7 challenges for 7 billion
Updated Thu 3 Nov 2011, 9:36am AEDT This week the world's population ticked over to 7 billion. By 2050 that number is expected to grow to 9 billion. From water shortages to rising sea levels, experts from the University of New South Wales and the University of Melbourne paint a grim future for life on Earth. They forecast dramatic changes unless significant steps are taken to curb population growth. Here seven academics outline seven challenges they say a population of 7 billion must confront. Is it all doom and gloom as they suggest, or do we have a brighter future? Climate Australia is one of the most affluent and also the most effluent nations on Earth. What we're putting into the atmosphere really constitutes an unprecedented experiment with our planet that is going to lead to changes that haven't been seen in millions of years. Water Access to fresh water in Australia, the driest inhabited continent, is incredibly difficult. Energy Economy Ageing population Birth control Food security
AquAdvantage salmon
Aquaculture[edit] Commercial aquaculture is the most rapidly growing segment of the agricultural industry, accounting for more than 60 million tons in 2012, versus 90 million tons of wild caught fish. That year, aquaculture output exceeded beef output for the first time. While land-based agriculture is increasing between 2% to 3% per year, aquaculture has been growing at an average rate of approximately 9% per year since 1970. As of 2011, Salmon aquaculture produced 1.9 million tons of fish. Genetic modification[edit] Genetic modification occurs when incorporated gene construct opAFP-GHc2 is transferred into the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and gene construct OnMTGH1 is transferred into the Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) These transferred genes allow the genetically modified fish to achieve accelerated growth rates, which confer longer survival and reproductive success.[6] Production[edit] Concerns[edit] Survival in new habitats[edit] Rate of growth[edit] Smoltification[edit] Notes[edit]
Poverty.com - Hunger and World Poverty
Infographic: Feeding the World in 2050 - Blogs
27 Feb 2013 view larger version Irish President, Michael D. Higgins, has described the challenge of feeding the world in 2050 as “the greatest moral problem facing us all.” This new IIEA infographic explores some headline statistics which reveal the sheer scale of the future challenge and the depth of current global inequalities. See this blog for further information on the challenge of feeding the world in 2050 and this new IIEA video infographic for a simple explanation of the water-energy-food nexus. The Environment Nexus project is co-financed by the European Parliament. This content forms part of the Environment Nexus project, which is co-financed by DG Communication of the European Parliament. As an independent forum, the Institute does not express any opinions of its own.
Subsidizing Starvation
In the wake of Haiti's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake exactly three years ago, former U.S. President Bill Clinton issued an unusual and now infamous apology. Calling his subsidies to American rice farmers in the 1990s a mistake because it undercut rice production in Haiti, Clinton said he had struck a "devil's bargain" that ultimately resulted in greater poverty and food insecurity in Haiti. "It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked," he said. "I have to live every day with the consequences of the lost capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people, because of what I did." Despite Clinton's dramatic confession and his role as the United Nations' special envoy for Haiti, little has changed in the last three years for the Caribbean country's farmers. Meanwhile, for the last year a piece of U.S. legislation that could have arguably changed the playing field for Haiti's farmers has been stalled in Washington, D.C.
Causes of Poverty
Author and Page information by Anup ShahThis page last updated Sunday, September 28, 2014 Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.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.1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day). Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Poverty Facts and Stats Poverty Around The World
“Eat Half as Much Meat”, New UN Report Says to World’s Richest Nations
Scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) are urging citizens of the richest nations on earth to reduce meat intake by half, in order to thwart any further damage to the environment. “Demitarians” is the term Professor Mark Sutton—lead researcher of the UN report—coined for halving meat consumption, reports the Guardian. Entitled Our Nutrient World: The challenge to produce more food and energy with less pollution [PDF], the report focuses on the demand for cheap meat that’s driven meat consumption and the livestock industry to dangerous heights, highlighting the recent horsemeat scandal in Europe for uncovering “the dark side of our lust for meat, which has fuelled a trade in undocumented livestock and mislabeled cheap ready meals.” The report recommends adding more plant foods to meals and opting for the common large cuts of meat less often, but “make it special,” said Sutton.
Against US Agricultural Subsidies
March, 2009 by Sam King I am not against all subsidies. It is a very efficient way to promote an industry that is necessary for the public good and to correct externalities. The requirement that children get shots, an indirect subsidy to vaccination companies, is in large part the reason that many diseases that are globally common are almost nonexistent in the United States. The goal of US agriculture policy is to create an export surplus. In the late 20th and early 21st century, ideals of free trade, as manifested through the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund, pushed developing countries to reduce their subsidies. These international discrepancies in subsidization disrupt third world agriculture. This means that third world nations will be trapped in a cycle of dependence on US exports. The farms that benefit from US subsidies are the ones that can afford large scale agriculture.
