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New low for global birth rate
Our friends who like to butt heads over population might be interested to know that the global birth rate has fallen to its lowest point. The average woman in a developing country now gives birth 3.9 times over the course of her lifetime, compared with 5.9 in the 1970s, according to the U.N.
That's not down to the replacement level of 2.1, of course, but consider it in conjunction with the far-below-replacement levels in some (over)developed countries like Spain (1.15), Italy (1.19), a handful of other European nations, and Japan, and it marks progress.
Still, in total we're at 6,416,395,969 and counting ...
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Hybrid slogan
A while back New American Dream had a contest: come up with a short, punchy slogan to encourage American automakers to make more hybrids. Apparently they got nearly 35,000 submissions and they've narrowed it down to 100 (that's some serious intern grunt work!). If you sign up for an account over there, you can vote on your favorite.
(Reading these over, I'm wondering how bad the other 34,900 were. Some are okay, but "Do it right! Go Hybrid!"? Me, I'm voting for the current favorite: "Green cars today. Blue skies tomorrow.")
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See Hotspot Run
Ecologists identify nine new biodiversity “hot spots” The world’s biodiversity, it seems, is in trouble. A new report compiled over four years by some 400 ecologists has identified nine new […]
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Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear”
Remember when bestselling author Michael Crichton jumped into the global warming debate with both feet, releasing a book called State of Fear that cast environmentalists as ruthless loonies and climate change as a case of mass hysteria, and everybody was buzzing about it, and every publication on the planet published reviews of the book, and Crichton did the rounds on talk shows playing the martyr, and American pop culture was all a-twitter?
Back in December?
Yeah, well, we're ready to weigh in now. (We just wanted to get the last word!)
My review of the book is up, and so is a scientific debunking of the book from Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. (It's a much-revised version of a piece he published over on the might-as-well-put-"indispensable"-in-the-name Indispensable RealClimate.org.)
More reflections below the jump.
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The Brick of Disaster
Autism may be linked to environmental factors, research says A new study looking into possible environmental causes of autism, a neurological disorder that affects communication and social-interaction abilities, demonstrates that […]
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Avoiding “dangerous” climate change
Well, if precise scientific terms haven't worked to dramatize the potential impact of climate change, perhaps imprecise, scary-sounding ones will. The U.K. government kicked off Tony Blair's promised climate science conference today with a call to avoid "dangerous climate change." All could agree it is to be avoided. Agreeing on a definition of "dangerous" is perhaps another matter.
This conference, held at the leading Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter, England, is part of the lead-up to Blair pushing climate change as he hosts the upcoming G8 summit. The U.S. government is a key target audience. When pushed to provide evidence of any budging in the U.S. position, U.K. Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett offered no examples, according to this BBC story. See also Andrew Revkin in The New York Times on the Exeter Conference.
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Sustainable development saves lives
This is a pretty remarkable story:
Two years ago, drought-stricken farmers in a village on the southern coast of India walked into the Guinness Book of World Records by planting the highest number of saplings in a 24-hour period.
Lesson learned.On Dec. 26, as the killer tsunami struck down thousands of people and homes in Tamil Nadu state, the casuarina and eucalyptus trees which had been planted to appease the weather gods saved the lush green village of Naluvedapathy.
Of the nearly 8,000 people who died in the state, including 6,000 in one fishing village, only seven were from Naluvedapathy.
Authorities are now proudly showcasing the benefits of tree plantation in mitigating the impact of natural disasters, pointing to Naluvedapathy's example in an effort to encourage a coastal green belt.
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Umbra on freshwater
Dear Umbra, What percentage of the Earth’s water is drinkable? What are the remaining percents in categories, such as salt water, polluted water (polluted with what?), and frozen water? And […]
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Extractive myths
Speaking of rural renewables: One of the vexations of blog life is that good posts quickly recede down the page and get missed -- so don't miss this excellent post by new Gristmill contributor Tom Power on the myth that B.C.'s economy depends on extractive industries. Everything he writes could be transferred straightforwardly to Oregon, Washington, Kansas, etc. etc.
