Watching the World
A Million Species Doomed
● At a three-day Conference on Biological Diversity held in Washington, D.C., scientists and officials warned that one million living species now in existence will disappear by the end of the century due to man’s careless destruction of natural habitats. Threatened are not only whales and pandas but also primitive strains of wheat, rice and corn and even species that have not yet been identified or named. According to the scientists, the resultant loss of genetic diversity can be critical to mankind’s food supply, health and survival. One scientist compared it to book burning, and added: “But it is even worse because many of the books have not yet been deciphered.”
Red Tape at the U.N.
● It has often been said that, if nothing else, the United Nations is at least a place where its members can come together and talk about their disagreements. But it seems even that is getting to be harder to do. To begin with, the agenda of the General Assembly is getting longer each year. For the last session there were 135 items—a record. Then, “There is a generally lackadaisical attitude about time in this place,” said a U.N. staff member. “Nothing begins on time, nothing ends on time.” It is, of course, the duty of the Assembly president to keep things moving, but, in his departing speech, last year’s president said that the U.N. “is about to slowly suffocate from too many resolutions, too many meetings, too many subsidiary organs, far too much documentation.” Some 236,000,000 pages of documentation were produced during the last session alone—enough to go nearly once around the earth if put end to end.
Threat of Cancer
● Based on evidence from a five-year study, the National Cancer Institute warns that one in three Americans will get cancer before the age of 74 and one in six will die from the disease. The study examines cancer occurrence among Americans by race, age, sex and location, and shows that Hawaiians have the highest cancer risk, followed by black men, white men, white women and black women. Those of Oriental descent have a lower risk, and American Indians and Hispanics have the lowest risk of all. Lung cancer is reported to be the leading killer, accounting for 21.7 percent of all cancer deaths. Breast cancer and cancer of the colon account for another 20 percent.
Spanish “Olive Oil”
● What was peddled from door to door as “bargain” olive oil in poorer sections of Madrid and other Spanish cities last May killed over 200 people and poisoned 16,000 by the end of the year, according to the BBC. Unscrupulous merchants imported some 1,000 tons of industrial rapeseed oil from France, reprocessed it to remove its nonfood color-code additive and marketed it as olive oil. Evidently, the reprocessing triggered some chemical reaction in the oil and rendered it toxic to humans. No one knows how many people have been affected by the oil, and the death toll continues to mount at the rate of four or more a week because no antidote has been found for it. Losses in Spanish food export business due to the incident have amounted to $42 million (U.S.) thus far.
Cost of Child Rearing
● In 1960 it cost $37,274 (U.S.) to raise a child to the age of 18, according to the Agriculture Department, but it will take all of $134,414 to do the same for a child born in 1979. Thus, in just 20 years, the cost of rearing a child to the age of 18 has increased about $100,000, or nearly 300 percent. Government statistics show that 3,473,000 babies were born in 1979. That means that by 1997 the total bill paid to raise the nation’s new generation would come to $467,000,000,000. Will the high-priced generation be worth it? The New York Times describes the situation as “a long-term investment with no guaranteed rate of return.”
Power from Volcanoes
● Can the awesome power of volcanoes be put to constructive use? The Philippine National Power Corporation has been generating hundreds of megawatts of electric power by tapping the underground reservoirs of volcanic steam. At the Mak-Ban geothermal station, named after volcanoes Makiling and Banahao, just south of Manila, a 220-megawatt power plant has been operating for well over a year, with a 110-megawatt plant being scheduled for 1983. Near the town of Tiwi on Luzon Island, a similar setup is in operation. Other sites are being investigated, and the Power Corporation anticipates producing 1,726 megawatts by 1985, covering 18 percent of the country’s power needs. “By 1985,” said the president of the Power Corporation, “we aspire to be the world’s top producer of this type of energy.”
Hazard for Third World
● Cigarette companies are doing their utmost to encourage smoking among people of the Third World. They have resorted to large-scale advertising, and cigarette sales have increased 13.8 percent in seven years, according to the Arab-oriented Middle East of London. It reports that smoking is a growing health hazard in the Middle East and adds: “In Syria, a traditional tobacco-growing region, there has been a sharp increase in . . . bronchitis and emphysema. In Egypt doctors chart a close relationship between smoking and lung cancer.”
What’s at the Movies?
● Just what kind of fare is being offered at the movies these days? Out of 234 films reviewed by the American motion-picture industry’s own Rating Board in the first eight months of 1981, only six, or a mere 2.6 percent, were given the “G” rating, meaning acceptable for general audiences of all ages. Because of their sex and/or violence content, an overwhelming 57.3 percent of the films were rated “R,” so anyone under 17 attending must be accompanied by a parent or an adult guardian. Another 28.6 percent were rated “PG,” for parental guidance suggested, and 11.5 percent were rated “X,” considered unsuitable for anyone under the age of 17. Even so, some experts feel that the Rating Board is too lenient, particularly regarding violence, and point out that there is virtually no enforcement of the ratings at the theaters.
Restricting Baby Bottles
● In 1977 Papua New Guinea passed a law requiring that the purchase of baby bottles and rubber nipples “be authorized by health workers, who are charged with the responsibility of instructing mothers how to correctly clean the bottle and to mix the formula.” A survey carried out before and after the law reveals that the number of breast-fed babies increased from 50 percent to 88 percent. Formula-fed babies decreased from 45 percent to 17 percent. From 1978 through 1980 there have been no deaths of babies under six months from inflammation of the stomach and the intestines.
French Drinking Less
● It may come as a surprise to some, but the annual per capita consumption of wine in France has dropped from 120 liters (32 gallons) in 1964 to about 90 liters (24 gallons), according to the French National Institute of Agricultural Research and National Office of Table Wines. Their extensive study found that people under 35 drink only a sixth as much as those a generation earlier. The reason? Television and automation, says the report. The average workingman now spends his evenings at home watching American movies on TV rather than at the bistros with his friends and the wine bottle. Automation has made their work less physically demanding, but it requires more alertness and sobriety. So, much of the drinking is done on weekends (85 percent), and most drinkers (66 percent) go in for cheaper and stronger wines, according to the study.
Medical Advances?
● In many respects medicine appears to be moving forward, and not the least is the cost. In 1980 Americans paid a staggering $240 billion for health care—more than $1,000 for every man, woman and child—and it is expected to go up to $300 billion in 1982. The chief culprit appears to be hospital bills. In 1980 an average stay cost $3,000. Just 12 years ago it cost less than $300. This is 1,000-percent inflation, eight times the rise in the Consumer Price Index for the same period. Also adding to the high cost were things such as the two million surgical operations that a government investigation found unnecessary but that cost $4 billion and 10,000 lives in 1977. Or the number of cesarean sections now being performed—three times as many as 10 years ago. In spite of all of this, the Department of Labor reports that 44 percent of Americans receive “inadequate or marginal” medical service.
Staple Food Turns Poison
● Reports from northern Mozambique show that cassava, the staple food of the area, has become a source of cyanide poisoning. This has partially paralyzed over 1,000 people, mostly women and children, some of whom now have difficulty in speaking and seeing. Health authorities blame it on the severe two-year drought in the region, which has wiped out all other crops except the hardy cassava. Normally, cassava is dried for about three months, then washed and eaten along with beans, fish or meat. The drying and washing remove most of the cyanide, and the body detoxifies what remains. With the drought, however, people had nothing but cassava to eat, and as the supply became scarce, they ate it without letting it dry properly. “People know the cassava is toxic,” said one health official, “but they have to eat it. They have no choice, otherwise, they will die of hunger.”
Preview Machine
● Wouldn’t it be nice to know how you might look in a new hairdo before taking the plunge? Now there is a way to know for sure—and save all the embarrassment later. Japan’s Matsushita Electric Company has developed a video machine called Stylesetter that allows customers to see themselves in a color TV picture with a new hairdo, or mustache, or beard, or even a new nose, by simply playing with the controls. The machine was introduced in Japan about a year ago and will soon be marketed overseas. Beauty salons, plastic surgeons and opticians are first in the line of customers. But Matsushita feels the machine eventually will be useful to the police, highway and city planners, architects and others.
Trolley to Tijuana
● The first trolley line to be built in the U.S. since before World War II has begun operating. It runs from downtown San Diego to the Mexican border town of Tijuana—a distance of 14 miles (22.5 km). The cost of a trolley trip ranges from 25 cents to $1.