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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: Hunger, Poverty and the Environment
- Message-ID: <1992Sep6.082323.9882@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Organization: PACH
- Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 08:23:23 GMT
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- Lines: 95
-
- /** gen.newsletter: 136.6 **/
- ** Written 5:02 pm Aug 28, 1992 by ecologycntr in cdp:gen.newsletter **
- Hunger, Poverty and the Environment
-
- By Joel Rubinstein
-
- The recent Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro was held because of
- growing recognition of the connection between environmental
- problems, poverty and hunger, and development. The influence of
- poverty on the environment is explained in UNICEF's State of the
- World's Children 1991 report:
-
- For the majority of mankind, the greatest environmental threat is
- not progress but poverty. Poverty and the lack of alternatives
- drive rural people to the burning of forests, the tilling of
- marginal lands, the over-dependence of finding grazing for cattle,
- the over-cutting of trees for fuel. Poverty and lack of confidence
- in the future are also engines of rapid population growth.
-
- This last point deserves clarification. We know that the
- population of the world is growing rapidly, and that the growth
- rates are fastest in the poorest countries. If we could find a way
- to end hunger and poverty-related deaths in poor countries,
- wouldn't this just accelerate the population explosion? Precisely
- the contrary is true. Reducing the child death rate is necessary
- in order to cut the birth rate. In poor countries, where there is
- no Social Security, children are the primary oldage security.
- Parents have to have large families to ensure that some of their
- children will survive to take care of them when they get old. But
- as the children stop dying, parents have fewer children. In fact,
- no country has managed to have significant reductions in their
- birth rate without first reducing the child death rate.
-
- Although famines such as the famous ones in Ethiopia and Somalia
- receive more publicity, chronic persistent hunger kills more
- people. The United Nations has quoted 1.5 million as the number of
- likely deaths in Somalia if the world does not act right away; yet
- 15 million children under age 5 will die this year, most of
- preventable causes. Children are the main victims of both famines
- and chronic persistent hunger.
-
- If poverty is the greatest environmental threat to the majority of
- mankind, what can we do about it? At the World Summit for
- Children, September 29-30, 1990, President Bush joined 71 Heads of
- State at the UN in unanimous approval of the World Declaration on
- the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. This
- declaration promised by the year 2000 to reduce infant mortality
- by at least one third in every country, to reduce maternal
- mortality by half, and to provide universal access to safe
- drinking water, sanitation facilities, and basic education.
- Keeping the promises made at the World Summit for Children would
- save at least 50 million children in the 1990s, and break the
- feedback loops of poverty and the environment.
-
- What will it cost to keep these promises to the world's children?
- UNICEF estimates that the worldwide costs will average $20 billion
- per year in the 1990s, and that the poor countries will contribute
- twothirds of this. Thus, a fair share for the United States would
- be less than $2 billion per year during the 1990s. The money is
- available. For 1992 the military component of the United States
- foreign aid budget is $8 billion. Recognizing the reduced military
- security needs following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the
- Warsaw Pact, the Bush Administration has proposed a $600 million
- cut in military foreign aid for 1993. But much greater cuts are
- possible.
-
- The promise of the World Summit for Children will not be fulfilled
- by wishing. Citizen activism and lobbying will be needed in both
- rich countries and the developing world. RESULTS, an international
- anti-hunger lobby, is leading the Keeping the Promise Campaign to
- inform the public and keep the promises of the World Summit for
- Children on the political agenda. RESULTS has prepared lesson
- plans for Keeping the Promise activities in schools, from
- kindergarten through university, scheduled for the week of October
- 12-16. RESULTS is supporting the Children's Defense Fund's (CDF)
- National Observance of Children's Sabbaths October 16-18. Worship
- materials for Christian, Jewish and Moslem services are available
- from RESULTS; please call (202) 546-1900 to obtain the lesson
- plans, worship materials, or for more information. CDF's free
- "Guide for the National Observances of Children's Sabbaths" for
- Catholic, African American, other Christian, and Jewish worship is
- available from Shannon Daley, Children's Defense Fund, 25 E St.
- NW, Washington DC 20001.
-
- RESULTS has had over a decade of striking legislative success in
- mustering political support for programs like UNICEF and Child
- Survival, loan programs to help poor people in developing
- countries start small businesses to end their own poverty, and
- domestic anti-poverty children's programs including WIC and Head
- Start. There are six RESULTS groups in the Bay Area meeting
- monthly to create the political will to end hunger. For further
- information about RESULTS or the Keeping the Promise Campaign,
- please call Joel Rubinstein at (510) 655-5541.
- ** End of text from cdp:gen.newsletter **
-
-