Watching the World
Record Warmth
Climate expert James Hansen was so sure that the greenhouse effect had already begun to heat up the earth’s atmosphere that he bet fellow climatologists that at least one of the first three years of the 1990’s would set a temperature record. He could not have won his bet any sooner than he did. According to three independent systems of measurement, 1990 was the hottest year on record. Nonetheless, most climatologists feel that it is still too early to tell whether the greenhouse effect is responsible for the record temperatures. One year, they say, is not enough to prove anything. Hansen agrees but insists that an underlying trend made his bet a safe one. According to Science magazine, he says that it has become very difficult for the atmosphere to cool down “because it’s being pushed pretty hard by greenhouse gases toward a warmer climate.”
Suicides in Norway
According to the World Health Organization, the suicide rate in Norway has quadrupled in the last 30 years. Currently, nearly 14 out of every 100,000 Norwegians age 15 to 24 kill themselves. The Oslo newspaper Aftenposten reports that in the industrial town of Gjøvik, some 15 percent of young hospital patients are there because of suicide attempts. Ironically, the paper notes that Norway is now the wealthiest of the Scandinavian countries. Far from creating happiness, wealth may have added to the common feeling of despair. Aftenposten quotes one hospital official as saying: “It may be that we have thrown our concern for others overboard to concentrate on money and material things.”
Life-Style That Kills
Half of all deaths can be prevented by a change of life-style, claims Dr. Ivan Gyarfas, head of the cardiovascular disease unit for the World Health Organization. Lung cancer, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes account for 70 to 80 percent of all deaths in industrialized nations. These ailments are often linked to the unhealthy habits of smoking, unwise diet, and lack of exercise—the life-style of the so-called wealthy. However, the International Herald Tribune of Paris reports that these “lifestyle diseases” now cause from 40 to 50 percent of all deaths in the developing nations as well. Paradoxically, it seems that the style of life commonly stamped the hallmark of economic progress is directly related to the major causes of death worldwide.
An Attack on Paul
An American Episcopal bishop, John S. Spong, has just published a book claiming that the apostle Paul was a homosexual. Spong has long been a controversial figure. In the 1970’s he campaigned for the ordination of women as ministers. In the 1980’s he urged priests to bless homosexual unions and ordained an active homosexual as a priest. Now, according to The New York Times, by teaching that Paul was homosexual, Spong “hopes to make homosexuals more comfortable in the Episcopal church and to attract people who left the church feeling that it was a moribund institution wedded to ancient ways of thinking.” The Times notes, though, that “criticism of his thesis on Paul has come from all quarters, friends and foes, liberals and conservatives, Protestants and Catholics.” In what may be this story’s unlikeliest twist, Spong insists that his conclusions are based on “serious Bible study.”
Sex and the Teenage Girl
The fear of AIDS may have modified the sexual behavior of some Americans, but it has had no such effect on teenage girls, according to a recent study by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) of Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. In 1970, when the “sexual revolution” was at its height, 28.6 percent of the 15- to 19-year-old girls in the United States reported having had premarital sexual intercourse. By 1988, when AIDS was already well publicized, that figure had soared to 51.5 percent. The increase was most pronounced among the youngest, the 15-year-old girls: up from 4.6 percent in 1970 to 25.6 percent in 1988. The CDC study also found that the younger a girl is when she becomes sexually active, the more likely she is to have several partners. Not surprisingly, teenage girls were also found to suffer relatively high rates of sexually transmitted diseases.
Hazardous Motherhood
Every year over half a million women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth, reports the World Health Organization. World Watch magazine notes, however, that many experts believe the real figure to be at least twice that high. The scourge is at its worst in less developed lands. This year it will kill 1 out of every 73 pregnant women in South America, 1 out of 38 in South Asia, and 1 out of 21 in Africa—compared to 1 out of 10,000 in northern Europe. World Watch blames such factors as malnutrition and primitive health-care facilities for making motherhood so risky. Abortion alone is responsible for the death of 200,000 mothers each year. Studies show that children left motherless are themselves at greater risk of malnutrition and death, thus constituting a large portion of the 15,000,000 children under five years of age who die each year in developing lands.
Violent Fleets
A violent mutiny aboard a Taiwanese fishing boat has brought to light a disturbing trend in the Taiwanese fleet, reports Asiaweek magazine. Reportedly, the mutiny broke out after two crewmen, distraught over brutal treatment at the hands of the ship’s captain, attempted suicide by jumping overboard—whereupon the captain had them fished from the sea and brutalized them some more. The subsequent mutiny, which left at least eight of the crew dead, was apparently not an isolated incident. Asiaweek reports that according to Taiwan’s Fishing Bureau, “at least 3,000 fishermen from Taiwan boats were reported dead or missing in the past ten years.” One social worker told the magazine: “The number of people murdered or forced to walk the plank on these fishing boats is astounding.”
Making Biology Boring
A panel of scientists and educators declared recently that biology is taught so badly in the United States that the course seems designed to destroy students’ interest in science. In an unusually blunt report, the panel claimed that biology teachers are poorly trained and use textbooks that are often uninteresting, superficial, outdated, and even inaccurate. Students come away from such biology courses, the panel said, “with the conviction that further exposure to science is something to be avoided if at all possible.” Dr. Timothy H. Goldsmith, the panel’s chairman, laid the blame on every aspect of the educational system.
Homeless in Germany
Over a million people in the Federal Republic of Germany are homeless, according to the German Association for Persons of No Fixed Abode. Heinrich Holtmannspötter, the secretary of the association, notes that some 130,000 of these are vagrants without any fixed income. Most of the rest of the homeless are immigrants from other countries or persons seeking asylum in Germany. “But in almost all cases,” Holtmannspötter claims, the reason for homelessness is “the lack of cheap accommodation.” The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that the homeless have increased substantially in recent years and that vagrants are now “a common feature of almost every German city.”
Bodysurfing Dangers
Bodysurfing, the water sport of riding ocean waves, is not always as easy as it looks, warns the American magazine In Health. Debbie Goebert, an epidemiologist with the Pacific Basin Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, examined hospital records in Hawaii for the years 1985 to 1988. She found that of 500 people who were admitted to hospitals for injuries sustained in the ocean, it was the bodysurfers who suffered the most long-term damage. Their injuries ranged from broken bones and damaged backs to paralysis and even a few cases of brain damage. Most of those injured were inexperienced tourists. In Health warns: “Whether you’re vacationing on the coast of Hawaii, California, Maryland, or Australia, ask lifeguards how rough the surf is and what the beach is like before making a splash.”
“Absurd Brutality”
Appalled by the number of deaths caused by reckless automobile driving in Brazil each year, an editorial in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo stated: “It is a question of absurd brutality, free slaughter, testifying, on one hand, to irresponsibility and, on the other, to a shocking contempt for human life.” What is Brazil doing to try to bring negligent drivers to their senses? One judge sentenced a 23-year-old who caused the death of two of his friends in a street auto race to spend two years observing the autopsies of traffic-accident victims. A motorist who killed a 15-year-old girl and injured five others was sentenced “to work three years in an emergency hospital, especially helping to care for accident victims.”