Archive for the ‘Famine’Category

Seven Billion Today!

Today the world’s population is projected to reach 7 billion humans! This comes just 12 years after reaching a global population of 6 billion, reflecting the rapidly growing pace of the world’s population and the complex changes and challenges facing the globe. Growth is highest in poorest countries where life expectancy is increasing due to health care and hygiene advances while birth rates remain relatively high.

People are also increasingly moving to urban areas, leading to denser living with increased pressure to reduce energy use and build new infrastructure . Currently over 50% of people live in cities compared to just 28.8% in 1950 with the United Nations projecting that 69% of people will live in cities by 2050 when the world population is projected to be 9.3 billion.

Another challenge is the increasing number of mouths to feed with a finite amount of land suitable for agriculture. In a new article Worldwatch proposes “two main approaches to mitigate the impacts of a soaring global population:    1) Empower women to make their own decisions about childbearing and 2) Consume fewer resources and waste less food.”

Click to play

National Geographic magazine special year-long series on population explores many of the challenges we face with our growing world population. Additionally, they are offering a limited time  free iPad app 7 Billion: How your world will change - to coincide with the arrival of the 7 billionth human being to our world, exploring the challenges of a growing human population in a world of limited resources with informative videos, interactive maps, in-depth articles, and photography.

31

10 2011

Crisis in Haiti

Note:  The GP editorial staff’s thoughts and hearts go out in solidarity to the residents of Port-au-Prince and their families, as well as our colleagues in Haiti.  We will be updating this post as more information becomes available.

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Earthquake Crisis in Haiti

Original post by Wilnise Jasmin [01.14.2010 @ 6:53 AM EST]

As you may have already heard, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck about 10 miles southwest of Port-au- Prince, Haiti at about 5 pm Tuesday night. The quake ravaged the infrastructure of Haiti’s fragile government and destroyed some of its most important cultural symbols.

“Parliament has collapsed,” Mr. Préval told The Miami Herald. “The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.” He added: “All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe.”

President Obama promised that Haiti would have the “unwavering support” of the United States.

Haitian authorities and humanitarian aid organizations are struggling to respond amid devastation. Read the rest of this entry →

14

01 2010

WAD @ the World Bank: Keeping the Promise, Investing in the Future

Today at the World Bank, a collection of 400+  leaders from organizations including the Global Fund and PEPFAR, as well as the Deputy US Secretary of State, Jack Lew, joined Bank Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to discuss the current state of HIV/AIDS and what remains to be done to curb the epidemic. Facts revealed today include the following stats:

+ mother-to-child transmission has increased from 10% to 45% since 2004

+ 2.7 million people newly infected with HIV in 2008

+ HIV infections have fallen 17% since 2001

+ according to the Haiti GHESKIO-Cornell evaluation by Jean Pape MD, without ART there are 80% deaths at  year, contrasted to with ART 80% survival at 2 years

+ GHESKIO-Cornell, there is a correlation between food insecurity and CD4 counts: CD4 counts decrease as food insecurity increases

+ Successful HIV containment in Bangladesh (except in Dhaka) due to preventive education efforts directed towards sex workers, injection drug users and MSM

+ Botswana’s anti-retroviral medicine program covers 80% of its population and has cut AIDS-related deaths by more than half in five years

Read the rest of this entry →

01

12 2009

Guatemala declares calamity as food crisis grows

Sisters Vidalia, left, and Maribel Agustin, who suffer from malnutrition, sit at a shelter in Guatemala in August.

Sisters Vidalia, left, and Maribel Agustin, who suffer from malnutrition, sit at a shelter in Guatemala in August.

Read the rest of this entry →