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Re: Ecological Economics and Entropy
In article <56iu43$r03@news.inforamp.net>,
J McGinnis <sync@inforamp.net> wrote:
>On 14 Nov 1996 17:19:23 GMT, jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy)
>wrote:
>
>>Yuri Kuchinsky includes:
>>
>> World Food Organization reports that over 800 million people
>> are starving on this planet right now. Get rid of your pink
>> glasses.
>>
>>I'm sure that "starving" isn't the word that was used by the World
>>Food Organization. If 800 million were starving, and the report was
>>from last year, we would expect them to be dead by now. Would
>>Kuchinsky tell us what actually happened or will happen in the next
>>year or two?
>
>You want to know what's happening? Can you face the truth?
>
>
>U.N. World Food Council documents:
>-------
>Every day around the world 40,000 people die of hunger. That's 28
>human beings every minute, and three out of four of them
>are children under the age of five.
>
>The number of hungry people increased five times faster in the 1980s
>than in the previous decade. By 1989, 550 million people filled the
>ranks of the malnourished or hungry.
>-------
>
>This shows quite plainly that things are not getting better. Since
>1989 the number of people facing famine has almost doubled. These
>people are not simply upset that they have to live on swill instead of
>a Big Mac and fries, they're dying.
>
>If everyone produced and consumed food as North Americans do, there
>would only be enough food on the planet to feed 2.5 Billion people. On
>the other hand if Americans reduced their meat consumption by just
>10%, it would free up 12 million tons of grain anually - more than
>enough to feed all those facing famine.
>
>
>Jason McGinnis
There is already a great deal of excess grain. The problem is, that
we aren't getting it to the people in real need.
The problem gets worse, because of wars, greed and the use of
starvation as a weapon to weild control on others.
While cutting conspicuous consumption might help, and certainly
would benefit our own personal health, the real problem is getting
the food to the hungry people.
Too bad we don't use our foreign aid budget to purchase grain
as our agricultural subsidy to farmers. Instead, we'd rather
give governments money so they can buy F-16s, and continue the
killing of innocents.
andy.holland@nmd.pgh.wec.com
std. disclaimer
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