GAIA HOLISTIC NEWS
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UNITED NATIONS STATISTICS -
STARTLING GLOBAL OVERVIEW AND UNITED STATES STATS Many of the statistics below were recently revealed on the internet, even though they are older statistics. Can we assume that things have gotten worse? The Humanitarian Resource Institute was founded in response to these statistics. Visit www.Humanitarian.net. In developing countries, 91 children out of 1,000 die before their fifth birthday. By comparison, in the United States 8 children in 1,000 will die before turning five years old. (State of the World's Children 2000. UNICEF) More than 800 million people in the world are malnourished - 777 million of them are from the developing world and 177 million of them are children. (State of the World's Children 2000. UNICEF) Each day in the developing world, 30,100 children die from mostly preventable and treatable causes such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections or malaria. Malnutrition is associated with over half of those deaths. (Mapping of the Food Supply Gap 1998. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) In the last 50 years, almost 400 million people worldwide have died from hunger and poor sanitation. That's three times the number of people killed in all wars fought in the entire 20th century. (Bread for the World Institute on Hunger and Development) Virtually every country in the world has the potential of growing sufficient food on a sustainable basis. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has set the minimum requirement for caloric intake per person per day at 2,350. Worldwide, there are 2,720 calories available per person per day. 54 countries fall below that requirement; they do not produce enough food to feed their populations, nor are they able to afford to import the necessary commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. (State of the World's Children 2000. UNICEF) The wealthiest fifth of the world's people consume an astonishing 86 percent of all goods and services, while the poorest fifth consumes one percent. (World Development Report 1998. World Bank) Of the 6 billion people in today's world, 1.2 billion live below $1 per day. (State of the World's Children 2000. UNICEF) 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. (Human Development Report 1998. United Nations Development Programme) 900 million people lack access to adequate health services. (Global Challenge, Global Opportunity 2002. United Nations) 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Contaminated water kills 2.2 million people per year. (Human Development Report 2002, Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World, United Nations Development Programme). United States The Nation's Food Bank Network (A2H), the nation's largest network of emergency food providers, has completed in-person interviews with 52,878 clients served by the A2H National Network, as well as on completed questionnaires from 31,342 A2H agencies. The A2H system served an estimated 24 to 27 million unduplicated people annually, with a midpoint of 25.3 million. 42% of clients served by the A2H National Network report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel. 35% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage. 32% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care. (Second Harvest: Hunger Study - 2006). As many as 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a given year (1% of the entire U.S. population or 10% of its poor), and about 842,000 people in any given week. (Wickpedia 2008: Homelessness in the United States, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: Who is Homeless?) Approximately 40% of homeless men are veterans, although veterans comprise only 34% of the general adult male population. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that on any given night, 200,000 veterans are homeless, and 400,000 veterans will experience homelessness during the course of a year. (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, 2006). Homeless youth are individuals under the age of eighteen who lack parental, foster, or institutional care. These young people are sometimes referred to as "unaccompanied" youth. The number of the homeless youth is estimated by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the US Department of Justice. Their most recent study, published in 2002, reported there are an estimated 1,682,900 homeless and runaway youth. - (National Coalition for the Homeless, June 2008). Approximately 5,000 runaway and homeless youth die each year of assault, disease, and suicide. (National Runaway Switchboard Statistics) CALIFORNIA'S NATIVE FROGS FACING EXTINCTION Frog populations in California and worldwide have been declining at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world's 6,586 amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Up to 200 species have already completely disappeared. Amphibians are faced with an onslaught of environmental problems, including climate change, pollution, infectious diseases, habitat loss, invasive species, and over-harvesting for the pet and food trades. California's frog populations have been particularly hard hit by pesticides, introduced trout, invasive bullfrogs, and a deadly chytrid fungus that is being transported around the world by human activities. 200 species of frogs have gone extinct since 1979. In an effort to save California's critically endangered Yellow-Legged Frogs, the nonprofit organization Save The Frogs has initiated a campaign requesting the National Park Service to remove non-native trout from the naturally fishless lakes of Sequoia Kings Canyon National Park. The park is one of the last remaining strongholds of the Yellow-Legged Frogs. These frogs were once the most abundant frogs in California, but have since disappeared from over 90% of their former ponds, in large part due to the introduction of non-native trout, which are voracious predators of tadpoles. Visit their website at www.savethefrogs.com. "The amphibian extinction crisis is one of the most significant environmental issues of our time, and it is important for people to understand the causes and extent of the problem, as well as the urgency with which action must be taken if we are to protect remaining amphibian populations," says Dr. Kriger. For more information, contact Kerry Kriger, Ph.D., SAVE THE FROGS! Founder, Executive Director and Ecologist, Phone: (703) 376-7945 or e-mail: kerry@savethefrogs.com SAVE THE MANATEE Manatees remain at great risk, especially from boat strikes, which are the largest known cause of manatee deaths and the biggest threat to their long-term survival. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that a record-breaking 97 manatees were killed by watercraft in 2009 - another 12 from other human-related causes, which is a total of 109 manatees killed as a result of human activity (34% where cause of death could be determined). Last year was the worst ever for manatees, with records broken for the total number of deaths, 429, statewide, and the number killed by boats. Save the Manatee Club was founded by Jimmy Buffett, world-renowned singer/songwriter, and former Governor of Florida and U.S. Senator Bob Graham, in 1981. Visit our Generativity page for contact information to make a difference. The Club is a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership-based organization. Please visit www.savethemanatee.org for more information and to make a difference. |