World Population Awareness

U.S.: The Coming Mega Drought

Over the last decade Australia experienced the worst and most consistent dry period in its recorded history. The Murray River failed to reach the sea for the first time ever in 2002. Fires swept much of the country, and dust storms blanketed major cities for days. Australia's sheep population dropped by 50%, and rice and cotton production collapsed in some years. Tens of thousands of farm families gave up their livelihoods. The drought ended in 2010 with torrential rains and flooding.

What happened in Australia could happen in the U.S. Southwest, with devastating consequences to the region and to the nation. However, we can learn from Australia's experience.

There is a resemblence between the southwestern U.S. and parts of Australia before the drought. Both include arid regions where thirsty cities and irrigated agriculture are straining water supplies and damaging ecosystems. The Colorado River no longer flows to the sea in most years. Water levels in major reservoirs have steadily declined over the past decade; some analysts project that the largest may never refill.

In Australia average rainfall has decreased 15% since 1950, while from 1995 to 2006 average temperatures over southeastern Australia were 0.3 to 0.6 degree Celsius higher than the long-term average. The combination of higher evaporation and lower precipitation depletes soil moisture and reduces runoff, making droughts more intense and more frequent. Australian scientists forecast a 35 to 50% decline in water availability in the Murray-Darling river basin and a drop in flows near the mouth of the Murray by up to 70% by 2030.

Australians responded to this Millennium Drought with a wide range of technical, economic, regulatory and educational policies. Urban water managers in Australia have been forced to put in place aggressive strategies to curb water use and to expand sources of new and unconventional supplies. They have subsidized efficient appliances and fixtures such as dual-flush toilets, launched public educational campaigns to save water, and more. Between 2002 and 2008 per capita urban water use declined by 37%.

Other efforts include reuse of gray water, cisterns to harvest rooftop runoff, sewage treatment and reuse, and desalinization by the country's five largest cities, which will meet 30% of current urban water needs. The government has continued with plans to restore rivers and wetlands by cutting withdrawals from the Murray-Darling river basin by 22 to 29%.

The southwestern U.S. states would do well to push for these kinds of reforms before a similar disaster strikes.

US Births Down for 3rd Year; Economy May Be Factor

Births in the U.S. had been on the rise for years, and the number hit an all-time high of more than 4.3 million in 2007.

Last year, the number of births fell 3%, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The falling birth rate seemed to bottom out in October, November and December, so the decline could be slowing, but it's too early to say.

The lower birth rates may be because women who are unemployed or have other money problems feel they can't afford to start a family or add to it.

In 2008 and 2009, the only increase in births was in women older than 40 — considered more sensitive to the ticking of their biological clocks.

Another factor behind the decline may be a drop in immigration to the United States, blamed on the weak job market. "Hispanics have higher birth rates," said Dr. Roger Rochat, a researcher who has studied fertility and abortion trends.

The Idiocy of Endless Growth

Soon the world will reach 7 billion people. Global population has tripled in the author's lifetime, and the UN predicts 10 billion in 2100. Australia will not be immune from the impacts.

No one can confidently predict where we will find the food, energy, water and resources needed to supply even the basic needs of so many people. We are already using up far more than we can replenish, literally exhausting the environment on which we rely for our survival.

Overpopulation is barely mentioned in the media, and is rarely discussed in relation to, say, climate change or the looming global refugee crisis. Yet ignoring it condemns billions of people to lives of poverty and injustice.

Australia has missed the chance to deal realistically with the challenges of an ever-growing population. The federal government's population strategy is long on rhetoric and short on action. It mentions the word "sustainable" dozens of times, yet never defines what this overused word means.

The report does not say where we should be aiming in terms of our numbers in coming decades. Without this how can we plan for the future. The government's target of a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by mid-century is meaningless if we have no idea how many people we will have making those emissions?

The strategy suggest that people to settle in regional areas, ignoring that nearly all new migrants choose to settle in our major cities. Federal Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson described the report as a missed opportunity to map out a direction for Australia's future.

The report fails to deal with the impossibility of endlessly expanding our economy and population in a finite world. No politician or business leader dares mention that there are natural limits to growth, and that the evidence suggests we are already hitting against many of them.

Australia's economy is based on two especially precarious principles: extracting as rapidly as possible mineral resources that have taken millions of years to accumulate, while propping up our housing and retail markets with a continuing influx of extra consumers.

The global economy is already five times larger than it was 50 years ago, and as China and India's people demand more of what we have been keeping for ourselves, this explosive expansion is accelerating.

Despite this growth, the numbers in extreme poverty, currently 3 billion, continue to rise. The world's poorest 20% consume just 1.5% of its resources.

The growing disparity between rich and poor is a recipe for conflict and chaos.

Australia's neighbour, Papua New Guinea, will see its population double to about 15 million in the next 25 years. The desperate young Melanesians, denied opportunities at home, will likely look enviously across the Torres Strait for a better life.

Australia: The Spin-doctors Are at it Again

The spin-doctors of the Business Council of Australia are demanding rampant population growth for Australia -- "to around 30 million in 2030 and 36 million in 2050". And they are trying to present this selfish demand as reasonable and they are calling this "Moderate Population Growth the Best Path to Prosperity," in its submission to Tony Burke, the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities on how to achieve a sustainable population for Australia. On its cover-page: Improving the quality of life of all Australians within prosperous, secure and liveable communities requires well-managed population growth over the first half of this century.

Myth: Australia's current annual rate of population growth, and/or those demanded by business lobbyists, are "moderate" or "balanced". Comment: Not so! They are higher than those of many third world countries (Indonesia 1.2% a year). Our recent range of 1.7% to 2.1% is 4 to 6 times the average of industrialised countries. We are headed for close to 100 million Australians by the end of the century.

While it is easy to import population growth it is very difficult to go in the opposite direction. Hence we need to remember that Australia's population growth is effectively not reversible.

Myth: Big Business has made a good case for continued population growth. Comment: Not so. The list of the world's most prosperous countries is dominated by those with under 20 million people.

Myth: Science and technology will save us, so there's no need to cap population. Comment: People who say this are rarely scientists. Mostly they are growth economists brought up on an ideology that there are no limits to growth, or else persons with a vested interest in growth.

The Australian Academy of Science back in 1994, before Peak Oil or Climate Change were widely accepted, warned government that 23 million was Australia's safe upper limit.

Myth: We in Australia have plenty of resources. Comment: Not so. The 3rd Inter-generational Report notes that our oil - the commodity on which our civilisation depends - will be gone by 2020.

Fertiliser price is directly linked to energy prices. Many business plans will not survive, and economic downturn is likely. To add more people to a low-energy future is foolish. Our iron ore, LPG gas and many other resources are fast running out.

Myth: Sustainable means keeping our businesses going. Comment: No, human sustainability means above all being prepared for Peak Oil.

Doctors in Population Push: More of Us, Less for All

In Australia, the 500-strong Doctors for the Environment Australia in have joined entrepeneur Dick Smith's new campaign targeting general practitioners (GPs) and their patients.

A poster titled "Advancing Australia Fairly!" was sent by the group to about 24,000 GPs this week to outline the health impacts of the nation's increasing population.

The poster shows an oversized boot crushing a tree. On the sole of the boot is the statement "Population growth, more of us, less for all". The poster asserts that "population pressure impacts on cost of living, food and water security, traffic congestion, productive farmland, social cohesion and quality of life".

A spokesman for the group said Australia's population growth rate exceeded that of India and Cambodia and was "harming our quest for liveable communities". The campaign coincides with the federal government seeking feedback on the challenges and opportunities stemming from Australia's growing population.

The group was annoyed that the federal government's issues paper on a sustainable population strategy did not include a scientific review of what an ideal population for a healthy Australia would be.

Australia's population is predicted to rise from its current 22 million to 35 million by 2050.

Australia: Population: How Much is Too Much?

Near where the author lives, in the NSW Southern Tablelands of Australia, there's a 400 hectare rain forest reserve in a gorge. On weekends its car parks are often full and a stream of visitors make the hour-long pilgrimage along a sturdy boardwalk to a waterfall.

Rain forest like this once covered nearly 23,000 hectares in the area. But after the cedar-getters and cattlemen came, three-quarters of it is gone and much of what's left is in poor shape. Former NSW premier Bob Carr wrote 10 years ago: "Over the next 100 years treasures like these will be erased from the planet, outside a few struggling game parks or tourist-trampled reserves." ... "Forests torn out, grasslands ploughed under, to meet the demands of this vastly expanded human presence."

From the time our ancestors took up farming, population expansion has been unstoppable. Whenever we came up with an innovation, such as domestication, new crop varieties or irrigation, the numbers jumped; each advance made our food more abundant, its supply more dependable and our lives more secure. From an estimated 5 million souls when humankind began farming, the global population reached 250 million about 2000 years ago. It took humanity 12,000 years or more to clock up its first billion - and just 12 to add its sixth.

The world's population is currently growing at 1.15%, or about 77 million people a year.

Since colonization, Australia's population has grown at an even faster rate than the global average. From about 1 million inhabitants in 1788, there are now nearly 22,450,000 people. It is increasing by about 470,000 people a year, mostly through immigration. The world is predicted to reach 9.2 billion by 2050. If last year's growth is anything to go by then Australia's population will head towards 36 million by 2050 and perhaps 50 million before the end of the century.

In his book Feeding the Ten Billion, Dr Lloyd Evans, says: "Feeding the 10 billion can be done, but to do so sustainably in the face of climatic change, equitably in the face of social and regional inequalities, and in a time when few seem concerned, remains one of humanity's greatest challenges."

Dr Bob Birrell, director of the Centre for Population and Urban Research at Melbourne's Monash University says corporations and governments are beneficiaries of population growth. "They like the economic dynamism associated with extra people, because it means more expansion and therefore more economic activity, measured by cranes on the skyline." The Sydney Morning Herald economics editor Ross Gittins disagrees: "Just because it's good for business doesn't mean it's good for the economy." ... "Businesses get the benefits of immigration while bearing only some of the costs. The main costs are the need for more capital equipment and...infrastructure, as well as more government services, to meet the needs of the extra people."

"Nothing more preoccupies the modern political process than economic growth," says Clive Hamilton in his book Growth Fetish. "Economists are relentless advocates of more growth as the solution to all problems". The billions in developing countries who can't afford our level of consumption today aspire to it tomorrow. Consumption will keep growing long after global population peaks post-2050. This in turn means we'll continue to make the planet less hospitable by felling Earth's forests, plundering its oceans, damming and draining its rivers, squandering its limited resources and allowing our megacities to metastasise across its surface.

Clive points out in the book Requiem for a Species: "Population growth will make the task of reducing...emissions much harder because food is the first item of consumption humans must have." In Australia, climate change will reduce our capacity to grow food for ourselves - just when our growing population requires us to grow more.

The Treasury's prediction that Australia's population would reach 36 million by 2050, former prime minister Kevin Rudd's welcoming of the "big Australia" that this represented, the country's population reaching 22 million in October 2009, and the appointment of Australia's first Minister for Population, all served to make Australia's demographic future an election issue.

The new Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she wasn't in favour of "Australia hurtling down the track towards a big population". Monash's Bob Birrell said "if you're concerned about the quality of life of Australian cities, the price of housing or the state of the natural environment, you're likely to believe we've already passed the optimum." Tim Flannery, one of Australia's best-known scientists and thinkers, has suggested that our nation's arid and fragile interior and fickle climate make 6-12 million a much more practical carrying capacity.

Marshall Islands: If An Island State Vanishes, is it Still a Nation?

Encroaching seas in the far Pacific are raising the salt level in the wells of the Marshall Islands. Waves threaten to cut one sliver of an island in two. "It's getting worse," says Kaminaga Kaminaga, the tiny nation's climate change coordinator.

The atoll nations of Kiribati, Tuvalu and other atoll nations beyond are also threatened.

The rising ocean raises questions, too: What happens if the 61,000 Marshallese must abandon their low-lying atolls? Would they still be a nation? With a U.N. seat? With control of their old fisheries and their undersea minerals? Where would they live, and how would they make a living? Who, precisely, would they and their children become?

For years global negotiations to act on climate change have dragged on, with little to show. Parties to the 193-nation U.N. climate treaty are meeting again in this Caribbean resort, but no one expects decisive action to roll back the industrial, agricultural and transport emissions blamed for global warming — and consequently for swelling seas.

"People who built their homes close to shore, all they can do is get more rocks to rebuild the seawall in front day by day," said Kaminaga, who is in Cancun with the Marshallese delegation to the U.N. talks.

The Marshallese government is looking beyond today to those ultimate questions of nationhood, displacement and rights and took a first step to confront these issues by asking for advice from the Center for Climate Change Law at New York's Columbia University where legal scholars worldwide will be assembled next May to begin to piece together answers.

The U.N. network of climate scientists projects that seas, expanding from heat and from the runoff of melting land ice, may rise by up to 1.94 feet (0.59 meters) by 2100, swamping much of the scarce land of coral atolls.

Long before waves wash over them the islands may become uninhabitable, because of the saline contamination of water supplies and ruining of crops, and because warming is expected to produce more threatening tropical storms.

McAdam, of the University of New South Wales, has traveled in the atoll nations and studied the legal history.

The 1951 global treaty on refugees, mandating that nations shelter those fleeing because of persecution, does not cover the looming situation of those displaced by climate change. Some advocate negotiating a new international pact obliging similar treatment for environmental refugees.

In the case of the Marshallese, the picture is murkier. Under a compact with Washington, citizens of the former U.S. trusteeship territory have the right to freely enter the U.S. for study or work, but their right to permanent residency must be clarified, government advisers say.

The wide scattering of the Marshalls' 29 atolls, 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) southwest of Hawaii, give them an exclusive economic zone of 800,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of ocean, an area the size of Mexico. Tuna from those waters are the Marshalls' chief resource, exploited by selling licenses to foreign fishing fleets. "If their islands go underwater, what becomes of their fishing rights?"

Potentially just as important: revenues from magnesium and other sea-floor minerals that geologists have been exploring in recent years.

The "top priority," Kaminaga said, is to save the isthmus linking the Marshalls' Jaluit island to its airport, a link now swept by high tides.

The Marshalls' representatives will seek international aid for climate adaptation. They envision such projects as a Jaluit causeway, replanting of protective vegetation on shorelines, and a 3-mile-long (5-kilometer-long) seawall protecting their capital, Majuro, from the Pacific's rising tides.

In the end, islanders wonder, too, what will happen to their culture, their history, their identity with a homeland — even to their ancestors — if they must leave. Cemeteries along the coastline are being eroded as gravesites fall into the sea. rw

Palau Debates Banning Contraceptives to Stimulate Population Growth

Palau is currently wrangling with a controversial bill that would ban the sale and distribution of contraceptives. The Population Growth Act is intended to stimulate population growth in the country, and has already been passed by the Senate on first reading.

According to the Asian Development Bank, Palau's population growth is just under 1.5%-the smallest in the region. This has raised concerns among officials, especially because young Palauans are increasingly moving overseas to pursue education and work opportunities. Senator Alfonso Diaz explained: "We're hoping when we outlaw that people will be freely having sex and then reproduce."

Many have pointed out that banning contraceptives would likely increase the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The author of the bill responded: "Right now we don't have a problem of HIV in Palau, and the problem of transmitted disease in Palau is very minimal, not even 50 people. It's even less than that."

Health Minister Stevenson Kuartei said: "I wish we could have been consulted about the long-term effects that such a bill would entail, but we were never asked." He added: "The discussion of the discussion of well-planned family planning, the issue of choice by families or by women to manage their pregnancy, the issue of HIV and AIDS-those were not even addressed within the proposed bill."

The bill, which would impose a $500 fine or a three-month prison sentence on violators, is to be debated by the Senate in January. rw

Clinton Urges Papua New Guinea to End 'Culture of Violence' Against Women

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an end to the "culture of violence" against women in impoverished Papua New Guinea during a lightning stop in November in the South Pacific nation.

Clinton, who was greeted by bare-chested men beating drums and face-painted women in grass skirts, announced a new initiative to help the island's women, who suffer staggering levels of violence, according to rights groups.

She also discussed ways of avoiding the "resource curse" with Prime Minister Michael Somare as PNG grapples with a huge influx of wealth from an upcoming gas project, as well as ways of fighting climate change.

"Giving women access to education, health services, economic opportunities, and the structures of power is critical for alleviating poverty and disease in every part of the world," she told an audience of mainly women during a visit to the country's parliament.

Clinton said the United States, PNG government and World Bank would bring together senior officials and business leaders from across the Pacific "to expand opportunities for women". The U.S. State Department is working with local groups to help women voters prepare for 2012 elections, hoping to ease their plight by encouraging more female MPs and is working with US energy giant Exxon Mobil and local groups on a mentoring programme "aimed at ending the culture of violence against women and girls in Papua New Guinea", she said.

Clinton, the first secretary of state to visit since 1998, meanwhile offered technical expertise to help PNG cope with the windfall of its 15-billion-US dollar liquefied natural gas project to supply Asian countries. "If not handled right a country can actually can end up becoming poorer," Clinton warned.

The plant, PNG's biggest resources project, is expected to double national income.

Several other developing countries that have experienced sudden energy investments only to become mired in corruption and political instability. rw

Australia: Ads Spark Sex Fury

Clinical psychologist Alison Grundy, who works with sex abuse victims, said advertisers were reaching a dangerous new low by using sexual violence as a marketing tool, including Calvin Klein's jeans ad, which is said has connotations of gang rape.

"If we continue to subject future generations of young men to great barrages of aggressive, misogynist, over-sexualised and violent imagery in pornography, movies, computer games and advertising, we will continue to see the rates of sexual violence against women and children that continue unabated today. Or worse,' she said.

In a post on renowned women's advocate Melinda Tankard Reist's website, Ms Grundy said cases of gang rape of girls as young as 13 were increasingly being reported to professionals in NSW and that advertisers were blurring the line between rape and group sex and the Calvin Klein poster was "clearly intimating' the gang rape of a woman.

Menswear brand Roger David has also drawn fire for selling T-shirts with semi-naked, gagged women. rw

Australia: Anglicans: We Have to Acknowledge and Respond to Population Issues in Order to Care for Life

At a time when the Catholic church is so often in the news for appalling attitudes to population, it is heartening to see the Anglicans making informed and moral observations about the need to reign in population growth.

The General Synod has now endorsed the viewpoint of its Public Affairs Committee. We have to acknowledge and respond to population issues in order to care for life. The Anglican General Synod of Australia recently held its three-yearly meeting, at which a motion about the need to acknowledge and respond to population issues in order to care for life on our planet was warmly supported.

The Lambeth conference of bishops from the world-wide Anglican communion reaffirmed a decade ago that the divine Spirit is in Creation and human beings have a responsibility to make sacrifices for the common good of all life.

This year the Public Affairs Commission of the Australian Anglican Church presented a discussion paper on population issues which formed the basis for the attached motion recently passed by the national Synod.

The Synod has called on Anglicans to grow in understanding of global and national environmental challenges and the fundamental role of human population growth and consumption in contributing to them. It has encouraged individuals and the church to reduce their levels of consumption, and to contribute thoughtfully and prayerfully to public debate about how to achieve justice for future as well as current Australians and to nurture life on this fragile land with all its beauty and diversity. It emphasized the need to share in a world of finite resources, showing concern particularly for neighbours who live in the poorest two-thirds of the world.

The Synod called on the Australian Government to avoid any reliance on population growth to maintain economic growth; to determine a sustainable population policy for Australia; to consider carefully any incentive aimed specifically and primarily at increasing Australia's population, while continuing to support low-income families; and to contribute more generously to improving the welfare of people in the least developed nations, and other life in their environments, in particular by including support for family planning and women's reproductive health programs with aid for development. rw

Anglican Church Says Overpopulation May Break Eighth Commandment

Australia's Anglican Church has linked overpopulation to the eighth commandment 'Thou shall not steal'. The governing body of Australia's Anglican Church has released a discussion paper that states "out of care for the whole of creation, particularly the poorest of humanity and the life forms who cannot speak for themselves, it is not responsible to stand by and remain silent [on the issue of overpopulation]."

The paper adds that "unless we take account of the needs of future life on Earth, there is a case that we break the eighth commandment—'thou shall not steal'."

The General Synod recommends that the federal government should no longer encourage population growth with financial incentives, such as the controversial 'baby bonus' whereby the Australian government pays a mother 4,000 Australian dollars every time she has a new baby. The bonus, which was put into effect beginning in 2004, has been linked to Australia's ongoing baby boom, the largest since the 1970s.

"In the context of unsustainable global population growth it is inconsistent and arguably irresponsible to provide financial incentives for population increase," the Australian Anglican Church says.

Currently some 6.8 billion people inhabit the Earth. Scientists estimate that by 2050 that number will rise to 9 billion before leveling out. Environmentalists say that overpopulation is leading to worsening climate change, unsustainable resource use, mass extinction, deforestation, pollution, and food and water shortages. rw

Australia: Is Population Growth a Ponzi Scheme?

The pitch of those promoting population growth is straightforward "More is better." While it may come in many guises, Ponzi demography is essentially a pyramid scheme that attempts to make more money for some by adding on more and more people through population growth.

But measures of GDP do not reflect, for example, the degradation of the environment, the depreciation of natural resources or declines in individuals' quality of life.

According to Ponzi demography, population growth - through natural increase and immigration - means more people leading to increased demands for goods and services, more material consumption, more borrowing, more on credit and of course more profits. Everything seems fantastic for a while - but Ponzi demography is unsustainable.

When the economy sours, the scheme spirals downward with higher unemployment, depressed wages, falling incomes, more people sinking into debt, more homeless families - and more men, women and children on public assistance.

That is the stage when the advocates of Ponzi demography consolidate their excess profits and gains. That leaves the general public to pick up the tab. Ponzi demography exploits the fear of population decline and aging. Without a young and growing population, we are forewarned of becoming a nation facing financial ruin and a loss of national power.

Due to population aging, government-run pensions and healthcare systems will become insolvent, Ponzi demography advocates claim, thereby crippling the economy, undermining societal well-being and threatening national security.

Low birth rates, especially those below replacement levels, are considered a matter of national concern. Without higher fertility rates and the resulting population growth, the nation, it is claimed, faces a bleak and dreary future.

So Ponzi demography calls for policies and programs to encourage couples to have more children, which will lead to the promised sustained economic growth.

In addition appeals are also made to one's patriotic duty to have children in order to replenish and expand the homeland. Ponzi demography also turns to immigration for additional population growth in order to boost companies' profits. The standard slogan in "the country urgently needs increased immigration," even when immigration may already be at record levels and unemployment rates are high.

Increased immigration, it is declared, is a matter of national security, long-term prosperity and international competitiveness. Without this needed immigration, Ponzi demography warns that the country's future is at serious risk.

Another basic tactic of Ponzi demography is promoting the advantages of an increasing population for continued economic growth. No mention is made of the additional profits they reap and the extra costs the public bears.

When confronted with environmental concerns such as climate change, global warming, environmental contamination or shortages of water and other vital natural resources, the advocates of Ponzi demography typically dismiss such concerns as unfounded and overblown.

And they obliquely stress "innovation," ingenuity and technological fixes as the only appropriate and workable solutions.

Many environmental groups are also reluctant to take up or even touch the volatile subject of population growth, especially those that have been burned on this issue in the past. Such groups fear possibly offending some members and donors, which might undercut their organizations and efforts.

Fortunately, most couples around the world have chosen to have a few children rather than many and to invest more in each child's upbringing, education and future well-being. The sooner nations make the transition from ever-increasing population growth to population stabilization, the better the prospects for all of humanity and other life on this planet. "If Norway can prosper with a stable population, why can't Australia?"

It is argued primarily that we must have an expanding population, in order to maintain "labour supply", and to counter demographic ageing. These are related but subtly different goals. A third goal, not so publicly acknowledged but the driver for the largest single source of political donations, is to maintain the inflation of property values. All three goals of growth are examples of Ponzi scheme economics, not contributing significantly to the common good but rather shifting wealth from the many to the few, from the younger to the older, and from future people to current people.

Weaning oneself off a Ponzi scheme can be an unattractive proposition. Luckily, the impact would likely be more than off-set by the dividends of population stabilisation. The diseconomies of growth rate far outweigh the benefits. By doubling our population growth within a decade, we have increase our infrastructure costs, perhaps costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per added person.

According to MIT economist Lester Thurow, it requires 12.5% of GDP to expand capacity at 1% per year. For the developed world this was over $200,000 per person of net population growth. Using these figures, if we're currently growing at 2% per year, then 25% of our GDP is currently being used to expand capacity to accommodate the people who are not yet here. This means that the GDP available per capita to serve current residents is 25% less than the advertised per capita GDP.

Against this burden, the 2010 Intergenerational Report's estimate of 4.1% of GDP needed for extra health care and aged care by 2050 pales into insignificance.

Not to mention that only 40% of this is attributable to ageing, and less than half of that could be deflected by immigration. Does it make sense that we're incurring a 25% of GDP cost to avoid less than 0.8% of GDP cost?

Ageing is touted as the greatest economic challenge facing Australia, and therefore to be minimised by whatever means we have. Conversely, we are told that growth merely requires planning and management (as if the infrastructure magically appears by virtue of having been planned). In fact, the exact opposite is true.

Growth is a virtually insurmountable challenge, becoming ever more costly as resources are spread thinner, pushing an ever increasing burden on future generations, while diluting their wealth base and inflating their living costs. Ageing, in contrast, is a modest and limited shift, back towards the sort of dependency ratio we had in the 1960s, but with much higher workforce participation than then.

So we have immigration to reduce the fiscal gap anticipated to be caused by ageing, but causing a fiscal black hole. And we have skilled immigration to solve the skills shortage but actually increasing it. And we have a baby bonus requiring a school-building program comparable to the current debt-financed economic stimulus package repeated annually to accommodate the extra 50,000 kids per year moving through the system. And, just when we should be encouraging extra saving for retirement, instead we have orchestrated oversupply of labour suppressing wages and increasing casualisation and underemployment, combined with the orchestrated housing affordability crisis, having a devastating effect on national savings.

Back in 1986, Lester Thurow concluded that no nation could move forward economically with population growth greater than 2%. Deliberate (but not coercive) fertility reduction was the primary enabler of economic development in the Asian Tigers, boosting workforce participation and allowing government efforts to move from quantity to quality of services. In contrast, Argentina famously fell back from first-world to third-world status, with the most plausible explanation being that its growth outstripped its ability to maintain quality of life. A disgruntled population and unmanageable public debt are not conducive to maintaining good stable democracies

Could Australia enter such a downward spiral? We already have many of the symptoms: widening inequality between rich and poor, declining national savings and expanding current account deficit, the selling of public assets to balance budgets, welfare systems falling behind the cost of living, intractable queues for medical services, increasing youth unemployment, fracturing social tensions erupting in ethnic violence ... the question is, will we wake up in time to arrest it? rw

Al Bartlett Comments on Population Problems Down Under

Australian Environmental Minister Penny Wong, when asked "Australia's population is projected to increase by 65%... by 2050. During the same period, the government is committed to cutting our carbon emissions by 60%. Aren't these goals or facts mutually exclusive?" answered: "Whereas the last few hundred years …growth in our carbon pollution has essentially tracked our population and economic growth…The key issue here is breaking that link, not trying to reduce population."

Australia's population growth is 1.252% per year - using the 65% figure quoted by the interviewer. To reduce emissions 60% by 2050, it would require a 2.291% reduction. This means, to accomodate the projected population growth AND to reduce overall annual emissions by 60%, the annual rate of decrease of per capita emissions would have to be cut 3.543% per year over the next forty years. In other words, the per capita annual emissions would have to be cut in half every 19.6 years!

Is Minister Wong basing her policy recommendations on Walt Disney's First Law: "Wishing will make it so."

Actually, the present rate of growth of Australia's population is quoted as being 1.8% per year, not 1.252% that the interview claimed. If this current higher rate continues, Australia's population will double by 2050 and would reach a density of one person per square meter over the whole continent in just over 700 years!

Should Australia encourage continued population growth or should the people of Australia act to stop the growth before Nature stops it? And why not stop it now while there are still some resources and some open spaces?

Australia: Many in Denial Over Rising Population

Population growth in Asia averages 1.1% a year. Australia should have a much lower growth rate, but our annual population growth had risen to 1.5%. According to Bureau of Statistics figures, it is now 1.7%. At this rate, our population will reach 42 million by 2051. This is far above any estimate of the population Australia could hope to feed.

This week's government white paper proposes a 5% cut in emissions, but assumes per capita cuts can outpace population growth. This is based on the assumption we are heading for 28 million people in Australia by 2051, rather than 42 million.

Some claim Australia is a big country, yet the geographer George Seddon has remarked Australia is "a small country with big distances". Our agricultural areas are not so large, or fertile, as population boosters pretend. The human as well as the natural environment deteriorates as population grows.

The reaction to any suggestion that population growth, and immigration, should be reduced was to accuse the critic of "racism". Yet most immigrants think immigration is too high.

Figures show that births each year in Australia are twice the number of deaths. Australia's safe carrying capacity in the long term may be as low as 8 to 12 million people.

In 1994, the Australian Academy of Science said that 23 million people should be our limit.

Over the years, Australians have been promised a series of points at which population growth would supposedly be capped: Bob Hawke spoke of 25 million, which might be the limit set by water resources. The minister for immigration, spoke of our population naturally peaking at some 23 million. Our current trajectory is to break 100 million by 2100.

Population increase suits governments wanting to please the business community now. There is still a way out and it is naive to think population growth can be slowed.

In the past two years, most politicians have ceased being in denial about climate change, greenhouse emissions, limits to water, and peak oil.

Our population growth is out of control. rw

Australia: Overseas Abortion Aid Ban Revoked

A 13-year-old ban on AusAID-funded abortion has been revoked with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith's signing of new family planning guidelines for dispensing federal funds overseas. Overseas aid can now be used to fund abortions of foetuses of up to 20 weeks in countries where it is legal.

The Howard government introduced the ban in 1996 to assuage senator Brian Harradine, a Catholic. A number of leading groups - including Oxfam Australia were instrumental in lobbying the Government for change.

Unsafe abortion is a leading cause of maternal mortality in developing countries. "This will bring a big difference to so many women's lives in the Asia-Pacific," said a regional director of Marie Stopes International, an NGO providing sexual healthcare services from Mongolia though to Vietnam and Papua New Guinea.

Australia's policy change comes after a similar decision by America's Obama Administration.

U.S.: We Don't Need 'Guest Workers'

In 1964 Congress killed the seasonal Mexican laborers program despite warnings that its abolition would doom the tomato industry. Then scientists developed oblong tomatoes that could be harvested by machine and California's tomato output has risen fivefold. Now we're being warned again that we need unskilled laborers from Mexico and Central America to relieve U.S. "labor shortages." Guest workers would mainly legalize today's vast inflows of illegal immigrants, with the same consequence: We'd be importing poverty. They generally don't go home, assimilation is slow and the ranks of the poor are constantly replenished. Since 1980 the number of Hispanics with incomes below the government's poverty line has risen 162%, while the number of non-Hispanic whites in poverty rose 3% and blacks, 9.5%. What we have now is a policy of creating poverty in the US while relieving it in Mexico. It stresses local schools, hospitals and housing and feeds social tensions (witness the Minutemen). Some Americans get cheap landscaping services but if more mowed their own lawns it wouldn't be a tragedy. Among immigrant Mexican and Central American workers in 2004, only 7% had a college degree and nearly 60% lacked a high school diploma. Among native-born U.S. workers, 32% had a college degree and 6% did not have a high school diploma. The illegal immigrants represent only about 4.9% of the labor force. In no major occupation are they a majority. They're drawn here by wage differences, not labor "shortages." Most new illegal immigrants can get work by accepting wages below prevailing levels. Hardly anyone thinks that illegal immigrants will leave, but what would happen if illegal immigration stopped and wasn't replaced by guest workers? Some employers would raise wages to attract U.S. workers; others would find ways to minimize those costs. The number of native high school dropouts with jobs declined by 1.3 million from 2000 to 2005. Some lost jobs to immigrants and unemployment remains high for some groups. Business organizations support guest worker programs - they like cheap labor and ignore the consequences. Why do liberals support a program that worsens poverty and inequality? Poor immigrant workers hurt the wages of unskilled Americans. We've never tried a policy of real barriers and strict enforcement against companies that hire illegal immigrants. Until that's shown to be ineffective, we shouldn't adopt guest worker programs that add to serious social problems. rw

Indonesia: Peer Educators Teach Traders About Reproductive Health

In Denpasar, 15 traders and laborers have become peer educators to persuade fellow female traders and laborers to get tested for signs of reproductive health problems.

"Reproductive health is still an alien concept for us here," one of them said.

The voluntary peer educator group was established by an NGO focusing on mitigating reproductive health problems among the city's low income population. It has also established a health clinic on the market's fourth floor, that offers affordable and free reproductive health services.

Cervical cancer is currently at the top of the peer educators' list of reproductive health problems. rw

Australia: STI Increase Sparks Calls for Mandatory Sex Ed

A rise in sexually-transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy in Australia has prompted calls for mandatory sex classes in schools nationwide.

Sex education is to become mandatory in the UK.

Governments across Australia need a standardised program rather than an ad hoc approach to sex education.

Teenagers accounted for more than a quarter of the 58,000 cases of chlamydia last year, against 17,000 in 2000.

Unplanned pregnancy rates in Australia are still high in comparison to the developed world.

Disparities between governments, makes it hard to get something organised, but it's a necessary part of our teenagers' future. rw

Australia: Child Abortion Fears

Sex education in WA schools (Australia) will be reviewed because too many girls are getting pregnant.

In the past three years, about 100 girls aged 14 or under had abortions.

Calls from Abortion Grief Australia ask for more early intervention to stop women suffering abortion trauma.

Women who had an abortion were 3.6 times more likely to abuse hard drugs and twice as likely to be binge drinkers.

FPWA Sexual Health Services medical director renewed calls for condom-vending machines at WA high schools, and compulsory sexual health education in schools.

Opposition spokesman Roger Cook said high school principals should be allowed to give condoms to students at risk of getting pregnant.

Health Minister Kim Hames had launched a website that provided information about puberty, sexually transmitted diseases and abstinence.

"The department has also funded, the school-based sexual health curriculum and teacher training, which promotes abstinence. rw

Papua New Guinea Hotels to Provide Free Condoms

Hotel guests in Papua New Guinea will soon find complimentary condoms in their rooms.

The HIV/AIDS education group BAHA has reached an agreement with more than 90 hotels and guest houses to distribute 2 million free condoms.

In Papua 2% of people are believed to be infected with AIDS.

In some areas the figure could be 10%.

Hotels have been targeted because that is where many people are infected.

The BAHA will also provide training to hotel staff.

A lot of them are scared. They say, 'We see them and we are going to be infected'.

BAHA is putting the condoms into new packages featuring the work of a local artist. rw

Australia: A Climate of Change at Lake Macquarie

Lake Macquarie residents are becoming aware of climate change issues and the underlying causes. The council was "taking a lead role in planning for sea-level rise due to climate change" and had committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There were signs of people changing their behaviour to help the environment.

People were buying smaller cars. 161,535 vehicles were registered in Lake Macquarie, a 2.25% increase on the previous year.

The rate of native vegetation clearing had been "substantially reduced" to 58 hectares.

But Lake Macquarie's population is expected to grow by 60,000 to 70,000 people in the next 25 years and will create demand for 36,500 new dwellings.

An expanding population means an increase in the consumption of resources. Residential electricity use in the city had decreased by 3.9% in 2007-08 compared with the previous year, but business electricity use had increased by 1.8%. rw

Australia: Population Bomb Ticks Louder Than Climate Change

Population growth is a bigger threat to the world's food production and water supplies than climate change. Overpopulation's impacts are potentially more destructive than those of climate change.

Climate change is overshadowed by the amount of water, land and energy needed to grow food to meet the projected increase in population. We are facing a crisis.

The price of rice in Thailand had risen from $A200 a tonne to $A800 a tonne, and India had banned rice exports in a bid to ensure the country had sufficient supplies of this food.

Australias needs smarter ways to improve water efficiencies so we can continue to grow those crops.

Many politicians are out of touch with crucial issues facing rural Australia, particularly poverty and the loss of jobs in communities built on wealth generated by irrigated food production.

Irrigators are trying to make a living for their families, and have made a lot of effort to achieve water efficiencies. Australia must also think about the future social and environmental implications of its "population footprint".

It has to be a decision about geographic spread and location, about benefits for indigenous communities, for river systems and wetlands. It's a big exercise and needs to be done very carefully. rw

U.S.: Save the Frogs

April 29 was Save the Frogs Day, and we would like your help to protect frogs from one of the biggest threats to their survival. Please ask the Environmental Protection Agency to ban a widely-used weed killer called atrazine that is threatening frog populations.

Frogs are especially sensitive to chemicals in their surrounding environment. Their numbers have been plummeting around the world, and one of the major causes is the widespread use of pesticides like atrazine. Frogs act as an indicator species for the overall health of the environment.

In agricultural areas, as much as 75% of all waterways contain some level of atrazine. Atrazine in our environment isn't good for us either. The European Union has already phased out its use entirely.

New Zealand: Protecting Our Ocean Resources

From New Zealand's State of the Environment Report, Environment 07 - Environmental indicators are a valuable tool as part of our work towards carbon neutrality and a sustainable New Zealand. Environment 07 measures the impact of transport, energy, waste, and our consumption on the environment. New Zealand research, based on a survey of 1000 people, found that the most popular sustainable actions New Zealanders are taking included recycling 92% and composting 54%. The least popular actions were transport and water use.

The government is advancing new proposals including: The creation of a waste levy to to encourage recycling; regulation including recognition of existing industry sponsored schemes; funding public recycling stations under the brand name "Love New Zealand".

The provisions for product stewardship aim to get businesses to create their own solutions to protect the environment. The public sector programme is aimed at government agencies sharing their knowledge and experience. Antarctica New Zealand reported a 24% reduction in water consumption at Scott Base and Inland Revenue reported savings of $100,000 per annum through their energy monitoring programme. The Ministry of research, Science and Technology reported a 79% reduction in their waste sent to landfill.

The Carbon Neutral Public Service programme is designed to be useful for the private and non government sectors seeking to reduce their carbon footprints.

It was a huge achievement to have calculated the carbon footprint of the core public service, equivalent to 159,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2006/07.

Six agencies have a target of carbon neutrality by 2012 and are doing well. The government is developing an online database to provide guidance on the eco-labels and eco-standards that are in use in New Zealand.

An important part of sustainability includes managing our water resource.

The proportion of the population receiving drinking water that complies with guidelines has increased significantly, and pollution from point source discharges has decreased due to improved management.

The National Environmental Standard for Sources of Human Drinking Water has just come into force, and will contribute to keeping pollution out of our water supplies, rather than just relying on treatment at a later stage.

In the Exclusive Economic Zone, the EEZ, will encourage investment in sustainable offshore activities. rw

Australia: Fears for Penguin Colony

A penquin colony living in St Kilda will not get increased protection from the contaminants that will be disturbed this week by the channel deepening project, which includes a removal of the riverbed including an underground sewer owned by Melbourne Water.

With dredging in the contaminated parts of the Yarra River to begin, the environment group Earthcare at St Kilda has stepped-up calls for the Port of Melbourne and the Government to increase monitoring of the penguins.

Earthcare said that the sediments contain lead, mercury and DD. Planning Minister Madden recommended the St Kilda penguins be given extra protection. A Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman said a monitoring program on penguins at Phillip Island was deemed sufficient, they will be monitored by weight, and other studies of the primary source of food for the penguins and that research showed that the St Kilda colony would not be adversely affected by dredging. rw

Australia: Lighten the Load on the Planet

The environment is the top topic for one in three Australians and represent the most challenging streams of discussion at this weekend's 2020 Summit. Of the nearly 10,000 submissions more than 1300 touch on the topics covered by the sustainability stream.

Many of the background notes focus on cities and urban design. Growth in single person households is increasing demand for power and water. The suburbs keep expanding new demands for fuel and new exhaust emissions. The triumph of the McMansions are raising our cities' energy demands.

Discussion of cities and talk about population go hand in hand. Our population has grown at 1.3% a year during the past 10 years, with Queensland and Western Australia growing much more rapidly.

Climate and water appear to be the core sustainability issues for 2020. The environment is viewed as the most important issue facing Australia now and in five years.

Australians believe the environment, the economy and then water are the three most important issues facing the country.

Drought and the water restrictions apply to almost 80% of Australian homes and have changed our attitudes to sustainability.

Rainfall has decreased around all big population centres. Sixteen of the past 18 years in Australia have been warmer than the long-term average.

Australians produce more carbon per capita than other Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries, with the exception of the US and Luxembourg. The Government's top adviser on climate change has warned of the price impact of an emissions trading scheme. What is required to increase clean energy production, increase energy efficiency and better manage demand? How do we encourage households to be involved in reducing emissions and waste? rw

Australia: State of Environment Report Highlights Challenges Ahead

A new report says that the potential impacts of climate change on Queensland's natural environment presents challenges for the biodiversity, lifestyle and economy.

The State Government has implemented several key policies to address these challenges.

But the environment is under increasing pressure from a rapidly growing population that is consuming more land, energy and water, generating more waste and impacting on the systems that support life.

Among the key findings are, the ecological footprint for the average Queenslander is nearly three and a half times higher than the world average; the state's average temperature increased by one degree Celsius between 1910 and 2006; in the five years to March 2007, nearly all of Queensland received below average or well below average rainfall; Queensland's air has become cleaner; cattle and sheep graze approximately 85% of the state's land; while crops account for only about 2%; fresh water habitats are under increasing pressure from drought, floods, climate change and Queensland's burgeoning population; agriculture is the major user of surface water using 67% of the total water; the Queensland Government bore capping program has saved 130,000 megalitres of water each year, the loss of remnant vegetation hasn't changed significantly since 2003; trawl fishers trailing by catch reduction devices have reported reductions greater than 20% in the eastern king prawn, tiger prawn and scallop fisheries; almost half the flora and fauna species living in Queensland aren't found anywhere else in the world; there are more native plants and animals living in Queensland than any other state of Australia; there has been a reduction in the number of presumed extinct flora species; there was a 26% decline from 1997 to 2005 in the koala population due to urban expansion; pest animals cost Queensland $110 million a year by preying on livestock, causing crop losses, competing for pasture and spreading disease; invasive weeds cost Queensland an estimated $600 million a year in lost primary production and control; public transport patronage in south-east Queensland increased by 9% in 2004-05 and 11% in 2005-06 and in 2004-05; Queenslanders generated 314 kg of domestic waste per capita, with only about 50 kg per capita recycled.

The Queensland Government had introduced initiatives to meet the challenge of climate change and to build resilience into the environment to cope with the range of activities associated with human habitation.

An important component is monitoring the state of the environment so that any deterioration can be rectified. rw

Australia: Climate Change Likely to Dominate Debates

This climate scenario is likely to hit Australia before the globe warms by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees.

It's 2012. Energy costs have skyrocketed in the two years since businesses were forced to buy permits to emit greenhouse gas.

The poor pay about $600 extra a year for electricity, so goods are more expensive, especially food and transport. Water costs more as we develop ways, to increase its supply.

This is the picture former Victorian deputy premier John Thwaites will paint at the environment session at Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit. "There needs to be some support that assists with higher energy and water bills. But the primary goal has to be to get them to reduce emissions through energy efficiency and housing being upgraded."

The climate debate it is likely to feature in half the summit sessions, including health, rural Australia and the economy.

The full title of the environment session is ambitious � Population, Sustainability, Climate Change, Water and the Future of our Cities.

What impact will climate change have on our water supplies? Projections suggest that water demand will exceed sustainable supply by 2025.

There are also important issues including better planning for the predicted increase in extreme weather events. It is likely to require a program encouraging more volunteers and better preparing households. rw

6 States Aiming to Reduce Dead Zone

Six states that feed water to the Mississippi agreed to experiment to reduce nutrients that cause a "dead zone" that can be 10 to 120 feet deep along the coast of Louisiana and Texas and is bigger than the state of Massachusetts. This occurs when nutrient-rich freshwater forms a layer over saltier Gulf of Mexico water in the spring and summer, causing huge blooms of algae that use up oxygen as they decompose. Shrimp, crabs and fish avoid the low-oxygen water, and bottom-dwelling organisms are killed. Oxygen returns after tropical storms or frontal systems mix the layers. The nutrients are fertilizer and sewage from the 42 states and parts of Canada that drain into the Mississippi. 7% come from Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas, the states represented at the first meeting, in New Orleans, of the Committee on Hypoxia. An official said a federal-state plan to reduce nutrients is 18 months behind schedule. A plan adopted in 2000 called for reducing the dead zone to 2,000 square miles by 2015 by cutting nitrogen entering the river by 30%. Researchers have focused on determining the areas responsible, and how to reduce them. The projects would be similar to one in Louisiana in which farmers are told how best to manage nitrogen use, and provided with detailed instruction. rw

Australia: Biofuel Bill Should Not Proceed

Australian population grew 1.5% for the year ending September 2007. The increase saw Australia's population rise to 21,097,000. People grasp the argument that the unsustainable growth in population numbers is degrading our planet and that Australia must begin to think of itself as a country with a population problem. The human population on the Earth cannot continue to grow without destroying our life-support systems. The Australian economy is inter-linked with the global economy. We export to many other countries. It is by no means certain that controlling the Australian population will preserve our environment.

We can feed 25 million people without damage to our resources. All population growth, or even stationary population, does something to change the environment. If Australia is to turn its back on the achievements and arts of civilisation, we have much to lose. The shutting of the immigration gates would prevent enrichment of our society. Population increases from immigration should be limited to maintain stability. A large immigration from countries with different cultural backgrounds would risk divisiveness as seen in other countries.

The cost of housing is soaring and rents are predicted to rise by 50% in the next four years largely due to the large number of migrants coming to Australia. There are water restrictions on many of our major cities and our rivers are running dry, but still we keep the immigrants pouring in. If we are to meet our green house gas commitments we cannot keep on growing our population. rw

Australian One Stop Sex Shop

Gold Coast Family Planning has called for a one-stop sex advice clinic where teenagers can get all the information. Youth services on the Gold Coast were lacking and there was concern about the fundamentalist church groups which spread messages of sexual abstinence.

Evidence shows that young people who know how to make choices are more likely to have sex in a safe way. While it may be ideal that you only have sex when you are married, but it's not a one size fits all situation. The ideal might initially stop young people having sex, but when they do become sexually active, they tend to have more sexual partners, and they are less likely to practice safe sex. There is need for a youth-friendly clinic, a one-stop shop where young people can get information about sexual and reproductive health, diet, body image, lifestyle and skin. In 2006, 262 Gold Coast women aged between 15 and 19 were mothers. Family Planning 's office has two full-time and two part-time staff to cater for the sex education needs of 61,000 under-20-year-olds. About 50% of unplanned pregnancies involved women under 25. rw

Australia: Population Soaring Across Country

Australia's population is racing ahead with growth of 1.5%, or a record 315,700 extra people, during 2006-07.

Growth is across all Australia except for parts of western NSW and western Queensland.

Growth is slightly stronger on the edges of capital cities, in the inner cities, and in seachange areas, particularly along the east coast.

The overall growth rate of 1.53% was up from 1.48% the previous year.

In terms of raw numbers, the extra 316,000 people in 2006-07 represents the biggest increase ever.

A breakdown of the growth shows there were 10,000 extra births (273,000, up from 263,000) and 31,000 extra people gained through migration (178,000, up from 147,000), there were also 1000 more deaths (135,000, up from 134,000).

Migration is high because of the skills shortage and the need to fill jobs to keep the mining boom going.

The Gold Coast and Brisbane remained the fastest-growing areas, with an extra 17,000 and an extra 16,000 people respectively, Brisbane local government area's population now exceeds a million.

After these, the big growth areas were on the edge of major cities, with Wanneroo, on the northern outskirts of Perth, and then Wyndham and Casey, on the outskirts of Melbourne, being fastest-growing.

Another high-growth group were the Tweed-Byron area of northern NSW and the "surf coast" area of Victoria around Torquay among the boom areas.

The population of Melbourne grew by an extra 62,000 people, while Sydney grew by only 51,000, well up on the 36,000 recorded previously.

Moree and Narrabri in NSW and Banana and Duaringa in Queensland had the biggest losses, but they amounted to a few hundred people.

In Tasmania, population growth of 0.7% was concentrated around Hobart, with Brighton, Sorrell and Latrobe being the fastest-growing municipalities.

South Australia's total growth of 16,000 was the highest recorded since 1974-75, with the inner city of Adelaide recording the fastest population growth in the state. rw

Abortion as Uncommon as it was in Grandma's Day

Young Australian women are as unlikely to have an abortion as their grandmothers. Researchers credit increasing condom use and the nation's enthusiasm for having children. Less than 5% of women born in the 1980s have had an abortion, a drop from 14% 10 years ago.

The study involves about 4,500 women of all ages whose reproductive history was mapped over their lifetime.

Women born before 1945 had below 5%, but this increased rapidly with the legalization of abortion, the sexual revolution and the pill.

We've seen is a dramatic downturn for the latest group born between 1976 and 1990.

These women were past the 20 to 25 peak when women were most likely to abort.

The findings were linked to changing attitudes to safe sex.

Probably more significantly, the occurrence of HIV and AIDS has vastly increased condom use. The drop could be linked to the recent rise in the birth rate, seen mostly among older women. rw

Australia: What Kind of Future Will Our Kids Inherit?

Respondents to the Sunshine Coast Daily's recent survey expressed concern about the rate of growth and the impact on their quality of life.

A study pointing out the appropriate population distribution for Australia, including impacts of climate change and peak oil, must now become a priority.

There is no escaping the limits of the world's resources. The laws of physics trump the laws of economics every time.

Global demands on natural systems exceeded their sustainable yield by an estimated 25%.

With some exceptions, policy makers have allowed sustainability to be an environmental issue away economic development.

Yet we have drawn upon the Earth's non-renewable resources as if they were limitless, and create an economy that demands cheap energy to sustain the movement of food and goods and water and people in ever greater numbers.

Queensland government Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Andrew McNamara called for the building of a new economy powered by renewable energy, backed by a transport system, and that uses and re-uses everything.

And he warned of the dangers of exponential population growth. "The rampaging monster loose upon the land is over-population. In its presence, sustainability is but a fragile theoretical construct."

Let's throw away the notion that Australia is an empty space waiting to be filled up. Our rivers, our soils, our vegetation won't allow that to happen without an enormous cost to those who come after us.

The conservation of soil, forests, stream flows and natural biological is one of the most important and urgent tasks which faces us today. rw

How the U.S. is Becoming a 3rd World Country - Part 2

The United States is quickly coming to resemble a post industrial neo-3rd-world country, likely by 2032.

High unemployment, lack of economic opportunity, low wages, widespread poverty, extreme concentration of wealth, unsustainable government debt, control of the government by international banks and multinational corporations, weak rule of law and counterproductive policies are defining characteristics of 3rd world countries. Other factors include poor public health, nutrition and education, as well as lack of infrastructure—factors that deteriorate rapidly in a failing economy.

In response to the economic downturn that began in 2007 and the start of the financial crisis in 2008, the U.S. federal government and the Federal Reserve resorted to a radically inflationary policy intended to save banks and to shepherd the U.S. economy through a recession. Instead, radically inflationary policies greatly increased the concentration of wealth.

Under ordinary circumstances, monetary inflation has the effect of redistributing wealth in favor of those recipients who receive newly created money first because they can spend it before it loses value. In a declining economy, however, the wealth redistribution effects of inflation are magnified.

When the Federal Reserve or the federal government supports banks and financial markets through liquidity injections, bailouts, asset purchases, quantitative easing, etc., the lion's share of financial support, i.e., newly created money, is captured by the largest financial institutions and by the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Money printing skews the distribution of money over the economy while the value of money, i.e., the purchasing power of wages and savings, is reduced.

U.S. government debt and deficit spending have markedly accelerated over the past decade. For example, The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created and the U.S. military grew to 3 million active duty and reserve personnel, not including contractors. Since 2001, the U.S. spent approximately $1 trillion on military expansion while the total cost of the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has been estimated to exceed $3.7 trillion.

As of 2012, the majority of new federal government debt will stem from interest on existing debt. Treasury bond issues totaled $2.55 trillion in 2010, roughly 2x the federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion.

The U.S. federal government's fast growing debt is $14.94 trillion, approximately 100% of GDP. Additionally, future liabilities total $66.6 trillion, including Medicare at $24.8 trillion, Social Security at $21.4 trillion, and Federal debt at $10.2 trillion.

The eventual insolvency of the U.S. federal government cannot be averted through any combination of taxes, budget cuts or realistic GDP growth. Increasing deficit spending by the federal government and debt monetization by the Federal Reserve, would devalue the U.S. dollar and potentially trigger a hyperinflationary collapse of the currency. To stave off the inevitable, interim measures might include tax increases, exchange controls, nationalization of pension funds or other measures similar to those taken in 3rd world countries.

Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), explained that the finance industry had effectively captured the U.S. government, a state of affairs typical of 3rd world countries.

Corruption, cronyism and weak rule of law are typical of 3rd world countries. The United States exhibits a clear corporate influence over elections and legislation and, arguably, relatively little law enforcement action where large, legally well-equipped corporations are concerned.

Critics have alleged that, underlying the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that triggered the financial crisis in 2008 was rampant fraud. Despite an avalanche of alleged crimes under existing federal law, no firm or individual of any significance in the financial crisis has yet been prosecuted.

More than any other aspect of America's progression towards 3rd world status, the federal government's low level of law enforcement action where "too big to fail" banks are concerned is perhaps the most insidious because it raises questions of legitimacy and of the social contract. A financial and legal system of moral hazard implies that victims face double jeopardy while they are deprived of legal recourse, i.e., those allegedly defrauded might face inflation and tax burdens stemming from preferential treatment of favored corporations or from further bailouts.

According to the Tax Policy center at the Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, 46% of American households will pay no federal income tax in 2011. The reasons include income tax exemptions for subsistence level income, dependents and nontaxable tax expenditures for senior citizens and low-income working families with children.

Assuming that big banks, multinational corporations and the wealthiest 1% of Americans remain off limits in terms of tax policy, the range of income taxed is likely to fall on what remains of the once much larger middle class: professionals, small business owners and dual income families in urban areas, etc. These are the households that have managed to stay ahead of inflation, declining real wages and falling household incomes.

Among other things, U.S. tax policies will erode capital formation within the remnants of the middle class, which is the engine of small business creation and the source of most American jobs. The eventual result will be a three-tier socioeconomic structure consisting of a super rich wealthy class, a much poorer working class and a massive, politically and financially disenfranchised underclass, similar to that of a 3rd world country.

U.S.: Obama Administration to Decide Birth Control Coverage

Earlier this year, an expert panel recommended that all forms of prescription birth control should be covered without co-pays under all new health insurance plans. The Obama administration accepted this recommendation but included an exemption for certain religious employers. That wasn't enough for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) or the Catholic Health Association (CHA). The USCCB is calling the birth control provision a violation of their religious liberty and demanding a vast expansion of the refusal clause. If they have their way, experts estimate that at least a million women across the country will not have access to this new and valuable benefit.

The proposed rule is only a draft and a final decision will be made soon. It's time that the White House heard from those of us who support contraceptive coverage for everyone. Tell President Obama that this benefit is critical to the health and well-being of all American families and that nobody should be denied this important coverage because of the "conscience" of another.

Fiji: Fund Defends Condom Use

A UNFPA representative for the Pacificsaid it was the mandate of their organisation to promote the right of everyone to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity.

Women and men have the right to plan the size of their family and family planning helps them do this.

He said when used correctly and consistently condoms could be a contraception that protects against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV.

An increase in condom usage should be encouraged to prevent unplanned pregnancies, HIV and STIs. It was something council members would reconsider in their province because of a decline in the number of children attending their schools.

There were 15 schools in the province and the number of children attending had dropped implicating the decrease in the number of births.

To increase fertility they would ban yaqona for the latter two weeks of every month as married men and women were spending too much time consuming it and going straight to sleep, and also discourage the use of condoms.

Ministry of Health Director Dr Timaima Tuiketei said the prevalence of the use of contraceptives in the Lomaiviti sub division had increased from 2004-2006 but there was no specific connection to link yaqona with family planning. rw

New Zealand: Clean and Green? Well, Yes and No

Clean and green isn't the full story, as a new report issued by the Ministry for the Environment on Thursday points out. Environment New Zealand 2007 comes a decade after the first report on the state of the environment. To be produced every five years, it is a measuring tool that will help in decision-making as New Zealand moves towards sustainability. It shows that there is no room for complacency if clean and green is going to be permanently secured. New Zealand is a long way from losing its claim to a special environmental image, and progress has been made in greater use of public transport, protection for some land and waters, better pest management, improvements to waste management and a higher level of recycling.

Since 1995 the amount of solid waste disposed of at landfills has fallen from 3.18 to 3.16 million tonnes, but converted to tonnes of waste per thousand dollars of GDP, there has been a 26% drop. The number of landfills has fallen from 327 to 60, most with better environmental controls. The report notes that part of the cause is the introduction of user charges to dispose of waste.

Greenhouse gas emissions are up 25% since 1990, partly due to a growing population and economy but the emissions represent less than 1% of the global total; New Zealand is 12th per head of population.

There has been a 39% increase in total household consumption expenditure between 1997 and 2006, compared with a population increase of around 11%. About 61% of vehicles are more than 10 years old in 2006, 4% higher than in 2001.

Poor air quality, mostly from particulates from wood and coal burned for home heating, affects 53% of New Zealanders. The expanding dairy herd went up 24% to 5.22 million cows between 1996 and 2006 and has brought a reduction in fresh water quality, affected soil health and increased some greenhouse gas emissions.

There is no room for complacency if New Zealand is to continue to profit from primary production and tourism and, more importantly to protect for future generations what has for so long been taken for granted. Staying clean and green will require effort and change. rw

New Zealand: Environment Report: Key Findings

The report, Environment New Zealand 2007, provides the basis for future action on the environment.

It confirms New Zealand has an enviable environment compared to many countries, but is facing environmental pressures and some trends are going in the wrong direction.

Consumption of goods and services by New Zealand households has grown with the "ecological footprint".

On average, New Zealanders own more older and larger cars, and we are driving them further. Use of public transport is increasing.

An increasing proportion of our energy comes from fossil fuels but it is not increasing as fast as our economy is growing. Households are the largest users of energy.

Waste management has improved through better controls on landfills. We have reduced the amount of waste we throw away, but potentially useful materials continue to be disposed of in landfills.

About 30 locations can experience poor air quality, affecting about 53% of the population. Particulates from home heating or road transport appear to be falling in the main centres. Other air pollutants appear to have improved or stabilised.

Since 1990, greenhouse gas emissions have increased, but emissions removed from the atmosphere by forestry have increased as exotic forest cover has increased, although rates of new planting are the lowest in many decades and replanting rates have tailed off.

Ozone levels have stabilised and the levels of ultraviolet radiation have dropped over recent years.

The area in dairy pasture and the national dairy herd have both increased, leading to increases in fertiliser, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Horticultural and agricultural soils are generally in poorer condition than soils under other land uses. Demand for water is increasing, particularly in drier parts of the country, where surface waters already have high levels of water allocated for use.

Water quality is poorest in rivers, streams and lakes in urban areas, followed by farmed areas. Levels of nutrients have increased in our rivers. Pollution from a single facility at a known location, have decreased.

Fishing activity has reduced as the allowable catch for some species has reduced. Fifteen percent have been overfished and are now recovering.

Bacterial levels at monitored beaches appear to be improving.

A high proportion of New Zealand's land and sea is protected for conservation purposes. The seven monitored native bird and plant species have all decreased in range since the 1970s. Many other native species remain threatened.

The key pressures on our environment are growing as our population increases, our economy grows and evolves, and our lifestyles change.

Some pressures appear to be reducing or are being avoided because of increased rates of recycling, better pest management and an increase in areas of protected land.

Some aspects of the environment appear to be getting worse over time or have been over-exploited.

Some aspects appear to be improving. rw

Report Calls for Everyone to Take Action

Achieving a sustainable New Zealand "is the responsibility of all New Zealanders," President Basil Morrison said today. Councils already have strategies to improve environmental indicators. However, reversing the downward trends cannot be solved by local government alone. Councils have to establish ongoing partnerships with central government, industry and community groups and take the lead in deciding how to balance community well-being with economic realities. The rate of consumption of goods and services by New Zealand households continues to grow as our population increases and our economy grows.

Households make a bigger impact than people realise but we can turn this around by making wise choices about what we consume, and in the case of waste, how we dispose of it.

Local Governments in New Zealand have been working to address household waste and consumption through recycling and the Packaging Accord, which aims to reduce the proportion of packaging in our total waste. rw

Australia: Unplanned Pregnancy Study Sparks Call for Safe-Sex Campaign

About 60% of Australian women who have unplanned pregnancies are using the contraceptive pill or condoms.

More than half do not worry about sexually transmitted infections. Almost a third of accidental pregnancies end in abortion.

Women's groups have called on the Government to fund national education programs on using contraception effectively.

One in 10 women is uncomfortable asking her partner to wear a condom.

Cases of sexually transmitted infections have risen from 17,000 in 2000 to 50,000 last year.

About 63% of accidental pregnancies were among those under 24. In countries with good education programs their unplanned pregnancy rate and STI rate is much lower. But there's no contraception that's 100% effective."

The pill is often ineffective if taken at the wrong time or used while women were on antibiotics. A survey of more than 2000 women found 51% have experienced an unplanned pregnancy. One in five were using more than one method of contraception when she conceived, while 17% believed they were infertile or would not get pregnant.

Of those with accidental pregnancies nearly half went on to have the baby, under a third opted for abortion.

About 80% of women who had an unplanned pregnancy had not sought emergency contraception.

Education campaigns should also focus on men's responsibilities, and on access to support for women in rural areas.

The Government will work to ensure provision of sexual health services.

60% of women with unplanned pregnancies were using contraception

21% were using more than one method of contraception

63% were under 24

10% felt uncomfortable asking man to wear condom

80% did not seek emergency contraception

17% believed they were infertile

49% went on to have the baby

31% had an abortion

18% miscarried

2% adopted out rw

Australia: Focus on Coast's Future

The Sunshine Coast is booming with new residents. The state government has decreed that growth is good. What is the Coast's carrying capacity, can growth be slowed?

Maroochy mayor Joe Natoli suggested future growth levels were already locked in and any attempt to rein in development would result in the super council being sued into oblivion.

All the candidates profess to be in favour of sustainable development but it is clear the term means different things.

Mr Green said "When you allow exponential growth without the infrastructure to support it, the cost to retrofit that infrastructure becomes astronomical. If growth is planned for infrastructure can be provided through development levies, state government contributions and the community. But if you do it later, the community ends up carrying the bag.

Mr Christesen said at the moment some candidates would be happy to see the growth patterns of the past continue and this decision about population size has really not had the level of community debate it deserves. There is a myth about growth that it brings greater prosperity but it is generally a negative financial impost and exponential growth doesn't lend itself to smart investment," he said. rw

As Australian Agriculture Adjusts To Economic, Climate Changes, Is Its Future In Jeopardy?

In the mid-90s, a two-year drought triggered more than $630 million (AUS) in federal farm support. With the current drought, spanning five growing seasons, the Australian government has spent $2.4 billion on relief measures. Some analysts are projecting a decline in that country's agricultural productivity.

Climate change is a driver in the downsizing of the farm sectors, although shrinking rural populations, global competition for commodity crop market share and perhaps most importantly, land-use issues. But there is no underestimating the impact of sustained drought which is linked to global warming. Since 2002 Annual grain harvest harvests have dropped from 37 million metric tons (MT) to less than 25 million MT

The national sheep herd has declined by 21%

Cattle have dropped from 27.7 million to 25.4 million

Milk production has fallen from 1.4 billion liters to 9.23 billion liters

Wool production has dropped from 645,000 MT to less than 438,000 MT

The decline has been dramatic when coupled with a surge in the financial fortunes of much of Australia's interior and western regions due to China's demand for coal and metals. Some are projecting that farming would become a mere afterthought in the 21st century.

On the measures of population and national income, farming matters less to Australia's make-up today than truck driving. It's hard to argue with the numbers. More than 50,000 ag-related jobs have been lost in the last decade and the total workforce of 360,000 people in ag, forestry and fishing sectors is now less than 3.5% of the nation's workforce from more than 5.2% in 1997.

Prime Minister Rudd was cautioning that big challenges lay ahead for the Australian farm economy.

Adapting to climate change is about tackling a major economic and agricultural reform necessary to underpin the future of Australia's food supply.

Drought is crippling our regional and rural communities, crops are failing. Feed-grain and water prices are rising. Farm debt is higher than at any other point in history and there are warnings about the impact of declining food exports and rising food prices on the Australian and global economies.

It is clear that agriculture was not at the top of the new government's "To-Do" list. Among Labor's top priorities were educational reform, action on climate change, new measures for national security, economic reforms in non-farm sectors to benefit workers and new national health-care reforms.

Even the climate change initiatives centered mostly on funding “green" power sources, implementing “clean coal" technology and increasing the country's investment in solar power generation.

Typical of the lobbying was the Victoria Farmers Federation, which called for “continued development of the Australian farm industry" and demanded increased spending to fund a review of the nation's quarantine system. New climate change initiatives; and upgrading Australia's irrigation and transport.

The New South Wales Farmers Association launched an effort to secure aid for farmers in eastern and central Australia who have been forced out by drought.

A brief “state of the industry" review reveals the impact of four consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall on the country's key ag sectors. The 2008 forecast is 5.9 million MT, down from 8.3 million MT in 2002. Australian feed and malting barley prices are forecast to remain high as a result of EU deficiencies and increased world demand.

» Grain production has dropped the 2008 sorghum forecast is 1.92 million MT, versus 2.12 MT in 2002, and the 2008 oats forecast is 10.3 million MT, versus 14.32 million MT in 2002.

Wheat estimates are for 15.5 million MT. Growers who find themselves with positions above what they will eventually deliver are exiting, which in turn is pushing prices up further.

The outlook Australian lamb industry remains reliant on an improvement in seasonal conditions. The drought has had a significant impact on the nation's sheep flock, with sheep slaughterings increasing by 12% in 2006 and 2007. Lamb numbers are down by 9%.

Dry seasons have caused reluctance among growers to sow canola.

The federal government has pledged more than $714 million (AUS) to help stricken farmers.

More than a century ago, Australia's Surveyor General, drew a line across the map dividing the country's southern region into farming lands, or grazing lands. But climate change, some say, has shifted the line south, and the region where much of the country's produce, wine grapes and cereal crops are now produced may no longer have a future in farming.

More than 40% of the farmers in South Australia receive government assistance. Many rural towns and regions have lost as much as 90% of their former farm populations.

For many farm families, seeking greener pastures has meant moving away to take jobs in cities and the mining industries farther north. rw

Population and Development Curriculum Kit: a Resource Kit for Secondary School Students and Teachers

The Population and Development Curriculum Kit is for secondary school students and teachers to learn about issues of population, development, the environment and gender equity. The Australian Reproductive Health Alliance (ARHA) is an NGO whose major function is to monitor the Australian Gov's response to the Cairo Plan of Action,. The core of ARHA's mission is to promote support for enhancement of the status of women and reproductive health rights. ARHA is also committed to provide education on issues related to sustainable development, population and the environment. ARHA has run youth conferences that are seminars which involve groups of students from several schools. Topics discussed include sustainable development, global population, HIV/AIDS, reproductive rights, gender equity and the environment. This is intended to complement youth conferences by providing ideas and resources for teachers and students. Website amd other contacts have been provided so people using the kit can continue to update the information. rw

Australians Concerned with Population

Mr. Beattie said Australia's ageing population of 21 million was too small to meet future needs. The credentials of the Queensland government to make any statement on this issue are very poor. It has failed to plan for the large numbers of Australians attracted to SE Queensland when climate change data suggested that they could not be sustained. In South Australia there are targets for a large increase in population in the face of continuing water shortage. Governments worry about the increasing numbers of elderly Australians and reason that we need more young people to pay for them. How naive, population growth in perpetuity!

No-one likes to talk about it, but population is the common denominator of climate change. Climate change cannot be arrested with an expanding population. 2 billion airline journeys each year are the fastest increasing cause of green house emissions, but the world's population creates 4 times as much carbon dioxide each year as the airlines. Add energy usage and consumption and even if the world managed to achieve a 52% cut in its 1990 emission levels it would be cancelled out by population growth. The most effective global climate change strategy is to limit the size of the population.

Now Mr. Beattie wants skilled immigrants. We support necessary immigration of refugees but not immigration that purloins skilled workers from developing countries.

Procreation is a sensitive issue. This is why it's not on the climate change agenda. But liberty is a matter of degree and in this crisis there is no right to a liberty that affects the future of the entire community. Perhaps the ultimate deterrent to procreation is whether you want to create offspring to compete for space when everywhere else is uninhabitable. rw

Australia: It's Hard Being Green and Lean

Saving the planet is not cheap. It's easy to spend thousands of dollars minimising your carbon footprint giving you the warm feeling that you are doing the right thing.

The average household won't have trouble insulating their homes, and switching to renewable energy sources. But people on low incomes can't take advantage of government grants, because the capital expenditure is still beyond their capacity.

Upgrading to more energy-efficient appliances presents the same problem. Low-income households can't afford to change to more energy-efficient vehicles. Access to public transport is also a problem.

In the outer suburbs of Melbourne, 90% of the population is not within walking distance of public transport after 7 on any night of the week. Australian cities are organised so the poorest live in the outer suburbs, where public transport is also the poorest.

Wealthier people could afford to live in the inner suburbs which were close to work and serviced by good public transport.

Modelling showed that if carbon is priced at $50 a tonne, then that will cost poor households an extra $1316 a year to carry out the same level of spending. In contrast, the expenditure of high-income households will only increase by 0.7% by paying an extra $2891 a year.

Low-income households have smaller carbon footprints than high income households, but carbon prices will cost poorer people proportionately more and increase the pool of disadvantaged people.

15% of Australian families are living under the poverty line, (of about $512 a week income for 2 adults and 2 children). It was argued that a national fund is required to assist low-income and other disadvantaged people to manage climate change and policy responses to it.

Community service providers were trained to identify people who use more energy and water, due to a lack of awareness, then shown simple ways to help reduce their energy and water bills.

The Phoenix Fridges project involves collecting inefficient fridges, repairing them to improve energy efficiency, then reselling them at affordable prices to people on low incomes.

Many of the rebate schemes aren't available to people who rent. We need to find ways to support this group. rw

New Zealand Battles Climate Change Threat to Trade, Tourism

New Zealand ,with a population of only 4.1 million and few industrial smokestacks, is facing accusations that its food and tourism industries are helping destroy the environment.

Dragging our feet on climate change would pose an economic risk to New Zealand, devastating to our reputation.

The impact of greenhouse gases from transport, especially aviation, means New Zealand's environmental credentials are coming under new scrutiny.

Environmentally-conscious tourists are being asked if they can justify flying 20,000 kilometres for a holiday on the opposite side of the world.

They are also being asked why they are eating lamb, beef and butter from New Zealand when they could be buying from local farmers.

Tourism is New Zealand's single largest export, providing one in 10 jobs and 8.9% of GDP.

Of New Zealand's 2.42 million visitors last year, 54% were from Europe, the Americas and Asia. Aircraft emissions account for around 3% of global emissions, but have increased 87% since 1990.

Tourism New Zealand said there has been no impact on long haul visitor arrivals that we can attribute to concerns over sustainability. But it is a situation we are watching closely.

A former British cabinet minister claimed that a kilogram of kiwi fruit airfreighted from New Zealand to Europe caused five kilograms of carbon to be released. The New Zealand government said that kiwifruit is always transported by ship. Of New Zealand's exports in the year to June totalling 33.4 billion dollars, the US accounted for 4.5 billion and the EU 5.2 billion. Dairy products account for 21% of New Zealand's exports and meat 13.2%. Critics in Britain and Germany in particular have been saying it is irresponsible to import food and drinks from the other side of the world.

Trade minister Phil Goff said foreign consumers would realise the flaws of the argument and focus instead on the total carbon footprint of foods.

British dairy farmers produce 31% more greenhouse gases than their counterparts in New Zealand, including the impact of transport.

New Zealand's climate means cattle eat grass all year round. Those running the food miles campaigns often represent producers which have a far greater greenhouse gas footprint than do the products they are complaining about from New Zealand. New Zealand will gradually introduce an emissions trading scheme.

The tourism industry has a new strategy focussed on environmental sustainability. Air New Zealand announced it would trial bio-fuel in association with engine maker Rolls Royce and Boeing. rw

Australia;: Condom Alarm for Under-aged Teenagers

Hundreds of school students have received free condoms as part of a new texting service. Students who send an SMS to the number will receive two free condoms in a plain envelope. News Limited says children as young as 12 could access the condoms because the age is not needed on the SMS offer.

The promoter Marie Stopes International health organisation admits there's no age limit. But the company's chief executive says providing free condoms is not alarming because under-age teenagers can already get them at health centres. Angry parents say it encourages under-age sex.

After a week the company says it's received 400 messages adding it aims to reduce sexually transmitted infections.

The Australian Family Association says the promotion encourages children to have sex.

Parents say teenagers should be talking to and getting advice from their parents. rw

New Zealand: David Parker : Developing Sustainable Societies

Although New Zealand has a reputation for pristine wilderness areas, we know that we are going to have to work hard to keep our waterways and skies clean. The New Zealand government has placed sustainability high on the political agenda and is implementing a long term sustainable strategies for economy, society, environment, culture and way of life.

Residential areas are becoming more densely developed with less private open space. High quality land information ensures confidence and certainty in a property rights system.

We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and one way that we can do this is by moving to clean, renewable sources of energy. Wind farms offer a clean source of energy but there is need for accurate definition of property rights. After building the turbines for a wind farm, the remainder of the land can continue to be used for agricultural purposes. But there will be a need for rights of access to the turbines. New rural and urban land developments need to address land use, public and private property rights and the environmental challenges. New Zealand is a world leader in using technology in survey systems. The move to 100 percent electronic surveys is a first for any country in the world. New Zealand-trained survey students are held in high esteem overseas. rw

Indonesia Says More Money Needed to Stop Deforestation

The Federal Government has nominated climate change as a top focus of the APEC summit. But one of the key climate change initiatives is under fire from the very country which benefits from it, Indonesia.

Indonesia is accused of being the world's third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases because of the fires across its deforested peat lands.

Jakarta regularly makes it into the top 10 lists of the world's most polluted cities. The annual fires in Kalimantan's deforested peat lands are to blame for that.

Indonesia's greenhouse gas emissions are behind only the US and China because of the tracts of deforested land where carbon-rich peat decays and catches fire every year.

It is a problem in search of a solution and Indonesia welcomed Australia's $200 million initiative which is aimed fighting climate change by preserving the world's forests.

$10 million of that money was committed to developing forest protection projects in Indonesia.

But Indonesia's Environment Minister, is questioning what in reality the scheme can achieve.

$200 million divided into so many areas over five years does not give a lot of forest aid and he would like Australia to contribute more.

Programs like the Australian initiative are challenged by the reality that the forests are worth more dead than alive. Timber and palm oil profits are greater and easier to grasp than sustainability.

With Indonesia's population of 230 million expected to grow by another 100 million in the next 30 years, Indonesia needs good reasons not to clear land. And local people need economic reasons to keep the forests standing.

Why is Australia not bold to get the technology of Australia transferred to the developing country? Indonesia wants access to the world's multi-billion dollar carbon credit market not just by planting trees but by keeping them. rw

Income Inequality Pushes U.S. Down in Well-Being Ranking

The United Nations latest Human Development Index shows the gross domestic product isn't necessarily the be-all and end-all measurement of economic health. In addition to income, the Index looks at measures of health and education. In 1980, the U.S. was number one in the income ranking.

Today, the U.S. is number 4 for well-being behind Norway, Australia, and New Zealand. What has changed is that, for the first time, the rankings were also filtered for inequality, gaps between rich and poor. Consequently the overall Human Development Index fell by about 11%, which is quite significant, dropping the U.S. from 4th to 13th in the world. , Tamara Draut, who tracks U.S. income inequality and says "The middle class has lost ground and lower income households have just been clobbered. That is the story of the last couple of decades."

America's record on education, on the other hand, has helped its ranking on the Index.

Philippines;: Manila Promotes Natural Family Planning

The government of the Philippines has decided to follow the Catholic Church and promote natural family planning (NFP) methods. The plan is part of the Family Planning Month launched by the Commission on Population. Its objectives are promoting responsible parenting in couples and encouraging men to be responsible partners. The Commission wants to educate at least 4.2 million couples nationwide between 2007 and 2010. Responsible parenting classes are expected to mobilise a critical mass of parents. Rural barangay (village) health workers will recruit married couples to join responsible parenting classes.

The regional director of the Commission said that whilst people are familiar with the use of condoms, vasectomy and tubal ligation, they are not much aware of natural family planning methods.

For years the Filipino government has tried to reduce population growth. On occasions this has led to conflict with the Catholic Church. This time state and Church are on the same side. Mgr Pedro C. Quitorio III, spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, said that the "Church welcomed" the government's effort. rw

Philippines Shifts Campaign to Natural Family Planning

The Population Commission (Popcom) has shifted to natural family planning after the US stopped the supply of contraceptives. Popcom supported by several NGO's had campaigned for scientific approaches to family planning. These contraceptives were given to us by USAID, but now purchased by the users, unless the Government will shoulder the cost. The regional office of the Commission on Population now gives emphasis on the Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods and organizing Responsible Parenting Movement (RPM) up to the barangay level.

With the shift of the campaign to natural family planning, it does not follow that they will also abandon the scientific method.

The shift was due to the fact that most of those who are adopting the family planning and reproductive health approach were coming from the poorest sectors and, with the pull out of the USAID, could not afford to buy one.

Popcom's emphasis on natural family planning methods will have the Roman Catholic Church as an ally. rw

Australia;: Whales Steer Wide Berth

Southern right whales have slowly returned to the waters off Warrnambool, where they were once hunted to the verge of extinction.

However, this year there are none, sparking fears that Santos oil and gas exploration may have caused them to avoid the area.

Santos has been conducting seismic testing off the Warrnambool coast during May and June.

Northern hemisphere research showed they avoided seismic testing activity by 25 kilometres.

The impact of noise on whales is a big unknown. There have been five sub-adult southern right whales sighted this month at Portland, 100 kilometres further west.

But Santos spokeswoman said seismic work was immediately shut down if any whales were seen nearby and there was no proof that seismic testing affected the whales.

Bowhead whales off Alaska showed strong avoidance of seismic pulses. But the Australian Petroleum Association found that seismic testing had no significant impact.

No research has been done on the impact on southern rights and the hearing range of whales varies by species. rw

Australia;: Search for Coast Site Begins

The search is for land to build Victoria's $3.1 billion desalination plant. A 20-hectare site on the Bass Coast is needed for what will be one of the world's biggest desalination plants.

The project is to boost drinking water supplies to Melbourne, Geelong, Western Port and Wonthaggi by 150 billion litres a year by 2011.

Obstacles include environmental concerns and mounting pressure in the Bass Coast Shire.

But the plant will provide water supplies for the drought-stricken region, including Phillip Island, where storages are down to 7%.

In 2003, Bass Coast was regional Victoria's fastest-growing municipality. The permanent population of 30,000 is expected to double in 30 years.

Staff had started approaching landowners about sites. Under acquisition laws, people can be forced to sell their properties.

A letter was circulated in Wonthaggi after the proposal to pump a third of Melbourne's water from the ocean was made public.

The impact of a desalination plant on the coastal landscape could be an issue. South Gippsland Conservation Society expressed concern about the project impact. Melbourne Water's own feasibility study also highlighted water quality risks because of the plant's proximity to Wonthaggi's sewage treatment outfall, and economic risks from past coal mining activity that could restrict tunnelling and construction.

Noise and vibration would have to be managed with large buffer zones around the plant. The plan won support from the Australian Industry Group and the Property Council.

Environment in Victoria was also upbeat. "There are potential benefits from desalination. It can take pressure off our stressed rivers during drought."

But international conservation group WWF released a report condemning reliance on desalination because of its high energy use and possible risk to marine life.

The proposal includes an 85-kilometre pipeline to pump water into Melbourne's Cardinia Reservoir.

The feasibility study estimated the carbon dioxide emissions from the plant would be 1 million tonnes a year if it was powered by coal, but the Government promised to add 90 megawatts of renewable energy to Victoria's grid equal to the plant's power needs. rw

Australia;: Our Pollution Shame

Per capita emissions in Australia in 2004 were 4.5 times the global average and just below the US.

Carbon dioxide emissions are the main driver of climate change and have accelerated at faster than expected. Nearly eight billion tonnes were emitted globally in 2005, against six billion tonnes in 1995.

Whales, dolphins and porpoises are threatened by rising sea temperatures. The loss of icy polar habitats and the decline of krill populations have become critical.

Fossil fuel use had become less efficient and the problem was exacerbated by increasing population.

The US and Europe accounted for more than 50% of total accumulated global emissions for 200 years. In the past 25 years, the average growth rate of Australian emissions was about twice that of the US and Japan and five times that of Europe.

Australia was determined to meet Kyoto targets, even though the nation had not signed up to the agreement.

The Government would soon start a $4.1 million advertising campaign promoting energy efficiency.

Monash Sustainability Institute interim director said the response to climate change here and overseas was arrogant, and "there is no sign that the world is turning around the growth of carbon dioxide emissions". rw

Warning as Sex-Related Disease Cases Rise Sharply

The number of people suffering from gonorrhoea has risen sharply, particularly among the young. Antibiotic-resistant cases are increasing in Auckland as the disease charts a steady increase in New Zealand.

A third of 204 gonorrhoea cases were resistant to treatment with ciprofloxacin.

New Zealand has high rates of the disease compared with other developed countries, with a steady increase over the last five years.

In Auckland, the rate was 45 cases per 100,000 people in the first quarter of 2006, compared to around 27 cases over the same period in 2001.

In the Bay of Plenty, incidence rates over the same period have risen from 14 to 38 per 100,000.

Roughly one person in every 1000 aged 20 to 24 in Auckland had the disease in the first quarter of 2006, with 53% of infections occurring in people 15 to 24.

The incidence rate of ciprofloxacin-resistant gonorrhoea 33% was higher than lab results for Auckland 19%, which was attributed to the Auckland sexual health clinics serving a "high-risk population".

The rate of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhoea was hovering around 3% in the 1990s until an outbreak in South Auckland in 2001 raised the prevalence to over 10%.

Of patients diagnosed with the disease between September 2003 and March 2004, 50% were in patients under 25. Patients of Maori and Pacific ethnicity made up nearly half of all cases. 80% were heterosexual. 58% never used condoms.

The increase in ciprofloxacin resistance was worrying, as the alternative, ceftriaxone, was difficult to access in primary care.

50% of the cases were in people over 26. People should condoms or have regular checks when changing partners. rw

U.S. Tells California to Cut Water Use to Save Fish

Salmon and other fish have been pushed to the brink of extinction by Californians' demand for water, ruled the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency. Officials were ordered to cut water supplies by 5-7% to cities and farms.

To turn southern desert into productive farmland, a monumental system of dams and pipelines were built, leaving less water for trout, salmon, sturgeon and other fish.

With the state in its third year of drought, and climate change and a growing population, the fate of some salmon runs looks untenable without change.

If water conservation, recycling and groundwater use do not offset the cuts, the state may be more tempted to build more dams and canals to capture the last trickles that bypass the system.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional director said the mounting restrictions on water "just cannot be offset in any given year and maybe over time." State and federal water projects this year have slashed deliveries to about 40 percent of most requests, due to drought, and agricultural losses are expected near $1 billion.

The fisheries agency plans to keep more water behind big dams during the year to ensure a supply of cold water in which salmon spawn, restrict some pumping, and find ways for fish to get to historical spawning grounds upriver from dams.

New Contraception Device Available for Women

There is a new form of contraception is a soft plastic ring that releases contraceptive hormone directly into the bloodstream.

The device is inserted internally and is 99% effective.

It contains half the dose of female hormone contained in the lowest dose contraceptive pills.

This ring needs to be inserted, left in place for 21 days then removed and reinserted seven days later. It is available in Australia by prescription only. rw

Pacific Women Outnumber Men

Pacific demographics showed there were 12% more women in the 25 to 29 years age group than there were men.

In New Zealand, of all women aged 25 to 29, there are only about 9% more than men.

The Pacific figure was possibly partly explained by the fact that young men were less likely to be counted on Census night or possibly more likely men than women travel and be away when a Census was taken.

But it would be wrong to assume the men were not recorded because they were overstayers and feared giving out such information. Younger people were more likely to not fill in Census forms. Higher male mortality rates could also be implicated.

In younger age groups there were about 5% more Pacific boys than girls and about equal numbers by 15 to 19 years.

Major differences of sex ratios were within the main Pacific ethnic groups.

In the 30-34 age group there were 11% more Samoan women than men, and 18% more Cook Islands women, there appeared to be about 5% more Tongan men than women.

Undercounts of fast-growing Pacific populations could create problems in developing social policy.

The Pacific undercount was estimated at 2.3% in the 2006 Census compared with a 1.4% undercount for Europeans.

But the undercount for Asian ethnicities was 5.2% and for Maori 3.1%.

The total Census undercount in New Zealand was about 2%, or 81,000 people.

The research also showed that Samoans continued to be the largest single Pacific ethnic group in New Zealand, but Tongans showed the strongest growth in numbers in the past five years, rising from just over 31,000 to 50,000. rw

Samoa Census Expected to Show Population Drop

A slump in growth of between two and three thousand people in Samoa is expected. The population at the 2001 census was 1,77,710. The slump was due to out-migration and the countrys low birth rate.

The 2006 census shows that many Samoans have migrated to New Zealand in the last five years under the immigration quota scheme. Others have moved to live in American Samoa with a small percentage of families moving to Australia. The low birth rate is the result of family planning. rw

Death of the Bees: GMO Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America

There are many reasons given to the decline in Bees, but one that matters most is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) and "Terminator Seeds" that are being endorsed by governments and utilized as our agricultural needs of survival.

Genetically modified seeds are produced by biotech conglomerates who manipulate government agricultural policy with a view to dominance in the agricultural industry. American conglomerates have created seeds that reproduce only under certain conditions, often linked to the use of their own brands of fertilizer and/or insecticide.

The genetic modification leads to the concurrent genetic modification of the flower pollen. When the pollen becomes genetically modified or sterile, the bees will become malnourished and die of illness due to the lack of nutrients and the interruption of the digestive capacity of what they feed on.

There are arguments that the blame be placed on mites, pesticides, or cell phone radiation, but digestive shutdown due to hard material in the digestive tract that compromises the immune system points to GMO flower pollen.

This increased epidemic of the bee colony collapse has risen significantly since the use of GMO in our foods. It is also suspect in the rise of new cases of medical ailments in humans such as colon cancer, obesity, heart disease, etc.

The Ecological Impact of horizontal gene transfer and increase of rampant disease is not fully examined and if so, is kept silent by these Conglomerates. Organic farming is relatively untouched as the bee crisis. The economic impact that the scarcity of bees will potentially have on our society is very worrisome. rw

Australia;: Facing Up to the Challenges of Urban Sustainability

Australia's cities are at the centre of its economic, life and are crucial to the country's future. Yet our cities are struggling with problems. The demand for new infrastructure, the transport and traffic congestion, managing a sustainable water supply, creeping inequity and social division and global warming are just some of the many issues.

These issues have been repeatedly highlighted as major concerns with the state of our cities, and the need for action.

The common theme is the urgent need for a national approach. We can no longer consider our major population centres as isolated entities which do not impact on each other or the nation. Competing demands for natural and human resources, the impacts of growth and our reliance on the supply of goods and services between cities highlight this fact.

The Howard Government has remained mute on the issue. It has refused to discuss repeated calls for a coordinated approach to the challenges our cities face.

The Government has committed to a national agenda in other areas, water for example, yet does not see that sustainable growth of our major urban areas should compel as much attention.

All state and territory planning ministers are now proposing a way forward, currently being considered to establish a National Action Plan for Urban Australia.

The Plan would be established through an Australia-wide intergovernmental agreement, that would involve outlining measures to tackle the environmental, social or economic issues being faced.

States and territories would receive payments in accordance with their commitment to implement the plans and could be penalised for failure to implement the measures within agreed timeframes or outcomes by the cancellation of these payments.

An independent body would be created to recommend to the Commonwealth whether payments to the states and territories should be made. The Commonwealth would establish a fund to be used to leverage commitment to action plans. States and territories would be required to contribute.

An April 2005 report identified a $25 billion backlog in infrastructure investment. Failure to deal with traffic congestion in Sydney has a cost of $11 billion.

A report concluded that a "a substantial dividend" would result from improving sustainability in major urban areas".

It is time for consideration of a national agenda for our urban areas, with the Commonwealth taking a significant role. rw