Planetary Transitioning

by Alternative Voice Staff

According to a recent report, 852 million people worldwide don't have enough to eat and 5 million children die of hunger and malnutrition annually.1

•A campaign in Britain called “The Big Ask,” initiated by the international environmental organization Friends of the Earth, calls for politicians to support a new law on climate change that would make the British Government accountable for failing to meet annual standards. Heavy sanctions would occur if targets are not met, including pay cuts for the responsible ministers.2

•The military spending of the U.S.A. is nearly as much as the rest of the world combined: in 2004 it was 455 billion, or 47% of the global total.3

•A village in the foothills of the Himalayas has won the upper hand in a fight with industrial giant W.R. Grace and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over rights to the neem tree. The corporation produced a fungicide with ingredients from the tree, long known for its healing properties, and claimed exclusive patent rights. The villagers challenged this move in an appeal to the European Patent Office. Anna Lappé, co-author of Hope's Edge, reports in Spirituality & Health (July/August 2005) that, “Advocates had stressed that the qualities W.R. Grace was attempting to patent had actually been known in India for more than 2,000 years.” On March 8, the European Patent Office revoked the patent it had granted the corporation in 1994. Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva said the verdict “upholds the value of traditional knowledge of millions [of people], not only in India, but throughout the South.”

•Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has signaled that he plans to intensify a campaign to influence global media coverage of the United States, a move that is likely to heighten the debate over press freedom and propaganda-free reporting. He said that “some of the most critical battles may not be in the mountains of Afghanistan or the streets of Iraq, but in newsrooms—in places like New York, London, Cairo, and elsewhere.”4

•Approximately 11 million people are in serious danger from drought in Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti, the UN estimates.5

•Since 1970 the amount of the earth's land stricken by severe drought has grown 100%, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research (Boulder, Colorado).

•2,225 U.S. prisoners are serving life sentences with no parole, for crimes they committed while juveniles. There is a total of 12 in all other countries, according to Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.).

•In China, each day, there is an average of 200 mass protests.6

•The U.S. spends more than 23 billion dollars annually on imported toys, more than the next ten highest toy-importing countries combined.7

•The average U.S. household has 12.7 credit cards.8

•Weather-related disasters cost $107 billion in 2004, according to Munich Reinsurance.

•On January 22, an Ayamaran Indian who grew up in poverty—so harsh it claimed four of his siblings—was sworn in as the president of the Republic of Bolivia. Evo Morales Aima was swept into office by Bolivia's indigenous majority, in what is seen by many as yet another new challenge towards the U.S. policies.

•The average child six-years-old and under in the U.S. spends nearly two hours a day using TV, video, DVD, or computers, compared to 39 minutes reading or being read to.9

•Existing data has shown that a child can develop brand loyalty by two years of age.10

•DownsizeDC.org, an internet-based political advocacy group, wants members of Congress to sign an affidavit testifying that he or she has “attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.”11

•Every day America loses 8,700 acres of forests, farms, meadows, and woods to sprawl. That means nearly 3.2 million acres of open land disappear every year.”12

•Metropolitan Phoenix is developing at a rate of 1.2 acres per hour and is now comparable to the size of Delaware.”13

1 According to the Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Outlined in the Belgian global magazine MO (October 2005)
2 British publication Positive News (Fall 2005)
3World Watch magazine (September/October 2005)
4 See “Rumsfeld Declares War on Bad Press”, by Emad Mekay. Published on 2/22/06 by Inter Press Service
5 Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4744812.stm Published: 2006/02/23 18:21:26 GMT
6 From the Hong Kong newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, 7/6/05
7 Danny Dorling, University of Sheffield (England)
8 The Nilson Report (Carpinteria, Calif.)
9 Kaiser Family Foundation, “New Study Finds Children Age Zero to Six Spend As Much Time With TV, Computers, and Video Games As Playing Outside,” October 28, 2003
10 James McNeal, Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children, New York, Lexington Books, 1992. Cited by National Institute on Media and Family, 2002, ttp://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_childadv.shtml
11http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml
12 The Trust for Public Land
13 www.epa.gov/scienceforum/2004/presentations/day2/oei/session2/roberts-cary.pdf