Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[Angela]

http://theshockingtruth.ws/

[tangerine dream]

Colony Collapse Disorder Debunked: Pesticides Cause Bee Deaths

The great mystery of bee deaths has been solved. Colony Collapse Disorder is poisoning with a known insect neurotoxin. Clothianidin, a pesticide manufactured by Bayer, has been clearly linked to die offs in Germany and France.

Although the bee die offs that have occurred recently are more severe, there have been many in the past from the same and similar products. In North Dakota, a lawsuit is pending against Bayer for the loss of their bees in 1995, the result of spraying rapeseed with Imidacloprid. In 1999, the same product was banned in France for use as a seed dressing for sunflowers when they lost one-third of their hives after widespread spraying. In 2004, it was banned for use on corn. Recently, France refused to approve Bayer's request to sell Clothianidin.



Clothianidin and Imidacloprid are both members of a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids. They are well known as insect neurotoxins, especially with regard to bees. The spokesperson for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, stated, "We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now. This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."

Not a Surprise

That neonicotinoids are potent neurotoxins, especially in insects, is unsurprising. They were developed for precisely that purpose. Bayer says that their use is safe for bees, when used according to instructions. This involves using a glue that keeps the pesticides stuck to the seeds on which they're used.

There are many problems with this. Agribusiness corporations are known to evade anything that costs them money. The glue costs money. The equipment and personnel required to apply it costs money. More careful pesticide application to try to keep it from becoming airborne costs money. Obviously, both unscrupulous agribusiness farmers and unknowing small farmers -- not to mention home gardeners -- will, at least occasionally, not use the glue.

Even then, it's impossible to believe that a fair amount of these pesticides won't become airborne. Further, their residue will poison the soil. It will be passed on into foods, which means that insects will come into contact with it there.

Pharmaceutical Connection

Isn't it interesting that a major pharmaceutical manufacturer, Bayer, also makes a product that is a poison by design? Bayer is not an exception. Many, if not most, do business in both arenas. That alone should give pause for thought.

Here's a list of corporations -- not expected to be complete -- that profit in both pharmaceuticals and pesticides:

* American Home Products

* AMVAC

* Astra Zeneca

* Aventis

* BASF

* Bayer

* Dow Chemical

* Dupont Chemical

* Merck

* Monsanto

* Novartis

* Pharmacia

Is it an accident that most of Big Pharma also manufactures pesticides? Is there a connection between the two types of products? Do the pharmaceutical arms of these corporations profit on the illness caused by the pesticide arms? These questions are rhetorical. We'll let the reader decide.

Mythical Disease

Mike Adams has humorously shown with his Disease-Mongering Engine ((http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-mong...), which creates new diseases at the push of a mouse button, how easily phony diseases can be created to sell pharmaceuticals and fatten the pocketbooks of the medical world. The same technique has been used to cloak massive bee die-offs with an air of mystery.

Colony Collapse Disorder is a false name that serves to mislead the public into believing that there's a new, mystery disorder, probably something very complex, that needs tons of money to be thrown at it so that every possible angle can be studied. The reason is simple. By misdirecting the public, and apparently many professionals too, the real reason for bee die-offs is obscured.

This is very much like the misleading pseudoscience that supposedly debunks global climate change by giving a false impression that there is no consensus among scientists. By stirring pesticides into a mix of other supposedly possible causes, such as bacterial infections, fungal infections, and environmental stress, a false controversy is created. That results in precious time being wasted, while we really do move into a world without bees. At the same time, money is being thrown at scientists, who should know better, but being just as human as the rest of us, they're tempted.

Eventually, the real cause starts to become obvious, as is happening now in bee die-offs. However, the guilty party, the one making obscene profits by selling neurotoxic poisons that destroy the earth, launches a campaign of disingenuous lies, misdirection, and lawsuits to continue to sell their contaminants as long as possible.

Meanwhile, we're being told that we must prepare to live in a world without bees, as if it's inevitable. All because of Colony Collapse Disorder, a cleverly marketed nonexistent disease. We live in fear of the implications of no bees, when the real threat is poisons manufactured for the sole benefit of obscene profits.

How to Avoid These Pesticides

Neonicotinoids are used in agribusiness and home gardens. To help the reader avoid these products, we are providing their generic names, along with as many brand names as could be found.

The neonicotinoids include: acetamiprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam.

Acetamiprid and dinotefuran are manufactured by many companies. Thiamethoxam is made by Syngenta. Only Bayer makes clothianidin and imidacloprid.

Brand names for imidacloprid include: Kohinor, Admire, Advantage, Gaucho, Merit, Confidor, Hachikusan, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.

Brand names for clothianidin include: Gaucho, Titan, Clutch, Belay, Arena.

Brand names for acetamiprid include: Assail, Intruder, Adjust.

Brand names for thiacloprid include: Calypso.

Brand names for thiamethoxam include: Actara, Cruiser, Helix, Platinum, Centric.

http://www.naturalnews.com/023679.html

[Michael]

A good article for those wondering where all this climate change scepticism is coming from:

The climate change smokescreen

[nichi]

This denial is like a disease. I've recently lost a friend, more or less, over our differences on the topic. (I didn't have that many to lose, heheh.) It was completely unexpected, the disagreement, which bled into everything. Very strange.

[erik]

This denial is like a disease. I've recently lost a friend, more or less, over our differences on the topic. (I didn't have that many to lose, heheh.) It was completely unexpected, the disagreement, which bled into everything. Very strange.

They (who live in denial) refuse to look into the eyes of possibility of losing their fuzzy and fluffy world full of saved Willies (whose fin actually never straightens again after captivity). I had lately an interesting discussion with one chap who claimed that he is living his last incarnation in this world, but steeply refused to discuss climate change and all associated things.

But when I tried to extend into the area of how we, humans, manage to transform all amazing messages brought to us by amazing beings like Jesus et al into utter violent perversions and then screw things up beyond recognition using these messages as shields...well, you can imagine his reaction. 

[erik]

I asked don Juan if trees also had projections like that.

"They do," he said. "Their projections are, however, even less friendly to us than those of the inorganic beings. Dreamers never seek them, unless they are in a state of profound amenity with trees, which is a very difficult state to attain. We have no friends on this earth, you know."

He chuckled and added, "It's no mystery why."

"It may not be a mystery to you, don Juan, but it certainly is to me."

"We are destructive. We have antagonized every living being on this earth. That's why we have no friends."

[erik]

Fertilisers kill all ocean life in spread of ‘dead zones’

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4534966.ece

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

Aquatic dead zones, stretches of water where little or nothing can survive, have increased by a third in little over a decade. More than 400 dead zones were identified last year, covering a total area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand.

The dead zones suffer from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, which scientists believe is caused by fertilisers washing off the land. When hypoxia sets in, it can drive away tens of thousands of marine animals and, in severe cases, kill them.

Scientists believe that hypoxia ranks with overfishing and habitat destruction as one of the most damaging problems facing sealife.

Since the Sixties, when there were 49 dead zones, the number has increased rapidly and from 1995 to 2007 it rose from 305 to 405. Among the most alarming outbreaks of hypoxia were those in major fishing areas of the Baltic, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the East China Sea. One of the largest was identified at the mouth of the Mississippi River and was 8,500 square miles.

“Dead zones were once rare. Now they’re commonplace. There are more of them in more places,” said Professor Robert Diaz, of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, in the United States. He said that dead zones were rarely “a naturally recurring event”.

In a paper published in the journal Science, Professor Diaz and his colleague, Rutger Rosenberg, of the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden, said that dead zones “now rank with overfishing, habitat loss and harmful algal blooms as major global environmental problems”. They wrote: “There is no other variable of such ecological importance to coastal marine eco-systems that has changed so drastically over such a short time.”

According to the scientists, the dead zones occur when nutrients used to enhance farmland, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, wash into the sea and fertilise huge blooms of algae. When dead, the algae are eaten by bacteria, which absorb oxygen from the water as the algae decompose.

The scientists said that keeping fertilisers out of the sea was the best way to reduce the number of dead zones.

[Michael]

On the bee issue - I heard on radio this week a man who has just published a book on this problem. I was interested to hear if he validated the chemical toxicity cause which was posted here recently, I think by Lori.

He didn't, in fact he said the reasons are still a mystery, and is speculating it is likely to be caused by multiple factors. He did mention the toxicity issue, and said it could be a 'threshold' after a long build up, but they were more looking for a highly toxic substance occurring in very small amounts, if that theory was to be found to be accurate.

He went through all the usual issues which have been put forward - none of them hypothetical: all are problems that are weakening the bees.

He also went into the consequences - likely to be devastating beyond our anticipations.

[tangerine dream]

When I think of how small a bee is, and then how things like heavy perfumes, pesticides, sprays, dyes, chemicals and preservatives etc make me feel,  I can only imagine that thes things  must likely have some affect on insects as well. 

Are there animals alive that arent affected by the cehmicals and poisons we put into our bodies and our environement?  I doubt it.  How can we be so stubborn and/or ignorant to keep ignoring these signs?

[erik]

MI5 report challenges views on terrorism in Britain

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/aug/20/uksecurity.terrorism1

Exclusive: Sophisticated analysis says there is no single pathway to violent extremism

    * Alan Travis, home affairs editor
    * guardian.co.uk,
    * Wednesday August 20 2008 19:01 BST

MI5 has concluded that there is no easy way to identify those who become involved in terrorism in Britain, according to a classified internal research document on radicalisation seen by the Guardian.

The sophisticated analysis, based on hundreds of case studies by the security service, says there is no single pathway to violent extremism.

It concludes that it is not possible to draw up a typical profile of the "British terrorist" as most are "demographically unremarkable" and simply reflect the communities in which they live.

The "restricted" MI5 report takes apart many of the common stereotypes about those involved in British terrorism.

They are mostly British nationals, not illegal immigrants and, far from being Islamist fundamentalists, most are religious novices. Nor, the analysis says, are they "mad and bad".

Those over 30 are just as likely to have a wife and children as to be loners with no ties, the research shows.

The security service also plays down the importance of radical extremist clerics, saying their influence in radicalising British terrorists has moved into the background in recent years.

The research, carried out by MI5's behavioural science unit, is based on in-depth case studies on "several hundred individuals known to be involved in, or closely associated with, violent extremist activity" ranging from fundraising to planning suicide bombings in Britain.

The main findings include:

• The majority are British nationals and the remainder, with a few exceptions, are here legally.

Around half were born in the UK, with others migrating here later in life. Some of these fled traumatic experiences and oppressive regimes and claimed UK asylum, but more came to Britain to study or for family or economic reasons and became radicalised many years after arriving.

• Far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could actually be regarded as religious novices.

Very few have been brought up in strongly religious households, and there is a higher than average proportion of converts. Some are involved in drug-taking, drinking alcohol and visiting prostitutes.

MI5 says there is evidence that a well-established religious identity actually protects against violent radicalisation.

• The "mad and bad" theory to explain why people turn to terrorism does not stand up, with no more evidence of mental illness or pathological personality traits found among British terrorists than is found in the general population.

• British-based terrorists are as ethnically diverse as the UK Muslim population, with individuals from Pakistani, Middle Eastern and Caucasian backgrounds.

MI5 says assumptions cannot be made about suspects based on skin colour, ethnic heritage or nationality.

• Most UK terrorists are male, but women also play an important role. Sometimes they are aware of their husbands', brothers' or sons' activities, but do not object or try to stop them.

• While the majority are in their early to mid-20s when they become radicalised, a small but not insignificant minority first become involved in violent extremism at over the age of 30.

• Far from being lone individuals with no ties, the majority of those over 30 have steady relationships, and most have children.

MI5 says this challenges the idea that terrorists are young men driven by sexual frustration and lured to "martyrdom" by the promise of beautiful virgins waiting for them in paradise. It is wrong to assume that someone with a wife and children is less likely to commit acts of terrorism.

• Those involved in British terrorism are not unintelligent or gullible, and nor are they more likely to be well-educated; their educational achievement ranges from total lack of qualifications to degree-level education. However, they are almost all employed in low-grade jobs.

The researchers conclude that the results of their work "challenge many of the stereotypes that are held about who becomes a terrorist and why".

Crucially, the research has revealed that those who become terrorists "are a diverse collection of individuals, fitting no single demographic profile, nor do they all follow a typical pathway to violent extremism".

The security service believes the terrorist groups operating in Britain today are different in many important respects both from Islamist extremist activity in other parts of the world and from historical terrorist movements such as the IRA or the Red Army Faction.

The "UK restricted" MI5 "operational briefing note", circulated within the security services in June, warns that, unless they understand the varied backgrounds of those drawn to terrorism in Britain, the security services will fail to counter their activities in the short term and fail to prevent violent radicalisation continuing in the long term.

It also concludes that the research results have important lessons for the government's programme to tackle the spread of violent extremism, underlining the need for "attractive alternatives" to terrorist involvement but also warning that traditional law enforcement tactics could backfire if handled badly or used against people who are not seen as legitimate targets.

The MI5 authors stress that the most pressing current threat is from Islamist extremist groups who justify the use of violence "in defence of Islam", but that there are also violent extremists involved in non-Islamist movements.

They say that they are concerned with those who use violence or actively support the use of violence and not those who simply hold politically extreme views.

[erik]

SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW CONTINUED BREAKUP OF TWO OF GREENLAND’S LARGEST GLACIERS, PREDICT DISINTEGRATION IN NEAR FUTURE

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/boxice.htm

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers monitoring daily satellite images here of Greenland’s glaciers have discovered break-ups at two of the largest glaciers in the last month.

They expect that part of the Northern hemisphere’s longest floating glacier will continue to disintegrate within the next year.

A massive 11-square-mile (29-square-kilometer) piece of the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland broke away between July 10th and by July 24th.  The loss to that glacier is equal to half the size of Manhattan Island.  The last major ice loss to Petermann occurred when the glacier lost 33 square miles (86 square kilometers) of floating ice between 2000 and 2001.

Petermann has a floating section of ice 10 miles (16 kilometers) wide and 50 miles (80.4 kilometers) long which covers 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers).



What worries Jason Box, an associate professor of geography at Ohio State, and his colleagues, graduate students Russell Benson and David Decker, all with the Byrd Polar Research Center, even more about the latest images is what appears to be a massive crack further back from the margin of the Petermann Glacier.

That crack may signal an imminent and much larger breakup.

“If the Petermann glacier breaks up back to the upstream rift, the loss would be as much as 60 square miles (160 square kilometers),” Box said, representing a loss of one-third of the massive ice field.

Meanwhile, the margin of the massive Jakobshavn glacier has retreated inland further than it has at any time in the past 150 years it has been observed.  Researchers believe that the glacier has not retreated to where it is now in at least the last 4,000 to 6,000 years.

The Northern branch of the Jakobshavn broke up in the past several weeks and the glacier has lost at least three square miles (10 square kilometers) since the end of the last melt season.

The Jakobshavn Glacier dominates the approximately 130 glaciers flowing out of Greenland’s inland into the sea.  It alone is responsible for producing at least one-tenth of the icebergs calving off into the sea from the entire island of Greenland, making it the island’s most productive glacier.

Between 2001 and 2005, a massive breakup of the Jakobshavn glacier erased 36 square miles (94 square kilometers) from the ice field and raised the awareness of worldwide of glacial response to global climate change.

The researchers are using images updated daily from National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites and from time-lapse photography from cameras monitoring the margin of these and other Greenland glaciers.  Additional support for this project came from NASA.

[erik]

Exclusive: Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer

Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-scientists-warn-that-there-may-be-no-ice-at-north-pole-this-summer-855406.html

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Friday, 27 June 2008

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.



The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.

"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out," said Dr Serreze.

Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season started with even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August," he said.

Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. "There's a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it's certainly feasible, but it's not guaranteed," Dr Lindsay said.

The polar regions are experiencing the most dramatic increase in average temperatures due to global warming and scientists fear that as more sea ice is lost, the darker, open ocean will absorb more heat and raise local temperatures even further. Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.

"Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it's not happened before," Professor Wadhams said.

There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water 'polynya' – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

[erik]

World Bank Updates Poverty Estimates for the Developing World

http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:21882162~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00.html

August 26, 2008—New poverty estimates published by the World Bank reveal that 1.4 billion people in the developing world (one in four) were living on less than US$1.25 a day in 2005, down from 1.9 billion (one in two) in 1981.

The new numbers show that poverty has been more widespread across the developing world over the past 25 years than previously estimated, but also that there has been strong—if regionally uneven—progress toward reducing overall poverty.

Looking at the new estimates from the perspective of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of internationally agreed development targets, the developing world is still on track to halve extreme poverty from its 1990 levels by 2015. This is the first of eight critical goals.

“However, the sobering news—that poverty is more pervasive than we thought—means that we must redouble our efforts, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Justin Lin, Chief Economist of the World Bank and Senior Vice President, Development Economics.

Updated poverty estimates are published by the Bank every few years, based on the most recent global cost-of-living data as well as on country surveys of what households consume.

Improved cost-of-living data for developing countries

“Our latest revision of poverty numbers is the largest revision yet because of important new data revealing that the cost of living in the developing world is higher than we thought,” said Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

Ravallion refers to new information published earlier this year on the comparative prices of goods and services (such as food, housing, transport and so on) across many countries, expressed as internationally comparable exchange rates known as purchasing power parities (PPPs).

The latest PPPs—for 2005—were made available by a global statistical initiative called the International Comparison Program (ICP). The improvements in the design, implementation and analysis of the ICP price surveys for 2005 mean that the new PPPs are more reliable than older data from 1993 and 1985, which underestimated the cost of living in developing countries.

More accurate estimates of poverty

In the light of these new data, the Bank’s estimates of the extent of poverty in the developing world have also been revised upward across the entire period of research (1981 to 2005).

“The new estimates are a major advance in global poverty measurement because they are based on far better price data for assuring that poverty lines are comparable across countries,” said Shaohua Chen, senior statistician in the Development Research Group.

An earlier estimate of poverty—of 985 million living below the former international poverty line of $1 a day in 2004, down from 1.5 billion in 1981—was based on 1993 cost-of-living data which was the best available at the time.

The new poverty numbers, which show that 400 million more people lived below the poverty line in 2005 than earlier thought, are benchmarked to the revised international poverty line of $1.25 a day in 2005 prices. This line is a good standard for assessing extreme poverty because it is the average of the national poverty lines for the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries.

“The new international poverty line is not intended to replace national poverty lines,” said Ravallion. When measuring poverty and discussing appropriate policies in a specific country one should naturally use a poverty line considered appropriate to that country, which need not accord with our international line.”

A forthcoming supplement to World Development Indicators will report poverty estimates using both the national poverty lines for each country as well as the new international poverty line that helps assess poverty comparably across all regions and countries.

By mid-September, complete country-level data will also be available on PovcalNet, a website that is currently being updated. This interactive research tool can be used to replicate Bank poverty estimates and test alternative assumptions, such as the poverty line or country groupings.

Overall progress at the global level

Ravallion’s paper on the new numbers, co-authored with Shaohua Chen, is titled “The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty.” (Read the paper, or the shorter, bulleted brief here)

The authors find that, though the estimate of the number of poor has increased, the rate of poverty reduction in the developing world is still as strong as when poverty was viewed from the lens of the 1993 price data.

Poverty has been declining at the rate of about one percentage point a year, from 52 percent of the developing world’s population in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005. This is no small achievement, given that the number of poor fell by 500 million in this period.

“Yet even at this rate, about a billion people will still live on less than $1.25 a day in 2015,” said Ravallion. “And many of those who escaped 1.25-a-day poverty across 1981-2005 would still be poor by the standards of rich or even middle-income countries.”

Also, lags in survey data availability mean that the new estimates do not yet reflect the potentially large impact on poor people of rising food and fuel prices since 2005.

An uneven picture across developing regions

Poverty in East Asia—the world’s poorest region in 1981—has fallen from nearly 80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day in 1981 to 18 percent in 2005 (about 330 million), largely owing to dramatic progress in poverty reduction in China.

$1.25 a day poverty in South Asia has also fallen, from 60 percent to 40 percent over 1981-2005, but this has not been enough to bring down the region’s total number of poor, which stood at about 600 million in 2005.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the $1.25 a day poverty rate has shown no sustained decline over the whole period since 1981, starting and ending at 50 percent. In absolute terms, the number of poor people has nearly doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to 380 million in 2005. However, there have been signs of recent progress; the poverty rate fell from 58% in 1996 to 50% in 2005.

In middle-income countries, the median poverty line for the developing world—$2 a day in 2005 prices—is more relevant. By this standard, the poverty rate has fallen since 1981 in Latin America and the Middle East & North Africa, but not enough to reduce the total number of poor.

The $2 a day poverty rate has risen in Eastern Europe and Central Asia since 1981, though with signs of progress since the late 1990s.

A constant effort to improve data

“Data are never perfect, though they are getting better over time,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the Bank’s Development Data Group. “The World Bank works constantly with partners in developing countries to improve data quality and access to data.”

An example of statistical improvement is the addition of price surveys for China to the 2005 round of the ICP. Many developing economies did not participate in earlier ICP rounds, but the 2005 ICP covered 146 countries including China.

The quality of the price data being collected has also improved over time, with product listings being specified in much greater detail. For example, in the 2005 ICP surveys, six different kinds of rice were classified by eight price-determining characteristics to ensure comparability between countries. In total, more than 1,000 products were included in the price surveys.

Ravallion notes that the scope and availability of household surveys of income and consumption have also improved vastly. “The latest poverty estimates draw on 675 household surveys for 116 developing countries, representing 96 percent of the developing world,” he said. “Yet 20 years ago we could only do these calculations properly for 22 countries. That is great progress in our knowledge about poverty in the world.”

From the brief:

A great many people remain poor and vulnerable in all regions
•At the current rate of progress there will still be 1 billion people living below $1.25 per day in 2015.
•Most of the 600 million people who escaped absolute poverty by the $1.25 per day standard over 1981-2005 are still poor by the standards of middle-income developing countries, and certainly by the standards of what poverty means in rich countries.
•And the Bank’s estimates suggest less progress in getting over the $2 per day hurdle. Indeed, we have seen no change in the number of people living below $2 per day at around 2.5 billion, between 1981 and 2005, although the number has fallen since the late 1990s (having risen prior to that).
•The number of people living between $1.25 and $2 has doubled from about 600 million to 1.2 billion between 1981 and 2005.
•Clearly a great many people remain vulnerable to aggregate economic contractions including rising food and fuel prices since 2005.

[Michael]

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that youve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows youve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that its now or never
Everybody knows that its me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when youve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old black joes still pickin cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the plague is coming
Everybody knows that its moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But theres gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that youre in trouble
Everybody knows what youve been through
From the bloody cross on top of calvary
To the beach of malibu
Everybody knows its coming apart
Take one last look at this sacred heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
Thats how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows

(Leonard Cohen)

[nichi]

Thanks for posting this, M. The Eagles or Don Henley redid this song,
and I never knew Leonard Cohen wrote it!