Women To Save World
The growing power of women over their own futures could save the human race from destruction, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
"More people are using more resources with more intensity than at any point in human history," the U.N. said in its annual world population report for 2001.
But Alex Marshall, editor of the report, said a ray of hope can be found in the fact that women are gaining control of their fertility and have increased their political influence.
"Nearly 60 percent of women now have access to some sort of family planning - even if you take China out of that you still have about 40 percent," he said. "You are finding a tremendous upsurge of strength among women joining together to do what they see needs to be done.
His report painted an otherwise bleak picture of the planet. The world's population, which has doubled to 6.1 billion in the past 40 years, is projected to surge 50 percent to 9.3 billion within another half century, with all the growth in developing countries whose resources are already overstretched.
Increasing population and consumption will continue to alter the planet on an "unprecedented scale," degrading soil, polluting air and water, melting ice caps and destroying natural habits, the "State of the World Population 2001" report said.
The report said water is being used and polluted at catastrophic rates. At present 54 percent of available fresh water supplies are being used annually - two-thirds for agriculture. This figure is set to surge to 70 percent by 2025 due to population growth alone, and 90 percent if consumption in the developing countries reaches the levels in the developed world.
Water is being used at unsustainable rates in many places, with water tables under some Chinese, Latin American and South Asian cities dropping and rivers being diverted with disastrous environmental results.
More than a billion people do not have access to clean water, and in developing nations up to 95 percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste is simply being dumped untreated into water courses.
Rain forests are being destroyed at the highest rate in history, taking with them crucial sources of biodiversity and contributing to climate warming, thereby boosting already rising sea levels.
The seas continue to be massively overexploited and erosion is taking a rising toll of plant species - one quarter of which could be lost forever by 2025.
The U.N. Population Fund, launched in 1969, aims to help developing countries find solutions to their population problems. It has three main program areas: reproductive health, including family planning and sexual health; population and development strategies; and advocacy.
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