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Snuff It #2 |
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Hate to Say We Told Tou So, But...
Report sees rising population leading to global food shortage
WASHINGTON - Massive food shortages will develop over the next 40 years as
a population explosion outstrips the world's food supply, researchers reported
yesterday.
"Science and technology can no longer ensure a better future unless population
growth slows quickly," said a report compiled by the environmental research
institute Worldwatch. "Food supply is the most immediate constraint on the
Earth's population carrying capacity."
Projections of current trends indicate the world's population could expand from
today's 5.5 billion [try 5.7 billion. -Ed.] and reach 10 billion to 14 billion by
2050. The biggest increases are expected in some of the poorest areas, such as
Africa and southern Asia.
Worldwatch's Full House report, released yesterday, predicted population at 8.9
billion by 2030. [more like 8 billion by 2020, but close enough. -Ed.]
At that level, the projected yearly grain supply will amount to 528 pounds per
person, the report said. That is a quarter of what the average American now
uses and just 20 percent above consumption in India, one of the worlds poorest
countries.
The UN Population fund, responsible for family planning, unveiled a proposal in
April to try to stabilize world population at 7.8 billion by 2050.
But food supplies will be too short to feed the world even if that goal is
reached, said Lester R. Brown, co-author of the Worldwatch study, which was
prepared in anticipation of next month's UN Population Conference in Cairo.
The institute told of failed attempts to increase rice production and fish
catches - illustrating that new technology cannot be counted on for
breakthroughs.
After decades of steady growth, world farm production will no longer be able
to keep up with the increasing demand, the study predicted.
The Washington-based Institute's pessimistic forecast on the limits of food
supply is not shared by world farm bodies. [i.e. transnational corporations,
big surprise! -Ed.]
Brown dismissed their projections as based only on past trends, and not
applicable in the future.
They failed to take into account factors such as the loss of cropland to
urbanization or reports that increased use of fertilizer no longer brings
much more production, he added.
Worldwatch said grain production increased from 631 million tons in 1950 to
1.6 billion tons in 1984, or 3 percent a year. Growth in the last decade
was just 1 percent a year, and Worldwatch predicted it would continue to slow,
with production leveling off at 2.1 billion tons in 2030. [The population is
increasing by 1.6 percent a year! Hello? -Ed.]
-excerpted from AP, August 14
World's seas are fished to the limit, study finds
WASHINGTON - The oceans have been fished nearly to the limits, after decades
of fishermen using bigger boats and more advanced hunting technologies,
according to a report released yesterday.
"Although worldwide environmental degradation of the oceans contribute
to the decline of marine life, overfishing is the primary cause of dwindling
fish populations," said the report, which was issued by the nonprofit
Worldwatch Institute. A 5 percent decline in the worldwide catch since 1989
is due largely to more people fishing in large-scale, industrial operations,
often in waters that are becoming more polluted, the report said.
Meanwhile, world population is growing at 1.6 percent annually, equivalent
to the population of Mexico being added to the world each year, the report
said.
"This ... has already caused armed confrontations between fishing
nations, gunfire between fishers and hunger in the developing world,"
said Peter Weber, author of the report, "Net Loss: Fish, Jobs and the
Marine Environment."
The total catch has shrunk by more than 30 percent in four of the hardest-hit
areas - the Pacific's east-central region and the Atlantic's northwest,
west-central and southeast sectors.
-excerpted from AP, July 24
2 billion more Third World people predicted by 2030
WASHINGTON - By the year 2030, the world will have nearly 3 billion more
people than now, [actually 3.6 billion. -Ed.] 2 billion of them in countries
where the average person earns less than $2 a day, the World Bank predicts
in its latest report.
It estimates that the global figure will reach 8,474,017,000, compared
with 5,692,210,000 in 1995.
People will live longer, too. The average African baby born today can
expect to live to age 54; one born in 2030 in Africa should have 63 years
ahead of it. [Not bloody likely! -Ed.]
By 2030, the bank says, Africa will grow from 720 million to 1.6 billion.
"Who will feed and house these people?" the bank president, Lewis T.
Preston, asked in a statement. The bank is the largest source of aid loans to
the Third World, many of them for houses, schools and public services.
-excerpted from AP, August 4
Bullshit! The World Bank spent the last twenty years destroying sustainable
agriculture all over the world. Countries that can barely feed themselves are
forced to grow export crops and import our manufactured crap in return. The
"loans" go straight into the pockets of the local CIA-trained dictators
so that giant corporations can come in and buy up all the land. The
"peasants" get kicked off the land they've lived on for generations,
but that's okay because they make good slave labor. American livestock get fat
on imported grain while the "third world" starves. Delicious hamburger!
Pass the ketchup! The World Bank also arranges for toxic heavy industries to
relocate to places where there aren't any environmental laws. Isn't that nice?
Fuck the World Bank! They suck!
Senate OK's $12.5b in funds for schools, antigay plan
WASHINGTON - The Senate adopted a $12.5 billion school funding bill yesterday,
but an antigay provision almost guarantees a continuing debate before the
legislation becomes law.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was approved, 94-6, after almost
three days of sometimes contentious debate that saw inclusion of an amendment
that would cut federal funds to school districts that teach acceptance of
homosexuality.
"This legislation represents another main part of our efforts in this
Congress to improve American education," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy,
chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, said after the
vote.
Schools that distribute instructional materials or offer counseling services
portraying homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle or that refer students
to gay organizations for counseling could lose their federal funds under the
provision.
-excerpted from AP, August 3
This kind of shit makes me sick to my stomach. The population is
increasing by a million people every four days and these morons want to
close down schools that help queers. People wonder why I support human
extinction. We should worship queers! At least they don't reproduce!
Hello? Senator Kennedy? SAVE THE PLANET! KILL YOURSELF!
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