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Last Updated : September 27, 2006         http://www.geocities.com/eelam1917/                                                 

Bush Administration Accused of Silencing its own Climate Scientists
As revealed towards the end of January 2006, NASA’s top climate scientist says NASA and the Bush Administration have tried to silence him.

While NASA said this was standard procedure to ensure an orderly flow of information, the scientist, Dr. James Hansen disagreed, saying that such procedures had already prevented the public from fully grasping recent findings about climate change that point to risks ahead.

Dr. Hansen, according to the New York Times reporting this, noted that these were “fresh efforts” to silence him because he had said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth “a different planet.” (By contrast, the Bush administration’s policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions.) 

Furthermore, “After that speech and the release of data by Dr. Hansen on Dec. 15 showing that 2005 was probably the warmest year in at least a century, officials at the headquarters of the space agency repeatedly phoned public affairs officers, who relayed the warning to Dr. Hansen that there would be ‘dire consequences’ if such statements continued, those officers and Dr. Hansen said in interviews.”

Earlier, in 2004, Dr. Hansen fell out of favor with the Bush Administration for publicly stating before the presidential elections that government scientists were being muzzled and that he planned to vote for John Kerry.

The New York Times also notes that this echoes other recent disputes, whereby “many scientists who routinely took calls from reporters five years ago can now do so only if the interview is approved by administration officials in Washington, and then only if a public affairs officer is present or on the phone.”

Furthermore, “Where scientists’ points of view on climate policy align with those of the administration, however, there are few signs of restrictions on extracurricular lectures or writing.”

And in terms of media manipulation, the Times also revealed that at least one interview (amongst many others) was cancelled because it was with NPR, which the public affairs official responsible felt was “the most liberal” media outlet in the country. This implies a political bias/propaganda in terms of how information is released to the public, which should be of serious concern.

At the beginning of June, 2006, the BBC Panorama documentary followed up on this and found that many scientists felt they were being censored and that various reports had been systematically suppressed, even altered. In one case, a major climate assessment report was due out a month before the 2004 presedential elections, but was delayed because it had such a bleak assessment, and the Bush administration did not want it to be part of the election issues. It was released shortly after the elections were over.

Panorama also interviewed a pollster who had advised the Bush Administration when they came into power in 2000 to question global warming, that humans caused it if it existed at all, to hire skeptical scientists, and play down its impacts. (The advisor has now distanced himself away from the Bush Administration’s stance today because he felt the science was more certain than it was in 2000.)

Just weeks before hurrican Katrina devastated parts of Sourthern United States, Panorama reported that “Another scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) … had research which established global warming could increase the intensity of hurricanes. He was due to give an interview about his work but claims he was gagged.” After Katrina, the “NOAA website said unusual hurricane activity is not related to global warming.” When a leading scientist was asked why NOAA came out with such a statement, he suggested it was ideologically driven.

(The BBC Panorama documentary is called Climate chaos: Bush’s climate of fear and as well as a summary, you can watch the actual documentary online.)

Despite attempts to discredit global warming concerns, the Bush Administration has now conceded that there is climate change and that humans are contributing to it, but Panorama reports that a lot of vital time has been lost, and that some scientists fear US policy may be too slow to carry out.

'Millions more starving' by 2015 
By Ania Lichtarowicz 
BBC News, St Louis, Missouri 

For instance, east Kenya last year faced a famine. In the west of the country there was an excess of corn, but this was shipped to Europe because neither the means nor the money was available to get the corn to those starving in the east. 

Parts of Kenya are facing severe food shortages 
The world will have 100 million extra hungry people by 2015, scientists say. 
They were speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). 

Despite great improvements in food availability in the 1960s and 1970s, these trends are reversing in many developing countries, they say. 

The United Nations' goal of halving hunger by 2015 looks unattainable without new technologies and greater financial investment, they add. 

Ten pre-school children die every minute from malnutrition and this number has not changed since the early 1980s despite global promises. 

Professor Per Pinstrup-Anderson, from Cornell University in New York, says that improving agriculture is the key. 

"When you put money in the hands of farmers that money is spent on creating employment and reducing poverty elsewhere," he said. 

"We have found in our research that for every dollar you invest in agricultural research you generate about $6 of additional income among the farmers and about $15 of additional economic growth in the society as a whole. Much of that will help poor people in those countries." 

More commitment needed 

There is some good news though. 

China and Vietnam have considerably increased food availability and cut the number of people who do not get enough food. 

But this has only been achieved by improving infrastructure and using technology including GM crops to increase yields - which is missing in many other countries. 

For instance, east Kenya last year faced a famine. In the west of the country there was an excess of corn, but this was shipped to Europe because neither the means nor the money was available to get the corn to those starving in the east. 

Scientists at the AAAS meeting in St Louis, Missouri, say situations like this will continue to occur unless governments in developing countries increase their commitments to ending poverty and hunger. 

US pollution cuts could save 17,000 lives a year

NewScientist.com news service 22:17 11 March 2005 Maggie McKee 

Coal-burning power plants in 28 US states will be forced to reduce their emissions of smog and soot to comply with a new Environmental Protection Agency rule enacted on Thursday. 

The rule comes just a day after a congressional committee reached an impasse over President George W Bush's controversial "Clear Skies" initiative.

The new Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) will reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide - which causes acid rain - and nitrogen oxides - which create smog - in 28 eastern and central states in two phases. By 2015, sulfur dioxide should be cut by 73% of 2003 levels and nitrogen oxides by 61%.

Both pollutants contribute to soot, which leads to lung-related illnesses. And the smog, or ground-level ozone, caused by nitrogen oxides has been linked to increased death rates. The cuts are predicted to prevent 17,000 premature deaths and 700,000 lung-related illnesses every year.

"CAIR will result in the largest pollution reductions and health benefits of any air rule in more than a decade," said Steve Johnson, acting chief of the EPA. "The action we are taking will require all 28 states to be good neighbours, helping states downwind by controlling airborne emissions at their source."

Pollution credits
The rule focuses on the eastern US because many of the states there have been unable to meet Clean Air Act standards due to power plant emissions from nearby states. About 160 million people in 32 states live in regions with smog and soot at levels considered dangerous to health.

Power plants can choose from several options to comply with the new rule. They may change to cleaner burning fuels, install equipment to filter out the pollutants, or buy pollution "credits" from plants that emit less than their allotted pollution quotas. 

American Electric Power, the country's largest electricity generator, is spending $3.5 billion to meet the first phase of the cuts by 2010. They will install "retrofitting" equipment on about 20 plants in the affected states to siphon off the pollutants.

"It is a large expense, but we're committed to being able to continue to use coal as a generating source," spokesperson Melissa McHenry told New Scientist. Some costs will be passed on to consumers in their monthly utility bills, she said, and may be about $2.

The rule, which was originally proposed in January 2004, has been praised by environmental groups. These groups have tended to oppose the competing "Clear Skies" legislation, which the Bush administration originally proposed in 2002. 

A US Senate committee on Wednesday became deadlocked discussing that initiative, which was re-introduced in December 2004. Opponents claimed it weakened the Clean Air Act and worried it would not include carbon dioxide in regulations. The EPA is expected to release a new rule regulating mercury in power plants on 17 March.

Coal-burning power plants in 28 US states will be forced to reduce their emissions of smog and soot to comply with a new Environmental Protection Agency rule enacted on Thursday. 

The rule comes just a day after a congressional committee reached an impasse over President George W Bush's controversial "Clear Skies" initiative.

The new Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) will reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide - which causes acid rain - and nitrogen oxides - which create smog - in 28 eastern and central states in two phases. By 2015, sulfur dioxide should be cut by 73% of 2003 levels and nitrogen oxides by 61%.

Both pollutants contribute to soot, which leads to lung-related illnesses. And the smog, or ground-level ozone, caused by nitrogen oxides has been linked to increased death rates. The cuts are predicted to prevent 17,000 premature deaths and 700,000 lung-related illnesses every year.

"CAIR will result in the largest pollution reductions and health benefits of any air rule in more than a decade," said Steve Johnson, acting chief of the EPA. "The action we are taking will require all 28 states to be good neighbours, helping states downwind by controlling airborne emissions at their source."

Pollution credits
The rule focuses on the eastern US because many of the states there have been unable to meet Clean Air Act standards due to power plant emissions from nearby states. About 160 million people in 32 states live in regions with smog and soot at levels considered dangerous to health.

Power plants can choose from several options to comply with the new rule. They may change to cleaner burning fuels, install equipment to filter out the pollutants, or buy pollution "credits" from plants that emit less than their allotted pollution quotas. 

American Electric Power, the country's largest electricity generator, is spending $3.5 billion to meet the first phase of the cuts by 2010. They will install "retrofitting" equipment on about 20 plants in the affected states to siphon off the pollutants.

"It is a large expense, but we're committed to being able to continue to use coal as a generating source," spokesperson Melissa McHenry told New Scientist. Some costs will be passed on to consumers in their monthly utility bills, she said, and may be about $2.

The rule, which was originally proposed in January 2004, has been praised by environmental groups. These groups have tended to oppose the competing "Clear Skies" legislation, which the Bush administration originally proposed in 2002. 

A US Senate committee on Wednesday became deadlocked discussing that initiative, which was re-introduced in December 2004. Opponents claimed it weakened the Clean Air Act and worried it would not include carbon dioxide in regulations. The EPA is expected to release a new rule regulating mercury in power plants on 17 March.

Studies and Stats:

Poverty Facts and Stats; 

Consider the following poverty statistics

Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day. source 1 
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world's countries) is less than the wealth of the world's three richest people combined. source 2 
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. source 3 
Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. 4 
51 percent of the world's 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. source 5 
The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. source 6 
The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. source 7 
20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the worlds goods. source 8 
The top fifth of the world's people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment -- the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. source 9 
In 1960, the 20% of the world's people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% -- in 1997, 74 times as much. source 10 
An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about: 
3 to 1 in 1820 
11 to 1 in 1913 
35 to 1 in 1950 
44 to 1 in 1973 
72 to 1 in 1992 source 11 
“The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels”source 12 
The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. source 13 
A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 2.5 billion people. source 14 
“The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports.”source 15 
“The combined wealth of the world's 200 richest people hit $1 trillion in 1999; the combined incomes of the 582 million people living in the 43 least developed countries is $146 billion.”source 16 
“Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world's nations and large numbers of people.”source 17 
“Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”source 18 
“7 Million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis. 8525038 children have died since the start of the year 2000 [as of March 24, 2001].”source 19 
For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings: 
Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries. 
Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years). 
Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades. 
Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization. source 20 
“Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.”source 21 
The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.”source 22 
The world's 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity. source 23 
A mere 12 percent of the world's population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World. source 24 
Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998 Global priorities in spending in 1998 Global Priority $U.S. Billions 
Basic education for everyone in the world 6 
Cosmetics in the United States 8 
Water and sanitation for everyone in the world 9 
Ice cream in Europe 11 
Reproductive health for all women in the world 12 
Perfumes in Europe and the United States 12 
Basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world 13 
Pet foods in Europe and the United States 17 
Business entertainment in Japan 35 
Cigarettes in Europe 50 
Alcoholic drinks in Europe 105 
Narcotics drugs in the world 400 
Military spending in the world 780 
source 25 

Number of children in the world 
2.2 billion 
Number in poverty 
1 billion (every second child) 
Shelter, safe water and health 
For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3) 
400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5) 
270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7) 
Children out of education worldwide 
121 million 
Survival for children 
Worldwide,

10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy) 
1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation 
Health of children 
Worldwide,

2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized 
15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom) 
source 26 
Notes and Sources1) This figure is based on purchasing power parity (PPP), which basically suggests that prices of goods in countries tend to equate under floating exchange rates and therefore people would be able to purchase the same quantity of goods in any country for a given sum of money. That is, the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. Hence if a poor person in a poor country living on a dollar a day moved to the U.S. with no changes to their income, they would still be living on a dollar a day. In addition, see the following:

Ignacio Ramonet, The politics of hunger, Le Monde diplomatique, November 1998 
The 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference Plenary Address by James Wolfensohn, August 2000 
March recognizes the billions living on less than two dollars a day, EarthTimes.org, October 24, 2000 
The poverty lines: population living with less than 2 dollars and less than 1 dollar a day from PovertyMap.net provides two maps showing the concentration of people living on less than 1 and 2 dollars per day, around the world. 
Also note that these numbers, from the World Bank, have been questioned and criticized. 
The World Bank has been criticized for almost arbitrarily coming up with a definition of a poverty line to mean one dollar per day (of which they say there are about 1.3 billion people). That figure and how it has been chosen has been much criticized by many, as shown by University of Ottawa Professor, Michel Chossudovsky in the previous link. 
In addition, in the United States for example, the poverty threshold for a family of four has been estimated to be around eleven dollars per day. The one dollar a day definition then misses out much of humanity to understand the impacts. Even the two dollars per day that I have pointed out here, while affecting half of humanity, also misses out the numbers under three or four, or eleven dollars per day. These statistics are harder to find, and as I come across them, I will post them here! 
More fundamental than that though, for example, is a critique from Columbia University, called How not to count the poor. The report describes an ill-defined poverty line, a misleading and inaccurate measure of purchasing power equivalence, and false precision as the three main errors that may lead to “a large understatement of the extent of global income poverty and to an incorrect inference that it has declined.” (Emphasis added). This allows the World Bank to insist that the world is indeed “on the right track” in terms of poverty reduction strategy, attributing this “success” to the design and implementation of “good” or “better policies”. 
But the statistic is not lost on some of the most prominent people in the world 
The New York Times in one of their email updates, in their Quote of the Day section, for July 18, 2001 provided the following quote: “A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just, nor stable.” -- President Bush 
See also James Wolfenson, The Other Crisis, World Bank, October 1998 who said: “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.” (See also note 21 below.) 
Koffi Anan, UN Secretary General, in a speech on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, 17 October 2000, said “Almost half the world's population lives on less than two dollars a day, yet even this statistic fails to capture the humiliation, powerlessness and brutal hardship that is the daily lot of the world's poor.” 
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    Foot Notes

2) Ignacio Ramonet, The politics of hunger, Le Monde Diplomatique, November 1998
3) The State of the World's Children, 1999, UNICEF
4) State of the World, Issue 287 - Feb 1997, New Internationalist
5) Holding Transnationals Accountable, IPS, August 11, 1998
6) The Corporate Planet, Corporate Watch, 1997
7) Debt - The facts, Issue 312 - May 1999, New Internationalist
8) 1998 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme
9) 1999 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme
10) Ibid
11) Ibid
12) Missing the Target; The price of empty promises, Oxfam, June 2000
13) Global Development Finance, World Bank, 1999
14) Economics forever; Building sustainability into economic policyPANOS Briefing 38, March 2000
15) Human Development Report 2000, p. 82, United Nations Development Programme
16) Ibid, p. 82
17) Ibid, p. 73
18) World Resources Institute Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems, February 2001, (in the Food Feed and Fiber section). Note, that dispite the food production rate being better than population growth rate, there is still so much hunger around the world.
19) The home page of the Jubilee 2000 web site, as of March 24, 2001
20) The Scorecard on Globalization 1980-2000: Twenty Years of Diminished Progress, by Mark Weisbrot, Dean Baker, Egor Kraev and Judy Chen, Center for Economic Policy and Research, August 2001.
21) James Wolfenson, The Other Crisis, World Bank, October 1998, quoted from The Reality of Aid 2000, (Earthscan Publications, 2000), p.10
22) Larry Elliott, A cure worse than the disease, The Guardian, January 21, 2002
23) John Cavanagh and Sarah Anderson , World's Billionaires Take a Hit, But Still Soar, The Institute for Policy Studies, March 6, 2002
24) Maude Barlow, Water as Commodity - The Wrong Prescription, The Institute for Food and Development Policy, Backgrounder, Summer 2001, Vol. 7, No. 3
25) Consumerism, Volunteer Now! (undated)
26) State of the World's Children, 2005, UNICEF
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Next/Previous Page Navigation« Previous Page Next Page » Other pages in this sectionThese are the pages within this section on this web site that you can also read.

Causes of Poverty
Structural Adjustment -- a Major Cause of Poverty 
Poverty Around The World 
Economic Democracy 
Hunger and Poverty 
Food Dumping [Aid] Maintains Poverty 
IMF & World Bank Protests, Washington D.C. 
You are here: Poverty Facts and Stats 
Poverty Links for More Information 

Alternatives for broken linksSometimes links to other sites may break beyond my control. Where I can, I try to provide alternative links to backups or reposted versions here.
The following link takes you to

http://mondediplo.com/1998/11/01leader 
If the above link has expired, please try the following alternative

http://www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/hunger.htm 
Select a link to continue
Or, click anywhere else on this box to close it.
The following link takes you to

Sanjay G. Reddy and Thomas W. Pogge, 'How not to count the poor', Columbia University, June 14, 2002
http://www.columbia.edu/~sr793/count.pdf 
If the above link has expired, please try the following alternative locations

This reposted version is in HTML, whereas the original link is to a PDF document
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/article.shtml?cmd[126]=i... 
Institute of Social Analysis, an organization set up by Colombia University
http://www.socialanalysis.org 
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The following link takes you to

http://www.cepr.net/globalization/scorecard_on_globalizatio... 
If the above link has expired, please try the following alternative

http://www.attac.org/fra/toil/doc/cepr05.htm 
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The following link takes you to

http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/index.html 
If the above link has expired, please try the following alternative locations

Actual report in PDF format
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/sowc05.pdf 
Home page for the report
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/ 
News report mentioning these stats from Inter Press Service
http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27504 
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Document HistorySelect a date or option from the list below. Then, scroll through the page to see those updated areas highlighted. (New feature for updates in 2004, onwards). Requires a modern web browser with JavaScript enabled
Date Reason 
February 18, 2005 Added a number of statistics regarding the state of children around the world 
April 28, 2004 Cited a list of global priority spending in 1998 


by Anup Shah 
Created: Monday, July 20, 1998 
Last Updated: Friday, February 18, 2005 
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” — Dom Helda Camara
Source: Global Issues

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living standards

What about living standards?

The world’s richest 20 percent now receive 86 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. The poorest 20 percent receive only 1 percent, and the middle 60 percent just 13 percent. The world’s richest two hundred people saw their incomes double between 1994 and 1998 to over a trillion dollars. The world’s richest three people have assets greater than the combined output of the forty-eight poorest countries. According to the 1999 United Nations World Development Report, it would take $40 billion to extend basic health and nutrition, basic education, water sanitation, reproductive health and family planning to the entire world’s population. A yearly contribution of 1 per cent of the wealth of the two hundred richest people (about $7 billion) could provide universal access to primary education and 5 per cent would pay for all the basic social services.

A recent study notes that: “In 1998-99, with the world gross output per capita growing at the rate of 1.5-1.8 per cent, more than eighty countries have lower per capita incomes than a decade or more ago, and at least fifty-five countries have consistently declining per capita incomes. The income gap between the fifth of the world’s people living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest was 74 to 1 in 1997, up from 60 to 1 in 1990 and 30 to 1 in 1960. The income inequalities have also risen sharply within the rich countries—particularly in the US and the UK—and the global poor are now as or more poor than they were in 1820” (Heikki Patomäki, Democratising Globalisation, Zed Books, 2001, p. 100).

World Unemployment

World unemployment rises
The world needs 500 million new jobs in the next decade
By Claire Doole in Geneva 
A day before economic leaders meet for the annual world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, the UN agency for labour has said that there are 160 million people without work around the world, 20 million more than three years ago. 

IT revolution could provide some of the new jobs

In its World Employment Report 2001, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says the world will have to create 500 million jobs over the next decade. 

The ILO says this would keep pace with the numbers of new job seekers entering the market, as well as halve global unemployment levels. 

The ILO hopes that some of the new jobs will be created through the information technology revolution. 

Job creation 

One billion people - that is a third of the world's work force - are unemployed or underemployed. 

World employment figures (Source: ILO) 
160 million workers are unemployed
50 million of the unemployed are in the industrialised countries
500 million workers are unable to keep their families above the $1 poverty line
460 million new young jobseekers over the next 10 years - 2/3 of them in Asia
500 million new jobs needed over the next decade 
And the number of people without any work at all is rising. 

Part of the problem is due to demand for work outstripping supply. 

The author of the ILO employment report, Rashid Amjad, says more jobs have to be created. 

"The global economy will have to generate 500 million new jobs during the next 10 years just to accommodate new seekers of the labour force and reduce the current level of unemployment." 

The ILO says this target can only be met if the global economy continues to grow as it has in recent years. 

IT hopes 

It hopes the information technology revolution, will provide some of the new jobs. 

But the ILO says developing countries will only benefit if they can improve education standards and their telecommunications infrastructure. 

Only 5% of the world's population has ever logged on to the internet, and nearly all the users live in industrialised countries. 

The report warns that the digital divide, between the technological haves and have-nots is widening. 

And it says that those countries that don't get on board the digital revolution face a loss of competitive economic strength, as well as a possible decline in national income. 

STUDIES AND STATISTICS 

Youth Unemployment Skyrockets :47 Percent of Global Unemployed Are Under 24

A record 88 million young people are out of work worldwide, and another 130 million earn less than $1 a day, says a new ILO report. Workers aged 15-24 represent 25 percent of the working age population but comprised 47 percent of the 186 million people without a job in 2003, according to Global Employment Trends for Youth 2004.

In the United States, Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment numbers show that 17.6 percent of youths aged 16-19 and 9.3 percent of 20-24 year-olds were unemployed in July 2004--compared to 5.5 percent of the overall population.

"We are wasting an important part of the energy and talent of the most educated youth generation the world has ever had," says ILO Director General Juan Somavía. "Enlarging the chances of young people to find and keep decent work is absolutely critical to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals."

The ILO report found that young people have more difficulty finding work than their adult counterparts. The relative disadvantage is especially stark in developing countries, where young workers are 3.8 times as likely to be unemployed than adults. In developed countries, they are 2.3 times as likely to be unemployed.

Those who do find jobs often face long working hours, short-term or informal contracts, low pay, and little or no access to health care and other benefits. Young women are especially hard hit.

Global Unemployment Trends for Youth 2004 notes that the overall youth unemployment rate was 14.4 percent in 2003, a 26.8 percent increase over the past decade. More specifically, youth unemployment rates were highest in the Middle East and North Africa (25.6 percent), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (21 percent), the transition economies (18.6 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (16.6 percent), Southeast Asia (16.4 percent), South Asia (13.9 percent), the industrialized economies (13.4 percent), and East Asia (7 percent). Industrialized economies represents the only category where youth unemployment dropped significantly in the past decade (from 15.4 percent in 1993 to 13.4 percent in 2003).

"Giving people a chance to achieve decent employment early in their work life would
help to avoid the development of the vicious circle of unemployment, poor working
conditions, poverty and frustration which, in turn, damages the future perspectives of whole economies," says the report.

The ILO estimates that halving the global youth unemployment rate would add at least $2.2 trillion to global GDP. Achieving this goal, the report says, requires a combination of targeted and integrated policies to promote youth unemployment, such as skills training programs and support for young entrepreneurs.

Third world Debt

About the debt crisis

The world’s most impoverished countries are in a debt crisis. Even though they have already repaid far more than they originally borrowed, they are still forced to pay over £30 million EVERY DAY to the rich world in debt repayments, rather than spending the money on vital healthcare and education.

The UN estimates that 7 million children die unnecessarily each year, from diseases that can be cured and from unclean water that could be made safe. If money which poor countries pay to the rich world in debt service was spent instead on tackling poverty, the lives of millions of children in poor countries would be saved. Debt kills.

Explore the links below for some more information on how much debt there is, where it came from, and why the current international debt relief scheme is a failure.

Facts & figures

Some of the most important and striking facts and figures about poor country debt and the impact of debt cancellation.

The Numbers

• Original debt of the world’s 52 poorest and most indebted countries: $375 billion

• Amount of debt that the G7/8 promised to write off*: $100 billion

• Amount of debt actually written off so far: $46 billion

• Proportion of the debts of the 52 poorest/most indebted countries written off: 12%

• Amount of money the 52 poorest/most indebted countries still have to spend on debt repayments: over £30 million every day

• Number of countries eligible for the international Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC): 42

• Proportion of bilateral debt that the G7 countries have promised to cancel for the 42 HIPCs**: 100%

• Proportion of multilateral debt that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will eventually cancel for the 42 HIPCs: 65% (approx)

• Total amount of multilateral debt owed by the 42 HIPCs that is NOT eligible for cancellation: $93 billion

• Cost to UK of cancelling our ‘share’ of the outstanding multilateral debt owed by the 42 HIPCs: £3 per person per year over 10 years

* The G7 is the group of the world’s seven richest and most powerful countries; when meeting with Russia they are called the G8.
**The $100 billion ‘Cologne Promise’ is not enough to meet the existing pledges to cancel all bilateral debt owed by the 42 HIPCs and 65% (approx) of their multilateral debts, let alone cancel all the unpayable debts of the 52 poorest/most indebted countries.

Debt Hurts Zambia’s debt repayments to the IMF alone cost $25 million, more than the country’s education despite 40% of rural women being unable to read and write. Sub-Saharan Africa receives $10 billion in aid every year – but has to pay back at least this amount in debt repayments. Malawi spends more on servicing its debt than on health, despite nearly one in five Malawians being HIV positive. Despite being the second country to be granted debt cancellation (after Uganda) Bolivia still spends more on debt servicing than on health, even though its infant mortality rate is 10 times that of the UK.

AIDS

AIDS / HIV Facts

The facts about AIDS and HIV was prepared by the research staff of American International AIDS Foundation. We hope you’ll find this information useful and will pass along what you learn here to your friends and loved ones in the hope that you too can "Provide Knowledge and Share Hope" to help end this horrible disease.

Here are some of the alarming facts of this tragedy:

• 2.9 million people died from AIDS in 2003; nearly half a million were children under the age of 15

• 4.8 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2003; that's 14,000 a day!

• 25 million children will be orphans by 2010 because of AIDS

• 38 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS

• 70 million deaths from AIDS are estimated in the next 20 years

AIDS and HIV do not discriminate. It is devastating to people of all ages, genders, races, religions and nationalities irregardless if you're gay, straight, a drug user or not. It can reach you in the most innocent of ways and that's what makes it so dangerous. While there is no cure at this time (only treatment) for the AIDS virus, it can be prevented through education, awareness and precautionary methods, including HIV home testing kits offered through www.aids.com.

News

U.N. says AIDS could kill 80 million Africans by 2025

More than 25 million African have been infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. UNAIDS estimated that nearly $200 billion is needed to save 16 million people from death and 43 million people from becoming infected, but donors have pledged nowhere near that amount.

In its report, "AIDS in Africa," the U.N. agency examines three potential scenarios for the continent in the next 20 years depending on the international community's response.

Researchers determined that even with massive funding and better treatment, the number of Africans who will die from AIDS is likely to top 67 million in the next two decades.

"What we do today will change the future," concluded the report, drawn up by some of the world's leading experts on HIV and AIDS. "These scenarios demonstrate that, while societies will have to deal with AIDS for some time to come, the extent of the epidemic's impact will depend on the responses and investment now."

The three scenarios include a best-case situation, a middle-case and a doomsday scenario. They all warn that the worst of the epidemic's impact is still to come.

"There is no single policy prescription that will change the outcome of the epidemic," the report stated. "The death toll will continue to rise no matter what is done."

Under the worst-case scenario, experts have plotted current policies and funding over the next two decades.

"It offers a disturbing window on the future death toll across the continent, with the cumulative number of people dying from AIDS increasing more than fourfold," it says. "The number of children orphaned by the epidemic will continue to rise beyond 2025."

While there is no cure for HIV or AIDS, anti-retroviral drugs can allow sufferers to live a normal life. Such drugs, though, are too expensive for most Africans, who live on less than a dollar a day and don't have access to modern health care.

Experts have said donors' money needs to be spent to train more health workers, develop better clinics and subsidize medications as well as promote more prevention programs.

AIDS already has a devastating impact on Africa.

UNAIDS has reported that life expectancy in nine countries has dropped to below 40 because of the disease. There are already 11 million orphans because of AIDS, while 6,500 people are dying each day. In 2004, 3.1 million Africans were newly infected, the agency said.

"If by 2025, millions of African people are still becoming infected with HIV each year, these scenarios suggest that it will not be because there was no choice," the report said. "It will be because, collectively, there was insufficient political will to change behavior at all levels, from the institution, to the community, to the individual, and halt the forces driving the AIDS epidemic in Africa."

Hundreds of experts and people living with the virus helped draw up the report.

Source:The Associated Press.

Only huge emissions cuts will curb climate change
15:59 03 February 2005 

To have half a chance of curbing global warming to within safe levels, the world's greenhouse gas emissions need to fall dramatically to between 30% and 50% of 1990 levels by 2050, a new study suggests.

This is needed to achieve the European Union's ambition of trying to limit global warming to below 2°C over this period - a crucial goal which now appears wildly optimistic.

Such emissions cuts would allow the world's carbon dioxide levels to be stabilised at 450 parts per million, says Malte Meinshausen from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, who presented the work at a major climate conference in Exeter, UK, on Wednesday. Carbon dioxide concentrations are currently approaching 380 ppm, having risen from pre-industrial levels of around 280 ppm. But the EU has recommended 550 ppm CO2 as a suitable goal.

"Two degrees is a hard target, but we have to start somewhere," says Frank Raes, a climate modeller at the European Commission's research centre in Ispra, Italy. "We will not get started if we say, no, we have to go to 450 ppm," he cautions.

But Meinshausen calculates that 450 ppm is the level at which there is just a 50-50 chance that the world's average temperature rise will not exceed 2°C by 2050.

Shocked reaction
Meinshausen was invited to talk to EU officials about his work in September 2004. "It created a certain shocked reaction," he told New Scientist. But striking as the figures are for policy makers, they come as no surprise to climate scientists.

He looked at the range of predictions that climate models make for the global mean temperature rise when CO2 concentrations are set at certain elevated levels. Counting how many models predict warming greater than 2°C gives some indication of the probability it will happen.

Meinshausen plotted these probabilities against the CO2 levels for which they occurred. If CO2 levels stabilise at 400 ppm, there is about a 75% chance of staying on target to stop the world warming by 2°C. At 450 ppm, the odds are about even and beyond 550 ppm, there is a 75% chance of feeling temperature rises of more than 2°C, the study suggests.

He also worked out how the risks were affected if CO2 concentrations first peaked at higher values then fell back to these levels. Because the climate takes time to respond to carbon dioxide concentrations, the maximum temperature can be kept down as long as carbon dioxide levels fall quickly after the peak. 

Kyoto in force
Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases are projected to keep rising, reaching twice pre-industrial levels within this century. And the Kyoto protocol that comes into force on 16 February only calls for some industrialised countries to cut their emissions from 1990 levels by an average of 5% over five years.

But cooling the Earth may take more. "There's no question, you have to take really dramatic steps compared to the tiny steps taken so far," Meinshausen says. "If they want to be serious about 2°C, they have to change their attitude to climate change." 

Any delay in cutting back greenhouse gas emissions will make meeting targets much harder work later on, says Steffen Kallbekken from the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway.

He presented a study on Wednesday showing that a 20-year delay in curbing emissions had a "dramatic" impact on what needed to happen next. In that scenario, yearly cuts would have to be three to seven times deeper to stay below the same temperature threshold than if there had been no delay in curbing emissions, he says. That means waiting for new technologies to solve the problem might not be a good idea, Kallbekken warns.
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn6964

Climatologists pursue greenhouse gas danger levels

NewScientist.com news service 18:17 01 February 2005 

An international conference entitled "Avoiding dangerous climate change" began on Tuesday with a warning that coming up with a global definition of dangerous climate change may be "mission impossible".

Around 200 scientists have gathered for the meeting in Exeter, UK, to thrash out the risks that climate change poses to the world and feed this information to the policy makers who must decide what to do about it.

The known risks were made clear by a number of speakers. Chris Rapley from the British Antarctic Survey revealed that ice sheets in Antarctica - which in total contain enough water to raise sea levels by nearly 60 metres - are undergoing dramatic change. The new view of Antarctica is of a "giant awakening" he said. 

Carol Turley from the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK said the oceans are becoming more acidic because they are absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Others presented new assessments of the thermohaline circulation, which drives the gulf stream that warms Europe. It may be more likely to collapse than we realised, warned Mike Schlesinger, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champana. 

But what about defining dangerous? When the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, announced the meeting in 2004, he promised it would be "more than just another scientific conference". He said it would address big questions, asking: "What level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is self-evidently too much?"

The drive to define what is dangerous also comes from the 1992 United Nations treaty on climate change, through which countries, including the US, committed to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".

Conflicting priorities
But there are obvious problems in defining "dangerous". Steve Schneider, a climate scientist from Stanford University, California, US, used melting ice in the Arctic as an example. 

The loss of ice will affect Eskimos' way of life. "Is that dangerous from their perspective? It probably is." But ships will enjoy faster passage through an ice-free Arctic. So what should be prioritised? "That's exactly the kind of conflict you will have," he said.

In his talk, Schneider explained the complexity of setting specific danger levels. His team has been tasked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to study "key vulnerabilities" and assess their resilience to climate change. This involves finding temperature thresholds above which harm is caused to coral, for example, or ocean circulations. 

These temperatures have to be linked to concentrations of greenhouse gases through climate models. But that is not simple, because the temperature depends not just on the level of greenhouse gases, but also on the rate at which the concentrations change. If they rise to a peak and then fall, the temperature maximum is different to a scenario in which they stabilise at some elevated level.

That complexity led the session's chair - John Schellnhuber, from the UK's Tyndall Centre for Climatic Research, to warn that setting precise global danger levels may be "mission impossible".

However, coming up with such targets could help climate policy to move beyond the Kyoto protocol, which comes into force on 16 February. The protocol will enforce small cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for some industrialised countries. "Kyoto is just the very first step," acknowledged Margaret Beckett, the UK's environment minister, who opened the meeting. 

Child Prostitution a Global Problem 

Child prostitution, like other forms of child sexual abuse, is not only a cause of death and high morbidity in millions of children, but also a gross violation of their rights and dignity.

Both boys and girls can be prostituted and, according to the report, some of the children are as young as 10 years old.

Most of these children are exploited by local men, although some are also prostituted by pedophiles and foreign tourists.

In their report, the investigators estimate the number of children exploited by prostitution is highest in India with estimates between 400,000 and 575,000; Brazil is second with estimates between 100,000 and 500,000; the US is third with 300,000 children; and in fourth place is Thailand and China with 200,000 children each.

With regard to illnesses, worldwide, millions of children are infected with sexually transmitted diseases, have abortions, attempt suicide and are raped each year. In parts of southeast Asia, 50% to 90% of children rescued from brothels are infected with HIV.

A coordinated international campaign is needed to prevent child prostitution, provide services to children who are prostituted until they can be removed from prostitution, and implement effective recovery and reintegration programs.

For such a campaign to be successful, it will require global coordination, implementation at national, regional and community levels, and the leadership of many health professionals
Source: http://www.mercola.com/2002/may/4/child_prostitution.htm

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