Green Group discussion

http://safeshare.tv/w/vwncRciSFb

It's only fair to watch the youtube, called "Wedding Busters", which shows that children are standing up against child marriage in Bangladesh.

"66% of girls in Bangladesh are married under 18. To address this, Plan supports a children's organisation that works with local government, community-based organisations and others in the area to create child marriage-free zones to stop early marriage. The children call emergency meetings whenever they hear about a child marriage, they then visit the parents to discuss the issue and inform them of the negative impact that child marriage has on a girls. Working together with local authorities, the children's group has convinced the community that child marriage is not good and should be ended."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPA1r...

This is a world-wide problem, not just one for Bangladesh. The World Population Awareness site offers a great deal of valuable information.

"It took the US 200 years to go from 7 babies per family to two. Bangladesh has done that in 20. Iran has more than halved its fertility rate in a decade."

Carl Haub - Population Reference Bureau
http://www.overpopulation.org/pop-sus...

Another good video on overpopulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdlKV...

I am currently reading Countdown by Alan Weisman. It is excellent. Did you know that China adds 1 million people every 4 1/2 days ?

This post is already a few days old, but as a result of the Chinese New Year celebrations, I have not been on the Internet much. However, because I live in China and because I noticed the obvious error in your post, I feel that I should respond. Did you quote this statistic correctly. If so, I think that you have to question the quality of Alan Weisman's research. Here is the problem: 1,000,000 people every 4.5 days equals one hundred million people every 15 months. or 1 billion people every 12.5 years. Obviously this is not possible. China's actual population growth from 2010 to 2012 was a little over 11 million people, not 120 million as Weisman's numbers suggest. Even if Weisman's number was taken from live births without considering the fact that people die, it would mean that China's entire population changes every thirteen years. Can you please double check the numbers you quote. If the quote is accurate Alan Weisman's integrity needs to be questioned.

Andy wrote: "This post is already a few days old, but as a result of the Chinese New Year celebrations, I have not been on the Internet much. However, because I live in China and because I noticed the obvious e..."

Andy, I returned the book to the library so I don't have it to check the reference. I think the 1 million every 4.5 days was in the chapter on China but later on in the book, he used the same number, 1 million every 4.5 days, in reference to total world population. Thank you for pointing this out.

I think it would be worth checking out again for accuracy, Florence. I have a great deal of respect for Alan Weisman, and I want to know if he made a mistake or if the mistake was your own. Plus I'd like to know exactly what he did write.

I will request it from the library again to check. The book is excellent--I veered from despair to hope several times while reading it.

Mea culpa. Page 166: "In 2012, China was adding about 1 million people about every seven weeks."

Thanks for checking.

Yes, thank you.

As I said, thank you for rechecking. I feel that I should add something to this conversation however. 2012 was the Year of the Dragon. Because of China's one child policy, many women chose to have their child that year. At the time, I was amazed by the number of pregnant woman. Although China's population grew by over seven million that year, The previous year's growth (for the year of the rabbit) was less than four million. Neither year represents China's normal population growth.

You may also be interested in the fact that China recently revised its one child policy so that parents from one child families can now have two children. Also the one child policy was never enforced as strictly as many people in the west believe. I live in southern Guangdong province--one of the most populated places in China. Most families here have multiple children. Parents who want and can afford to have more than one child simply pay the fine. Also, the one child policy only applies to Han Chinese people, not to the more than fifty ethnic minorities.