World Population to Hit 7 billion in 2012

The world's population will reach 7 billion in 2012, even as the global community struggles to satisfy its appetite for natural resources, according to a new government projection.

There are 6.7 billion people in the world today. The United States ranks third, with 304 million, behind China and India, according to projections released Thursday by the Census Bureau.

The world's population surpassed 6 billion in 1999, meaning it will take only 13 years to add a billion people.

By comparison, the number of people didn't reach 1 billion until 1800, said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau. It didn't reach 2 billion until 130 years later.

"You can easily see the effect of rapid population growth in developing countries," Haub said.

Haub said that medical and nutritional advances in developing countries led to a population explosion following World War II. Cultural changes are slowly catching up, with more women in developing countries going to school and joining the work force.

That is slowing the growth rate, though it is still high in many countries.
The global population is growing by about 1.2 percent per year. The Census Bureau projects the growth rate will decline to 0.5 percent by 2050.

By then, India will have surpassed China as the most populous country.

The Census Bureau updates projections each year on a variety of global demographic trends, including fertility and mortality rates and life expectancy. U.S. life expectancy has surpassed 78 years for the first time, the National Center for Health Statistics announced last week.

The new Census report comes amid record high oil and gasoline prices, fueled in part by growing demand from expanding economies in China and India.

There is no consensus on how many people the Earth can sustain, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. He said it depends on how well people manage the Earth's resources.

Today, industrialized nations use a disproportionate share of oil and other resources, while developing countries are fueling population growth.

There are countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East where the average woman has more than six children in her lifetime. In Mali and Niger, two African nations, women average more than seven children.

"There's still a long way to go in the developing world," Frey said. "A lot of it does have to do with the education of women and the movement of women into the labor force."

In the U.S., women have an average of about two children, which essentially replaces the population. Much of the U.S. population growth comes from immigration.


Author: STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Source: The Associated Press, June 19, 2008

TEEN PREGNANCIES IN THE PHILIPPINES

The sexual revolution has ushered in a period in which the average adolescent experiences tremendous pressures to have sexual experiences of all kinds. Filipino teens get a higher exposure to sex from the Internet, magazines, TV shows, movies and other media than decades ago, yet without any corresponding increase in information on how to handle the input. So kids are pretty much left to other kids for opinions and value information when it comes to sex.

Sexual misinformation is therefore equally shared in the group. Parents at home and teachers in school feel equally inadequate or uneasy to discuss the topic of sex with youngsters. The problem mounts because the barkada (gang) has a more profound influence than parents do and they exert pressure and expect the adolescent to conform to the rest of them.

In fact, female adolescents whose friends engage in sexual behavior were found to be more likely to do the same compared to those who do not associate with such peers. If the teen perceives her peers to look negatively at premarital sex, she was more likely to start sex at a later age.

Numbers
Statistics in the United States show that each year, almost 1 million teenage women10 percent of all women aged 15-19 and 19 percent of those who have had sexual intercourse become pregnant and one-fourth of teenage mothers have a second child within two years of their first.

In the Philippines, according to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation, 26 percent of our Filipino youth nationwide from ages 15 to 25 admitted to having a premarital sex experience. What’s worse is that 38 percent of our youth are already in a live-in arrangement.

The 1998 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) reveals that 3.6 million of our teenagers (that’s a whopping 5.2 percent of our population!) got pregnant. In 92 percent of these teens, the pregnancy was unplanned, and the majority, 78 percent, did not even use contraceptives the first time they had sex. Many of the youth are clueless that even on a single intercourse, they could wind up pregnant.

Risk for malnutrition
Teenage mothers tend to have poor eating habits and are less likely to take recommended daily multivitamins to maintain adequate nutrition during pregnancy. They are also more likely to smoke, drink or take drugs during pregnancy, which can cause health problems for the baby.

Risk for inadequate prenatal care
Teenage mothers are less likely to seek regular prenatal care which is essential for monitoring the growth of the fetus; keeping the mothers weight in check; and advising the mother on nutrition and how she should take care of herself to ensure a healthy pregnancy. According to the American Medical Association, babies born to women who do not have regular prenatal care are 4 times more likely to die before the age of 1 year.

Risk for abortion
Unplanned pregnancies lead to a higher rate of abortions. In the United States, nearly 4 in 10 teen pregnancies (excluding those ending in miscarriages) are terminated by abortion. There were about 274,000 abortions among teens in 1996.

In the Philippines, although abortion is illegal, it would shock you to know that we even have a higher abortion rate (25/1,000 women) compared to the United States where abortion is legal (23/1,000 women). For sure, there are more abortions that happen in our country that are not even reported. Backdoor abortions are resorted to with untrained hilots with questionable sterility procedures, increasing the possibility for tetanus poisoning and other complications.

Risk for fetal deaths
Statistics of the Department of Health show that fetal deaths are more likely to happen to young mothers, and that babies born by them are likely to have low birth weight.

Risk for acquiring cervical cancer
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually-transmitted, wart-forming virus that has been implicated in causing cancer of the cervix. This is the most common cancer in women secondary to breast cancer. Women who are at increased risk for acquiring this are those who engage in sex before 18, have a pregnancy at or younger than 18, or have had at least 5 sexual partners, or have had a partner with at least 5 sexual partners.

If you start sex at an early age, you have a higher likelihood of going through several sexual partners before you settle down, thus increasing your exposure to acquiring the virus and acquiring cervical cancer. The men can get genital warts from this virus and can certainly pass it on to their partners, thus increasing her risk for cervical cancer. Is that something you would want to gift to your wife with on your honeymoon? There is a way to test women (HPV Digene test) but no test for the man so you cannot know if you have it. Using the condom does not confer protection against acquiring this virus since the condom cannot cover the testes where the warts can grow and proliferate.

By: Rebecca B. Singson, MD, FPOGS, FACS, FPSCPC, Contributor
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer, Saturday, June 14, 2008

World Environment Day Calls for End to Carbon Addiction

The United Nations urged the world on Thursday to kick an all-consuming addiction to carbon dioxide and said everyone must take steps to fight climate change.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said global warming was becoming the defining issue of the era and will hurt rich and poor alike.

"Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit," Ban said in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which is being marked by events around the globe and hosted by the New Zealand city of Wellington.

"Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions," he said in the speech to reinforce this year's World Environment Day theme of "CO2 Kick the Habit."

"Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is a message we all must take to heart," he said.

World Environment Day, conceived in 1972, is the United Nations' principal day to mark global green issues and aims to give a human face to environmental problems and solutions.

New Zealand, which boasts snow-capped mountains, pristine fjords and isolated beaches used as the backdrop for the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, has pledged to become carbon-neutral.

"We take pride in our clean, green identity as a nation and we are determined to take action to protect it. We appreciate that protecting the climate means behavior change by each and every one of us," said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.

New Zealand, like many countries, staged art and street festivals to spread the message on how people can reduce carbon usage. New Zealand Post has asked staff to bring a magazine or book to work and swap it to reduce their carbon footprint.

In Australia, Adelaide Zoo staged a wild breakfast for corporate leaders to focus on how carbon emissions threaten animal habitats.

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Women's groups express alarm over rising maternal mortality rate

Scores of mothers and children gathered at the Quezon City Hall on Wednesday to raise the alarm on the rising cases of maternal mortality, fetal deaths and teenage pregnancy.

The activity was in observance of the May 28 International Day of Action for Women's Health.

The Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and Womenhealth, two non-government organizations, raised the alarm as the government figures in 2006 showed seven mothers die each day due to preventable pregnancy and childbirth complications and 70 infants deaths daily.

"Decline of maternal mortality ratio has been very slow. It was 209 for every 100,000 in 1990, and it is now 162 for every 100,000 in 2006. This is still unacceptably high," Mercedes Fabros of Womanhealth Philippines said.

"The Millennium Development Goal target is 52 maternal deaths per 100,000. But the main point probably here is no woman deserves to die while giving birth," said Joel Saracho, GCAP national coordinator.

GCAP and WomanHealth gathered mothers from several barangays in Quezon City to draw from them a tapestry of tales on the dangers poor women face in giving birth.

Their sad tales range from hospitals rejecting them due to lack of space and equipment, negligence and lack of care from personnel who for whatever reason do not see child birth as an emergency case, hospitals demanding deposits, down payments, medicines before looking into the patient and absence of free pre-natal check-ups.

One of such tales is Freda Atienza, 37, gave birth to Quezon City General Hospital on September 22, 2007 but only after getting rejected by two other hospitals earlier that nearly killed her due to severe complications.

Equally alarming are cases of teenage pregnancy and the dangers they undergo while carrying a child and giving birth.

"Imagine a child giving birth to a child. It is dangerous. Their bodies have not yet fully developed for giving birth. With teenage pregnancy and maternal deaths comes the risk of infants also dying. On the average, at least 28 newborns/fetuses die every day. That is government statistics," Fabros said.

"Government should take a serious look at the situation. These children are potential productive members of our society. They too don't deserve to be robbed of their future," Saracho added.

Source: Philippines News Agency (PNA),May 29, 2008