin American countries, 4 East Asian countries, and 15 South and West Asian countries. In 1975-80, the total fertility rate was under 4.7 children/woman, while in 1950 it exceeded 6. A regional comparison for these years indicates that fertility in Africa has scarcely changed in 25 years, while the lowest rates, under 4 children/woman, were found in 3 Latin American and 4 East Asian countries in 1975-80. Reasons for the fertility decline in different countries have included higher marriage age, increased use of contraception in situations where the effect exceeded that of lessened durations of lactation, smaller ideal family sizes, and general socioeconomic progress. Among all developing countries, life expectancy at birth has increased from 42 to 55 years since 1950, but the differences between countries remain great, with almost all African countries, and most South and West Asian countries having life expectancies under 50. Infant mortality rates declined significantly in most of Latin America, but remain very high in Africa and South Asia. Improvements in mortality apparently do not correlate as well with economic development per se as with improved maternal and infant health care, improved water supply, and improved nutrition. A graphic representation of the declines in fertility and mortality in the 40 countries indicates that they are closely related.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

World’s most endangered animals - Northern Hairy-nosed wombat

Northern Hairy-nosed wombat numbers up 20% in 2 yearsMay 2009. Queensland's critically endangered Northern hairy-nosed wombat, one of the world's most endangered species, has seen its population increase by 20 per cent in two years thanks to some remarkable State Government recovery efforts.

138 wombats alive - Up from 115 in 2 yearsThe wombats are more endangered than the Sumatran tiger and the giant panda, but they had grown from 115 to 138 individuals in two years within their only habitat outside Emerald.

In another new initiative funded by Xstrata, wombats are being trapped and an area in south west Queensland to create a second colony to safeguard and further increase the wombat population.

Queensland's Climate Change and Sustainability Minister, Kate Jones, said "This is a dramatic turnaround for an extremely vulnerable species in Queensland. It's the largest population increase in more than 25 years of studying and helping the northern hairy-nosed wombat."
Ms Jones said the Department of Environment and Resource Management had used proven threatened species management techniques to help wombat numbers rise, including
Building a 20 kilometre predator-proof fence;Providing food and water in times of drought;Conducting controlled burns to prevent wildfire and improve food quality;Removing noxious weeds and pests; andSlashing areas of land to stimulate new grass growth.
Entire population found in 1 small areaMs Jones added "We've created an environment where the wombat has thrived which is a major milestone in our efforts to save this species from extinction. The Department has the skills, and now thanks to a $3 million partnership with mining company Xstrata, a second population should be up and running in a couple of months. Currently, the world's entire population of northern hairy-nosed wombats are only found in one small area at Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland.

New site chosen for second population"
A second colony would halve the risk of one extreme event like disease, fire or flood, wiping out the entire species."
The 130-hectare site near St George was carefully chosen after a two-year search by DERM staff to find a location with suitable soils and food, within the original geographic range of the species.

Work is well under way to create a suitable environment for the new colony which includes building a predator-proof fence with help from Conservation Volunteers Australia.
Predator proof fenceThe four-and-a-half kilometre boundary fence features a unique ‘floppy top' that restricts predators from climbing over, and a wire mesh skirt on both the inside and outside of the fence to stop predators and wombats digging under the fence.

Ms Jones said to record the population at Epping Forest National Park, DERM rangers obtained hair samples of the colony from sticky tape in wombat burrows.

"Monash University analysed these samples using DNA fingerprinting to arrive at the increased population figures of northern hairy-nosed wombats," she said. "Their analysis of the hair samples also indicated that the sex ratio of the population is about even - a sign of a healthy, growing colony.

Discovered in 1937Regarded as an endangered species since they were first discovered at Epping Forest station in 1937, the northern hairy-nosed wombat is currently listed as Critically Endangered under the World Conservation Union's Redlist of Threatened Species.

Population bomb

If you’re old enough to remember Woodstock, you’ll probably remember The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 best-seller that predicted global catastrophe unless urgent and drastic measures were taken to halt population growth. He likened population growth to a cancer that must be cut out at any cost, and advocated rigorous population control through incentives, penalties and compulsion. He condoned “apparently brutal and heartless decisions” and “intense pain” because the “crisis” justified it. Of course Ehrlich wasn’t the first author to draw attention to a potential population crisis. The English clergyman and economist Thomas Malthus popularized the subject in the 18th century. The post-Second World War revival of the view that population growth is a threat to living standards originated with a group that included William Vogt, a now largely forgotten American writer and advocate of social engineering whose 1948 book, Road to Survival, was the biggest environmental best-seller of all time until eclipsed in 1962 by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Vogt claimed a choice had to be made between more people, less nature and less people or more nature.Vogt and his contemporaries were naturalists who advocated measures to tilt the balance between man and nature in nature’s favour. They opposed widespread use of drugs and pesticides that reduce the effectiveness of natural “overpopulation” controls and argued for enlightened government intervention to discourage increased food production via chemical fertilizers. The population-control movement clicked with the pessimistic spirit of the times despite critiques showing that “overpopulation” was an invented crisis, that there is no direct relationship between population and poverty and that people’s well-being depends instead upon the economic decisions they make and the policies constraining those decisions. World Population Day should serve as a reminder that a little information in the hands of those who think they know best and are able to influence policies imposed on others is a dangerous thing. The impact that the population-control frenzy has had on international aid policy provides a good illustration.The Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to the inventor of DDT in the same year Vogt’s book was published. Vogt disapproved of DDT and swamp drainage because they reduced the effectiveness of malaria as a natural control for human populations. But DDT was banned because Rachel Carson linked it to the collapse of bird populations after the U.S. government encouraged its widespread misuse. Malaria control remains a prominent international aid mandate because more costly and less effective controls such as bed nets are now required to stem an upsurge in child mortality. And this upsurge is occurring because the cheaper, more effective solution was banned by those who felt they had the right to take a fundamental economic decision away from parents. The man vs. nature choice which preoccupied Vogt remains evident in campaigns such as the Millennium Development Goals with its emphasis on poverty reduction. Not that there’s anything wrong with poverty reduction. The question is: How? Most top-down efforts at poverty alleviation are still based on the belief that there is an inverse relationship between the quality and quantity of human life, and that sharing existing wealth among a smaller number of people is the way to go because it limits environmental impacts. Constraints imposed on foreign governments and their people in exchange for aid are similar to those imposed on taxpayers when they are coerced by domestic policy decisions made “in their best interest” by others. Advocates of poverty-reduction initiatives in developing countries cannot look to the success of comparable campaigns in the First World for inspiration: Poverty levels in the United States in 1996 were higher than in 1965 when president Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty was launched, despite the $5.4-trillion spent in the process. International “development assistance” policies are but one example of the false premise underlying all public policy: that decisions taken by elite groups result in better outcomes than those made by people deciding for themselves. The rapid development of today’s rich countries occurred without aid when markets worked with minimal distortion and individuals were given freedom to make their own economic decisions. This was the reason so little attention was paid to population growth in the century following the death of Malthus. Invented crises justifying massive public-sector spending are deceptions which disadvantage ordinary people everywhere. All countries should be developing countries, and public-sector planning of any sort frustrates development by distorting the information on which economic decisions are based.

The prison population bomb

Prisons are often referred to as "the big house," but "full house" may be a better term. In 1994, 1 million people lived m America's federal and state prisons. Another 3.7 million were on probation or parole, and half a million were confined to locally run jails. The grand total: more than 5.1 million adults were under some form of correctional supervision two years ago. That is more than the population of Wisconsin.
The number of state and federal prisoners has more than tripled since 1980, due in large part to a national wave of tough anti-drug laws. While those laws removed thousands of drug dealers from America's streets, they also created a huge and rapidly growing industry funded by American taxpayers. The private sector is heavily involved in prison management, and prison privatization is one of the country's hottest industries. Some companies manage entire prisons, while others specialize in particular operations such as health or food services. And manufacturers prosper when they provide the many additional necessary items, from uniforms and bedding to surveillance and monitoring equipment.
If current trends continue, the prison population will increase rapidly in the next decade. Even without growth, the current prison population would still be much more expensive to maintain in the future.
Offenders who are in prison for drug-related crimes are more likely to have serious health problems. The prison population is also aging These trends will increase prisons' health-care costs, but they are dwarfed by the continuing consequences of tough sentencing laws. Until drug abuse stops or drug laws change, the prison population bomb will keep ticking away.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Demography

The word Demography is derived from greek words 'Demos' and 'Graphy' in which 'Demos' means people and 'Graphy' means to describe, to write, to draw, to study. By analysing the words the study of the people is said to be demography.

The study of population size, structure and distribution and factors for change in population is called demography. Achille Guilard was the first person to use word demography in 1855. Yet in 1662 John Grant had already analysed the varibles of mortality and had studied about the human population. Therefore John Grant is known as the father of population study.

Demographic Transition

Demographic transition is a description of the observed long-term trends in fertility and mortality and a model, which attempts to explain them. Demenmy (1972) has summarized it very succinctly "In traditional societies both the fertility and mortality are high and in modern society both the fertility and mortality are high and in modern society both the fertility and mortality is low. In between, there is a demographic transition".
First propnents of demographic theory were Thompson(1929), Davis(1945) and Notestein(1945). Three basic elements of the transiction can be obtained from their writings;

a) It describes the changes that have taken place in fertility and mortality over time.
b) It attempts to construct theoretical causal models to explain the changes that have taken palace
c) Prediction for the changes, that might occur especially in the developing countries in the light of the experience of the developed countries.

Implicit in the classical demographic transition theory is the concept of modernization and development, which brings about changes in mortality and fertilit. Initially declinein mortality takes place and fertility decline is the response to this decline in mortality. Timing of fertility response depends on the levels of development and modernization in the countries concerned.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Importance of Population study

Population study is concerned not only with the population variables but also with the relationship between population variables such as social, economic, political, biological, genetic, geographical and interalationship between those variables. It includes both qualitatives and quantitives espects of human populaion.

Population studies was not given much priority in the past. But at present days people of different field require the information about population, so its importance is increasing day by day. Population education is very important at present to be a successful sociologist, politician, adminstrator and environmentalist. Its study is very important in various field like to do social work, to develop economic field, to do political work, different administration work, and to make rules and regulation.