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| Only about 10% of the fossil fuel energy used in the world's food system is used in production; the other 90% goes into packaging, transportation, and marketing. | agriculture produce advertise | |
| 10% of the cost of food is for packaging. | price agriculture package | |
| 20% of the energy used to supply food is expended just for packaging. | agriculture package | |
| The average food item in the United States travels 1,300 miles before being eaten. | agriculture transport | |
| Everyone has the right ... to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers. | right free speech thought opinion media advertise | |
| 24-25 | I am not saying that a World Encyclopedia will in itself solve any single one of the vast problems that must be solved if man is to ... enter upon a more hopeful phase of history; what I am saying ... is that without a World Encylopedia to hold men's minds together in something like a common interpretation of reality, there is no hope whatsoever of anything but an accidental and transitory alleviation of any of our world troubles. | human knowledge suffering Internet history |
| survey asked 5700 children ages 7-18 in 18 cities in 12 Asia-Pacific countries about favorite fast-food restaurant and soft drink. All but India, Philippines, and S. Korea chose McDonalds or KFC, and all but Thailand chose Coca-Cola. | marketing multinational corporation fast food McDonalds KFC Coca-Cola | |
| In the 24 hours since this time yesterday, over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into our environment. Over 45,000 people have died of starvation, 38,000 of them children. More than 130 plant or animal species have been driven to extinction by the actions of humans - the last time there was such a rapid loss of species was when the dinosaurs vanished. And all this just since yesterday. | statistic consumption hunger | |
| The present dilemmas and dangers are not caused by recent changes such as the impact of modern technology. They are the predictable result of the way humans have been living since the first city-states were established 7,000 years ago. | environment civilization history | |
| Our problems derive not from our technology, our diet, violence in the media, or any other one thing we do. They arise out of our culture - our view of the world. The reason most solutions offered to solve the world's crises are impractical is because they are based on the same worldview that caused the problems. | environment civilization | |
| 93% of Americans support sexuality education in high schools, while 84% support it in middle and junior high schools. almost 75% said, "Preventing HIV/AIDS and STDs are public health issues and should be left to scientists and experts, not to politicians." | United States US disease pregnancy | |
| >80% reject the idea that educating young people about sexuality encourages sexual activity. Support for sexuality education in junior high and high school extends to all groups including conservative Christians. Over 60% believe that sexual exploration among young people is a natural part of growing up and that the best approach is to provide information and services to help them act responsibly. This includes 44% of conservatives. | United States US disease pregnancy Christianity | |
| It is the degree of unbridled fierce competition within and among our economies today--not free trade or globalization as such--that is the source of the unease that has manifested itself, and was on display in Seattle a month ago. Trade and globalization are merely the vehicles that foster competition, whose application and benefits currently are nowhere more evident than here, today, in the United States. | economy world organization WTO protest | |
| 2-page spread reproduced in Adbusters, Winter 1999, p.56. Photo shows scenic tourist stop in American West, water fountain in foreground. Caption: BECAUSE some fountain drinks are still easier to find. In many places, it's easier to find a water fountain than a Coca-Cola. That's why we continue to strengthen our distribution system. We're working hard to make our products an integral part of any landscape so they are always within easy reach. |
marketing soft drink | |
| The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. |
politics ancient Rome budget welfare history | |
| Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness. | salvation meditation | |
| The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate. | ||
| ... when you come back from the Third World to the West - the U.S. in particular - you are struck by the narrowing of thought and understanding, the limited nature of legitimate discussion, the separation of people from each other. It's startling how stultifying it feels, since our opportunities are so vastly greater here. | ||
| The goal is a society in which the basic social unit is you and your television set. If the kid next door is hungry, it's not your problem. If the retired couple next door invested their assets badly and are now starving, that's not your problem either. | ||
| Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, Our presence automatically liberates others. |
inspiration self confidence esteem | |
| Life builds from the bottom up Life assembles itself into chains Life needs an inside and an outside Life uses a few themes to generate many variations Life organizes with information Life encourages variety by reshuffling information Life creates with mistakes Life occurs in water Life runs on sugar Life works in cycles Life recycles everything it uses Life maintains itself by turnover Life tends to optimize rather than maximize Life is opportunistic Life competes within a cooperative framework Life is interconnected and interdependent |
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| Every hour, an average of 3 to 4 Americans die from suicide, 57 are treated in emergency rooms, and countless others either plan or consider committing suicide. | ||
| Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. Over 30,000 people commit suicide each year -- far ahead of homicide, which claims about 19,000 deaths a year. | ||
| About half a million Americans require emergency room treatment as a result of attempted suicide every year. | ||
| Males are four times as likely to die of suicide as females, but many more females attempt suicide. | ||
| 19% of 9th grade girls in Minneapolis have tried to kill themselves, and 45% have had thoughts of killing themselves. | suicide teenager high school | |
| Older adults who commit suicide have often been seen by their doctor within a few weeks of their suicide. | ||
| 1 | Energy burned to run cars and trucks, heat homes and businesses, and power factories is responsible for about 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions, about 25% of U.S. methane emissions, and about 20% of global nitrous oxide emissions. Increased agriculture and deforestation, landfills, and industrial pollution and mining also contribute a significant share of emissions. In 1994, the United States emitted about one-fifth of total global greenhouse gases. | greenhouse effect climate change CO2 NO2 |
| 1 | Since the pre-industrial era, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased nearly 30%, methane concentrations have more than doubled, and nitrous oxide concentrations have risen by about 15%. These increases have enhanced the heat-trapping capability of the earth's atmosphere. Sulfate aerosols, a common air pollutant, cool the atmosphere by reflecting incoming solar radiation. However, sulfates are short-lived and vary regionally, so they do not offset greenhouse gas warming. | greenhouse effect global warming |
| 1 | Estimating future emissions is difficult, because they will depend on demographic, economic, technological, policy, and institutional developments. Several emissions scenarios have been developed based on differing projections of these underlying factors. For example, by 2100, in the absence of emissions control policies, carbon dioxide concentrations are projected to be 30-150% higher than today's levels. | greenhouse effect global warming climate change |
| 1 | Global mean surface temperatures have increased .6-1.2?F since the late 19th century. The 9 warmest years in this century all have occurred in the last 14 years. Of these, 1995 was the warmest year on record, suggesting the atmosphere has rebounded from the temporary cooling caused by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. | greenhouse effect global warming climate change |
| 2 | For a given concentration of greenhouse gases, the resulting increase in the atmosphere's heat-trapping ability can be predicted with precision, but the resulting impact on the climate is more uncertain... Further, humans have never experienced such a rapid rise in greenhouse gases. In effect, a large and uncontrolled planet-wide experiment is being conducted. | greenhouse effect climate change |
| 2 | Recent model calculations suggest that the global surface temperature could increase an average of 1.6-6.3?F by 2100, with significant regional variation. These temperature changes woul dbe far greater than recent natural fluctuations, and they would occur significantly faster than any known changes in the last 10,000 years. The United States is projected to warm more than the global average, especially as fewer sulfate aerosols are produced. | greenhouse effect climate change |
| 2 | The models suggest that the rate of evaporation will increase as the climate warms, which will increase average global precipitation. They also suggest increased frequency of intense rainfall as well as a marked decrease in soil moisture over some mid-continental regions during the summer. Sea level is projected to increase by 6-38 inches by 2100. | greenhouse effect climate change |
| 2 | Over the last century, the average temperature in Minneapolis, Minnesota has increased slightly from 43.9?F (1888-1917 average) to 44.9?F (1963-1992 average), and precipitation in some areas of the state has increased by up to 20%, especially in the southern half. | greenhouse effect climate change midwest |
| 2 | Based on projections given by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and results from the United Kingdom Hadley Centre's climate model (HadCM2), a model that has accounted for both greenhouse gases and aerosols, it is projected that by 2100, temperatures in Minnesota could increase by about 4?F (with a range of 2-7?F) in winter, spring, and fall, and by somewhat less in summer. Precipitation is projected to increase by around 15% in winter, summer, and fall, with little change predicted for spring. The amount of precipitation on extreme wet days in summer most likely would increase. The frequency of extreme hot days in summer is expected to increase along with the general warming trend. It is not clear how severe storms would change. | greenhouse effect climate change midwest |
| 3 | In Minneapolis, one study projects that a 3? warming could triple heat-related deaths from 60 during a typical summer to about 180 (although increased air conditioning use may not have been fully accounted for). The elderly, particularly those living alone, are at greatest risk. | greenhouse effect climate change midwest |
| 3 | Warming and other climate changes could expand the habitat and infectivity of disease-carrying insects, increasing the potential for transmission of diseases such as malaria and dengue ("break bone") fever. Mosquitoes flourish in Minnesota, and some cany St. Louis encephalitis. The mosquito populations that carry this disease could increase with climate change. Also, the mosquitoes that carry yellow fever, dengue fever, Eastern equine encephalitis, and La Crosse encephalitis recently have spread as far north as Chicago. Global warming could shift the region where these mosquitoes breed and overwinter farther north. If conditions become warmer and wetter, mosquito populations can increase, thereby increasing the risk of transmission of these diseases. |
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| 3 | With changes in climate, the extent of forested areas in Minnesota could change little or decline by as much as 50-70%. The uncertainties depend on many factors, including whether soil becomes drier and, if so, by how much drier. Hotter, drier weather could increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires. The unique boreal forests in the northern part of the state and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area could be replaced by mixed forests better adapted to warmer conditions. The mixed aspen, birch, beech, maple, and pine forests in the northern and eastern areas of the state would shrink in range and be replaced by a combination of grasslands and hardwood forests consisting of oak, elm, and ash. Grasslands and savanna eventually could replace much of the forests and woodlands in the state. These changes would significantly affect the character of Minnesota forests and the activities that depend on them. |
climate change global warming greenhouse effect |
| 3 | Because evaporation is likely to increase with warmer climate, it could result in lower river flow and lower lake levels, particularly in the summer. In addition, more intense precipitation could increase flooding. If streamfiow and lake levels drop. groundwater also could be reduced... If climate warms, the ice cover on Minnesota's lakes and streams would not last as long as it does today. Streamfiows could peak sooner in the spring because of earlier snowmelt and ice breakup. Reduced summer flows could decrease water quality. Lake surface temperatures would be warmer in the summer, although the temperature changes generally would be less than the increase in air temperature. As a result, lake evaporation would increase considerably, perhaps by as much as 20% for a 4?F warmer climate. | climate change global warming greenhouse effect midwest |
| 4 | Shorter ice-cover seasons and increased lake evaporation could have major effects on Lake Superior. Fresh water flowing into Lake Superior could decrease with global warming, potentially reducing lake levels and degrading water quality. Flood damage could be reduced, but shorelines could he more susceptible to erosion damage from wind and rain. Reduced fresh water in the Great Lakes could negatively affect shipping to and from Duluth, for example, primarily because of lower water levels in the shipping channels connecting the lower Great Lakes. However, this could be offset by a longer ice-free season. | climate change greenhouse effect midwest |
| 4 | Understandably, most studies have not fully accounted for changes in climate variability, water availability, and imperfect responses by farmers to changing climate. Including these factors could substantially change modeling results. Analyses based on changes in average climate and which assume farmers effectively adapt suggest that aggregate U.S. food production will not be harmed, although there may be signiticant regional changes. |
climate change greenhouse effect midwest agriculture |
| 4 | In Minnesota, agriculture is about a $7 billion annual industry, 50% of which comes from crops. About 5% of all farm acres in the nation is in Minnesota. The principal crops are corn, soy beans, and wheat. About 2% of the state's farm acres are irrigated. If climate warms, corn yields could remain unchanged or could decrease by up to 34%. Wheat yields could increase by 6-10%, and projected soybean yields are mixed: they could increase by up to 28% or decrease by 12%. The number of acres farmed could fall by 12-18%, and farm income could decrease by 10-25%. Irrigated acreage could increase. This could further stress water supplies, which could be lower in the summer, and water quality could be degraded further. |
climate change greenhouse effect midwest agriculture |
| replace "try" with "will". make commitments with time deadlines and deliver more than promised. never say something is impossible or that you can't do it. replace "have to" with "glad to". replace "I hate to do this to you" with "I want to do this for you". ask when or how much, not if. challenges, not problems. give yourself the credit you deserve. don't apologize for shortcomings: eliminate them or don't apologize. accept responsibility and adjust your reactions. seek win-win solutions. Try to connect thoughts with "and" instead of "but". Don't disagree: "I understand, *and*..." Ask for improvement suggestions, not faults. invite, don't order; recommend. don't ask for favors; suggest a beneficial alternative. eliminate "hopefully" and "to tell the truth". |
language communication executive self confidence esteem public relations spin | |
| 1.11 | The recommendations for action are made in a spirit of consensus and international cooperation, recognizing that the formulation and implementation of population-related policies is the responsibility of each country and should take into account the economic, social and environmental diversity of conditions in each country, with full respect for the various religious and ethical values, cultural backgrounds and philosophical convictions of its people, as well as the shared but differentiated responsibilities of all the world's people for a common future. | population stabilization |
| 1.12 | Among these objectives and goals are: sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development; education, especially for girls; gender equity and equality; infant, child and maternal mortality reduction; and the provision of universal access to reproductive health services, including family planning and sexual health. | population stabilization |
| 1.15 | While the International Conference on Population and Development does not create any new international human rights, it affirms the application of universally recognized human rights standards to all aspects of population programmes. ... The impact of this Conference will be measured by the strength of the specific commitments made here and the consequent actions to fulfil them, as part of a new global partnership among all the world's countries and peoples, based on a sense of shared but differentiated responsibility for each other and for our planetary home. | stabilization |
| 2.9 | Principle 6: Sustainable development as a means to ensure human well-being, equitably shared by all people today and in the future, requires that the interrelationships between population, resources, the environment and development should be fully recognized, properly managed and brought into harmonious, dynamic balance. To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate policies, including population-related policies, in order to meet the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. | |
| 2.11 | Principle 8: Everyone has the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States should take all appropriate measures to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, universal access to health-care services, including those related to reproductive health care, which includes family planning and sexual health. Reproductive health-care programmes should provide the widest range of services without any form of coercion. All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information, education and means to do so. | |
| 3.9 | To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, Governments should reduce and eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies. Developed countries should take the lead in achieving sustainable consumption patterns and effective waste management. | environmentalism population stabilization |
| 3.14 | Slower population growth has in many countries bought more time to adjust to future population increases. This has increased those countries' ability to attack poverty, protect and repair the environment, and build the base for future sustainable development. | |
| 3.16 | The objective is to raise the quality of life for all people through appropriate population and development policies and programmes aimed at achieving poverty eradication, sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development and sustainable patterns of consumption and production, human resource development and the guarantee of all human rights, including the right to development as a universal and inalienable right and an integral part of fundamental human rights. Particular attention is to be given to the socio- economic improvement of poor women in developed and developing countries. As women are generally the poorest of the poor and at the same time key actors in the development process, eliminating social, cultural, political and economic discrimination against women is a prerequisite of eradicating poverty, promoting sustained economic growth in the context of sustainable development, ensuring quality family planning and reproductive health services, and achieving balance between population and available resources and sustainable patterns of consumption and production. | United Nations stabilization feminism empowerment |
| 3.18 | Existing inequities and barriers to women in the workforce should be eliminated and women's participation in all policy-making and implementation, as well as their access to productive resources, and ownership of land, and their right to inherit property should be promoted and strengthened. |
United Nations population stabilization feminism empowerment |
| 4.2 | despite notable efforts by countries around the globe that have appreciably expanded access to basic education, there are approximately 960 million illiterate adults in the world, of whom two thirds are women. More than one third of the world's adults, most of them women, have no access to printed knowledge, to new skills or to technologies that would improve the quality of their lives and help them shape and adapt to social and economic change. There are 130 million children who are not enrolled in primary school and 70 per cent of them are girls. | United Nations population stabilization education |
| 4.3 | Countries should act to empower women and should take steps to eliminate inequalities between men and women as soon as possible by: (a) Establishing mechanisms for women's equal participation and equitable representation at all levels of the political process and public life in each community and society and enabling women to articulate their concerns and needs; (b) Promoting the fulfilment of women's potential through education, skill development and employment, giving paramount importance to the elimination of poverty, illiteracy and ill health among women; (c) Eliminating all practices that discriminate against women; assisting women to establish and realize their rights, including those that relate to reproductive and sexual health; (d) Adopting appropriate measures to improve women's ability to earn income beyond traditional occupations, achieve economic self-reliance, and ensure women's equal access to the labour market and social security systems; (e) Eliminating violence against women; (f) Eliminating discriminatory practices by employers against women, such as those based on proof of contraceptive use or pregnancy status; (g) Making it possible, through laws, regulations and other appropriate measures, for women to combine the roles of child-bearing, breast-feeding and child-rearing with participation in the workforce. | United Nations population stabilization feminism equality empowerment |
| 4.19 | Schools, the media and other social institutions should seek to eliminate stereotypes in all types of communication and educational materials that reinforce existing inequities between males and females and undermine girls' self-esteem. Countries must recognize that, in addition to expanding education for girls, teachers' attitudes and practices, school curricula and facilities must also change to reflect a commitment to eliminate all gender bias, while recognizing the specific needs of the girl child. | United Nations population stabilization feminism equality empowerment |
| 4.27 | Special efforts should be made to emphasize men's shared responsibility and promote their active involvement in responsible parenthood, sexual and reproductive behaviour, including family planning; prenatal, maternal and child health; prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV; prevention of unwanted and high-risk pregnancies; shared control and contribution to family income, children's education, health and nutrition; and recognition and promotion of the equal value of children of both sexes. Male responsibilities in family life must be included in the education of children from the earliest ages. Special emphasis should be placed on the prevention of violence against women and children. | United Nations population stabilization feminism equality empowerment |
| 6.2 | The majority of the world's countries are converging towards a pattern of low birth and death rates, but since those countries are proceeding at different speeds, the emerging picture is that of a world facing increasingly diverse demographic situations. In terms of national averages, during the period 1985-1990, fertility ranged from an estimated 8.5 children per woman in Rwanda to 1.3 children per woman in Italy, while expectation of life at birth, an indicator of mortality conditions, ranged from an estimated 41 years in Sierra Leone to 78.3 years in Japan. In many regions, including some countries with economies in transition, it is estimated that life expectancy at birth has decreased. During the period 1985-1990, 44 per cent of the world population were living in the 114 countries that had growth rates of more than 2 per cent per annum. These included nearly all the countries in Africa, whose population- doubling time averages about 24 years, two thirds of those in Asia and one third of those in Latin America. On the other hand, 66 countries (the majority of them in Europe), representing 23 per cent of the world population, had growth rates of less than 1 per cent per annum. Europe's population would take more than 380 years to double at current rates. These disparate levels and differentials have implications for the ultimate size and regional distribution of the world population and for the prospects for sustainable development. It is projected that between 1995 and 2015 the population of the more developed regions will increase by some 120 million, while the population of the less developed regions will increase by 1,727 million. | United Nations stabilization |
| 6.6 | The ongoing and future demands created by large young populations, particularly in terms of health, education and employment, represent major challenges and responsibilities for families, local communities, countries and the international community. First and foremost among these responsibilities is to ensure that every child is a wanted child. The second responsibility is to recognize that children are the most important resource for the future and that greater investments in them by parents and societies are essential to the achievement of sustained economic growth and development. | United Nations population stabilization |
| 6.11 | Countries should create a socio-economic environment conducive to the elimination of all child marriages and other unions as a matter of urgency, and should discourage early marriage. The social responsibilities that marriage entails should be reinforced in countries' educational programmes. Governments should take action to eliminate discrimination against young pregnant women. | United Nations population stabilization |
| summary | States, tribes, territories and interstate commissions report that, in 1998, about 40% of U.S. streams, lakes and estuaries that were assessed were not clean enough to support uses such as fishing and swimming. About 32% of U.S. waters were assessed for this national inventory of water quality. Leading pollutants in impaired waters include siltation, bacteria, nutrients and metals. Runoff from agricultural lands and urban areas are the primary sources of these pollutants. | pollution freshwater agriculture city water quality |
| 7.2 | Reproductive health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law... reproductive health care ... includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations, and not merely counselling and care related to reproduction and sexually transmitted diseases. | |
| 7.3 | full attention should be given to the promotion of mutually respectful and equitable gender relations and particularly to meeting the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. | sex education |
| 7.6 | All countries should strive to make accessible through the primary health-care system, reproductive health to all individuals of appropriate ages as soon as possible and no later than the year 2015. Reproductive health care in the context of primary health care should, inter alia, include: family-planning counselling, information, education, ... abortion as specified in paragraph 8.25, including prevention of abortion and the management of the consequences of abortion | |
| 7.7 | Reproductive health-care programmes should be designed to serve the needs of women, including adolescents, and must involve women in the leadership, planning, decision-making, management, implementation, organization and evaluation of services. Governments and other organizations should take positive steps to include women at all levels of the health-care system. | |
| 7.8 | Innovative programmes must be developed to make information, counselling and services for reproductive health accessible to adolescents and adult men. Such programmes must both educate and enable men to share more equally in family planning and in domestic and child-rearing responsibilities and to accept the major responsibility for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Programmes must reach men in their workplaces, at home and where they gather for recreation. Boys and adolescents, with the support and guidance of their parents, and in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, should also be reached through schools, youth organizations and wherever they congregate. Voluntary and appropriate male methods for contraception, as well as for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, should be promoted and made accessible with adequate information and counselling. | sex education |
| 7.12 | The principle of informed free choice is essential to the long-term success of family-planning programmes. Any form of coercion has no part to play. In every society there are many social and economic incentives and disincentives that affect individual decisions about child-bearing and family size. Over the past century, many Governments have experimented with such schemes, including specific incentives and disincentives, in order to lower or raise fertility. Most such schemes have had only marginal impact on fertility and in some cases have been counterproductive. Governmental goals for family planning should be defined in terms of unmet needs for information and services. Demographic goals, while legitimately the subject of government development strategies, should not be imposed on family-planning providers in the form of targets or quotas for the recruitment of clients. | population stabilization |
| 7.13 | Currently, about 55 per cent of couples in developing regions use some method of family planning. This figure represents nearly a fivefold increase since the 1960s. Family-planning programmes have contributed considerably to the decline in average fertility rates for developing countries, from about six to seven children per woman in the 1960s to about three to four children at present. However, the full range of modern family-planning methods still remains unavailable to at least 350 million couples world wide, many of whom say they want to space or prevent another pregnancy. Survey data suggest that approximately 120 million additional women world wide would be currently using a modern family-planning method if more accurate information and affordable services were easily available, and if partners, extended families and the community were more supportive. These numbers do not include the substantial and growing numbers of sexually active unmarried individuals wanting and in need of information and services. During the decade of the 1990s, the number of couples of reproductive age will grow by about 18 million per annum. | |
| 7.13 | Family-planning programmes work best when they are part of or linked to broader reproductive health programmes that address closely related health needs and when women are fully involved in the design, provision, management and evaluation of services. | |
| 7.22 | Governments are encouraged to focus most of their efforts towards meeting their population and development objectives through education and voluntary measures rather than schemes involving incentives and disincentives. | |
| 7.24 | Governments should take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning, and in all cases provide for the humane treatment and counselling of women who have had recourse to abortion. | |
| 8.19 | At present, approximately 90 per cent of the countries of the world, representing 96 per cent of the world population, have policies that permit abortion under varying legal conditions to save the life of a woman. However, a significant proportion of the abortions carried out are self-induced or otherwise unsafe, leading to a large fraction of maternal deaths or to permanent injury to the women involved. | |
| 8.25 | In no case should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning. All Governments and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are urged to strengthen their commitment to women's health, to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion 20/ as a major public health concern and to reduce the recourse to abortion through expanded and improved family-planning services. Prevention of unwanted pregnancies must always be given the highest priority and every attempt should be made to eliminate the need for abortion. Women who have unwanted pregnancies should have ready access to reliable information and compassionate counselling. Any measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process. In circumstances where abortion is not against the law, such abortion should be safe. In all cases, women should have access to quality services for the management of complications arising from abortion. Post-abortion counselling, education and family-planning services should be offered promptly, which will also help to avoid repeat abortions. | |
| 9.1 | In the early 1990s, approximately half of the Governments in the world, mostly those of developing countries, considered the patterns of population distribution in their territories to be unsatisfactory and wished to modify them. A key issue was the rapid growth of urban areas, which are expected to house more than half of the world population by 2005. | migration urbanization sprawl |
| 9.9 | Countries are urged to recognize that the lands of indigenous people and their communities should be protected from activities that are environmentally unsound or that the indigenous people concerned consider to be socially and culturally inappropriate. The term "lands" is understood to include the environment of the areas which the people concerned traditionally occupy. | native development |
| 10.1 | Orderly international migration can have positive impacts on both the communities of origin and the communities of destination, providing the former with remittances and the latter with needed human resources. International migration also has the potential of facilitating the transfer of skills and contributing to cultural enrichment. However, international migration entails the loss of human resources for many countries of origin and may give rise to political, economic or social tensions in countries of destination. To be effective, international migration policies need to take into account the economic constraints of the receiving country, the impact of migration on the host society and its effects on countries of origin. The long-term manageability of international migration hinges on making the option to remain in one's country a viable one for all people. Sustainable economic growth with equity and development strategies consistent with this aim are a necessary means to that end. In addition, more effective use can be made of the potential contribution that expatriate nationals can make to the economic development of their countries of origin. | immigration emigration |
| 10.5 | Governments of countries of destination are invited to consider the use of certain forms of temporary migration, such as short-term and project-related migration, as a means of improving the skills of nationals of countries of origin ... Governments of countries of origin are urged to facilitate the return of migrants and their reintegration into their home communities, and to devise ways of using their skills... promoting the return on a voluntary basis of qualified migrants who can play a crucial role in the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology. Countries of destination are encouraged to facilitate return migration by adopting flexible policies, such as the transferability of pensions and other work benefits. | immigration emigration |
| 10.7 | Governments are encouraged to consider requests for migration from countries whose existence, according to available scientific evidence, is imminently threatened by global warming and climate change. | immigration emigration |
| 10.12 | Consistent with article 10 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and all other relevant universally recognized human rights instruments, all Governments, particularly those of receiving countries, must recognize the vital importance of family reunification and promote its integration into their national legislation in order to ensure the protection of the unity of the families of documented migrants. Governments of receiving countries must ensure the protection of migrants and their families, giving priority to programmes and strategies that combat religious intolerance, racism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia and gender discrimination and that generate the necessary public sensitivity in that regard. | immigration emigration |
| 10.18 | Governments of both receiving countries and countries of origin should adopt effective sanctions against those who organize undocumented migration, exploit undocumented migrants or engage in trafficking in undocumented migrants, especially those who engage in any form of international traffic in women, youth and children. | immigration emigration |
| 10.21 | In less than 10 years, from 1985 to 1993, the number of refugees has more than doubled, from 8.5 million to 19 million. This has been caused by multiple and complex factors, including massive violations of human rights. Most of those refugees find asylum in developing countries, often imposing great burdens on those States. The institution of asylum is under severe strain in industrialized countries for a variety of reasons, including the growing numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers and the misuse of asylum procedures by migrants attempting to circumvent immigration restrictions. | immigration emigration |
| 11.2 | Education is a key factor in sustainable development: it is at the same time a component of well-being and a factor in the development of well-being through its links with demographic as well as economic and social factors... The reduction of fertility, morbidity and mortality rates, the empowerment of women, the improvement in the quality of the working population and the promotion of genuine democracy are largely assisted by progress in education. The integration of migrants is also facilitated by universal access to education, which respects the religious and cultural backgrounds of migrants. | immigration emigration population stabilization |
| 11.9 | To be most effective, education about population issues must begin in primary school and continue through all levels of formal and non-formal education, taking into account the rights and responsibilities of parents and the needs of children and adolescents. Where such programmes already exist, curricula should be reviewed, updated and broadened with a view to ensuring adequate coverage of such important concerns as gender sensitivity, reproductive choices and responsibilities, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. To ensure acceptance of population education programmes by the community, population education projects should emphasize consultation with parents and community leaders. | |
| 11.23 | Governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector should make greater and more effective use of the entertainment media, including radio and television soap operas and drama, folk theatre and other traditional media to encourage public discussion of important but sometimes sensitive topics related to the implementation of the present Programme of Action. When the entertainment media - especially dramas - are used for advocacy purposes or to promote particular lifestyles, the public should be so informed, and in each case the identity of sponsors should be indicated in an appropriate manner. | population stabilization education empowerment feminism sexuality |
| 13.11 | population-related programmes play an important role in enabling, facilitating and accelerating progress in sustainable human development programmes, especially by contributing to the empowerment of women, improving the health of the people (particularly of women and children, and especially in the rural areas), slowing the growth rate of demand for social services, mobilizing community action and stressing the long-term importance of social-sector investments. | population stabilization education feminism sustainable development |
| 13.15 | It has been estimated that, in the developing countries and countries with economies in transition, the implementation of programmes in the area of reproductive health, including those related to family planning, maternal health and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as other basic actions for collecting and analysing population data, will cost: $17.0 billion in 2000, $18.5 billion in 2005, $20.5 billion in 2010 and $21.7 billion in 2015 ... Of this, approximately 65 per cent is for the delivery system. | population stabilization funding |
| 13.15a | The family-planning component is estimated to cost: $10.2 billion in 2000, $11.5 billion in 2005, $12.6 billion in 2010 and $13.8 billion in 2015... Projections of future costs allow for improvements in quality of care. | population stabilization funding |
| 150 | The representative of El Salvador stated the following: ... "We Latin American countries are signatories to the American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San Jos?). Article 4 thereof states quite clearly that life must be protected from the moment of conception. In addition, because our countries are mainly Christian, we consider that life is given by the Creator and cannot be taken unless there is a reason which justifies it being extinguished. For this reason, as far as Principle 1 of the Programme of Action is concerned... we consider that life must be protected from the moment of conception." | population stabilization abortion |
| 151 | The representative of Honduras stated the following: ... "The delegation of Honduras in supporting the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development bases itself on the Declaration of the Fifteenth Summit of Central American Presidents, adopted at Guacimo de Limon, Costa Rica, on 20 August 1994 and bases itself specifically on the following: (a) Article 65 of the Constitution of the Republic of Honduras, which provides for the fact that the right to life is inviolable, and articles 111 and 112 of the same Constitution, which state that the State must protect the institution of the family and marriage and the right of men and women to contract marriages and common law marriages; (b) The American Convention on Human Rights, which reaffirms that every person has the right to life and that this right will be protected by law and will be protected in general, starting from the moment of conception, based on moral, ethical, religious and cultural principles, which should regulate the international community, and in accordance with the internationally recognized human rights." | population stabilization abortion |
| 153 | The representative of Nicaragua stated the following: ... "The Government of Nicaragua, pursuant to its Constitution and its laws, and as a signatory of the American Convention on Human Rights, confirms that every person has a right to life, this being a fundamental and inalienable right, and that this right begins from the very moment of conception. Accordingly, first we agree that the family may take various forms, but in no event can its essence be changed. Its essence is the union between man and woman, from which new human life derives. Second, we accept the concepts of 'family planning', 'sexual health', 'reproductive health', 'reproductive rights' and 'sexual rights' expressing an explicit reservation on these terms and any others when they include 'abortion' or 'termination of pregnancy' as a component. Abortion and termination of pregnancy can under no circumstances be regarded as a method of regulating fertility or a means of population control. Third, we also express an explicit reservation on the terms 'couple' or 'unions' when they may refer to persons of the same sex. Fourth, Nicaragua accepts therapeutic abortion on the grounds of medical necessity under our Constitution. Thus, we express an explicit reservation on 'abortion' and 'termination of pregnancy' in any part of the Programme of Action of this Conference." | population stabilization abortion homosexuality same-sex marriage |
| 159 | The representative of Egypt submitted the following written statement: "We wish to point out that the delegation of Egypt was among those delegations that registered numerous comments on the contents of the Programme of Action with regard to the phrase 'couples and individuals'. While recognizing that this expression was adopted by consensus at the two previous population conferences of 1974 and 1984, our delegation called for the deletion of the word 'individuals' since it has always been our understanding that all the questions dealt with by the Programme of Action in this regard relate to harmonious relations between couples united by the bond of marriage in the context of the concept of the family as the primary cell of society." | Islam family planning single parent mother father |
| 161-163 | The representative of the Holy See submitted the following written statement: ... "As you well know, the Holy See could not find its way to join the consensus of the Conferences of Bucharest and Mexico City, because of some fundamental reservations. Yet, now in Cairo for the first time, development has been linked to population as a major issue of reflection. The current Programme of Action, ... is notable for its affirmations against all forms of coercion in population policies. ... The document recognizes the protection and support required by the basic unit of society, the family founded on marriage. Women's advancement and the improvement of women's status, through education and better health-care services, are stressed. Migration, the all too often forgotten sector of population policy has been examined. The Conference has given clear indications of the concern that exists in the entire international community about threats to women's health. There is an appeal to greater respect for religious and cultural beliefs of persons and communities. But there are other aspects of the final document which the Holy See cannot support. Together with so many people around the world, the Holy See affirms that human life begins at the moment of conception. That life must be defended and protected. The Holy See can therefore never condone abortion or policies which favour abortion. The final document, as opposed to the earlier documents of the Bucharest and Mexico City Conferences, recognizes abortion as a dimension of population policy and, indeed of primary health care, even though it does stress that abortion should not be promoted as means of family planning and urges nations to find alternatives to abortion. ... my delegation joins the consensus on the Principles (chapter II), as a sign of our solidarity with the basic inspiration which has guided, and will continue to guide, our work. Similarly, it joins the consensus on chapter V on the family, the basic unit of society... chapter III on population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development... chapter IV (Gender equality, equity and empowerment of women) and chapters IX and X on migration issues. The Holy See, because of its specific nature, does not find it appropriate to join the consensus on the operative chapters of the document (chapters XII to XVI). ... Despite the many positive aspects of chapters VII and VIII, the text that has been presented to us has many broader implications, which has led the Holy See to decide not to join the consensus on these chapters. ... Nothing that the Holy See has done in this consensus process should be understood or interpreted as an endorsement of concepts it cannot support for moral reasons. Especially, nothing is to be understood to imply that the Holy See endorses abortion or has in any way changed its moral position concerning abortion or on contraceptives or sterilization or on the use of condoms in HIV/AIDS prevention programmes. | Vatican Pope Catholicism |
| 1.1 | The rural area lost to development between 1982 and 1997 is about equal to the entire land mass of Maine and New Hampshire combined. The rate of rural land lost to development in the 1990s was about 2.2 million acres per year. If this rate continues to the year 2050 ? when today?s toddlers are middle-aged ? the United States will have lost an additional 110 million acres of rural countryside. That?s about equal to the combined areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. | sprawl population growth consumption |
| If the rates of agricultural land loss that have prevailed in recent years continue to 2050, the nation will have lost over 55 million of its remaining 375 million acres of cropland, or 15% of it, even as the U.S. population is projected to grow by more than 40% from 283 million to 404 million. | sprawl population growth consumption agriculture food | |
| 1.3 | If the same rate of cropland loss were to continue that occurred from 1992-97, then the United States would lose approximately 110 million acres (about 30%) of its remaining 375 million acres of cropland. Cropland per capita, that is, the acreage of land to grow grains and other crops for each U.S. resident, would decline by two-thirds, from 1.4 acres in 1997 to 0.46 acre in 2100. | sprawl population growth consumption agriculture food Census |
| Per capita land consumption in the 100 largest urbanized areas of the US increased by 22.6% between 1970 and 1990, while population in those areas increased 23.6%. These two factors are responsible for the 51.5% total land area growth experienced by the urbanized areas. | sprawl population growth consumption agriculture food Census | |
| Appendix A | In Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN, population growth is responsible for 51.3% of sprawl, while growth in per capita land use is responsible for 48.7%. | |
| Appendix A | Of the 100 largest cities in the US, those whose sprawl was entirely due to population growth and not due to increases in per capita land use were the following: Corpus Christi, TX; Dallas-Fort Worth, TX; Ft. Lauderdale- Hollywood-Pompano, FL; Fresno, CA; Honolulu, HI; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Miami-Hialeah, FL; Oxnard-Ventura, CA; Riverside-San Bernardino, CA; Sacramento, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Jose, CA; and West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL. |
development |
| 531 | A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is. At nature's mighty feast there is no vacant cover for him. She tells him to be gone, and will quickly execute her own orders, if he does not work upon the compassion of some of her guests. If these guests get up and make room for him, other intruders immediately appear demanding the same favour. The report of a provision for all that come, fills the hall with numerous claimants. The order and harmony of the feast is disturbed, the plenty that before reigned is changed into scarcity; and the happiness of the guests is destroyed by the spectacle of misery and dependence in every part of the hall, and by the clamorous importunity of those, who are justly enraged at not finding the provision which they had been taught to expect. The guests learn too late their error, in counter-acting those strict orders to all intruders, issued by the great mistress of the feast, who, wishing that all guests should have plenty, and knowing she could not provide for unlimited numbers, humanely refused to admit fresh comers when her table was already full. | population growth dynamics stabilization ecology Thomas Malthus |
| The municipal solid waste production per capita in the United States increased from 2.7 pounds per day in 1965 to 4.0 pounds per day in 1988. | ||
| Each time a person spends a US dollar, approximately 3000-4000 kcal of energy (about 15 Joules, or the equivalent of one half-liter of oil) are extracted from the earth and burned to produce the goods or services purchased by that dollar. | environmental impact United States economy | |
| Farmers use energy directly in tractors and indirectly in fertilizers, so that almost four liters of oil are used each day to feed an American. | environmental impact United States economy | |
| In the United States, food production is as industrialized as most other aspects of US society. For example, to produce one kilocalorie of food requires, on average, about 10 kilocalories of oil. | environmental impact agriculture | |
| 87 | Today's GDP calculation is like a car with a speedometer but no gas gauge. It tells us how fast we're going but not when we're likely to run empty. | GNP gross domestic product gross national product economy ecology environment |
| 82 | Between 1969 and 1995, the vehicle population of the United States grew six times as fast as the human population and twice as fast as the number of drivers. | car automobile US |
| 82 | Six out of ten households own two or more cars; two out of ten own three or more. | car automobile US |
| 106 | In what must rank among the great corporate crimes of the century, General Motors secretly joined with Standard Oil of California, Firestone Tire and Rubber, Phillips Petroleum, and Mack (Truck) Manufacturing in 1932 to form National City Lines, a phony front company whose modus operandi was brutally simple: buy up rail and trolley lines in cities across the land, then shut them down and tear out the tracks. National City Lines eventually closed approximately one hundred streetcar systems in some forty-five cities, including New York, Baltimore, and Los Angeles. | automobile US United States corporation |
| 109 | Manufacturing cars is the biggest industry in the world; fueling them is the second biggest. The car accounts for approximately one of every seven jobs in the United States and millions more around the world. Stop producing cars and the global economy would collapse. | automobile gasoline |
| 113 | Since most of the world's electricity is generated by burning coal, electric cars end up producing approximately 90 percent as much greenhouse has as gasoline-powered cars do. | automobile pollution emissions global warming climate change |
| The Chernobyl accident released about two hundred times as much radiation as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings combined. | nuclear atomic fission meltdown Russia environment | |
| 136 | Since 1951, Lake Karachay [in Chelyabinsk, Russia] had accumulated an awesome 120 million curies worth of radioactivity and absorbed nearly one hundred times more strontium 90 and cesium 137 than was released at Chernobyl. ...93 percent of the radioactivity in the lake had filtered down into the soil beneath, and 60 percent of it had reached the underlying water table. From there, it had already migrated half a mile away from the lake. | nuclear waste environment pollution |
| 144 | Finding a solution to the [nuclear] waste disposal problem is complicated by the fact that many radionuclides ... have half-lives of thousands of years; thus they must be isolated from ecosystems and human contact for a period of time equal to the known length of human civilization... an estimated four hundred thousand metric tons of depleted uranium, three billion curies of high-level plutonium-related waste, and one hundred to two hundred million metric tons of uranium mill refuse. Ironically, these figures will increase as ... nuclear weapons are dismantled. | nuclear waste environment pollution radiation |
| 161 | Everyone seemed to spit in China -- on the sidewalk, in the classroom, on the train, in restaurants, wherever. Middle-aged housewives, rowdy teenagers, toothless old men, beautiful young women -- the habit was universal. The communists had tried to eradicate spitting when they came to power in 1949; it was one of their first exhortations to the masses. They failed. | |
| 51 | The average resident of an industrial country consumes 3 times as much fresh water, 10 times as much energy and 19 times as much aluminum as someone in a developing country. | resource consumption environment |
| 196 | Industrial countries have about 25 percent of the world population but use about 80 percent of its energy. The United States alone contains 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for 22 percent of fossil fuel consumption, 24 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, and 33 percent of paper and plastic use. An average American uses 185 gallons of water a day for household tasks; the average Senegalese uses 8. An American consumes about fifty-three times more goods and services than a Chinese. | resource consumption environment |
| 196 | A baby born in the United States creates thirteen times as much environmental damage over the course of its lifetime as a baby born in Brazil... My San Francisco friend had one child in diapers and a second on the way, thus giving him the Brazilian equivalent of twenty-six children... Needless to say, however, he did not feel that he and his family were part of the global population problem. | resource consumption environment |
| 200 | It is not the planet or some other noble-sounding abstraction that pays the greatest price for excessive population growth; it is the supposedly overpopulated people themselves. | |
| 202 | Between 1990 and 1995, at least 107 countries suffered a net loss of forest cover, leaving the earth with approximately half its prehistoric forest cover. | deforestation environment timber |
| 14 | By 1997, the world's forests were, for the first time, losing more carbon than they were absorbing. | deforestation environment timber |
| 210 | Eighty percent of logging in the Amazon is illegal, according to an internal government report, but only 6.5 percent of the fines imposed are ever collected. | rainforest deforestation Brazil |
| 211 | In August 1998, President Cardoso ... signed an executive order that, in effect, declared a ten-year moratorium on environmental law enforcement in Brazil. | |
| Ultimate success in dealing with global social, economic, and environmental problems cannot be achieved without a stable world population. | growth stabilization | |
| In 1960, when India had 442 million people, it had 0.36 hectares of arable land for each person. By 1990, when India's population was 850 million, the ratio had shrunk to 0.20 hectares per capita. By 2025, it will be 0.12 hectares, even if the country manages to hit the lowest of the UN's three population predictions for the country -- that is, 1.3 billion people. The reason these ratios diminish is simple: a country's supply of land cannot expand (except by conquest). | growth stabilization agriculture | |
| There is no more fresh water on the planet today than there was 2,000 years ago when the earth's human population was less than three percent its current [1993] size of 5.5 billion people. Humanity's use of water quadrupled between 1940 and 1990; while half of that increase could be attributed to rising per capita consumption, the other half was purely a function of population growth. 430 million people lived in countries considered water stressed and 1.2 billion whose water supply was dangerously polluted. | ||
| 213 | The Green Revolution actually reinforced [unequal land distribution]. The revolution's success depended on imported seeds, extensive use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides, and economies of scale that were simply beyond the means of many smaller, poorer farmers, as the FAO later admitted. | agriculture farming food |
| 214 | In the Punjab region of India, the irrigation stresses imposed by the Green Revolution could begin turning the nation's breadbasket into barren desert by 2015, according to the World Bank. | agriculture farming food |
| 28-31 | The population of Mexico City doubled between 1970 and 1986, from eight million to sixteen million. Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, is swelling from 288,000 inhabitants in 1950 to a projected 13.5 millioin by 2000. Simple population growth is responsible for 60 percent of this urban expansion, but rural-to-urban migration caused the rest. | |
| 245 | Highways, housing, and factories are only accelerating the loss of farmland... China has lost some forty million hectares of arable land since the late 1950s, which amounts to nearly one-third of all the land currently under cultivation. Most of the losses in the years prior to Deng's reforms were due to erosion, salinization, and other forms of environmental degradation; now the modernization drive is making things worse, not least because the suburban areas being turned into housing developments and highways are often very productive land. | sprawl agriculture food |
| 251-252 | The official China Daily has estimated the annual cost of China's environmental degradation to be 7 percent of the gross domestic product. The World Bank estimates the cost of air and water pollution alone at $54 billion a year, or roughly 8 percent of GDB. V?clav Smil has calculated the cost of environmental damage at 10-15 percent of GDP. In short, the growth of the economy is being canceled out by the associated environmental degradation. The economy is running hard but poisoning its own future. | |
| 263 | [at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992] "The American way of life is not negotiable," declared [President] George Bush. | consumption united states nations |
| 265 | UNCED [the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or 1992 Earth Summit] assured its irrelevance ... by declining even to mention global corporations, who were, after all, the most powerful actors in modern economic life, not to mention some of the planet's biggest polluters. | |
| 276 | Worldwide we lose an area of forest cover equal to the size of Washington State annually. | deforestation |
| 279 | When the Clean Air Act was revised in 1990, utility industry lobbyists tried to derail new acid rain provisions by claiming that sulfur dioxide reductions would cost $1500 a ton. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated the costs at $450-600 a ton; environmentalists said $300 a ton. The standards went into effect, though not until 1995. By then, the emissions trading system the act had established had brought the price down to $132 a ton. In 1996, the price was a mere $70 a ton, and even the business press was wondering whether utilities should have been forced to make deeper emissions cuts than the 1990 act had mandated. | economics environment |
| 279 | When fifty-one of the one hundred biggest economies on earth are corporations, not countries, only governments can come close to having enough strength to enforce real limits on the behavior of the marketplace and the giant corporations who are its most powerful players. | economics environment |
| In the early 1980s, only in the Soviet Union, Poland, Germany, and the Philippines had majorities of people claimed to suffer significant health effects of environmental hazards. But by the early 1990s, majorities in sixteen countries (including well-to-do Canada, Great Britain, and the United States) reported that they had experienced environmentally-related ailments. Majorities in all twenty-four countries surveyed expected their children and grandchildren's health to suffer over the next twenty-five years. "Environmental problems are no longer viewed as just a threat to [the aesthetic] quality of life... but are considered a fundamental threat to human welfare." | ||
| full title: "A Moment of Truth: Correcting the Scientific Errors in Gregg Easterbrook's A Moment on the Earth" | ||
| In this century, sea levels have risen four to eight inches, enough to erode forty feet of a typical beach on the east coast of the United States. | global warming climate change erosion | |
| 299-300 | A crucial additional advantage of raising efficiency is that the economic activity it generates is labor-intensive. ...investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy yield two to ten times as many jobs as investments in fossil feul and nuclear power do. Incinerating a million tons of solid waste requires eighty workers, and putting it in a landfill takes six hundred workers, but recycling it takes sixteen hundred workers. Building railroad tracks generates 50 percent more jobs per dollar invested than building highways. Employing all these additional workers would have other benefits as well, including higher tax revenues for governments (and lower welfare costs), greater consumer demand for businesses, and more stable communities. Thus the efficiency solution to the environmental crisis offers sluggish economies in the North and South alike the opportunity to address the other, largely unremarked crisis of our time: jobs. | economics |
| 9-10 | "Don't feel sad, Little Tree. It is The Way. Tal-con [the hawk] caught the slow [quail] and so the slow will raise no children who are also slow. Tal-con eats a thousand ground rats who eat the eggs of the quail -- both the quick and the slow eggs -- and so Tal-con lives by the Way. He helps the quail. ... Take only what ye need. When ye take the deer, do not take the best. Take the smaller and the slower and then the deer will grow stronger and always give you meat. ... Only Ti-bi, the bee, stores more than he can use... and so he is robbed by the bear, and the 'coon... and the Cherokee. It is so with people who store and fat themselves with more than their share. They will say a flag stands for their right to do this... and men will die because of the words and the flag... but they will not change the rules of The Way." | ecology natural selection hunting |
| 61-62 | Granma's Pa was called Brown Hawk. She said his understanding was deep. He coul feel the tree-thought. Once, she said, when she was a little girl, her Pa was troubled and said the white oaks on the mountain near them was excited and scared. He spent much time on the mountain, walking among the oaks. They were of much beauty, tall and straight. They wasn't selfish, allowing ground for sumach and persimmon, and hickory and chestnut to feed the wild things. Not being selfish gave them much spirit and the spirit was strong. Granma said her Pa got so worried about the oaks that he would walk amongst them at night, for he knew something was wrong. Then, early one morning, as the sun broke the mountain ridge, Brown Hawk watched while lumbermen moved through the white oaks, marking and figuring how to cut all of them down. When they left, Brown Hawk said, the white oaks commenced to cry. And he could not sleep. So he watched the lumbermen. They built a road up to the mountain over which to bring their wagons. Granma said her Pa talked to the Cherokees and they determined to save the white oaks. She said at night, when the lumbermen would leave and go back to the settlement, the Cherokees would dig up the road, hacking deep trenches across it. The women and children helped. The next morning, the lumbermen came back and spent all day fixing the road. But that night, the Cherokees dug it up again. This went on for the next two days and nights; then the lumbermen put up guards on the road with guns. But they could not guard all the road, and the Cherokees dug trenches where they could. Granma said it was a hard struggle and they grew very tired. Then one day, as the lumbermen were working on the road, a giant white oak fell across a wagon. She said it was a fine, healthy white oak and had no reason to fall, but it did. The lumbermen gave up trying to build the road. Spring rains set in... and they never came back. Granma said the moon waxed full, and they held a celebration in the great stand of white oaks. They danced in the full yellow moon, and the white oaks sang and touched their branches together, and touched the Cherokee. Granma said they sang a death chant for the white oak who had given his life to save others, and she said the feeling was so strong that it almost picked her up off the mountain. | ecology forestry animism Native American |
| 65 | [Granpa] also had no patience atall with aging whiskey. Granpa said he had heard all his life this 'un and that 'un mouthing off about how much better aged whiskey was. He said he tried it oncet. Said he set some fresh whiskey back and let it set for a week and when he tasted of it, it didn't taste one lick damn different from all the other whiskey he made. Granpa said that where folks got that at was letting whiskey set in barrels for a long time until it picked up the scent and color of the barrels. He said if a damn fool wanted to smell of a barrel, he'd ought to go stick his head in one and smell of it, then go git himself a drink of honest whiskey. Granpa called such people "barrel sniffers." He said he could put stump water in a barrel and let it set long enough and sell it to such folks, and they would drink it because it smelled like a barrel. | alcohol connoisseur |
| After two years of concentrated effort, we have concluded that, in the long run, no substantial benefits will result from further growth of the Nation's population, rather that the gradual stabilization of our population would contribute significantly to the Nation's ability to solve its problems. | United States USA | |
| Population growth is clearly not the sole culprit in ecological damage. ...But the overall effect [of frivolous and extravagant consumption that pollutes] is a product of numbers times styles of life taken together. One multiplies the other to produce the total impact. | ||
| Continued population growth limits our options. ...With less land per person and more people to accommodate, there are fewer alternatives, less room for diversity, less room for error. | stabilization | |
| We have looked for, and have not found, any convincing economic argument for continued population growth. The health of our country does not depend on it, nor does the vitality of business nor the welfare of the average person. | stabilization | |
| A flow of highly trained immigrants can mask the need for developing and promoting domestic talents -- for example, in the medical field. Although medical scools have recently [1972] been expanding enrollments, a significant proportion of the demand for doctors is being met by immigrants trained abroad. It appears that, without the availability of these foreign doctors, the medical schools would be under greater pressure to increase their enrollment and to provide more educational opportunities to all Americans -- particularly minorities and women. | immigration United States | |
| Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the week beginning October 20, 1991, is designated as "World Population Awareness Week." [officially approved October 30, 1991] | ||
| A culture evolves in response to an area's conditions: successful production leads to increased reproduction which forces production to intensify until eventually the resources of that area are depleted. Then, either the culture collapses or it devises a new system of production, with its own forms of exploitation, violence and drudgery. | anthropology sociology history population growth | |
| sum of all Minnesota's forested acres in the 1880s: 30,012,652.334 | forest tree land use Minnesota | |
| 76.2% of all charitable contributions come from individuals, 9.3% from foundations, 5.7% from corporations, and 8.8% from bequests, so the greatest growth potential for nonprofits lies in individuals. 47% of all charitable contributions go to religious organizations. | ||
| 100% staff participation in donating to an organization is important; 100% board participation is vital. | charity fundraising nonprofit sector | |
| Donor/Volunteer Constituency Circle [diagram of concentric circles] 1: Board, staff, and their families 2: Volunteers, donors 3: Former volunteers, former donors 4: Civic organizations, fraternal organizations, vendors, past program participants, veterans' associations, religious organizations, visitors, clients and their families 5: Corporations, foundations, individuals interested in the mission, community at large |
charity fundraising nonprofit sector | |
| What a Case Isn't: * A mission statement * A strategic plan * A program description * A need statement * An annual report What a Case Is: A compelling reason for a constituent to support your organization, right now. |
charity fundraising nonprofit sector | |
| Components of the Case The Emotional Case: connects the constituent to the desired outcome. The Institutional Case: connects the constituent to your organization as the instrument to achieve the outcome. The Financial Case: connects the constituent's gift to the achievement of the outcome. |
charity fundraising nonprofit sector | |
| 5-10% of the total number of donors provide 80-90% of the income. 60-80% of the total number of donors provide 10-20% of the income. |
charity fundraising nonprofit sector | |
| Taxable iron ore reserves of Minnesota, excluding stockpiles and taconite, in gross tons of concentrate: in 1915: 1,465,185,532 in 2000: 95,768,671 Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue, Minerals Tax Office. |
mining | |
| Worldwide, soil erosion averages approximately 30 tons/hectare/year, or about 30 times faster than the replacement rate. | agriculture farming food production | |
| Crops can be grown under artificial conditions using hydroponic techniques, but the costs in terms of energy and dollars are approximately 10 times that of conventional agriculture. | farming food production | |
| Currently, 65% of the water removed from all sources worldwide is used solely for irrigation. Of this amount, about two-thirds is consumed by plant life (non-recoverable). | agriculture farming food production | |
| The minimum amount of water required per capita for food is about 400,000L per year. | agriculture farming food production | |
| Water demands already far exceed supplies in nearly 80 nations of the world. | ||
| If current rates of pumping continue, the Ogallala aquifer is expected to become nonproductive by 2030. | ||
| Approximately 95% of the water in developing countries is polluted. | ||
| The U.S. population consumes 40% more fossil energy than all the solar energy captured by harvested U.S. crops, forest products, and other vegetation each year. | biomass agriculture fuel United States | |
| In the United States, about 0.5 million tons of pesticides are applied each year, yet pests still destroy about 37% of all potential crop production. Estimates suggest that pesticide use could be reduced by 50% or more, without any reduction in pest control and/or any change in cosmetic standards of crops, through the implementation of sound ecological pest controls, such as crop rotations and biocontrols. | ||
| 4 | Every minute: 380 women become pregnant 190 women face an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy 110 women experience a pregnancy-related complication 40 women have an unsafe abortion 1 woman dies from a pregnany-related complication |
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| 4 | More than one in four pregnancies worldwide each year ends in abortion. | |
| 4 | More than 75,000 women die each year due to unsafe abortion. | |
| 6 | About 5.6 million people became newly infected with HIV/AIDS in 1999. ... Each year there are 12 million new cases of syphilis, 89 million of chlamydia, 62 million of gonorrhea, and 170 million of trichomoniasis. | sexually transmitted disease |
| 8 | Eighty-six countries are unable to grow or purchase enough food to feed their populations. Over 2.5 billion people lack basic sanitation - more than the populations of China and India combined. Over one billion people lack adequate housing - approximately four times the US population. | |
| 9 | A key population concern in the United States is teenage pregnancy. Over one million teenagers become pregnant in the US every year; 78 percent of these pregnancies are unplanned. Furthermore, 80 percent of these girls are unmarried and only half of the total pregnancies end in live births. | |
| 9 | Each year 12 million Americans contract a STD; one fourth are teenagers. | |
| 9 | The current United States' funding level of $385 million (down from $585 million in 1995) is inadequate for international population assistance. | |
| 10 | Roughly 75 percent of the man-made global warming pollution currently in the atmosphere comes from industrialized nations. | greenhouse effect climate change |
| I gave a talk to a book club in Oakland. All the members had lost their homes, lost everything in the terrible Oakland - Berkeley Hills fire in '91. ... One of the club members described having given a precious object as a gift to a friend. She treasured the porcelain piece and almost didn't give it away because she loved it so much. After the fire, her friend returned the object. Another woman told the group she gave away the things she *didn't* like, and after the fire, these same things were returned to her. | karma | |
| 160 | ...there *is* a tremendous amount available to be learned in your culture that was not available to be learned in any tribal culture. But ... your basic citizen's education wasn't expanded from four grades to eight in order to include astronomy, microbiology, and zoology. It wasn't expanded from eight grades to twelve in order to include astrophysics, biochemistry, and paleontology. It wasn't expanded from twelve grades to sixteen in order to include exobiology, plasma physics, and heart surgery. Today's graduates don't leave school with all the advances of the past hundred years in their heads. Just like their great-great-grandparents a century ago, they leave with enough in their heads to start at the bottom of the job market, flipping burgers, pumping gas, and bagging groceries. It just takes today's graduates a whole lot longer to get there. | schools |
| 62-63 | In mature industrial countries with stable populations, agricultural claims on the Earth's ecosystem are beginning to level off. In the European Union (EU), for example, population has stabilized at roughly 380 million. With incomes already high, grain consumption per person has plateaued at around 470 kilograms a year. As a result, EU member countries, now consuming roughly 180 million tons of grain annually, have essentially stabilized their claims on the Earth's agricultural resources -- the first region in the world to do so. And, perhaps more important, since the region is a net exporter of grain, Europe has done this within the limits of its own land and water resources. Likewise, future demand for grain in both North America and Eastern Europe is also projected to remain within the carrying capacity of regional land and water resources. | |
| Soil erosion rates are highest in Asia, Africa, and South America, averaging 30 to 40 tons/ha/year, and lowest in the United States and Europe, averaging about 17 tons/ha/year. | ||
| The average rate of soil formation (the rate of conversion of parent material into soil in the A, E, and B horizons) is about 1 ton/ha/year. | erosion | |
| Croplands in the United States lose soil at an average rate of 17 tons/ha/year from combined water and wind erosion, and pastures lose 6 tons/ha/year. | agriculture farming ranching | |
| 22-23 | Trade has made consumer markets more global. Industries have become more international and less tied to a single place or production facility. This "globalization" means that consumers derive goods and services from ecosystems around the world, with the costs of use largely separated from the benefits. This tends to hide the environmental costs of increased consumption from those doing the consuming. | World Bank development |
| 23 | Even considering that almost four times as many people live in developing countries as in developed ones, the greatest burden on ecosystems currently originates with affluent consumers in developed countries, as well as wealthy elites in developing countries. It is the pattern of excessive consumption that often accompanies wealth that brings a disproportionate impact on ecosystems. | development World Bank |
| 28 | Population growth stresses ecosystems because it contributes to increases in both consumption and conversion. | development World Bank |
| 28 | In both more and less developed nations, cities are drawing people into ever greater concentrations. ... Although urban areas occupy only about 4 percent of the Earth's land area, they are home to nearly half the world's population. Currently cities are expansive consumers of ecosystem goods and services and prolific generators of ecosystem-damaging wastes -- essentially concentrated centers of ecosystem pressures. | development World Bank |
| 152 | "My other piece of advice, Copperfield," said Mr. Mikawber, "you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen ninteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is blighted, the leaf is withered, the God of day goes down upon the dreary scene, and -- and in short you are for ever floored. As I am!" To make his example the more impressive, Mr. Mikawber drank a glass of punch with an air of great enjoyment and satisfaction, and whistled the College Hornpipe. | financial management economics frugality |
| 13 | Civilization might survive the exhaustion of petroleum reserves, but not exhaustion of the world's agricultural topsoil. | agriculture farming land crops environment |
| 36 | Humanity's direct consumption, indirect cooption, and suppression of photosynthetic production add up to nearly 40 percent of the planet's potential net primary productivity on land. Including the lesser effects on oceanic systems, the total global impact is about 25 percent. | plants photosynthesis producers ecology |
| 39 | If the long-term carrying capacity of an area is clearly being degraded by its current human occupants, that area is overpopulated. | overpopulation ecology |
| 39-40 | It is especially ironic that Forbes considered the Netherlands not to be overpopulated. This is such a common error that it has been known for two decades as the "Netherlands Fallacy." The Netherlands can support 1,031 people per square mile only because the rest of the world does not. In 1984-86, the Netherlands imported almost 4 million tons of cereals, 130,000 tons of oils, and 480,000 tons of pulses (peas, beans, lentils). It took some of these relatively inexpensive imports and used them to boost their production of expensive exports -- 330,000 tons of milk and 1.2 million tons of meat. The Netherlands also extracted about a half-million tons of fishes from the sea during this period, and imported more in the form of fish meal. The Netherlands is also a major importer of minerals. ... In short, the people of the Netherlands didn't build their prosperity on the bounty of the Netherlands, and are not living on it now. ... Saying that the Netherlands is thriving with a density of 1,031 people per square mile simply ignores that those 1,031 people far exceed the carrying capacity of that square mile. | overpopulation ecology |
| 42 | Even if you don't care about starving children and overburdened parents who live without hope for a future, selfishness alone demands attention to the problems of the poverty-stricken. That is because the plight of the underprivileged of Earth is probably the single most important barrier to keeping our planet habitable. Without the cooperation of the poor, the most important global environmental problems cannot be solved; and at the moment the poor have precious little reason to listen to appeals for cooperation. Many of them are well aware that the affluent are mindlessly using up humanity's common inheritance -- even as they yearn to help us do it. And all poor people are aware that the rich have the ability to bear the suffering of the poverty-stricken with a stiff upper lip. To remove such attitudes and start helping the less fortunate (and themselves), the rich must understand the plight of the poor not just intellectually but emotionally. | charity humanitarianism international aid |
| The 1985 food supply could provide an adequate basic diet, primarily vegetarian, to about 6 billion people. The same food supply could provide a modestly improved diet, with about 15 percent of its calories from animal products (about what people in South America have available today), to 4 billion people. Some 1.3 billion people in the present population would get nothing at all to eat if that level of nutrition were given to the rest. A "full-but-healthy" diet, with approximately 35 percent of its calories from animal sources, could be fed to roughly 2.5 billion people, less than half the 1990 population. | ||
| 67 | With the present unequal distribution of food, a billion or so people are, if anything, too well fed. Most of them, of course, are in rich countries. About a third of the world's grain harvest is fed to livestock so that the diets of the well-to-do can be enriched with meat, eggs, and dairy products. Perhaps 3 billion other people get enough to eat, although meat may not often grace their dinner tables. Nearly a billion of the world's poorest people, mostly in poor countries, are hungry. An estimated 950 million people were getting deficient diets in 1988 ... about two out of five of those (almost 400 million people) were so undernourished that their health was threatened or their growth was stunted. | nutrition food poverty |
| 142 | Erosion is a big problem even in the United States, the "world's breadbasket." Around 1980, the United States was estimated to be losing nearly 4 billion tons of soil a year, enough to fill a freight train 600,000 miles long -- twenty-four times the circumference of Earth. About a third of America's cropland is affected, and drops in yield attributable to erosion have already been noted, including a 2 percent decline in grain production per acre in Illinois -- in the richest part of the grain belt -- between 1979 and 1984. | agriculture farming land soil |
| 129-130 | South Florida is an ideal real-life laboratory in which to observe the impacts of overpopulation on the quality of life in general and on ecosystem services in particular. If Florida were an independent nation, it would be one of the fastest growing in the world. Its population growth rate is about that of Bangladesh, 2.8 percent per year... A major difference, however, is that Florida's growth is not the result of a high birthrate but of immigration, about a quarter of which is of elderly people choosing to retire in a benign climate. The signs of explosive growth are everywhere evident in south Florida. Lake Okeechobee is heavily polluted, and groundwater tables are dropping. Suburban developments are marching steadily into the once-wildlife-rich Everglades, their invasion made possible by the draining of the marshes and the termination of the ecosystem services they once provided. Over this scene looms the highest point in south Florida, majestic "Mount Garbage," the Miami sanitary landfill. ... All this and the generally sleazy development are the most obvious symptoms of a population already too large, growing too fast, and overconsuming nonrenewable resources. | |
| 131-132 | Florida not only has serious difficulties created by human intervention in its freshwater flows, but also is the state most at risk from a sea-level rise resulting from global warming. The state is low and flat; the bottom of Lake Okeechobee is at sea level. The 2- or 3-foot rise in sea level that may occur in the next half-century would flood a substantial portion of the state. ... If that warming continues unabated, most of the state may disappear beneath the sea in a few centuries or less. | |
| 132-133 | Unfortunately, nations do not even attempt to keep statistics on average per-capita environmental impact of their citizens ... So, in order to make reasonable comparisons, we must use a surrogate statistic ... per-capita use of commercial energy. Much environmental damage is done in the mobilization of energy, and even more is done by its use. | |
| 151 | Over 80 percent of the world's wealth is held in the industrialized nations (which have about 23 percent of the people), and they have some 94 percent of the scientists and technologists. With all those handicaps the poor are deeply in debt to the rich, and suffering greatly in their attempts to service that debt... a flow that former Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt called "a blood transfusion from the sick to the healthy." | international debt |
| 152-153 | It is sometimes said, of course, that rather than population growth being a contributing cause of poverty, poverty is the cause of population growth... But the argument is almost moot. First of all, prosperity has not brought birthrates down to the necessary level even in rich nations such as the United States, and family sizes remain much too high even in Costa Rica, that most exemplary of developing nations (which has little severe poverty and an infant mortality rate comparable to eastern-European countries). Second, bringing the poor up to the levels of affluence of today's rich nations will produce unsupportable stresses on Earth's ecosystems unless the rich decide to engage in a massive redistribution of wealth. Third, there is no sign that the rich would seriously consider such a step. Fourth, whatever "charitable" steps are taken to help the poor will be more beneficial if the numbers of poor are smaller. And fifth, population growth itself is a major barrier in preventing the poor from helping themselves. In short... all of us should be working very hard to end both poverty and population growth, not wasting our efforts trying to decide which causes which. | |
| 159 | One major "economic" argument that is made for keeping the American population growing is that if we don't our population will grow older, and that will cause major economic and social problems. ... None of these arguments is particularly cogent. First of all, unless birthrates drop precipitously, there will be plenty of time for various parts of the social and industrial system to adjust to the changing age composition. Second, although there will be proportionately more old people who need care, there also will be proportionately fewer children. Higher costs of Social Security will be largely balanced by reduced costs for the care and especially the education of children. The ratio of productive to dependent people in the population will not change much. | retirement baby boom |
| 160 | Furthermore, while it is unlikely that in the future children will need less care, it is likely that in the future old people will need less care. The health of the American population as a whole is improving, and there is a growing recognition that there is no reason whatsoever to remove people arbitrarily from the economic system at the age of sixty-five. People who remain active live longer and remain healthier and don't need to be supported by younger people. | retirement baby boom Social Security |
| 160 | A bonus of the U.S. population's changing age structure is that people of the age class that provides us with most of our criminals, 16-30, will be proportionately fewer in our population. Considering the enormous social and economic costs of criminal activities and of maintaining the courts and the penal system, those savings alone might more than offset any additional expenses of taking care of older people. | retirement baby boom Social Security |
| 161 | There is no devidence that brute numbers of young minds are the wellsprings of innovation. Otherwise, there would have been no Golden Age for Athens, and China and India would be [today's] world leaders in innovation. | retirement baby boom Social Security |
| 161 | The absurdity of the "don't stop growing because we'll grow old" view is that sooner or later America (like every other nation) *must* stop growing. ... By pushing that moment off to "later," we are simply condemning our children or grandchildren to dealing with problems of age composition in a world that is much more overcrowded and much more resource-depleted and has much a much more malign environment. By not working to stop growth now, we may be mortgaging any chance at all for the next few generations to lead decent lives. | retirement baby boom Social Security |
| 163 | Many [economists] share with British economist Wilfred Beckerman the notions that economic growth has gone on "since the time of Pericles" and that there is "no reason to suppose that it cannot continue for another 2500 years." Both ideas are straightforward nonsense, as a few simple calculations by social scientist Jack Parsons showed. He calculated what the income of the average English household would have been at the time of Pericles (490-424 B.C.) if growth had gone on since that time at the rate of one percent a year... It would have had the buying power for an entire year, in 1970 money, of less than a millionth of a penny. ... In A.D. 4470, or 2500 years in the future from 1970, an English child's weekly allowance (about one half of one percent of the weekly per-capita GNP) would have the purchasing power of about ten billion 1970 dollars. | exponential growth economics |
| 11 | Advances in fundamental science have made it possible to take advantage of the uniformity of energy/matter -- a uniformity that makes it feasible without preassignable limit, to escape the quantitative constraints imposed by the character of the earth's crust... Nature imposes particular scarcities, not an inescapable general scarcity. ... Science, by making the resource base more homogeneous, erases the restrictions once thought to reside in the lack of homogeneity. | economics natural resources ecology physics thermodynamics |
| 166 | Of course, Barnett and Morse had the laws of physics exactly backwards -- since it is the *lack* of homogeneity that makes "resources" possible. If Earth were homogenized, there would be no coal, petroleum, iron ore, etc., just a uniform mixture of the atoms that now constitute the planet. | economics natural resources ecology thermodynamics |
| 177 | When The Population Bomb was written [in 1969], we and our colleagues were enormously worried about the course that humanity was on. Yet it is sobering to recall that the book appeared *before* depletion of the ozone layer had been discovered, *before* acid precipitation had been recognized as a major problem, *before* the current rate of tropical-forest destruction had been achieved, let alone recognized, *before* the true dimensions of the extinction crisis had been perceived, *before* most of the scientific community had recognized the possibility of a nuclear winter, and *before* the AIDS epidemic. At that time, too, the greenhouse warming seemed at worst a distant threat that might never materialize, not something that could cause serious dififculties within a few years. | economics natural resources ecology thermodynamics |
| 180-181 | Of course, both the Bang and the Whimper [scenarios for the end of civilization] could be averted. The basic outline of how to do so is very short: 1. Halt human population growth as quickly and humanely as possible, and embark on a slow population shrinkage toward a size that can be sustained over the long term while allowing every person the opportunity to lead a decent, productive life. 2. Convert the economic system from one of growthism to one of sustainability, lowering per-capita consumption so as to reduce pressures on both resources and the environment. 3. Wherever possible, convert to more environmentally benign technologies. | environmentalism futurism |
| 181 | The cost [of avoiding social collapse] would include giving up many things that we now consider to be essential freedoms: the freedom not to consider society's needs when planning a family, freedom to drive gas-guzzling cars, freedom to own and use an off-road vehicle, freedom to use and discard huge amounts of nonbiodegradable plastics, and, perhaps most important, the freedom (if not an obligation!) to consume more and more. We would also need to give up our "freedom" to deny rights and opportunities to women and members of other races and religions and to exploit the citizens of other nations without concern for the consequences to them. All in all, it would be a big change for Americans, but the benefits would be enormous. | environmentalism futurism |
| 196 | Italy reduced its birthrate through illegal abortion when the importation and sale of contraceptives were prohibited. Now contraceptives are available, abortion is legal, and the abortion rate has fallen. | |
| 215 | In recent decades, those wed to demographic-transition theory have had to ignore fertility declines that occurred in some developing countries with little or no industrial development (Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and China, for instance) and failed to occur in others that had made progress in industrializing (Brazil and Mexico). The connection between per-capita GNP and fertility was essentially nil, although development experts had asserted for years that the way to reduce birthrates was to increase the average income. | economics ecology population stabilization |
| 216 | The critical prerequisites to reduced fertility are five: adequate nutrition, proper sanitation, basic health care, education of women, and equal rights for women. ... Women will apply even a few years of schooling to improving life for their families ... while men usually use an education to earn a better income. Improving the home situation reduces infant and child mortality, making women and men more receptive to the idea of smaller families. And the women's education makes them more open to contraception and better able to employ it properly. Finally, when women have sources of status other than children, family sizes decline. | population stabilization family planning feminism empowerment |
| 228 | Every birth avoided in rich nations today may make possible the future births of thousands of babies with rich prospects in centuries to come -- babies that can never be born if civilization collapses. | population stabilization fertility family planning |
| 229 | Of course, there are plenty of things you can do in your personal life about ... overpopulation besides restricting your own reproduction. You can persuade friends and relatives to do the same. If it's too late for you (you already have five kids), you can still influence your children (and grandchildren) not to follow your example. | population stabilization fertility family planning |
| 230 | [Even] if there were natural selection against "intelligence," it would take hundreds of years for the average intelligence of the population to change significantly; meanwhile the future of humanity will be determined demographically in a few decades. Furthermore, if we need more brainpower to help solve the human predicament, it could be most readily generated by improving our shoddy educational system and seeing that women, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, other minority groups, and the poor had full opportunity to develop their talents. | population stabilization eugenics breeding |
| 256 | As a rule of thumb, only about one tenth of the energy present at each level in a food chain is available to the consumer at the next step upward. | ecology diet nutrition vegetarianism |
| 275 | Note that it is impossible to estimate accurately the number of people who starve to death annually. Governments don't publish statistics on how many of their people have died from lack of food -- indeed, officials try to cover up that sign of their own incompetence. Nature aids them in that cover-up, since malnourished people don't ordinarily die of starvation, but from the attack of some disease-causing pathogen... Thus officials can credit the deaths to "disease" when lack of food was the basic cause. | population statistics death rate nutrition |
| 277 | You can keep casual track of the fisheries situation by noticing how many of your local restaurants offer "blackened" fish dishes. The trend to harvesting less and less desirable fish stocks as the more desirable ones are overfished seems bound to continue... One way restaurants have of dealing with fishes that don't taste good is to coat them with so many spices and sauces that you can't taste the fish. | overfishing resource depletion |
| 277-278 | The sun's energy arrives at an average rate of about 145 watts for each square yard of land surface. Only about half of that energy lies in the part of the solar spectrum that plants can use, and they actually manage to use only about one percent of that on average. Suppose crops could bind solar energy at a rate of 2 watts per square yard over and above what they need to run their own life processes and that they could do it all year round... about 120 watts of energy are needed to run the life processes of an average person. If a person could extract 5 percent of the energy available in the crop plants to support his or her life processes, then ... One acre of cropland would support 4 people... and a square mile could feed 2600. | agriculture farming ecology solar power |
| 283 | It has been estimated that cow farts contribute annually almost 100 million tons of methane to the atmosphere (F. Pearce, "Methane: The Hidden Greenhouse Gas," New Scientist, May 6, 1989). A cow produces over 700 times as much methane as a human being. | cattle environmentalism vegetarianism |
| 291-292 | A nation's GNP is its total annual output of goods and services. It is a convenient economic indicator, but per-capita GNP unfortunately is often confused with an index of the quality of life. To claim that per-capita GNP does measure quality of life (as some would) involves making some extremely culture-bound value judgements and concluding that the average American has a life twice as high in quality as an average New Zealander and 10 tims as high as an average Costa Rican. It requires one to believe that a Los Angeleno is perhaps 100 times better off than one of America's Founding Fathers... Only someone who equates quality of life primarily with quantity of gadgets could hold such a view. | resource consumption economics |
| 40 | children from small families complete significantly more education than those from larger families (there is a strong correlation). | family size only child |
| 100 | kids from small families score higher on ability tests. | family size only child |
| 146-147 | kids from smaller families score higher on intelligence tests. | family size only child |
| 151-152 | kids from smaller families score higher on SATs. | family size only child |
| 219 | [the reason for Rome's failure] was precisely the the same reason that makes present-day traffic regulations, with the widening and multiplication of traffic arteries, so futile and inept; namely, no attempt was made to control the congestion of the land itself, or to reduce the density of population housed in its buildings. Absurdly, the factors that generate traffic remained outside the scheme of control. | population stabilization |
| 50 | When Columbus set off westward across the Atlantic, he wasn't looking for an empty continent to colonize, he was looking for a trade route to the Orient. And if he'd actually bumped into Asia instead of America, the people of Europe would have said to themselves, "Let's go do some business with these Orientals." No one would have dreamed of saying, "Let's go over there, drive off the Orientals, and take Asia for ourselves." | culture colonization civilization exploration |
| 51 | I visit many classrooms, and the students one way or another always bring me round to a point where I ask how many of them are chomping at the bit to get out there and start working on the pyramids their parents worked on throughout their lives and their parents before them. The question makes them uneasy, because they know they're *supposed* to be absolutely thrilled at the prospect of going out there to flip burgers and pump gas and stock shelves in the real world. Everyone's told them they're the luckiest kids on earth -- parents, teachers, textbooks -- and they feel disloyal not waving their hands at me. But they don't. | culture civilization work jobs employment |
| 52 | No special control is needed to make people into pyramid builders -- if they see themselves as having no choice but to build pyramids. They'll build whatever they're told to build, whether it's pyramids, parking garages, or computer programs. Karl Marx recognized that workers without a choice are workers in chains. But his idea of breaking chains was for us to depose the pharaohs and then build the pyramids *for ourselves*, as if building pyramids is something we just can't stop doing, we love it so much. | culture civilization work jobs employment |
| 60 | Natural selection is a process that separates the workable from the unworkable, not the perfect from the imperfect. Nothing evolution brings forth is perfect, it's just damnably hard to improve upon. | culture civilization tribalism evolution perfection lifestyle |
| 61 | Tribal life is not in fact perfect, idyllic, noble, or wonderful, but wherever it's found intact, it's found to be working well -- as well as the life of lizards, racoons, geese, or beetles -- with the result that the members of the tribe are not generally enraged, rebellious, desperate, stressed-out borderline psychotics being torn apart by crime, hatred, and violence. What anthropologists find is that tribal peoples, far from being nobler, sweeter, or wiser than us, are as capable as we are of being mean, unkind, short-sighted, selfish, insensitive, stubborn, and short-tempered. The tribal life doesn't turn people into saints; it enables ordinary people to make a living together with a minimum of stress year after year, generation after generation. | culture civilization tribalism evolution |
| 97 | Diversity, not uniformiy, is what works. Our problem is not that people are living a *bad* way but rather that they're all living the *same* way. The earth can accommodate many people living in a voraciously wasteful and pollutive way, it just can't accommodate *all* of us living that way. | culture civilization environmentalism pollution conformity |
| 101 | Once upon a time in the commercial carpeting industry there was a Goliath named Ray C. Anderson who had taken his company, Interface, Inc., from a modest beginning to a position of global leadership in about twenty years, becoming one of those wicked billionaire multinational corporations you hear about. This Goliath had always made a point of being in compliance with government regulations, but these didn't stop the business from becoming a highly pollutive one -- petroleum based and contributing heavily to landfill. But in 1994 he read two books that *changed his mind* about what he was doing. One was Paul Hawken's book, _The Ecology of Commerce_, the other was _Ishmael_. After reading these books, Ray Anderson saw that *being in compliance* is not nearly enough. He immediately initiated action to end his dependence on petroleum and begin making one hundred percent recyclable carpeting made from one hundred percent recycled materials, thus reducing his company's contribution to landfill to zero. It's important to note that these changes didn't affect just his corporation. Suddenly all his competitors were compelled to adopt *his* standards in order to remain competitive. This Goliath didn't just reform a business, he reformed an entire industry -- not because any plucky little David defeated him, but because two books made him think a different way about the world and his place in it. If people will *willingly* reform an industry when their minds are changed, why spend billions to enact and enforce laws to *compel* them to do it? | environmentalism ecology pollution industry business corporations memetics |
| 111 | Because all six billion members of the culture of maximum harm are striving to maximize their affluence, we shouldn't be alarmed solely by the one percent who live like lords of the universe. We must be equally alarmed by the other ninety-nine percent who are *hoping* to live like lords of the universe. | environmentalism ecology civilization economics materialism resource consumption |
| 113 | Though it's a good and necessary start, being less harmful is *not* enough. We're in the midst of a food race that is more deadly to us and to the world around us than the Cold War arms race was. This is a race between food production and population growth. ... [We] fail to see that, just as every American "win" stimulated an answering Soviet "win," every win in food production stimulates an answering "win" in population growth. | population growth stabilization food hunger agriculture civilization |
| 121 | Homelessness is slightly more than a euphemism for poverty, since it draws attention to the special form poverty takes in hypermodern cities, which might be defined as cities in which space is so valuable that none of it can be spared for the poor. | urbanization civilization housing |
| 125 | One element of acceding to homelessness is accepting the fact that the poor will consistently choose the least worst alternative available to them. If you find them living under a bridge instead of in a nice, clean municipal shelter just a block away, you can be absolutely sure they haven't made a mistake -- from their point of view. The shelter's admittance procedures may be intolerably invasive, arbitrary, or humiliating, or its rules may be Draconian. Whatever, the discomforts of sheltering under the bridge are more endurable. | poverty culture civilization urbanization housing |
| 126 | A castaway in the sea was going down for the third time when he caught sight of a passing ship. Gathering his last strength, he waved frantically and called for help. Someone on board peered at him scornfully and shouted back, "Get a boat!" | homelessness poverty charity |
| 127 | Step one in acceding to homelessness would be to decriminalize and deregulate the homeless. We can happily deregulate trillion-dollar industries capable of doing immense harm, but deregulating the relatively helpless poor -- what a thought! The officers of deregulated savings and loan institutions may have bilked us out of billions, but at least they didn't hang around street corners in shabby clothes! | homelessness poverty welfare criminalization taboos |
| 146 | I think what's needed at a minimum [to start a tribal business] is a group of people (1) who, among them, have all the competencies needed to start and run a given business, (2) who are content with a modest standard of living, and (3) who are willing to "think tribally" -- that is, to take what they need out of the business rather than to expect set wages. | tribalism economics cooperatives frugality |
| 170 | A parable about [cultural] sustainability: An inventor brought his plans for a new device to an engineer, who looked at them and said, "What you've got here is systemically flawed, which means it'll destroy itself after just a few minutes of operation." "Not if it's well made," the inventor replied. "Every part must be made of the finest material and to very exact specifications." The engineer had the device built, but it destroyed itself after just four minutes of operation. The inventor wasn't discouraged. "You didn't do what I told you," he said. "You've got to use much finer materials -- the finest available -- and make the parts to the most exact specifications." ... The inventor wanted to go on and on in this way, striving for perfect parts, but the engineer refused, saying, "Can't you see that our returns are diminishing here? It's a waste of time to try to make a dysfunctional design work by improving its parts. Bring me a viable design, and I'll guarantee you a device that'll work for years, using parts made from ordinary materials, to ordinary specifications." | tribalism civilization evolution anthropology culture lifestyle |
| 178 | Whether by intention or not, suicides often reveal themselves in their choice of means. The guilty hang themselves. Sacrificial victims slash their throats. The discarded throw themselves off buildings or bridges. Tormented minds blow their brains out. Jeffrey in _My Ishmael_ walked into a lake, telling us he'd failed to find his true element. He just couldn't get into his lungs the air others seem to breathe so easily. | despair hopelessness |
| 206 | There is no danger from the exhaustion of physical resources. | environment ecology economics natural resources |
| 2 | Population and the environment are closely related, but the links between them are complex and varied, and depend on specific circumstances. Generalizations about the negative effects of population growth on the the environment are often misleading. Population scientists long ago abandoned such an approach, yet policy in some cases still proceeds as if it were a reality. | stabilization resource depletion |
| 2 | The good news is that fertility in developing countries as a whole has dropped to just under three children per woman, about half what it was in 1969, and the expectation is that it will fall further, to 2.17 children per woman by 2045-2050. At the same time, global life expectancy has increased to an average of 66 (up from 46 in 1950), and -- outside the areas worst affected by HIV/AIDS -- people are healthier throughout the life cycle than at any time in history. | population stabilization |
| 3 | by 2050, 85% of the world population will be in today's developing countries | |
| 3 | Two actions are central: first, ensuring that the right to education and health, including reproductive health, becomes a reality for all women; and second, bringing an end to the absolute poverty that affects the 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day. These two aims are closely linked because most of the absolutely poor are female; action towards one will reinforce the other. | population stabilization |
| 5 | While global population has tripled over the past 70 years, water use has grown six-fold. Worldwide, 54 per cent of the annual available fresh water is being used, two thirds of it for agriculture. By 2025 it could be 70 per cent because of population growth alone, or -- if per capita consumption everywhere reached the level of more developed countries -- 90 per cent. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 5 | In the year 2000, 508 million people lived in 31 water-stressed or water-scarce countries. By 2025, 3 billion people will be living in 48 such countries. By 2050, 4.2 billion people (over 45 per cent of the global toal) will be living in countries that cannot meet the requirement of 50 litres of water per person each day to meet basic human needs. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 5 | Between 1985 and 1995, food production lagged behind population growth in 64 of 105 developing countries studied, with Africa faring the worst. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 5 | Unless the rate of plant genetic loss is halted or slowed substantially, as many as 60,000 plant species -- roughly one quarter of the world's total -- could be lost by 2025. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 5 | In the 20th century, human population has quadrupled... and carbon dioxide emissions grew 12-fold. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 5 | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the earth's atmosphere will warm by as much as 5.8 degrees Celsius over the coming century, a rate unmatched over the past 10,000 years. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| 6 | Some 1.2 billion people live on less than $1 a day. Nearly 60 per cent of the 4.4 billion people in developing countries lack basic sanitation, almost a third do not have access to clean water, one quarter lack adequate housing, 20 per cent do not have access to modern health services, and 20 per cent of children do not attend school through grade five. | population stabilization resource consumption |
| The Aral Sea, producing over 40 million kilograms of fish a year as recently as 1960, is now dead. | fishing food | |
| The food supply of 480 million of the world's 6 billion people is being produced with the unsustainable use of water. | agriculture crops irrigation aquifers groundwater pumping | |
| Three states -- North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas -- have enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs. | windmills renewable energy generation | |
| 1 | ...more than 130 million children of primary school age in the developing countries, including 73 million girls, are growing up without access to basic education. Millions of others languish in sub-standard learning situations where little learning takes place. | |
| 10 | One out of four adults worldwide cannot read or write. | literacy poverty education |
| In developing countries... almost 3 billion people -- half of humanity -- do not have access to sanitation, a denial of the right to a living standard adequate for health and well-being. | ||
| In 1997, nearly 50 million people -- at least half of them children -- were uprooted from their homes, either displaced within their own countries or forced to flee across borders as refugees. | warfare | |
| Eight thousand years ago, before people began to clear land on a broad scale, more than 6 billion hectares, or around 40 percent of the planet's land surface, were covered with forest. Today, Earth's tattered cloak of natural forests (as opposed to tree plantations) amounts to 3.6 billion hecares at most. | deforestation ecosystem | |
| FAO estimates that 21 percent of India's population is chronically undernourished. But recent, on-the-ground surveys paint a more accurate and desperate picture: 49 percent of adults and 53 percent of children in India are underweight, a proxy measurement for hunger. | malnutrition starvation undernourishment | |
| The most commonly lacking micronutrient is iron -- a mineral found in whole grains, green leafy vegetables, and meat. A 1999 U.N. report estimates that 5 billion people, more than 80 percent of the human family, suffer from varying degrees of iron deficiency. | nutrition health minerals | |
| Nearly 80 percent of all malnourished children in the developing world in the early 1990s lived in countries that boasted food surpluses. | agriculture nutrition health inequality | |
| Distribution of the World's Water Supply Oceans 97.1% Polar ice 2.2% (76% of freshwater) Deep ground water 0.3% (10%) Surface water 0.3% (10%) Other 0.1% (3.4%) |
groundwater fresh water drinking water ecology natural resources | |
| 255 | Yes, in fact, if the Democrats are insisting on giving that much power to the Naderites, then maybe we should take it. Yes, it was us! We did it! We are the mighty Thor, all-powerful and all-knowing. We will destroy all in our path! Change your ways or we will turn you into ash! It was not we who abandoned the Democratic Party -- it was YOU! You deserted us and all those who once believed Democrats stood for something, like fighting for the rights of working people. But you hopped into bed with the Republicans, and we had no choice but to follow our conscience and vote for Ralph Nader. THAT IS THE WAY OF THOR! | President United States third party politics 2000 election Green Party |
| The estimated number of bison alive at the turn of the 20th century was less than 1,000 animals in the U.S. and Canada. The efforts of conservationists, producers and Native Americans saved the bison from extinction... there are now more than 150,000 bison in public and private herds in the U.S. and Canada. | endangered species | |
| The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 250 million children from age 5 to 14 are working, mainly in developing countries -- one child out of every four. Another 150 million to 200 million children, most of them girls, do unpaid domestic work for their families. ... In some countries, up to 80% of working children labour seven days a week. | child labor | |
| The multibillion-dollar illegal sex market each year ensnares an estimated 1 million children, the majority of them in Asia. | poverty child welfare | |
| 162 | Why, for example, should a group of simple, stable compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen struggle for billions of years to organize themselves into a professor of chemistry? What's the motive? If we leave a chemistry professor out on a rock in the sun long enough the forces of nature will convert him into simple compounds of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, and small amounts of other minerals. It's a one-way reaction. No matter what kind of chemistry professor we use and no matter what process we use we can't turn these compounds back into a chemistry professor. Chemistry professors are unstable mixtures of predominantly unstable compounds which, in the exclusive presence of the sun's heat, decay irreversibly into simpler organic and inorganic compounds. That's a scientific fact. The question is: Then why does nature reverse this process? What on earth causes the inorganic compounds to go the other way? It isn't the sun's energy. We just saw what the sun's energy did. | evolution creationism metaphysics of Quality |
| 51 | After World War II, accelerating population growth and steadily rising incomes drove the demand for seafood upward at a record pace. At the same time, advances in fishing technologies, including refrigerated processing ships that enabled trawlers to exploit distant oceans, dramatically boosted fishing capacity. In response, the oceanic fish catch climbed from 19 million tons in 1950 to its historic high of 93 million tons in 1997. This fivefold growth -- more than double that of population during this period -- raised seafood consumption per person worldwide from 8 kilograms in 1950 to a peak of 17 kilograms in 1998. Since then, it has fallen to scarcely 15 kilograms, a drop of one eighth. | |
| All of the world's 17 major fisheries are being harvested at or beyond their sustainable capacity, and 9 are in a state of decline. Many countries are trying to protect their fisheries from overfishing and eventual collapse. | seafood fishing | |
| 56 | After losing 97 percent of the Atlantic rainforest, Brazil is now destroying its Amazon rainforest. This huge forest, roughly the size of Europe, was largely intact until 1970. Since then, 14 percent of Brazil's rainforest has been lost. In 1999 alone, 17,000 square kilometers were deforested. | deforestation |
| 64 | The U.S. Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) launched in 1985 was designed to simultaneously control surplus production and conserve soil by retiring the most erodible land. Initiated and supported by environmental groups, the program encouraged farmers to take their highly erodible land out of production by providing government payments under 10-year contracts to plant the land in grass or trees. | erosion agriculture |
| 64 | Within five years [of the CRP's 1985 launch], U.S. farmers had converted nearly 15 million hectares of cropland, roughly 10 percent of the national total, to grassland. This reduced excessive soil erosion nationwide by some 40 percent, helping to enhance food security for the entire world. The nonmarket benefits from soil erosion reduction and the provision of habitat by the CRP between 1985 and 2000 are estimated to exceed $1.4 billion. | agriculture Conservation Reserve Program |
| Mexico is forced to abandon 1,036 square kilometers (400 square miles) of farmland to desertification each year. | poverty agriculture farming migration | |
| 81-82 | 31 countries in Europe, plus Japan, have stabilized their population size, satisfying one of the most basic conditions of an eco-economy. Europe has stabilized its population within its food-producing capacity, leaving it with an exportable surplus of grain to help fill the deficits in developing countries. Furthermore, China -- the world's most populous country -- now has lower fertility than the United States and is moving toward population stability. Among countries, Denmark is the eco-economy leader. It has stabilized its population, banned the construction of coal-fired power plants, banned the use of nonrefillable beverage containers, and is now getting 15 percent of its electricity from wind. In addition, it has restructured its urban transport network; now 32 percent of all trips in Copenhagen are on bicycle. Denmark is still not close to balancing carbon emissions and fixation, but it is moving in that direction. | |
| 102 | In Bangkok, the city government decided that at 9 p.m. on a given weekday evening, all major television stations would be co-opted in order to show a big dial with the city's current use of electricity. Once the dial appeared on the screen, everyone was asked to turn off unnecessary lights and appliances. As viewers watched, the dial dropped, reducing electricity use by 735 megawatts, enough to shut down two moderate-sized coal-fired power plants. For viewers, this visual experiment had a lasting effect, reminding them that individually they could make a difference and collectively they could literally close power plants. | energy consumption |
| 129 | Most of the damage done by aluminum production comes from generating electricity to run the smelters. Worldwide, the aluminum industry uses as much electric power as the entire continent of africa. In some cases, the electricity for aluminum smelting comes from coal-fired power plants, but often it comes from hydroelectricity. Scores of dams have been built, particularly in remote regions, to produce cheap electricity to manufacture aluminum. Governments eager to build indigenous industry in their countries compete with each other for aluminum smelters by subsidizing the cost of electricity. As a result, aluminum is one of the world's most heavily subsidized raw materials. | |
| 130 | Tons of ore mined per ton of metal produced Iron: 3 Copper: 110 Gold: 303,000 Zinc: 200 Lead: 40 Aluminum: 4 Manganese: 3 Nickel: 40 Tin: 100 Tungsten: 400 |
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| 166 | The best nourished people in the world are not those living low on the food chain, such as Indians who consume roughly 200 kilograms of grain per year, or those living high on the food chain, such as Americans who consume some 800 kilograms of grain per year, mostly in the form of livestock products. It is people living at an intermediate level, such as Italians, who consume 400 kilograms of grain a year. ... For those living high on the food chain, moving down to a more moderate level would enhance not only their health, but also the health of the planet. | vegetarianism meat |
| World paper consumption (kg) per person, 1999 United States: 338 China: 35 Japan: 240 Germany: 214 United Kingdom: 200 France: 183 Italy: 178 Canada: 259 Brazil: 41 South Korea: 142 Top 10 countries: 111 All others: 19 World average: 52 |
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| 174 | New York City, with its population of nearly 17 million, recently discovered just how valuable nature's services are. Faced with the residential and industrial development of the Catskill forest region, the basin that is the source of its water, the city was told it needed a water purification plant that would cost $8 billion to build and $300 million a year to operate. Teh bill for this would reach $11 billion over 10 years. After analyzing the situation, city officials realized that they could restore the watershed to its natural condition for only $2 billion, thus avoiding the need for the purification plant and saving taxpayers $9 billion. | drinking water quality |
| 189-190 | In the year 1000, the world's 10 largest cities were widely distributed throughout the Old World. But by 1900, a century after the Industrial Revolution began, nearly all the large cities were in the industrial west. In 2000, after a century of record population growth -- most of it concentrated in the Third World -- 7 of the top 10 were in developing countries. | overcrowding population distribution |
| 197 | The estimated 300,000 Americans who die prematurely each year as a result of being overweight compares with the 400,000 who die prematurely from cigarette smoking. But there is one difference. The number of cigarettes smoked per person in the United States is on the decline, falling some 42 percent between 1980 and 2000, while obesity is on the rise. If recent trends continue, it is only a matter of time before deaths from obesity-related illnesses in the United States overtake those related to smoking. | |
| 200-201 | In the United States, more than 80 percent of police departments serving populations of 50,000 to 249,999 and 96 percent of those serving over 250,000 residents now have routine patrols by bicycle. Officers on bikes are more productive in cities partly because they are more mobile and can reach the scene of an accident or crime quicker. They typically make 50 percent more arrests per day than officers in squad cars. For fiscally sensitive officials, the cost of operating a bicycle is trivial compared with a car... Better community relations for officers on bikes provides an additional bonus. | |
| The HIV epidemic that is raging across Africa is now taking some 6,030 lives each day, the equivalent of 15 fully loaded jumbo jets crashing daily -- with no survivors. This number, climbing higher every year, is expected to double during this decade. | AIDS | |
| While industrial countries have held the HIV infection rate among adults to less than 1 percent, in 16 African countries the figure is over 10 percent. In South Africa, it is 20 percent. In Zimbabwe and Swaziland, 25 percent. And in Botswana, which has the highest infection rate, 36 percent of adults are HIV-positive. These countries are expected to lose one fifth to one third of their adults by the end of this decade. | AIDS | |
| While industrial countries have held the HIV infection rate among adults to less than 1 percent, in 16 African countries the figure is over 10 percent. In South Africa, it is 20 percent. In Zimbabwe and Swaziland, 25 percent. And in Botswana, which has the highest infection rate, 36 percent of adults are HIV-positive. These countries are expected to lose one fifth to one third of their adults by the end of this decade. | AIDS | |
| 222 | After the Islamic revolution in 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini came to power, the family planning programs put in place by the Shah were dismantled. Khomeini exhorted women to have more babies to create "soldiers for Islam," pushing annual population growth rates to over 4 percent -- some of the highest ever recorded. By the late 1980s, the social and environmental costs of such growth rates were becoming apparent. As a result, policy shifted. Religious leaders argued that having fewer children was a social responsibility. Eighty percent of family planning costs were covered in the budget. Some 15,000 "health houses" were established to provide family planning and health services to Iran's rural population. As literacy levels among rural women climbed from 17 percent in 1976 to nearly 90 percent, fertility dropped to an average of 2.6 children per woman. Within 15 years, Iran's population growth rate has fallen from over 4 percent a year to scarcely 1 percent, making it a model for other developing countries. | |
| 224 | At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, the governments of the world agreed to a 20-year population and reproductive health program. The United Nations estimated that $17 billion a year would be needed for this effort by 2000 and $22 billion by 2015. (By comparison, $22 billion is less than is spent every 10 days no military expenditures.) Developing countries and countries in transition agreed to cover two thirds of the price tag, while donor countries promised to pay the rest -- $5.7 billion a year by 2000 and $7.2 billion by 2015. Unfortunately, while developing countries ... have covered about two thirds of their allotted payments, donor countries have fallen far behind -- honoring only one third of their commitment. As a result... the United Nations estimated that there were an additional 122 million unintended pregnancies by 2000. An estimated one third of these were aborted. Moreover, an estimated 65,000 women who did not wish to become pregnant died in childbirth and 844,000 suffered chronic or permanent injury from their pregnancies. | |
| 243 | Tax shifting to achieve environmental goals has broad support. Polls taken in the late 1990s in both the United States and Europe show overwhelming support for the concept once it is explained. On both sides of the Atlantic, support of hte electorate is 70 percent or greater. | income tax sin tax pollution fine |
| 9 | A study by the World Resources Institute indicates that U.S. government subsidies of automobile use, including construction and maintenance of highways, highway patrols, and other supports to motorists, exceed the taxes paid on motor fuel, vehicle purchases, and license plates by $111 billion per year. This means that automobile driving is being heavily subsidized by those who do not even own a car. | gasoline tax transportation |
| 246-247 | In June 2001, the Natural Resources Ministry in Moscow announced that it was introducing national mandatory certification [of sustainable harvesting] of wood. Although a small portion of its timber harvest is already certified, buyers' discrimination against the rest of the harvest costs Russia $1 billion in export revenues. Teh ministry estimates that its uncertified wood sells for 20-30 percent less than certified wood from competing countries. | responsible consumption lumber |
| BARROW, C.J. 1991. Land Degradation: Development and Breakdown of Terrestrial Environments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
land degradation | |
| 7 | [Social] Programs are sticks planted in the mud of a river to impede its flow. The sticks *do* impede the flow. A little. But they never stop the flow, and they never turn the river aside... No program has ever stopped poverty, drug abuse, or crime, and no program ever *will* stop them. And no program will ever stop us from devastating the world. | social progress reform revolution |
| 54 | "Does God have consciousness yet? Does he know he's reassembling himself?" "He does. Otherwise you could not have asked the question, and I could not have answered." |
cosmology existentialism |
| 86-87 | Light is analogous to the horizon. It is a boundary that gives the illusion of being a physical thing. Like the horizon, it appears to move away from you at a constant speed no matter how fast you are moving. We observe things that we believe are light, like the searchlight in the night sky, the cloud-red sunset. But those things are not light; they are merely boundaries between different probabilities. | cosmology existentialism |
| 89 | The so-called speed of light is simply the limit to how far a particle can pop into existence from its original location. | cosmology existentialism quantum physics |
| 127 | Ideas are the only things that can change the world. The rest is details. |
progress idealism |
| 20 | No outward thing -- nothing, nobody from without -- can hurt me inside, psychologically. I recognized that I could only be hurt psychologically by my own wrong actions, which I have control over; by my own wrong reactions (they are tricky, but I have control over them too); or by my own inaction in some situations, like the present world situation, that need action from me. When I recognized all this how free I felt! And I just stopped hurting myself. | vulnerability existentialism self help spirituality |
| 40 | When you approach others in judgment they will be on the defensive. When you are able to approach them in a kindly, loving manner without judgment they will tend to judge themselves and be transformed. | spirituality transformation change |
| 87 | There is a power greater than ourselves which manifests itself within us as well as everywhere else in the universe. This I call God. ... To know God is to feel peace within -- a calmness, a serenity, an unshakeableness which enables you to face any situation. | spirituality self help |
| 148 | Who is Jesus? Jesus was a great spiritual teacher who walked the earth. His life was governed by the indwelling Christ (the God-centered nature, the divine nature). He taught us ours could be too. | spirituality Christianity |
| 149 | Are science and religion irreconcilable? You might say that science operates pragmatically and religion by divine guidance. If valid, they would reach the same conclusions but science would take a lot longer. | spirituality cosmology |
| 69 | We might sometimes reflect and recall that the purpose of all our science, technology, industry, manufacturing, commerce, and all finance is celebration, planetary celebration. That is what moves the stars through the heavens and the earth through its seasons. The final norm of judgment concerning the success or failure of our technologies is the extent to which they enable us to participate more fully in this grand festival. | religion spirituality |
| 76 | [Our] mythic commitment to continuing economic growth is such that none of our major newspapers or newsweeklies considers having an ecological section equivalent to the sports section or the financial section or the comic section or the entertainment section, although ecological issues are more important than any of those, even more important than the daily national and international political news. The real history that is being made is interspecies and human-earth history, not nation or internation history. The real threat is from the retaliatory powers of the abused earth, not from other nations. | ecology |
| 115 | Just as the doctrine of divine transcendence took away the pervasive divine presence to the natural world, so the millennial vision of a blessed future left all present modes of existence in a degraded status. All things were in an unholy condition. Everything needed to be transformed. This meant that anything unused was to be used if the very purpose of its existence was to be realized. Nothing in its natural state was acceptable. | ecology Fundamentalism Christianity theology |
| 134 | It is clear that the primordial intention of the universe is to produce variety in all things, from atomic structures to the living world of plant and animal forms, to the appearance of humans, where individuals differ from one another more extensively than in any other realm of known reality. This difference can be seen not only in individuals, but also in social structures and in historical periods of our development. | ecology cosmology sociology |
| 167 | The earth is our best model for any commercial venture. It carries out its operations with an economy and a productivity far beyond that of human institutions. It also runs its system with a minimum of entropy. There is in nature none of that sterile or toxic waste or nondecomposing litter such as is made by humans. | ecology economics design permaculture |
| 199 | We can recognize the earth as a privileged planet and see the whole as evolving out of some cosmic imaginative process. Any significant thought or speech about the universe finds its expression through such imaginative powers. Even our scientific terms have a highly mythic content -- such words as energy, life, matter, form, universe, gravitation, evolution. Even such terms as atom, nucleus, electron, molecule, cell, organism. Each of these terms spills over into metaphor and mystery as soon as it is taken seriously. | cosmology science philosophy |
| 206 | When the absurdity of progress through exponential growth was indicated a few years ago in a work entitled The Limits to Growth, a general outcry could be heard across the country. That outcry was more than a justified criticism of the specific data or the time scale of future events. It was resentment against the indication that the dynamism of our consumer society was the supreme pathology of all history. ... the change that is taking place in the present is not simply another historical transition or another cultural transformation. Its order of magnitude is immensely more significant in its nature and in its consequences. We are indeed closing down the major life systems of the planet. | ecology economics |
| 209 | These consequences [of our attitude that we are too good for the natural world] are now becoming manifest. The day of reckoning has come. In this disintegrating phase of our industrial society, we now see ourselves not as the splendor of creation, but as the most pernicious mode of earthly being. We are the termination, not the fulfillment of the earth process. If there were a parliament of creatures, its first decision might well be to vote the humans out of the community, too deadly a presence to tolerate any further. We are the affliction of the world, its demonic presence. We are the violation of earth's most sacred aspects. | ecology economics doomsday |
| 7 | The Great Work before us, the task of moving modern industrial civilization from its present devastating influence on the Earth to a more benign mode of presence, is not a role that we have chosen. It is a role given to us, beyond any consultation with ourselves. We did not choose. We were chosen by some power beyond ourselves for this historical task. We do not choose the moment of our birth, who our parents will be, our particular culture or the historical moment when we will be born. We do not choose the status of spiritual insight or political or economic conditions that will be the context of our lives. We are, as it were, thrown into existence with a challenge and a role that is beyond any personal choice. The nobility of our lives, however, depends upon the manner in which we come to understand and fulfill our assigned role. | ecology history permaculture social change cosmology |
| 15 | We initiate our children into an economic order based on exploitation of the natural life systems of the planet. To achieve this attitude we must first make our children unfeeling in their relation to the natural world. This occurs quite simply since we ourselves have become insensitive toward the natural world and do not realize just what we are doing. Yet if we observe our children closely in their early years we see how they are instinctively attracted to profound experiences of the natural world. We also see additional stresses, emotional disruptions, and learning disabilities that seem to originate in the toxic environment and processed food that we provide for them. | economics ecology history developmental psychology social change environmental psychology |
| 49 | We will recover our sense of wonder and our sense of the sacred only if we appreciate the universe beyond ourselves as a revelatory experience of that numinous presence whence all things come into being. Indeed, the universe is the primary sacred reality. We become sacred by our participation in this more sublime dimension of the world about us. | spirituality cosmology philosophy |
| 70 | These four symbols -- the Journey, the Great Mother, the Cosmic Tree, and the Death-Rebirth symbol -- experienced now in a time-developmental rather than a spatial mode of consciousness, constitute a psychic resource of enormous import for establishing ourselves as a viable species in a viable life system on the Earth. | spirituality permaculture |
| 78 | If the religious experience were simply some naive impression of the uninformed it would not have resulted in such intellectual insight, such spiritual exaltation, such spectacular religious ritual, or in the immense volume of song and poetry and literature and dance that humans have produced. | religion creativity art |
| 84 | Ecology is not a course or a program. Rather it is the foundation of all courses, all programs, and all professions because ecology is a functional cosmology. Ecology is not a part of medicine; medicine is an extension of ecology. Ecology is not a part of law; law is an extension of ecology. So too, in their own way, the same can be said of economics and even the humanities. | permaculture philosophy |
| 92 | We are so impatient with our given place in the universe that some persons are totally committed to discovering how we can get beyond Earth. We have indeed been out in space, but some are under the impression that we have been off Earth. In reality humans have never been off Earth. We have always been on a piece of Earth in space. We survive only as long as we can breathe the air of Earth, drink its waters, and be nourished by its foods. There is no indication that humans will ever live anywhere else in the universe. | space exploration |
| 131 | There seems to be little awareness that government, independent of corporation pressure, is the most powerful force the people have to offset the immense size of the corporations individually and in their combined influence over a nation's affairs. Big corporations require big government -- unless the people are willing to accept the corporations as the government. | social change |
| 149 | Among the primary evils of contemporary industry is that it is founded on uniform, standardized processes. This is especially devastating in agribusiness, which demands uniformity in its products. Nature abhors uniformity. Nature not only produces species diversity but also individual diversity. Nature produces individuals. No two days are the same, no two snowflakes, no two flowers, trees, or any other of the infinite number of life forms. Since monoculture and standardization are violations of both the universe covenant and the Earth covenant, we need to foster a new sense of the organic world over the merely mechanical world. | standardization economics ecology permaculture sustainability |
| 179 | One great advantage in the modern European contact with the indigenous peoples of the world is the perspective that it has provided people of Western European civilization with an occasion to reflect on the inherent consequences of the civilizational process itself. For the first time, in the beginning of the colonial period, Western civilization could be seen as being weakened, both physically and morally, precisely through the civilization process itself. | history |
| 181 | Women are also revealing Western civilization to itself. Without this newly assertive consciousness of women, Western civilization might have continued indefinitely on its destructive path without ever coming to a realization of just what has been happening in the exclusion of women from full participation in the human project. | feminism history humanism social change |
| 4 | There is an urge to just walk into the desert, away from the road, and be done with it. There is also an urge to have some ice cream with chocolate sauce. Life is what we patch together between those competing desires. | |
| 79 | Perhaps what I had done in taking this long walk in the wilderness was a kind of shoving of my old self out on the ice to see if I would please die, or if I would please be reborn into something new, forged in service to my deepest beliefs. In either case, I knew that my old life had run its course. | transformation self help |
| 207 | We were hiking now through rolling hills and rainy green pastures set off by rail fences. Horses clopped over through the mud to see what was going on as we walked by. At one little farm, a dog and a goat, obviously old friends, came out together to take a look at us. They were joined a few minutes later by a pig. I had a feeling that their spider friend was back in the barn, spelling out something. | Charlotte\'s Web E.B. White |
| 233 | When you take on some leadership responsibility in the world, you must accept the fact that you will change lives. Your intention is to do good for everyone. But you will change lives in ways you cannot fully control, and sometimes things will go terribly wrong. The hard part is to stay at it and not give up trying to do good in the world. But my, it is hard when tragedy and defeat come visiting, as they do. If love is your motivation, and if you respect the people you serve as your moral equals, you will do more good than hard over a lifetime -- by far. But you will do some harm, and it may haunt you when you take a walk in your old age. | social change transformation |
| 236 | If you are wondering whether or not I think I make it rain and snow by making a speech, I certainly do not. That is not the way it works. When you are doing the right thing, it just so happens that you arrive just when certain things are happening anyway. Moses had wonderful timing, is what I mean. We all have a little bit of that when we are in our soul's right groove. And, when praying for such help, it is less rude, I think, to pray for some special help in fitting in, rather than to ask God to scrap and revise all His plans for the day -- He, of course, knew you were going to ask anyway and would already have made arrangements if that was proper. | transformation self help spirituality prayer |
| 257 | A career, in the end, is a much smaller part of our lives than we can possibly imagine at the time. Our career distracts us from our real work, so we must learn to see past the limits of that blinkered world. | life job purpose |
| 266 | Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love. You already have your victory because you have changed the world; you have changed the status quo by you; you have changed the chemistry of things. And changes will spread from you, will be easier to happen again in others because of you, because, believe it or not, you are the center of the world. | activism social change |
| 8 | Currently the world's wealthiest one billion people alone consume the equivalent of the Earth's entire sustainable yield. All six billion people are consuming at a level that is 20 percent over sustainable yield. | sustainability ecology consumption |
| 22 | The four phases of a vision quest: 1) To separate from one's daily routine and go into the wilderness. 2) To embark on an epic journey, either metaphorical or real. 3) To allow for a ceremonial death and rebirth -- a death of ideas, actions, or beliefs no longer appropriate for one's new world. 4) To integrate one's reborn self back into the community. | self help transformation |
| 37 | Imagine this scenario. What would happen if every worker were to offer their services at a price as close to the average global income as practical given their particularities, such as family size, geographic location, etc.? In essence, this means setting the price for one's products or services according to their needs, instead of attempting to maximize profits (what the market would bear or as high of a salary as you can negotiate). Costs would come down. Each household could work just enough to support their basic needs, including a reasonable level of long-term security. By having lower incomes, individuals would consume less. As product prices fall, others can work less and earn less. The entire economy would gently slow down, yet everyone would still have their needs met. It simply takes each person limiting how much income they take and how much they consume. I'm not really suggesting communism. But I am suggesting a voluntary taming of the appetite. | sustainability permaculture economics |
| 52-53 | Although there are infinite ways to share, the easiest is simply to take less. We take less (or share more) when we: earn less, taking less of the available work; consume less; make wiser choices; and purchase local products. You may be tempted to enthusiastically consume more than your share of available work and money and become a philanthropist, all for the joy of giving it away. But this path is loaded with pitfalls, in terms of power dynamics and inner motivation. | sustainability permaculture economics consumption |
| 84 | Figure 6-4, Ecological Footprints as they Correlate to Income. $100,000 and up: 40 to 60 acres $50,000 to $100,000: 30 to 50 acres $30,000 to $50,000: 25 to 40 acres $30,000 and up (Europe and Japan): 15 acres and up $25,000 to $30,000: 20 to 30 acres $20,000 to $25,000: 18 to 22 acres $15,000 to $20,000: 14 to 20 acres $10,000 to $15,000: 12 to 18 acres $5,000 to $10,000: 5 to 15 acres $2,500 to $5,000: 3 to 13 acres $1,000 to $2,500: 2.5 to 6 acres $500 to $1,000: 2 to 5 acres $100 to $500: 1.5 to 4 acres |
sustainability economics consumption |
| 106-107 | What would be the ecological footprint to travel across America once a year by plane, bus, train, car, bike or horse? Assume the journey is 6,000 miles round trip... Plane (economy class): 1.3 acres. Bus: 0.4 acres. Train: 1.8 acres. Car (20 mpg): 2.6 acres. Car (50 mpg): 1 acre. Bicycle: 0.22 acres. Horse: 1.8 acres. | |
| 155 | On average, people spend almost one day a week (or about an hour and a half a day) working to pay for their vehicles. You could work four days a week, commute up to ten miles each way by bike, and still save time. | economics cars automobiles |
| 186 | Couples must remain free to choose their family size. For this [one-hundred-year] plan to succeed, it has to be: Fully voluntary; Aimed at alleviating poverty; Fully supported by government; Locally driven; Bioregionally focused; Accomplished through education; and Dynamic. | population stabilization |
| 192 | The 100-year plan offers a clear win-win scenario. If humanity chooses one-child families for the next 100 years, a footprint goal of six acres is achievable without sustainability heroics. The high-income individuals, who now have the most privilege, need to step up to the plate and reduce footprints as an initial gesture of goodwill. Then, after sustained, documentable reductions have been made, they will have the credibility to ask low-income countries to reduce population. | ecology permaculture world relations |
| 871-872 | The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press ? in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of LIBERAL excess during the past years. | fascism conservatism liberalism cultural reform |
| xi-xii | The Greeks had a beautiful word, Kosmos, which means the patterned Whole of all existence, including the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. Ultimate reality was not merely the cosmos, or the physical dimension, but the Kosmos, or the physical and emotional and mental and spiritual dimensions altogether. Not just matter, lifeless and insentient, but the living Totality of matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit. The Kosmos! -- now there is a real theory of everything! But us poor moderns have reduced the Kosmos to the cosmos, we have reduced matter and body and mind and soul and spirit to nothing but matter alone, and in this drab and dreary world of scientific materialism, we are lulled into the notion that a theory uniting the physical dimension is actually a theory of everything.... The new physics, it is said, actually shows us the mind of God. Well, perhaps, but only when God is thinking about dirt. So without in any way denying the importance of a unified physics, let us also ask: can we have a theory, not merely of the cosmos, but of the Kosmos? Can there be a genuine Theory of Everything? Does it even make sense to ask this question? And where would we begin? "An integral vision"-or a genuine Theory of Everything --attempts to include matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit as they appear in self, culture, and nature. A vision that attempts to be comprehensive, balanced, inclusive. A vision that therefore embraces science, art, and morals; that equally includes disciplines from physics to spirituality, biology to aesthetics, sociology to contemplative prayer; that shows up in integral politics, integral medicine, integral business, integral spirituality.... |
philosophy metaphysics |
| 135 | "The Lady with the pet dog" | Short Fiction Story from Longman Master of Short Fiction |
| 2 | Integral: the word means to integrate, to bring together, to join, to link, to embrace. Not in the sense of uniformity, and not in the sense of ironing out all the wonderful differences, colors, zigs and zags of a rainbow-hued humanity, but in the sense of unity-in-diversity, shared commonalties along with our wonderful differences. And not just in humanity, but in the Kosmos at large: finding a more comprehensive view-a Theory of Everything (T.O.E.)-that makes legitimate room for art, morals, science, and religion, and doesn't merely attempt to reduce them all to one's favorite slice of the Kosmic pie. | philosophy metaphysics integral theory |
| 3-4 | ... it seems that my generation is an extraordinary mixture of greatness and narcissism, and that strange amalgam has infected almost everything we do. We don't seem content to simply have a fine new idea, we must have the new paradigm that will herald one of the greatest transformations in the history of the world. We don't really want to just recycle bottles and paper; we need to see ourselves dramatically saving the planet and saving Gaia and resurrecting the Goddess that previous generations had brutally repressed but we will finally liberate. We aren't able to tend our garden; we must be transfiguring the face of the planet in the most astonishing global awakening history has ever seen. We seem to need to see ourselves as the vanguard of something unprecedented in all of history: the extraordinary wonder of being us. Well, it can be pretty funny if you think about it, and I truly don't mean any of this in a harsh way. Each generation has its foibles; this appears to be ours, at least to some degree. But I believe few of my generation escape this narcissistic mood. |
Baby Boomers psychological development |
| full title: "Summary Statement: The Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model of the Adult Human Biopsychosocial Systems," presented Boston, May 20, 1981 | Spiral Dynamics | |
| Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems as an individual's existential problems change. Each successive stage, wave, or level of existence is a state through which people pass on their way to other states of being. When the human is centralized in one state of existence, he or she has a psychology which is particular to that state. His or her feelings, motivations, ethics and values, biochemistry, degree of neurological activation, learning system, belief systems, conception of mental health, ideas as to what mental illness is and how it should be treated, conceptions of and preferences for management, education, economics, and political theory and practice are all appropriate to that state. | Spiral Dynamics human psychological development | |
| 7-8 | Beck and Cowan use various names and colors to refer to these different memes or waves of existence. The use of colors almost always puts people off, at first. But Beck and Cowan often work in racially charged areas, and they have found that it helps to take peoples' minds off of skin color and focus on the "color of the meme" instead of the "color of the skin." Moreover, as much research has continued to confirm, each and every individual has all of these memes potentially available to them. And therefore the lines of social tension are completely redrawn: not based on skin color, economic class, or political clout, but on the type of meme a person is operating from. In a particular situation it is no longer "black versus white," but perhaps blue versus purple, or orange versus green, and so on; and while skin color cannot be changed, consciousness can. As Beck puts it, "The focus is not on types of people, but types in people." | Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory vMEMEs human psychological development |
| 9 | I. Beige: Archaic-Instinctual. The level of basic survival; food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority. Uses habits and instincts just to survive. Distinct self is barely awakened or sustained. Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life. Where seen: First human societies, newborn infants, senile elderly, late-stage Alzheimer's victims, mentally ill street people, starving masses, shell shock. Approximately 0.1 percent of the adult population, 0 percent power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 9 | 2. Purple: Magical-Animistic. Thinking is animistic; magical spirits, good and bad, swarm the earth leaving blessings, curses, and spells which determine events. Forms into ethnic tribes. The spirits exist in ancestors and bond the tribe. Kinship and lineage establish political links. Sounds "holistic" but is actually atomistic: "There is a name for each bend in the river but no name for the river." Where seen: Belief in voodoo-like curses, blood oaths, ancient grudges, good-luck charms, family rituals, magical ethnic beliefs and superstitions; strong in third-world settings, gangs, athletic teams, and corporate "tribes." 10 percent of the population, 1 percent of the power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 9 | 3. Red: Power Gods. First emergence of a self distinct from the tribe; powerful, impulsive, egocentric, heroic. Magical-mythic spirits, dragons, beasts, and powerful people. Archetypal gods and goddesses, powerful beings, forces to be reckoned with, both good and bad. Feudal lords protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labor. The basis of feudal empires-power and glory. The world is a jungle full of threats and predators. Conquers, outfoxes, and dominates; enjoys self to the fullest without regret or remorse; be here now. Where seen: The "terrible twos," rebellious youth, frontier mentalities, feudal kingdoms, epic heroes, James Bond villains, gang leaders, soldiers of fortune, New-Age narcissism, wild rock stars, Attila the Hun, "Lord of the Flies." 20 percent of the population, 5 percent of the power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 9-10 | 4. Blue: Mythic Order. Life has meaning, direction, and purpose, with outcomes determined by an all-powerful Other or Order. This righteous Order enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and unvarying principles of "right" and "wrong." Violating the code or rules has severe, perhaps everlasting repercussions. Following the code yields rewards for the faithful. Basis of ancient nations. Rigid social hierarchies; paternalistic; one right way and only one right way to think about everything. Law and order; impulsivity controlled through guilt; concrete-literal and fundamentalist belief; obedience to the rule of Order; strongly conventional and conformist. Often "religious" or "mythic" [in the mythic-membership sense; Graves and Beck refer to it as the "saintly/absolutistic" level], but can be secular or atheistic Order or Mission. Where seen: Puritan America, Confucian China, Dickensian England, Singapore discipline, totalitarianism, codes of chivalry and honor, charitable good deeds, religious fundamentalism (e.g., Christian and Islamic), Boy and Girl Scouts, "moral majority," patriotism. 40 percent of the population, 30 percent of the power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 10 | 5. Orange: Scientific Achievement. At this wave, the self "escapes" from the "herd mentality" of blue, and seeks truth and meaning in individualistic terms -- hypothetico-deductive, experimental, objective, mechanistic, operational-" scientific" in the typical sense. The world is a rational and well-oiled machine with natural laws that can be learned, mastered, and manipulated for one's own purposes. Highly achievement oriented, especially (in America) toward materialistic gains. The laws of science rule politics, the economy, and human events. The world is a chessboard on which games are played as winners gain preeminence and perks over losers. Marketplace alliances; manipulate earth's resources for one's strategic gains. Basis of corporate states. Where seen: The Enlightenment, Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," Wall Street, emerging middle classes around the world, cosmetics industry, trophy hunting, colonialism, the Cold War, fashion industry, materialism, secular humanism, liberal self-interest. 30 percent of the population, 50 percent of the power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 10-11 | 6. Green: The Sensitive Self. Communitarian, human bonding, ecological sensitivity, networking. The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma, and divisiveness; feelings and caring supersede cold rationality; cherishing of the earth, Gaia, life. Against hierarchy; establishes lateral bonding and linking. Permeable self, relational self, group intermeshing. Emphasis on dialogue, relationships. Basis of value communities (i.e., freely chosen affiliations based on shared sentiments). Reaches decisions through reconciliation and consensus (downside: interminable "processing" and incapacity to reach decisions). Refresh spirituality, bring harmony, enrich human potential. Strongly egalitarian, antihierarchy, pluralistic values, social construction of reality, diversity, multiculturalism, relativistic value systems; this worldview is often called pluralistic relativism. Subjective, nonlinear thinking; shows a greater degree of affective warmth, sensitivity, and caring, for earth and all its inhabitants. Where seen: Deep ecology, postmodernism, Netherlands idealism, Rogerian counseling, Canadian health care, humanistic psychology, liberation theology, cooperative inquiry, World Council of Churches, Greenpeace, animal rights, ecofeminism, post-colonialism, Foucault/Derrida, politically correct, diversity movements, human rights issues, ecopsychology. 10 percent of the population, 15 percent of the power. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 11 | With the completion of the green meme, human consciousness is poised for a quantum jump into "second-tier thinking." Clare Graves referred to this as a "momentous leap," where "a chasm of unbelievable depth of meaning is crossed." In essence, with second-tier consciousness, one can think both vertically and horizontally, using both hierarchies and heterarchies (both ranking and linking). One can therefore, for the first time, vividly grasp the entire spectrum of interior development, and thus see that each level, each meme, each wave is crucially important for the health of the overall Spiral. As I would word it, each wave is "transcend and include." That is, each wave goes beyond (or transcends) its predecessor, and yet it includes or embraces it in its own makeup. For example, a cell transcends but includes molecules, which transcend but include atoms. To say that a molecule goes beyond an atom is not to say that molecules hate atoms, but that they love them: they embrace them in their own makeup; they include them, they don't marginalize them. Just so, each wave of existence is a fundamental ingredient of all subsequent waves, and thus each is to be cherished and embraced. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 12 | But what none of the first-tier memes can do, on their own, is fully appreciate the existence of the other memes. Each of the first-tier memes thinks that its worldview is the correct or best perspective. It reacts negatively if challenged; it lashes out, using its own tools, whenever it is threatened. Blue order is very uncomfortable with both red impulsiveness and orange individualism. Orange individualism thinks blue order is for suckers and green egalitarianism is weak and woo-woo. Green egalitarianism cannot easily abide excellence and value rankings, big pictures, hierarchies, or anything that appears authoritarian, and thus green reacts strongly to blue, orange, and anything post-green. All of that begins to change with second-tier thinking. Because second-tier consciousness is fully aware of the interior stages of development-even if it cannot articulate them in a technical fashion-it steps back and grasps the big picture, and thus second-tier thinking appreciates the necessary role that all of the various memes play. Second-tier awareness thinks in terms of the overall spiral of existence, and not merely in the terms of any one level. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 12-13 | 7. Yellow: Integrative. Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies [holarchies], systems, and forms. Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority. Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows. Egalitarianism is complemented with natural degrees of ranking and excellence. Knowledge and competency should supersede power, status, or group sensitivity. The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of reality (memes) and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic spiral. Good governance facilitates the emergence of entities through the levels of increasing complexity (nested hierarchy). 1 percent of the population, 5 percent of the power. | Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 13 | 8. Turquoise: Holistic. Universal holistic system, holons/waves of integrative energies; unites feeling with knowledge; multiple levels interwoven into one conscious system.- Universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion, not based on external rules (blue) or group bonds (green). A "grand unification" [T.O.E.] is possible, in theory and in actuality. Sometimes involves the emergence of a new spirituality as a meshwork of all existence. Turquoise thinking uses the entire Spiral; sees multiple levels of interaction; detects harmonics, the mystical forces, and the pervasive flow-states that permeate any organization. 0.1 percent of the population, 1 percent of the power. | Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 14-15 | On the one hand, the pluralistic relativism of green has nobly enlarged the canon of cultural studies to include many previously marginalized peoples, ideas, and narratives. It has acted with sensitivity and care in attempting to redress social imbalances and avoid exclusionary practices. It has been responsible for basic initiatives in civil rights and environmental protection. It has developed strong and often convincing critiques of the philosophies, metaphysics, and social practices of the conventional religious (blue) and scientific (orange) memes, with their often exclusionary, patriarchal, sexist, and colonialistic agendas. On the other hand, as effective as these critiques of pre-green stages have been, green has attempted to turn its guns on all post-green stages as well, with the most unfortunate results. This has made it very difficult, and often impossible, for green to move forward into more holistic, integral constructions. |
Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 35 | On the other hand, if the person has tasted a stage and become fairly full, then he or she is open to transformation. In order for this to occur, some sort of dissonance generally has to set in. The new wave is struggling to emerge, the old wave is struggling to hang on, and the individual feels torn, feels dissonance, feels pulled in several directions. But in any event there has to be some sort of profound dissatisfaction with the present level; one has to be agitated, annoyed, frustrated with it, so that a deep and conflicted dissonance insistently arises. (One of the reasons I wrote "Boomeritis" was to generate some sort of genuine dissonance in the green meme. This has not, on balance, endeared me to greens, but there it is.) | Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 53 | Beck and Cowan specifically refer to second-tier thinking as recognizing and operating with "holons." As they put it, second tier is defined as "Holon: Everything flows with everything else in living systems; second tier stitches together particles, people, functions and nodes into networks and stratified levels [nested hierarchies or holarchies], and detects the energy fields that engulf, billow around, and flow throughout naturally in a`big picture' of cosmic order." That "big picture" is a T.O.E., and that order appears to be holonic.... | Spiral Dynamics Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 56 | One of the main conclusions of an all-quadrant, all-level approach is that each meme -- each level of consciousness and wave of existence -- is, in its healthy form, an absolutely necessary and desirable element of the overall spiral, of the overall spectrum of consciousness. Even if every society on earth were established fully at second tier, nonetheless every infant born in every society still has to start at level 1, at beige, at sensorimotor instincts and perceptions, and then must grow and evolve through purple magic, red and blue myth, orange rationalism, green sensitivity, and into yellow and turquoise second tier (on the way to the transpersonal). All of those waves have important tasks and functions; all of them are taken up and included in subsequent waves; none of them can be bypassed; and none of them can be demeaned without grave consequences to self and society. The health of the entire spiral is the prime directive, not preferential treatment for any one level. | Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 57-58 | ... an integral vision is one of the least pressing issues on the face of the planet. The health of the entire spiral, and particularly its earlier waves, screams out to us as the major ethical demand. Nonetheless, the advantage of second-tier integral awareness is that it more creatively helps with the solutions to those pressing problems. In grasping big pictures, it can help suggest more cogent solutions. It is our governing bodies, then, that stand in dire need of a more integral approach. It is our educational institutions, overcome with deconstructive postmodernism, that are desperate for a more integral vision. It is our business practices, saturated with fragmented gains, that cry out for a more balanced approach. It is our health-care facilities that could greatly benefit from the tender mercies of an integral touch. It is the leadership of the nations that might appreciate a more comprehensive vision of their own possibilities. In all these ways and more, we could indeed use an integral vision for a world gone slightly mad. |
Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 74 | ... we cannot define science-narrow or broad-by saying that it bases all of its knowledge on the sensorimotor world, because even narrow science (e.g., physics) uses a massive number of tools that are not empirical or sensorimotor, such as mathematics and logic. Mathematics and logic are interior realities (nobody has ever seen the square root of negative one running around out there in the empirical world). | |
| 81-82 | And the philosophes were also quite right that most of the dogma of the mythic-membership religions were in fact superstitions with little evidence or proof. But they were deeply confused when they thought that all of traditional religion was nothing but Santa Claus myths. For every major wisdom tradition contains, at its core, a series of contemplative practices, and, at their best, these contemplative practices disclose the transrational and transpersonal waves of consciousness. These contemplative sciences disclose, not prerational myths, but transrational realities, and the rational Enlightenment, alas, in reacting to all nonrational claims, carelessly threw both transrational and prerational out the window, and one enormously precious baby was tossed with tons of unpleasant bathwater. | history of religion |
| 84 | The first step toward an integral politics that unites the best of liberal and conservative is to recognize that both the interior quadrants and the exterior quadrants are equally real and important. We consequently must address both interior factors (values, meaning, morals, the development of consciousness) and exterior factors (economic conditions, material well-being, technological advance, social safety net, environment)- in short, a truly integral politics would emphasize both interior development and exterior development. | |
| 86-87 | Liberalism arose in a climate that I have called flatland. Flatland - or scientific materialism - is the belief that only matter is real, and that only narrow science has any claim to truth. ... The only thing that is ultimately real is the Right-Hand, material, sensorimotor world; the mind itself is just a tabula rasa, a blank slate that is filled with representations of the Right-Hand world; if the subjective realm is ill, it is because objective social institutions are ill; the best way to free men and women is therefore to offer them material-economic freedom; thus scientific materialism and economic equality are the major routes of ending human suffering. The interior realms - the entire Left-Hand domains -are simply ignored or even denied. All interiors are equal - no stance is better than another - and that ends that discussion. There are no waves, stages, or levels of consciousness, for that would be to make a ranking judgment, and ranking is very, very bad. A noble sentiment, but it gutted the interiors altogether, and pledged allegiance to flatland. | history of politics political philosophy |
| 87 | Liberalism was itself the product of a whole series of interior stages of consciousness development - from egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric - whereupon it turned around and denied the importance or even the existence of those interior levels of development! Liberalism, in championing only exterior causation (i.e., flatland), denied the interior path that produced liberalism. The liberal stance itself is the product of stages that it then denies - and there is the inherent contradiction of liberalism. | history of political philosophy |
| 87-88 | The conservatives, on the other hand, fully embraced interior development - but only up to the mythic-membership stage, which is nonetheless healthy as far as it goes: a healthy version of a lower level. (Mythic-membership, civic virtue, the blue meme, the conventional/conformist stage of development-this is a normal, healthy, natural, necessary wave of human development, and this sturdy social structure is still the main base of traditional conservative politics.) So here is the truly odd political choice that we are given today: a sick version of a higher level versus a healthy version of a lower level-liberalism versus conservatism. |
history of political philosophy human psychological development |
| 88 | The point is that a truly integral politics would embrace a healthy version of the higher level - namely, grounded in the postconventional/worldcentric waves of development, it would equally encourage both interior development and exterior development - the growth and development of consciousness and subjective well-being, as well as the growth and development of economic, social, and material well-being. It would be, in other words, an "all-quadrant, all-level" political theory and practice. Moreover, from this spacious vantage point, the prime directive of a genuine integral politics would be, not to try to get everybody to a particular level of consciousness (integral, pluralistic, liberal, or whatever), but to ensure the health of the entire spiral of development at all of its levels and waves. Thus the two steps toward an integral politics are: (1) including both interior and exterior, and (2) understanding stages of the interior and thus arriving at the prime directive |
political philosophy human psychological development |
| 111 | An integral synthesis, to be truly integral, must find a way that all of the major worldviews are basically true (even though partial). It is not that the higher levels are giving more accurate views, and the lower levels are giving falsity, superstition, or primitive nonsense. There must be a sense in which even "childish" magic and Santa Claus myths are true. For those worldviews are simply the way the world looks at that level, or from that wave, and all of the waves are crucial ingredients of the Kosmos. At the mythic level, Santa Claus (or Zeus or Apollo or astrology) is a phenomenological reality. It will do no good to say, "Well, we have evolved beyond that stage, and so now we know that Santa Claus is not real," because if that is true - and all stages are shown to be primitive and false in light of further evolution - then we will have to admit that our own views, right now, are also false (because future evolution will move beyond them). But it is not that there is one level of reality, and those other views are all primitive and incorrect versions of that one level. Each of those views is a correct view of a lower yet fundamentally important level of reality, not an incorrect view of the one real level. The notion of development allows us to recognize nested truths, not primitive superstitions. | Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 137 | That both conservatives and liberals were alarmed by the book ["One Taste"] does not guarantee the book's integral truth, but it is a prerequisite. | controversy politics political correctness political incorrectness |
| 138 | The basic idea of integral transformative practice (ITP) is simple: the more aspects of our being that we simultaneously exercise, the more likely that transformation will occur... If you are at blue, this will help you transform to orange. If you are at green, this will help you move into second tier. | Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 159 | A few quick examples of the narrow religion of each wave of existence: Purple religion includes some forms of voodoo and the belief in word magic. Red religion is a religion of archetypal mythic beliefs with an emphasis on the magical power of the archetypal figures (Moses parted the Red Sea, Christ was born from a virgin, Lao Tzu was 90o years old when he was born, etc.). Blue religion is a religion of law and order, a mythic-membership structure that binds people together through obedience to a great Order or Other; it is authoritarian, rigidly hierarchical, and uses guilt as social control (the Ten Commandments, the Analects of Confucius, much of the Koran, etc.); but it does extend care to all those who embrace the mythic beliefs (while all those who do not are eternally damned). Orange religion is a religion of positivism and scientific materialism; its advocates believe this worldview just as religiously as do any fundamentalists, and they have their own skeptical Inquisitors who will attack and ridicule the worldviews of any of the other levels. ... But orange religion is also the beginning of the belief in equal rights for all individuals, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender. Green religion extends that to a kindness and subjective caring for all souls and a sensitivity to all of the earth's inhabitants (although it turns very mean-the "mean green meme"toward all those who do not share its religion of politically correct views). Second-tier religion is a religion of holism, cosmic oneness, and universal pattern (as Beck and Cowan put it, second tier believes that "the earth is one organism with a collective mind"). Moving beyond even that integral belief in cosmic oneness, psychic religion is an actual experience of this cosmic oneness (a type of nature mysticism). Subtle religion is a direct experience of the divine Ground of this cosmic order (deity mysticism). And causal religion is a direct experience of the radically infinite and unqualifiable nature of this Ground (formless mysticism). | Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 174 | Of course, if junior-level worldviews make claims about senior levels, they have to be tested using the criteria of the senior levels. For example, if astrology makes rational-empirical claims (i.e., if chakra 3 makes chakra 4 claims), then those claims need to be tested by rational-empirical means, whereupon they usually fail dramatically (astrology, for example, has consistently failed empirical tests devised by astrologers themselves...). But astrology is one of the numerous valid worldviews available at the mythic level of consciousness, and it accomplishes what it is supposed to accomplish at that level - provide meaning, a sense of connection to the cosmos, and a role for the self in the vastness of the universe. It is not, however, a rational chakra-4 science with predictive power (which is why it has consistently failed empirical tests). For the same reason, we needn't give much credence to what rational science has to say about chakras 5, 6, or 7. | Integral Theory human psychological development |
| 60-61 | Esteem comes from the knowledge of belonging, not from the fractures of difference. Our deepest longing is to have a place -- in the family, in the community, in the culture, in the world. This is why adolescence is such a torment. It is the time of life when our need to understand ourselves as individuals necessarily overwhelms our sense of ourselves as ordinary. We are obliged, at that time, to concentrate on the things that distinguish us from the crowd. We find ourselves, in consequence, isolated, alienated, humiliatingly conspicuous. Some cultures, but not ours, have sympathized with the wretchedness of this work by offering their youngsters, at the end of this trial by separation, a ritual way of reestablishing connections, especially the most fundamental one, the connection with nature. | self-esteem self esteem teenagers depression |
| 201 | We confront in wild places evidence of powers greater than our own; this evidence humbles us, and in humility is the beginning of spirituality. Wildness matters not because it alone is sacred but because it arouses in us the sense of sanctity that makes visible the sacredness of everything else in life. | higher power god theism deism atheism |
| 147-148 | The problem that economists completely ignore is that the generation of physical wealth by teh community is not inexhaustible. The laws of thermodynamics set ultimate limits to the amount of physical wealth that can be generated. ... At every step in the entire production and exchange process, work is done; namely, energy is expended by both humans and machines. Part of that energy is absorbed into the product and part is wasted. This means that the more stages in the economic process, the more energy is lost. | economics physics capitalism industrialism |
| 114 | " I got big lips, i'm too skinny, and it makes it hard for me! i can't take it!" | |
| “To be competitive for a major airline you will need to accumulate 1000hrs of Turbine (JET) PIC. This is the very minimum level of experience that most major airlines require currently. In fact there are so many pilots applying to the majors that to be competitive you would need approximately 2000hrs PIC.” | Commercial Pilot | |
| in the middle of difficulty lies success. | Albert Einstein | |
| starting college graduate salary is $53,199 | Salary | |
| Success: the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. | success |