Quarter of world's population facing extreme water stress

WASHINGTON, United States — Nearly a quarter of the world's population lives in 17 countries facing extremely high water stress, close to "day zero" conditions when the taps run dry, according to a report released Tuesday.

The World Resources Institute's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas ranked water stress, drought risk and riverine flood risk using a peer-reviewed methodology.

"Agriculture, industry, and municipalities are drinking up 80% of available surface and groundwater in an average year" in the 17 worst affected countries, WRI said.


"When demand rivals supply, even small dry shocks—which are set to increase due to climate change—can produce dire consequences" such as the recent crises in Cape Town, Sao Paulo and Chennai.

Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, UAE, San Marino, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Oman and Botswana made up the top 17.

"Water stress is the biggest crisis no one is talking about. Its consequences are in plain sight in the form of food insecurity, conflict and migration, and financial instability," said Andrew Steer, CEO of WRI.

Another 27 countries comprised the "high baseline water stress" list.

The Middle East and North Africa are home to 12 of the most stressed countries, while India, which is ranked 13, has more than three times the population of the other 16 in its category combined.


"The recent water crisis in Chennai gained global attention, but various areas in India are experiencing chronic water stress as well," said Shashi Shekhar, India's former water secretary, adding that the tool could help authorities identify and prioritize risks.

Even countries with low average water stress can have dire hotspots, the report found. While the US ranks a comfortable 71 on the list, the state of New Mexico faces water stress on par with the UAE.

source: philstar.com

Greenpeace urges action on slumping tuna stocks

BANGKOK — Greenpeace Wednesday accused the tuna industry of failing to stop the decimation of fish stocks, and called for an end to fishing methods that also accidentally snare turtles, dolphins and sharks.

Five tuna species are classed as “threatened” or “near threatened” with extinction due to overfishing, according to the Red List of Threatened Species, prompting environmental groups to appeal for fewer industrial-scale boats.

As big players in the multi-billion dollar industry gathered for a trade conference in Bangkok, Greenpeace urged tuna brands to source fish sustainably and end “destructive” fishing methods that see other marine life caught.

“It’s an urgent situation. There are simply too many boats… there needs to be a radical cut if we are going to reverse the decline in stocks,” Sari Tolvanen, a campaigner with the environmental group, told AFP.

“You would think the industry would be concerned about declining stocks, but it’s sitting on its hands.”

Greenpeace says tuna populations can rebound if they are given adequate protection.

The group wants a ban on “fish aggregating devices” that lure marine life into vast bucket-like nets with the result that 10 percent of each catch is made up of species other than tuna.

The tuna industry—from the factory-sized boats to supermarkets—says it recognizes the problem of dwindling stocks and follows quotas limiting catch to mature fish in waters where stocks are abundant.

In the United States, the world’s largest canned tuna market, major brands have pledged to work with their suppliers to reduce the amount of marine life netted accidentally.

In-Soo Cho, chief executive of StarKist, the U.S.‘s largest tinned tuna firm, urged the Bangkok conference to recognize how “precious this limited source of food is,” but warned plunging tuna prices threatened profits.

The Atlantic bluefin species, which can live to 40 years old and grow to more than four meters long, is in the gravest danger of disappearing with stocks estimated in some areas to have halved over four decades.

It is so highly prized by sushi-loving Japanese that a 269-kilogram fish went for a record 56.49 million yen in January auctions.

International agreements to tighten fishing controls are coming into effect, with the European Union, whose waters provide 60% of the global haul of bluefin tuna, mulling laws to protect the endangered species by slashing quotas.

But they can do little to prevent illegal fishing of at-risk species, which also include bigeye, classified as vulnerable, along with yellowfin and albacore, both ranked as near threatened.

“As with any industry there are bad actors,” said Susan Jackson, head of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF)—a coalition of conservation groups, scientists and the tuna companies.

“But we must aim to prevent tuna stocks and their ecosytems being exposed to unnecessary pressure,” she said, adding the industry will still “thrive” with tightened controls on catches.

One ISSF idea is to equip boats with tablet computers to record hauls and help build a detailed picture of global tuna stocks and the scale of accidental catches, she added.

Five main species of tuna make up the annual worldwide catch of 4-4.5 million tons.

Destined mainly for supermarket shelves, the abundant skipjack accounts for 60% of the total.

source: japantoday.com

Pinoy Population In US Rising

MANILA, Philippines — Residents of Filipino descent are now the second largest subgroup in the single-race Asian category in the United States, according to latest data from the US Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau said there are now 3.4 million residents of Filipino descent in the US in 2010, a 44.5 percent increase from year 2000.

Among the Asian race, Filipinos rank second in the US to the Chinese who number around 4 million in 2010. People of Indian descent rank third with 3.2 million.

These three groups accounted for 60 percent of Asians which is considered as the fastest-growing segment by race of the US population within the period 2000-2010.

According to the bureau, almost half of the total Filipino population in the US (49 percent) reside in the West Coast, 16.3 percent live in the South, 9.7 percent in the Northeast and 8.4 in the Midwest, while the rest are scattered throughout the other states of the US.

Meanwhile, Filipinos had the highest proportion of Asians that lived in California (43 percent).

The state with the second-largest proportion of Filipinos was Hawaii (10 percent), followed by Illinois (4.1 percent), Texas and Washington (both with 4 percent).

The latest bureau report said people in the US population who trace 100 percent of their origins back to Asia numbered 14.7 million in the 2010 census, while people who said their Asian heritage was mixed with one or more other races numbered 2.6 million.

Combined, the two categories totaled 17.3 million, accounting for 5.6 percent of the US population.

Their numbers grew by 45.6 percent from 2000 to 2010, compared to 9.7 percent growth for the overall population.

The bureau defines the US Asian population as people who say their roots extend entirely or partially back to the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, North or South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report pointed out that Asians in the United States are faring well economically, by and large.

The median household income for single-race Asians was nearly $69,000 in 2010, compared to the $52,000 US national average.

Asian communities in the United States reported a range of incomes, including a median annual income of more than $90,000 among Indian households and less than $47,000 for Bangladeshi households.

In terms of educational attainment, a high percentage of US Asians go to university.

The bureau reports that 50 percent of people at least 25 years old who identify themselves as single-race Asians have a bachelor’s degree. The percentage for the overall US population is 28 percent.

Twenty percent of the same category has gone on for more advanced degrees, such as master’s, doctorates or professional degrees. This is double the percentage of the total US population that has advanced degrees.

The fastest-growing subgroup among US Asians was the population from the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. There were about 200 Bhutanese living in the United States in 2000; their number expanded to more than 19,000 by 2010. Still, the Bhutanese population remains one of the smaller Asian subgroups in the United States.

The Census Bureau says that Asian population in every state except Hawaii grew by at least 30 percent, with the most growth occurring in Nevada (116 percent), Arizona (95 percent), North Carolina (94 percent), North Dakota (85 percent), and Georgia (83 percent). But the U.S. Asian population is not evenly distributed across the country. Nearly three-fourths of all Asians live in just 10 states — California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Hawaii, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania, the bureau reported.

The Census Bureau projects that the number of US residents who identify themselves as Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races will rise to 40.6 million by the 21st century’s midpoint, making up 9 percent of the US population.

The data for this report are based on the 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File, which was the first 2010 Census data product released with data on race and Hispanic origin, including information on the Asian population, and was provided to each state for use in drawing boundaries for legislative districts.

Data for this report also come from the 2010 Census Summary File 1, which was one of the first 2010 Census data products to provide information on selected detailed groups, such as Asian Indians, Koreans, and Filipinos.

source: mb.com.ph