From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Tue Jul 04 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.nic.surfnet.nl!sun4nl!sci.kun.nl!mpi.nl!colin From: colin@mpi.nl (colin) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: QUERY: Epidemiology in the European Union. Date: 4 Jul 95 15:23:01 GMT Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Lines: 33 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: mpih25.mpi.nl Summary: Request for input on epidemiology in the European Union. Keywords: Epidemiology, Financing, European Union, 5th Framework. Dear colleagues, I am a member of a European-science policy committee within the biological-medical section of the Max Planck Society (MPG; a German science organization). The committee has been asked to write a report for the president of the MPG, concerning the forthcoming 5th Framework Programme of the European Union. One of the main issues to be addressed in this report, is which (new) areas of basic research should be especially promoted in the new Framework. One of the areas we want to include is epidemiology. Issues that come to mind here are, for instance: (1) a Europe-wide register of diseases, (2) coordinated field work, (3) networks of research-oriented clinics. I am coordinating the committee's report with respect to epidemiology, and would like to bring together a wide spectrum of relevant issues, that might, hopefully, be taken up by the European Commission. However, I am far from being an expert in epidemiology, and, would, therefore, appreciate input from the scientific community. My specific request, then, is for suggestions on which epidemiological issues should be included in the 5th Framework Programme. In addition, I would appreciate any pointers towards relevant reports and documents that could help shape my thinking here. Please send responses to my Internet address: COLIN@MPI.NL Thank you in advance. Colin Brown, PhD. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Jul 05 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!IX.NETCOM.COM!labratus From: labratus@IX.NETCOM.COM (Jeffrey Clark) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: (none) Date: 6 Jul 1995 10:03:09 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 1 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <199507060655.XAA03207@ix3.ix.netcom.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net SUBSCRIBE POPULATION-BIOLOGY From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Jul 15 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!aggedor.rmit.EDU.AU!goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au!core.apana.org.au!suburbia.net!bennyboy From: bennyboy@suburbia.net (Benjamin Hiu Tung Lai) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Genetic Engineering... Date: 16 Jul 1995 10:46:46 GMT Organization: Australian Public Access Network Association Lines: 12 Message-ID: <3uaqmm$26v@core.apana.org.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: suburbia.apana.org.au X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Hi, I am cureently doing an investigation report on Genetic Engineering. However, I need to report on a more specific topic/application. I am just curious what are some of the examples (applications) relating to the use of genetic engineering, other than obtaining pharmaceutical proteins from transgenic animals. Regards, Beni From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Mon Jul 17 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!in1.uu.net!news1.panix.com!zip.eecs.umich.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!jobone!lynx.unm.edu!hydra.unm.edu!not-for-mail From: jsnyder@unm.edu (Johnny Snyder MATH) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: IES, Millbrook, NY Date: 17 Jul 1995 18:42:54 -0600 Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Lines: 3 Message-ID: <3uf02e$eu7@hydra.unm.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: hydra.unm.edu Hi all. I am seeking an e-mail address for IES in Millbrook, New York. Can anyone help? Thanks and reply to jsnyder@math.unm.edu From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Wed Jul 19 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!rutgers!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!Belgium.EU.net!chaos.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be!news.belnet.be!news.vub.ac.be!is2e!apilloy From: apilloy@vub.ac.be (Pilloy Annie) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Dead People Date: 20 Jul 1995 12:16:08 GMT Organization: Brussels Free Universities (VUB/ULB), Belgium Lines: 14 Message-ID: <3ulhe8$k7b@rc1.vub.ac.be> NNTP-Posting-Host: is2e.bfu.vub.ac.be. X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Does anyone know approximately how mutch human are death between human lives... I wish to write a short story Sorry, I.m a french speaker Please e-mail me! ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ z From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 20 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!rutgers!gatech!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken.llnl.gov!enews.sgi.com!news.igc.apc.org!cdp!foodfirst From: Inst. for Food and Development Policy Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Rethinking Rainforests & Soc Justic Message-ID: Date: Fri, 21 Jul 1995 11:47:12 -0700 (PDT) X-Gateway: notes@igc.apc.org Lines: 1034 /* Written 3:51 PM Jul 20, 1995 by foodfirst in igc:dev.foodfirst */ /* ---------- "Rethinking Rainforests & Soc Justic" ---------- */ ******************************************************** Food First Backgrounder Institute for Food & Development Policy Please read informational material on the Institute at the end of this piece. ******************************************************** This Backgrounder is based on the authors' new book, "Breakfast of Biodiversity: The Truth about Rain Forest Destruction," Food First Books, 1995, foreward by Vandana Shiva. Order information at end. ******************************************************** Rethinking Rain Forests: Biodiversity and Social Justice by John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto John Vandermeer is Alfred Thurneau Professor of Biology at the University of Michigan. Ivette Perfecto, a native of Puerto Rico, is Associate Professor of the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Michigan. The buzz is unmistakable. A huge chain saw cuts effortlessly through the wood of a beautiful rain forest tree, slicing up the trunk it has just felled into smaller bits to be taken away on giant lumber trucks. That image is fixed in our minds. It drives us to the same distraction it has driven so many before us. The rain forests are physically beautiful and contain the vast majority of our relatives on this planet. What sort of person would not be haunted by the sound of chain saws decimating them? Yet another image is equally haunting. The bulldozed wooden shack, formerly the home of a poor family, constantly reminds us that lives as well as logs are being cut in most areas of tropical rain forests. Hungry children wander among the stumps of once majestic rain forest trees. Their mother cooks over an open fire, and their father fights the onslaught of weeds that continually threaten to choke out the crops the family needs for next year's food. All live in fear that the bulldozers will come again to destroy their present home. What sort of person would not be haunted by the existence of such poverty in a world of plenty? But for us the power of these two images lies in the way they are connected, a fact we are reminded of every morning we slice up bananas on our breakfast cereal. The banana cannot be grown in the United States, yet it is one of the most popular fruits here. As we all know, it is produced in the world's tropical regions, usually in the same areas where rain forests have flourished in the past. The link between the decimated forest and the hungry children is the banana. That is why it is so easy, as we slice up a banana in Michigan, for our thoughts to wander to the image of the chain saw slicing up the rain forest trees and the children who view the banana as a staple food rather than a luxury. The majority of life on earth lives in the rain forest. Close to 80% of the terrestrial species of animals and plants are to be found there. And this cradle of life is disappearing at an enormous rate. This is what the popular press has labeled as the "biodiversity" crisis. Some view the problem from only a utilitarian point of view. It is obvious that we depend on biodiversity for the most elementary aspects of existence-plants convert the sun's energy to a usable form, animals convert unusable plants to a product we can use, bacteria in our stomachs help digest our food. There are a host of other critical functions of life's diversity and furthermore, future utilitarian designs on biodiversity are most likely to follow the patterns of the past-medicines and genes for new crops being the obvious examples. Yet even if these utilitarian concerns were absent, the spiritual concern that the world's biodiversity is being destroyed should be enough to drive us to action. Less than 50% of the original tropical rain forests of the world are left, and at the present rate of destruction almost all will be gone by 2025. Our families, our memories-indeed a piece of our humanness-will have been destroyed forever. For this reason many have sounded the alarm and called for action. While we echo this same alarm, we are concerned that the calls for action may not be correctly placed. Indeed, many of these calls are based on one myth or another about what is causing rain forest destruction. We feel that these myths act to mask the true issue. In this Backgrounder we present arguments against the five main myths of rain forest destruction and argue that a more complex understanding is necessary to grasp what is causing the destruction of the world's rain forests. So we begin with an analysis of the five myths and conclude with a description of "the causal web," the true cause of rain forest destruction. Myth One: Loggers and logging companies are decimating the rain forest. Certainly the most immediate and visually spectacular cause of tropical rain forest destruction is logging. Cutting trees is nothing new. The use of rain forest wood has been traditional for most human societies in contact with these ecosystems. But the European invasion of tropical lands accelerated wood cutting enormously, as tropical woods began contributing to the development of the modern industrial society.(1) The direct consequences of logging, apart from the obvious and dramatic visual effects, are largely unknown. Some facts are deducible from general ecological principles, and a handful of studies have actually measured a few of the consequences, but a detailed knowledge of the direct consequences of logging is lacking. What can be deduced from ecological principles is not that tropical forests are irreparably damaged by logging, but quite the contrary: tropical forests are potentially quite resilient to disturbance. While this is a debatable deduction, most of the debate centers on how fast a forest will recover after a major disturbance, such as logging, not on whether it will. The process of ecological succession inevitably begins after logging, and the proper question to ask, then, is: how long will it take for the forest to recover? In analyzing the effects of logging, we cannot assume a uniform process. There are a variety of logging techniques, some likely to lead to rapid forest recovery, others necessitating a longer period for recovery. For example, local residents frequently chop down trees for their own use as fence posts, charcoal, or dugout canoes. Forest recovery after such an intrusion can be thought of as virtually instantaneous, since the removal of a single tree is similar to a tree dying of natural causes, a perfectly natural process that happens regularly in all forests. At the other extreme is clear cutting, the extraction of all trees in an area. Though the physical nature of a clear cut forest is spectacularly different from the mature forest, from other perspectives the damage is not quite as dramatic as it appears. The process of secondary succession that begins immediately after such logging leads rapidly to the establishment of secondary forest. A great deal of biological diversity is contained in a secondary forest. Indeed, a late secondary forest is likely to appear indistinguishable from an old-growth forest to all but the most sophisticated observer, even though it may have been initiated from a clear cut. Large expanses of secondary forest may even contain more biological diversity than similar expanses of old-growth forest.(2) No studies thus far have followed such an area to its return to a "mature" forest again,(3) but a reasonable estimate is that it would take something on the order of 40 to 80 years before the area begins to regain the structure of an old growth forest. Probably the most common type of commercial logging is not the clear cutting described above but, rather, selective logging. In an area of tropical forest that may contain 400 or more species of trees, only twenty or thirty will be of commercial importance.(4) Thus, a logging company usually seeks out areas with particularly large concentrations of the valuable species and ignores the rest. Often the wood is so valuable that it makes economic sense to build a road to extract just a few trees. Yet these roads offer new access to the forest for hunters, miners, and peasant agriculturists. In most situations this aspect of selective logging contributes most egregiously to deforestation, but it is obviously an indirect consequence of the logging operation itself. A selectively logged forest is damaged, but not destroyed. Even a single year after the selective logging the forest begins taking on the appearance of a "real" forest. If no further cutting occurs, the selectively logged forest may regain the structural features of old growth after ten or twenty years. Although the scars of selective logging wi ll remain for decades to a trained eye, the general structure of the forest may rapidly return. But this is not to say selective logging is, in the end, benign. The roads and partial clearings are obvious entrance points for peasant agriculture, as described below. Myth Two: Peasant farmers are increasing in numbers and cut down rain forests to make farms to feed their families. This myth is especially popular among neo-Malthusians. The explosive growth in the population of poor people in most tropical countries of the world is seen as a consequence of the basic forces that cause populations to grow generally, and a simple extrapolation suggests that even if this is not the main problem now, it certainly will be if population growth is not somehow curtailed. Debunking the neo-Malthusian myth is not our purpose here; that has been done well elsewhere.(5) Rather, laying the blame for the destruction of the forest on the peasant farmer is really blaming the victim. Peasant farmers in most rain forest areas are forced to farm under circumstances that are unfavorable, to say the least, from both an ecological and sociopolitical point of view. At the outset, we must acknowledge the temptation to assume that, in rain forest areas, the potential for agriculture is great. Since there is neither winter nor lack of water, two of the main limiting factors for agriculture in other areas of the world, it is easy to conclude that production might very well be cornucopian. The tremendously lush vegetation of a tropical rain forest only heightens this impression, and indeed this perception may ultimately be valid. The ability to produce for twelve months of the year without worrying about irrigation is definitely a positive aspect to farming in such regions. But, so far at least, the woes are almost insurmountable, as most farmers forced to cultivate in rain forest areas can attest. The first problem is the soils. Rain forest soils are usually acidic, made up of clay that cannot store nutrients well, and very low in organic matter.(6) Even if nutrients are added to the soil they will be utilized relatively inefficiently because of the acidity, and then they will be washed out of the system because of its low storage capacity. This problem is actually exacerbated by the forest itself. Because tropical rain forest plants have grown in these poor soil conditions for millions of years, they have evolved mechanisms for storing the system's nutrients in their vegetative matter (leaves, stems, roots, etc.) If they did not, much of the nutrient material would simply wash out of the system and no longer be available to them. This means that a vast majority of the nutrients in the ecosystem are stored in plant material rather than in the soil. Consequently when a forest is cut down and burned, the nutrients in the vegetation are immediately made available to any crops that have been planted. The crops grow vigorously at first, but any nutrients unused during the first growing season will tend to leach out of the system. The "poverty" of the soil only becomes evident during the second growing season. This pattern is especially invidious when migrant farmers from areas with relatively stable soils arrive in a rain forest area. The first year they may produce a bumper crop, which creates a false sense of security. Then, if the second year is not a complete failure, almost certainly the third or fourth is, and the farmer is forced to move on to cut down another piece of forest. A second problem is insects, diseases and weeds. The magnitude of the pest problem is often not fully anticipated by farmers or planners, and it is only after problems arise that the surprised agronomists become concerned. This is unfortunate, since one of the few things we can predict with confidence is that when rain forest is converted to agriculture, many pests arrive. The herbivores that used to eat the plants of the rain forest are not eliminated when the forest is cut. They are representatives of the massive biodiversity of tropical rain forests, and the potential number of them is enormous. Herbivores can devastate farmers' fields, and are able to destroy an entire crop in days. A third problem is that because of the uniformly moist and warm environment, organisms that cause crop diseases find rain forest habitats quite hospitable. Consequently, the potential for losing crops to disease is far greater than in more temperate climates. Finally, just as the hot, wet environment is agreeable for crops, it is also agreeable for competitive plants. Since no two plants can occupy the same space, frequently the crop falls victim to the more aggressive vines and grasses that colonize open areas in tropical rain forest zones. Weeds are thus an especially difficult problem. These, then, are some of the ecological problems faced by the peasant farmer seeking to establish a farm in a rain forest area. Sociopolitical forces, however, are far more devastating. And most of those sociopolitical forces are associated with a different form of agriculture-modern export agriculture. When a modern export agricultural operation is set up, it tends to do two things regarding labor. First, it purchases, or sometimes steals, land from local peasant farmers, thus forcing them to move onto more marginal lands, with the kinds of problems we described above. Second, it frequently requires more labor than is locally available, thus acting as a magnet to attract unemployed people from other regions. Indeed, in most rain forest areas this magnet effect is a far more important factor leading to increased local populations than population growth. But the modern agricultural operation, as detailed in the following section, is subject to dramatic fluctuations in production, since it is usually intimately connected with world agricultural commodity markets. Thus, there is a highly variable need for this labor, which means that today's workers always face the prospect of becoming tomorrow's peasant farmers. In the contemporary world most peasant farmers find themselves in this precarious position. While it is true that many indigenous groups have lived and farmed in rain forest areas for hundreds of years and certainly deserve the world's attention and support in their attempts at preserving traditional ways of life, the vast majority of poor peasant farmers today are not indigenous. Rather, they are people who have been marginalized by a politico-economic system that needs them to serve as laborers when times are good, and to take care of themselves when times are not. As long as times are good, the banana workers of Central America have jobs. But when economies sour, many of those banana workers suddenly become peasant farmers. So in the end, the myth of the peasant farmers causing rain forest destruction is perhaps true in the narrow sense that a knitting needle causes yarn to form a sweater. But little understanding of what really drives the process is gained from the simple observation that a peasant's ax can chop a rain forest tree. Myth Three: The transformation of rain forests into large-scale export agriculture is the main factor leading to deforestation. Given the above description of how peasant agriculture is driven by industrialized agricultural activities, it is no wonder that many have concluded that the modern export agricultural system is the ultimate culprit. Furthermore, the images of large cattle ranchers purposefully burning Amazon rain forests to make cattle pastures fuels this interpretation. Again, there is some merit to this position. However, we feel that it, too, is an inappropriate window through which to view the problem of rain forest destruction. The direct action of large modern agricultural enterprises is not really as involved in direct rain forest destruction as is popularly believed. Burning Amazon rain forests to replace them with cattle ranches is certainly an example of the direct destruction of rain forests by "big" agriculture. But the vast majority of modern agricultural transformations in tropical areas are confined to areas that had already been converted to agriculture. Developers of expanding banana plantations of Central America claim, for example, to be cutting no primary forest at all. While we doubt their full sincerity, it does seem that about 90% of the current expansion is into areas that had long ago been deforested. Attributing direct deforestation to them is, as they argue, probably quite unfair. On the other hand, their activities are not totally unrelated to the problem, as can be easily seen from a closer examination of their underlying structure. The basic structure of modern agriculture is frequently misunderstood because of an overly romantic notion of agriculture - the small, independent, family farm, rich with tradition and a work ethic that even a Puritan could be impressed with. Such romanticism is fueled by a confusion between farming and agriculture. Farming is a resource transformation process in which land, seed, and labor are converted into, for example, peanuts. It is Farmer Brown cultivating the land, sowing the seed, and harvesting the peanuts. Agriculture is the decision to invest money in this year's peanut production; the use of a tractor and cultivator to prepare the land; an automatic seeder for planting; application of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematodes and bactericides to kill unwanted pieces of the ecology; automatic harvest of the commodity; sale of the commodity to a processing company where it is ground up and emulsifiers, taste enhances, stabilizers and preservatives are added; packing in convenient "pleasing-to-the-consumer" jars; and, finally, marketing under a sexy brand name. In short, while farming is the production of peanuts from the land, agriculture is the production of peanut butter from petroleum.(7) Over the last two hundred years, and especially in the last fifty, much farming has been transformed into agriculture. The consequence of this evolution is that modern agriculture is remarkably intrusive on local ecologies. Take, for example, the establishment of a banana plantation. When the banana export business began, local peasant farmers grew most of the bananas and sold them to shipping companies. Gradually, the shipping companies turned into the banana producers, with huge areas devoted to the monocultural production of this single crop. To establish a modern banana plantation it is often necessary to construct a complex system of hydrological control wherein the soil is leveled and crisscrossed with drainage channels, significantly altering the physical nature of the soil. Contemporary banana production even includes burying plastic tubing in the ground to eliminate the natural variability in subsurface water depth. Metal monorails hang from braces placed into cement footings to haul the bunches of bananas. To avert fungal diseases, heavy use of fungicides is required, and because of the large scale of the operation chemical methods of pest control are the preferred option. The banana plants create an almost complete shade cover and thus replace all residual vegetation. Pesticide application is sometimes intense, other times almost absent, depending on conditions, but over the long run one can expect an enormous cumulative input of pesticides, the long-term consequences of which are unknown but likely to be unhealthy for both workers and the environment. A major social transformation is also required. Banana production tends to promote a local "overpopulation crisis" by encouraging a great deal of migration into the area. As the international market for bananas ebbs and flows, workers are alternatively hired and fired. When fired, there is little alternative economic opportunity in banana zones, and displaced workers must either look for a piece of land to farm, or migrate to the cities to join the swelling ranks of shanty town dwellers. Thus, the direct effect of most modern agricultural activities is not inexorably linked with the cutting and burning of rain forests, despite some obvious and spectacular examples of where it indeed is. More importantly, the overall operation of the modern agricultural system is integrated into a bigger picture. It is that bigger picture that we must examine to understand the causes of rain forest destruction, as we argue in the final section of this Backgrounder. Myth Four: Local governments institute policies that cause rain forests to be destroyed. Probably the most cited example of local government policy that promotes deforestation is that of the infamous transmigration programs of the Indonesian government, in which hundreds of thousands of Javanese farmers have been displaced to the exceedingly poor soils of Kalimantan.(8) However, most local government programs in forestry and agriculture are frequently dictated by very specific economic and political forces that are effectively beyond the control of local governments. Once those forces are understood, it is difficult to lay the full blame on local governments. They may be corrupt, they may be inefficient, but in fact their hands are frequently tied by forces beyond their control. Given today's global interconnectedness, in order to understand the Third World we must view it as embedded in the modern industrial system. In that system the people who provide the labor in the production processes are not the same people who provide the tools, machines and factories. The former are the workers in the factories, the latter are the owners of the factories. The owners of the machines and tools directly make the management decisions about all production processes. A good manager tries to minimize all production costs, including the cost of labor. However, the owners of the factories face a complicated and contradictory task. While factory workers constitute a cost of production to be minimized, they also participate, along with the multitudes of other workers in society, in the consumption of products. In trying to maximize profits, factory owners are concerned that their factories' products sell for a high price. This can only happen if workers, in general, are making a lot of money. In contrast to what is desired at the level of the factory, the opposite goal is sought at the level of society. Factory owners must wear two hats, then: one as owners of the factories, and another as members of a social class. Owners wish the laborers to receive as little as possible, but members of the social class benefit if laborers in general receive as much as possible (to enable them to purchase the products produced in the factory). This has long been recognized as one of the classic contradictions of a modern economy. The situation in much of the Third World appears superficially similar. For the most part we are dealing with agrarian economies in which there are two obvious social classes, those who produce crops for export like cotton, coffee, tea, rubber, bananas, chocolate, beef, and sugar; and those who produce food for their own consumption on their own small farms and, when necessary, provide the labor for export crop producers. The typical arrangement in the Developed World is an articulated economy, while that in the Third World is disarticulated, in that the two main sectors of the economy are not articulated or connected with one another. The banana company does not really care whether its workers make enough money to buy bananas; that is not its market. The banana company cares that the workers of the Developed World have purchasing power, because those are the people expected to buy most of the bananas. This disarticulation, or dualism, helps to explain the differences between analogous classes in the First and Third Worlds. Flower producers in Colombia do not concern themselves much over the fact that their workers cannot buy their products. On the other hand, the factory owners in the U.S., whether they be private factories or government owned and/or subsidized industries, care quite a lot that the working class has purchasing power. General Motors "cares" that the general population in the U.S. can afford to buy cars. Naturally they aim to pay their own workers as little as possible, but that goal is balanced by their wish for the workers in general to be good consumers. Seeing this structure at the national level in an underdeveloped country causes one to realize that one of the main, sometimes only, sources of capital to create a civil society is from agricultural exports. Because of the disarticulated nature of the economy the dream of development based on internally derived consumer demand is pie in the sky, and any realist must acknowledge that the only conceivable source of capital to invest in growth must come from exports. And most frequently agricultural exports are the only possibility. Herein derives the need for Third World governments to continue expanding this export agriculture. This need is an inevitable consequence of the underlying structure of the general world system. Thus to blame local governments for initiating policies that are ultimately damaging to rain forests may be technically correct in that those policies frequently do just what the critics say they do -destroy rain forests. But taking a larger view we see that local governments are effectively constrained to do exactly that. Indeed, we predict that most of today's critics would wind up promoting the very same programs the local governments are currently promoting, if they were suddenly pushed into the same position the local governments currently find themselves. Myth Five: Decisions made by international agencies cause rain forest destruction. As before, there is some truth to this position. As well documented, although not yet "retrospected" by Mr. McNamara, the World Bank has left a trail of rain forest destruction in the wake of its many socially and economically destructive programs in the Third World.(9) From the point of view of the decision making agencies, they, along with other agencies involved in the overall problem, seem to be boxed in by circumstances. The climate for investment is variable in the Developed World. There are times when it is difficult to find profitable investments at home. At such times it is useful to have alternatives to investment. The Third World is one source for those opportunities. The Developed World, because of its basic structure, tends to go through cycles of bust and boom, sometimes severe, other times merely annoying. During low economic times, where is an investor supposed to invest? The Third World provides a sink for investments during rough times in the First World. This is why the dualism of the Third World is a "functional dualism." It functions to provide an escape valve for investors from the Developed World. The West German entrepreneur who started an ornamental plant farm in Costa Rica, on which former peasant farmers work as night watchmen, invested his money in the Third World because opportunities in his native Germany were scarce at the time. What would he have done had there been no peasants willing to work for practically nothing, and no Costa Rica willing to accept his investments at very low taxation? Clearly Costa Rica is, for him, a place to make his capital work until the situation clears up in Germany. Union Carbide located its plant in Bhopal, India, and not in Grand Rapids, Michigan. U.S. pesticide companies export to Third World countries insecticides that have been banned at home. U.S. pharmaceutical companies pollute the ground water in Puerto Rico because they cannot do so (at least not so easily) in the United States. In all cases, Third World people are forced to accept such arrangements, largely because of their extremely underdeveloped economy. With this analysis, the origin of the Third World as an outgrowth of European expansion (while a correct and useful historical point of view), can be seen as not the only factor to be considered. Even today, the maintenance of the Third World is a consequence of the way our world system operates. The Developed World remains successful at economic development for two reasons. First, because it has an articulated economy, and second, because it is able to weather the storm of economic crisis by seeking investment opportunities in the Third World. The Third World, in contrast, has been so unsuccessful because its economy is disarticulated, lacking the connections that would make it grow in the same way as the Developed World. Yet at a more macro scale, the dualism of the Third World is quite functional, in that it maintains the opportunity for investors from the Developed World to use the Third World as an escape valve in times of crisis. Indeed, it appears that the Developed World remains developed, at least in part, specifically because the Underdeveloped World is underdeveloped. Given this structure, what really can be expected of international agencies? Their goal is usually stated in very humanitarian rhetoric. But their more basic goal has to be the preservation of the system that gives them their station in life. That is, above and beyond the stated goals of the World Bank or the IMF or the FAO, there must be a commitment to keep the world organized in its current state. Their activities can thus be viewed as trying to solve problems within the context of the current system. They thus become part of what preserves that system. We should not expect large international agencies to be promoting such causes as land reform for peasant agriculture or labor standard regulations for export agriculture. Indeed, such proposals would be at odds with the manner in which the current world system is functioning, and would represent a legitimate challenge to the existence of the agency itself. Viewed from this perspective, the international agencies are just as boxed in as the local governments. The world system is functioning as well today as it was at the end of World War II -according to the standards adopted by those who benefit from its current structure. The Web of Causality In reading our demythologization of the above five myths, the reader has undoubtedly noted that there really is something valid about each of the myths. Loggers do cut trees down, peasant agriculturists do clear and burn forests, export agriculturists do cut down primary rain forests, local governments do encourage export agriculture, and international agencies do promote programs that destroy rain forests. But our attempt was not to disprove these myths per se, but rather to disprove the idea that any one of them could be the ultimate cause of rain forest destruction. Indeed, in each case we have emphasized not the direct consequences of the agency involved but, rather, the indirect connections that tie each of the agencies into a web of interaction. We agree with Wallerstein's general assessment that the world is intricately connected (10), that it no longer makes sense to try understanding isolated pockets, such as nations, and, we add, that isolated thematic pockets are similarly incomprehensible unless embedded in this global framework. For this reason, attempts at understanding tropical rain forest destruction in isolation have largely failed. As should be clear by now, the fate of the rain forest is intimately tied to various agricultural activities, which are embedded in larger structures, some retaining a connection to agriculture, some not. Our position is that there is multiple causation of rain forest destruction, with logging, peasant agriculture, export agriculture, domestic sociopolitical forces, international socio- economic relations, and other factors intricately connected with one another in a "web of causality." This web is key to understanding why we face the problem of rain forest destruction in the first place. The most elementary features of that web are illustrated in figure 1. At the bottom of the figure we see that damaged rain forests will recuperate if not further damaged, but recuperate far more slowly if further modified by agriculture. The damaged rain forests themselves are created by either logging or modern agriculture and further cleared by peasant farmers. But the latter's activities are a consequence of the opportunities created by logging as well as the ups and downs of the international market that cause the hiring and firing of workers. Modern agriculture needs those workers, as well as the land that it buys or steals from peasant farmers. Viewed as a web of causality, it is quite pointless to try to identify a single entity as the "true" cause of rain forest destruction. The true cause is the web itself. Yet even this is an oversimplified picture. The web of causality is far larger and more complex. The farmers, loggers, modern agriculture and workers of figure 1 [only available in the printed version, which also has photos -- order instructions can be found at the end) represent just a subweb. The subweb is ultimately embedded in a larger web that includes the international banking system, national governments, the U.S. and other Developed World governments, as well as consumers and investors in the Developed World. This is the true web of causality, and it is complicated and interconnected. Tweaking one strand is not likely to bring the whole structure down. Fighting a concerted battle to restructure the entire nature of the web is the only alternative. Furthermore, seeing the entire web of causality enables those engaged in highly focused political action to see their actions in relation to other actions, perhaps evoking an analysis of consequences that may be dramatic, even though quite indirect. For example, organizing consumer boycotts can be seen as clearly attacking the connection between consumers and modern export agriculture. But following through the logic of the web also suggests that a successful consumer boycott may likewise reduce the need of modern agriculture for workers, thus creating more peasant farmers, who will likely clear more forest. If a careful analysis of this situation reveals that the loss of jobs will be severe, the political action agenda might then be expanded to form alliances with a local farm worker union calling for job security or a political movement seeking secure land ownership for the increased number of peasant farmers that will surely be created if the boycott is a success. The Political Action Plan This analysis is meaningless without a program of political action. Political action must focus on the web of causality and eschew single issue foci. Calls for boycotts of tropical timbers or bananas need to be coupled with actions to change investment patterns and international banking pressures. Above all, political action plans must be formulated so they do not make the situation worse-certainly a conceivable, perhaps even likely, consequence of any action, given the complex nature of the web of causality. It appears obvious that political action needs to be focused not only on rain forests and the subjects traditionally associated with them, but also on social justice. The same peasant farmers who formed the backbone of the Vietnamese liberation forces or the Salvadoran guerrillas are the ones who are forced into the marginal existence that compels them to continually move into the forests. So the same issues that compelled progressive organizers in the past to form solidarity committees and anti-war protests are the issues that must be addressed if the destruction of rain forests is to be stopped. Just as the most effective political action in the past was organized in conjunction with and to some extent under the leadership of the people for whom social justice was being sought, so today political action should be coordinated with those same people. As that coordination proceeds, the alliances that grow will inevitably lead to the reformulation of goals, which the rain forest conservation activist must acknowledge and respect. Local people, quite obviously, must recognize something about the rain forest that is in their best interest to preserve, and it is the job of the progressive organizer to construct the political action so that such value is evident. In short, the alliance between the people who live in and around the rain forest and those from the outside who seek to stop the tide of rain forest destruction must be a two way alliance. If the people who live around the Lacandon forest in Mexico, for example, have as their major goal the reformulation of the Mexican political system, the rain forest conservationist must join the political movement to change that system - something that many would see as distant from the original goal of preserving rain forests. Political action to preserve rain forests, under the framework of the web of causality, will inevitably involve the serious preservationist in social justice issues, many of which initially may have seemed only marginally associated with the problem of rain forest destruction. Recalling the old slogan, "If you want peace, work for justice," we hope someday to hear, for example, "Save Mexican rain forests, support the Zapatistas," or "If you want to save Cuba's rain forests, break the illegal U. S. blockade." FOR FURTHER READING For a fuller, more detailed exploration of both ecological and socioeconomic dimensions of rain forest destruction, read Vandermeer and Perfecto's controversial new Food First book, "Breakfast of Biodiversity: The Truth about Rain Forest Destruction." With a foreword by ecofeminist philosopher Vandana Shiva, the book "ranges from the acidity of rain forest soils to the acridity of international politics." NOTES (1) Westoby, 1989. (2) Some ecologists think that the actual number of species in an ecosystem increases as ecological succession proceeds, but only to a point. After that critical point, the diversity actually decreases, leading to the conclusion that a very old forest may be less diverse than a younger one. (3) There is a problem with the definition here. Most ecologists today eschew the notion of a "mature" forest, and simply speak of "old growth." The notion of maturity implies something about a directed developmental sequence that does not fit well with what we now know about tropical rain forest succession. (4) There are exceptions to this rule. Many swampy forests are characterized by the presence of only a few species. The biggest exception are the Southeast Asian Dipterocarp forests, where the vast majority of trees in the forest belong to a single plant family, characterized by very large and straight trunks, a logger's delight. (5) Rosset, 1994; Murdoch, 1980; Lapp, F. M. and J. Collins. 1977; Lapp, F. M. and R. Schurman, 1988. (6) There is some debate about the question of organic matter in rain forest soils. The rate of decomposition of organic matter is about twice the rate it is in a normal temperate zone situation, and thus it is only natural to expect the standing crop of organic matter to be less in the rain forest. Some authors have questioned this ba sic assumption (e.g. National Research Council, 1993). On the other hand, all are in agreement that once the forest is cleared for agriculture, whatever organic matter was actually there rapidly disappears from the soil. (7) This is the imagery first provided by Lewontin, 1982. (8) Kiddell-Monroe and Kiddell-Monroe,1993. (9) Rich, 1994. (10) Wallerstein, 1980. References Kiddell-Monroe, S. and R. Kiddell-Monroe. 1993. "Indonesia: Land Rights and Development." in Colchester, M. and L. Lohmann (eds) The Struggle for Land and the Fate of the Forests. World Rainforest Movement and Zed Books, London. Lapp, F. M. and J. Collins. 1977. Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Lapp, F. M. and R. Schurman. 1988. Taking Population Seriously. Institute for Food and Development Policy, San Francisco. Lewontin, R. 1982. "Agricultural Research and the Penetration of Capital." Science for the People 14:12- 17. Murdoch, W. 1980. Poverty of Nations: Population, Hunger, and Development. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore. National Research Council. 1993. Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C. Rich, B. 1994. Mortgaging the Earth: The World Bank, Environmental Impoverishment, and the Crisis of Development. Beacon Press, Boston. Rosset, P. et al. 1994."Myths and Root Causes: Hunger, Population and Development." Food First Backgrounder, Institute for Food and Development Policy, Oakland. Wallerstein, I. 1980. The Modern World System II: Mercantilism and the Consolidation of the European World-Economy, 1260-1750. Academic Press, New York. Westoby, J. 1989. Introduction to World Forestry. Basil Blackwell Ltd., Oxford. ******************************************************** Copyright 1994 Food First. All rights reserved. Please obtain permission from Food First to photocopy. The Institute for Food & Development Policy -- Food First -- is a member supported "people's think tank" that provides the activist community, policy makers, the media, universities and the general public with alternative viewpoints and analyses of the issues of food, hunger and development. If you read this piece and found it useful we would like you to consider becoming a member of Food First. Only with the support of people like yourself can we continue to provide our brand of independent analysis -- independent of the government and of major foundations to the extent that individuals like yourself give us your support. Please print out and mail us the following coupon at: -------------------------------------------------------- The Subterranean Company (distributor) Box 160 265 South 5th Street Monroe, Oregon 97456 USA -------------------------------------------------------- or, fax with credit information to: 1-503-847-6018, or call, 1-800-274-7826, or e-mail with credit card info to: foodfirst@igc.apc.org -------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- I'd like to become a member of Food First Here's my tax deductible donation of $30 $50 $100 $___ All members receive Backgrounders and Food First News & Views (by mail, laid out and with photos) and a 20% discount on books. $40 or more gives you New Member Plus (includes a one year subscription to The New Internationalist) Please send me the following books: Breakfast of Biodiversity: the Truth about Rain Forest destruction, by John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto. Forweard by Vandana Shiva. _____$16.95 Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, by George Collier with Elizabeth Lowery Quaratiello _____$12.95 The Greening of the Revolution: Cuba's Experiment with Organic Agriculture, by Peter Rosset and Medea Benjamin _____$11.95 Dark Victory: The US, Structural Adjustment and Global Poverty, by Walden Bello with Shea Cunningham and Bill Rau _____$12.95 Alternatives to the Peace Corps, edited by Annette Olson _____$6.95 World Hunger: Twelve Myths, by Frances Moore Lappe & Joseph Collins. _____$9.95 Food First: Beyond the Myth of Scarcity, by Frances Moore Lappe & Joseph Collins. _____$5.95 Aid as Obstacle, by Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins & David Kinley. _____$5.95 Please send me the following Policy Briefs: $4.00 each _____$4.00 Chiapas and the Crisis in Mexican Agriculture, by Burbach & Rosset Please send me the following Development Reportss: $8.00 each _____$8.00 Bitter Pill: Structural Adjustment in Costa Rica, by Alicia Korten Please send me the following Backgrounders: 5/$2,50/$11.50 __ Rethinking Rain Forests: Biodiversity and Social Justice __ Myths and Root Causes: Hunger, Population, and Development __ Hunger in the Horn of Africa. __ Myths of African Hunger. $_______ shipping $_______ (domestic: $4.00 for the first book, $1.00 for each additional book; foreign, $4.00 for the first book, $2.50 for each additional book.) $_______Total enclosed Charge my : Visa ___ MC___ card #_________________________Expires____________ Name_________________________Phone#_______________ Address___________________________________________ City/State/Zip____________________________________ -------------------------------------------------------- From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Fri Jul 21 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!agate!spool.mu.edu!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!lamarck.sura.net!news.uky.edu!chuck From: "Christopher L. Schardl" Newsgroups: bionet.mycology,BIONET.microbiology,bionet.molbio.evolution,bionet.plants,bionet.virology,bionet.population-bio,bionet.women-in-bio Subject: FACULTY PSTNS IN PLANT PATH AT U KENTUCKY Date: 22 Jul 1995 00:37:13 GMT Organization: University of Kentucky Lines: 29 Message-ID: <3uph7p$gtp@service1.uky.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.163.192.143 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Macintosh; I; PPC) X-URL: news:bionet.mycology Xref: biosci bionet.mycology:2508 bionet.molbio.evolution:3162 bionet.plants:7693 bionet.virology:3946 bionet.population-bio:1470 bionet.women-in-bio:2870 Assistant/Associate Professor(s) of Plant Pathology. Applications are invited for two tenure-track faculty positions focusing on fundamental research concerning plant-pathogen interactions. Although the successful candidates will be allowed broad latitude in determining particular research directions, they will be expected to develop/direct nationally recognized programs. Strong preference will be given in one position for an individual using molecular approaches to the study of prokaryotes and plant diseases in which they are causally involved. The appointees will be expected to contribute to the instructional program in the department as well as to provide expertise to other departmental efforts. A Ph.D. in plant pathology or a related discipline is required. Postdoctoral experience is desirable. One position may be filled at the Associate Professor level with an individual who has demonstrated appropriate professional accomplishments. Applicants should send curriculum vitae, transcripts, sample publications, any other evidence of professional accomplishments considered relevant and the names/addresses/phone numbers of at least three professional references to Dr. David A. Smith, Department of Plant Pathology, S-305 Agricultural Science Building-North, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091 (phone: 606-257-3901; fax: 606-323-1961; email: DSMITH@UKCC.UKY.EDU). Applications will be accepted until August 31, 1995, or until suitably qualified candidates are found. The University of Kentucky is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Fri Jul 21 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!lamarck.sura.net!news.uky.edu!chuck From: "Christopher L. Schardl" Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: (no subject) Date: 22 Jul 1995 00:30:06 GMT Organization: University of Kentucky Lines: 29 Message-ID: <3upgqe$gdo@service1.uky.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.163.192.143 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Macintosh; I; PPC) X-URL: news:bionet.population-bio Assistant/Associate Professor(s) of Plant Pathology. Applications are invited for two tenure-track faculty positions focusing on fundamental research concerning plant-pathogen interactions. Although the successful candidates will be allowed broad latitude in determining particular research directions, they will be expected to develop/direct nationally recognized programs. Strong preference will be given in one position for an individual using molecular approaches to the study of prokaryotes and plant diseases in which they are causally involved. The appointees will be expected to contribute to the instructional program in the department as well as to provide expertise to other departmental efforts. A Ph.D. in plant pathology or a related discipline is required. Postdoctoral experience is desirable. One position may be filled at the Associate Professor level with an individual who has demonstrated appropriate professional accomplishments. Applicants should send curriculum vitae, transcripts, sample publications, any other evidence of professional accomplishments considered relevant and the names/addresses/phone numbers of at least three professional references to Dr. David A. Smith, Department of Plant Pathology, S-305 Agricultural Science Building-North, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546-0091 (phone: 606-257-3901; fax: 606-323-1961; email: DSMITH@UKCC.UKY.EDU). Applications will be accepted until August 31, 1995, or until suitably qualified candidates are found. The University of Kentucky is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Fri Jul 21 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!COLUMBIA.EDU!rbs17 From: rbs17@COLUMBIA.EDU (Robert B Scott) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Returned mail: Host unknown (fwd) Date: 22 Jul 1995 16:35:54 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 205 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 22 Jul 1995 19:26:54 -0400 From: Mail Delivery Subsystem To: rbs17@columbia.edu Subject: Returned mail: Host unknown ----- Transcript of session follows ----- 550 akbol.org (TCP)... 550 Host unknown 550 ... Host unknown (Authoritative answer from name server) ----- Unsent message follows ----- Received: from bonjour.cc.columbia.edu by mailhub.cc.columbia.edu with SMTP id AA07794 (5.65c+CU/IDA-1.4.4/HLK for ); Sat, 22 Jul 1995 19:26:54 -0400 Received: by bonjour.cc.columbia.edu id AA14443 (5.65c+CU/IDA-1.4.4/HLK for leda ); Sat, 22 Jul 1995 19:26:53 -0400 Date: Sat, 22 Jul 1995 19:26:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert B Scott X-Sender: rbs17@bonjour.cc.columbia.edu To: leda Subject: Re: F2PV!)E$'R")1`` In-Reply-To: <4lNiXdQ8Xy7BU@akbol.org> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I don't know what possessed you to send this bizarre message blaming all your insecurities on a list of "minorities," but it does not seem to have any relevance for the study of population biology or any redeeming value whatsoever. Always nice to know the e-mail address of one more mindless idiot who can't think of anything constructive to do. Enjoy the campaign! Isn't it great to live in a democracy? Even people like you get to vote. -Spare us any more of your drivel, please. Thanks, Robb Scott On Sat, 22 Jul 1995, leda wrote: > > > ********************* > * * > * FREE MONEY!!! * > * * > ********************* > > > > > CAN BE YOURS! 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The issues other so-called "conservatives" don't dare > mention, is now heard worldwide on shortwave, on satellite, and on AM > and FM radio in most of North America. > > > WORLDWIDE ON SHORTWAVE: > > Saturday 11:30am Central Time (16:30 UTC)....15420 kHz via WRNO > Saturday 8:00pm Central Time (01:00 UTC)....7355 kHz via WRNO > > > VIA SATELLITE TO ALL OF NORTH AMERICA > > Wednesday 5:00pm Central Time...............C1, channel 15, > 7.56 MHz audio > > PACIFIC AND MOUNTAIN USA > > from California to Washington to Montana, via KVEG, Las Vegas: > Sunday night > 9:30pm Pacific Time........840 on your AM dial > > > MIDWEST AND GULF SOUTH USA > > from the Gulf of Mexico to the Dakotas and Minnesota, plus > parts of south central Canada via KAAY, Little Rock, Arkansas: > Friday night/Saturday morning > 1:00am Central Time.......1090 on your AM dial > Saturday night > 11:30pm Central Time......1090 on your AM dial > > > UPPER MIDWEST AND NORTHERN MOUNTAIN USA > > from Minnesota and Iowa west to Colorado and Montana, plus > a large part of western Canada via KXEL, Waterloo, Iowa: > Mon-Fri 9:30pm Central Time.......1540 on your AM dial > > > LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS AREA > > (these stations can be heard in most of Arkansas) > via KMTL, Little Rock: > Saturday 10:00am.....................760 on your AM dial > via KAAY, Little Rock: > Friday night/Saturday morning > 1:00am....................1090 on your AM dial > Saturday 11:30pm...................1090 on your AM dial > > WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS AREA > > via KSEY AM-FM, Seymour: > Saturday 8:30am.....................94.3 on your FM dial > Saturday 10:00am....................1230 on your AM dial > > HOUSTON, TEXAS AREA > > via KGOL, Houston: > Saturday 6:00pm.....................1180 on your AM dial > > HUNTSVILLE / DECATUR, ALABAMA AREAS > > via WAJF and WYAM, Decatur/Hartselle: > Wednesday 9:00am....................1490 on your AM dial > Wednesday 9:00am.....................890 on your AM dial > > TAMPA, FLORIDA AREA > > via WTIS, St. Petersburg: > Saturday 11:30am....................1110 on your AM dial > > CINCINNATI, OHIO AREA > > via WTSJ, Cincinnati: > Friday 6:00pm.......................1050 on your AM dial > > RHODE ISLAND, EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS, AND CONNECTICUT > > via WALE, Providence: > Monday 10:00am.......................990 on your AM dial > > > <= Crusader => > > > > From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Jul 22 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!rockyd!cmcl2!is.NYU.EDU!ahr8598 From: ahr8598@is.nyu.edu (Axel H. Rosenberg) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Hispanic population in the US Date: 23 Jul 1995 03:40:13 GMT Organization: New York University Lines: 12 Message-ID: <3usgat$g1h@cmcl2.NYU.EDU> NNTP-Posting-Host: is.nyu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Where can I get information related to the hispanic population in the US.? I need to know the % os spanish speaking people in the U.S as well as their interests in technology. I appreciate any information. Please email me to: ahr8598@is.nyu.edu Thanks Axel Rosenberg From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Jul 22 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!internet!biosci!not-for-mail From: biohelp (BIOSCI Administrator) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: UNSUBSCRIBING, BIOSCI ARCHIVES, ADDRESS DATABASE & BIOSCI FAQ Date: 23 Jul 1995 02:00:12 -0700 Organization: BIOSCI International Newsgroups for Molecular Biology Lines: 347 Sender: daemon@net.bio.net Distribution: world Message-ID: <199507230900.CAA01747@net.bio.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: net.bio.net Four important items follow: How to cancel e-mail subscriptions to BIOSCI newsgroups, BIOSCI archive searching, the BIOSCI FAQ, and the BIOSCI User Address Directory form. If you have not yet listed yourself in our BIOSCI user directory, please take a few minutes to complete and return the form below. If your personal information has changed since you listed yourself, please send us a complete new updated form. 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The FAQ is also posted on the first of each month to the newsgroup BIONEWS/bionet.announce immediately following the posting of the BIOSCI information sheet. **** BIOSCI USER ADDRESS DIRECTORY **** Please take this opportunity to add your name and address information to the BIOSCI User Address Database if you have not already done so. Below is the address form that we would like each reader of the BIOSCI/bionet newsgroups to complete and return if you would like to be listed in our database. The database serves as a directory that enables biologists, who are currently using (or even just reading) the BIOSCI newsgroups, to look up e-mail addresses and other information about our users. The address database is reindexed nightly for WAIS, waismail, gopher, and WWW access (the URL is http://www.bio.net). If you have access to gopher, connect to net.bio.net to search the database. If you have access to WAIS, please use our WAIS source biologists-addresses.src. If you are not on the Internet, please use our waismail server (send the word "help" to waismail@net.bio.net to get instructions; any text on the Subject: line of your message will be ignored, so put the help command in the body of the mail message.). Please carefully follow the instructions for completing the form below and return it to either of the following two addresses (whichever is more convenient for you). Thanks in advance for taking the time to complete and return the form. Addresses for returning forms Location Network ----------------------------- -------- ------- biovote@net.bio.net U.S.A. Internet/BITNET biovote@daresbury.ac.uk U.K. JANET MAKING SURE THAT YOUR INFORMATION IS CURRENT This notice will be mailed bimonthly to each newsgroup. You should check your database entry from time-to-time to see if your address information is still up-to-date. Using Gopher to complete the form --------------------------------- If you don't want to use a text editor, you can also use Dan Jacobson's gopher site to fill out the address database form as follows. Otherwise skip this section on gopher and proceed to the instructions for filling out the form below. > To add yourself to the database just point your > gopher client at merlot.gdb.org and select the following: > > --> 14. Searching For Biologists/ > > --> 9. E-mail Addresses of Biosci-Bionet Users/ > > --> 1. Add (or Correct) Your Address to the BIOSCI User Address > Data.. > > > And fill out the form. or Rob Harper's gopher site in Europe as follows: > Europeans can point their gopher client at gopher.csc.fi and add their > information to the database. All entries will be mailed directly to > Dave for incorporation in a wais source. > > The path to the questionare is as follows. > > > 6. Information in English/ > > 5. Scientific and other topics/ > > 1. Finnish EMBnet BioBox/ > > 9. FAQ Files/ > > 5. Bionauts Address Database (questionaire) > IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY Please enter all responses after the : on each line, leaving one (1) blank space after the : (i.e., before the start of your text). Please do NOT extend your responses past the end of each line (80 characters). PLEASE DO NOT alter any of the field identifiers such as "first name: ". If you have nothing to enter after a field identifier, PLEASE LEAVE IT - do not delete it even if there is no data on the line in question. Several lines are provided at the end of the form for comments, but, please adhere to the line length restriction. On the date: line, please enter the date in the DD-MM-YY format, e.g., 15-05-93 for 15 May 1993. This line will tell others when the information was last updated. Please be sure to include the 0's for single digit days or months, e.g., 15-05-93, not 15-5-93. Note that the "e-mail network: " line below is for specifying, e.g., "Internet," "BITNET," "EARN," "JANET," or whatever other network that your computer may be on. If you are uncertain about any field, please feel free to leave it blank, but please DO NOT DELETE the field identifier from the form! In the first field below, "New information or Update ...", please enter "N" if this is the first time that you have registered in the directory or "U" if you are correcting a listing that you sent to us previously. The comment: lines may be used for anything that you like but PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THEM FROM THE FORM OR ALTER THEM. One suggested use is to list the names of the newsgroups in which you participate. Please use the MAILING LIST name (see below - the latest version of the list can be requested from biosci@net.bio.net) instead of the USENET name even if you don't participate by e-mail. WAIS might get confused by the periods in the USENET names. This allows one to retrieve via WAIS or waismail the list of participants in a particular group. For example: comment: ARABIDOPSIS PLANT-BIOLOGY BIONEWS On the comment: lines use these names below ---- NOT the USENET names below MAILING LIST NAME USENET Newsgroup Name ----------------- --------------------- ACEDB-SOFT bionet.software.acedb AGEING bionet.molbio.ageing AGROFORESTRY bionet.agroforestry ARABIDOPSIS bionet.genome.arabidopsis ASCB bionet.prof-society.ascb BIOCAN bionet.prof-society.cfbs BIOFORUM bionet.general BIO-INFORMATION-THEORY bionet.info-theory BIONAUTS bionet.users.addresses BIONEWS bionet.announce BIO-JOURNALS bionet.journals.contents BIO-MATRIX bionet.molbio.bio-matrix BIOPHYSICAL-SOCIETY bionet.prof-society.biophysics BIOPHYSICS bionet.biophysics BIO-SOFTWARE bionet.software BIOTHERMOKINETICS bionet.metabolic-reg BIO-WWW bionet.software.www CARDIOVASCULAR-RESEARCH bionet.biology.cardiovascular CELEGANS bionet.celegans CELL-BIOLOGY bionet.cellbiol CHLAMYDOMONAS bionet.chlamydomonas CHROMOSOMES bionet.genome.chromosomes COMPUTATIONAL-BIOLOGY bionet.biology.computational CSM bionet.prof-society.csm CYTONET bionet.cellbiol.cytonet DROSOPHILA bionet.drosophila EMBL-DATABANK bionet.molbio.embldatabank EMF-BIO bionet.emf-bio EMPLOYMENT bionet.jobs EMPLOYMENT-WANTED bionet.jobs.wanted FASEB bionet.prof-society.faseb GDB bionet.molbio.gdb GENBANK-BB bionet.molbio.genbank GENETIC-LINKAGE bionet.molbio.gene-linkage GRASSES-SCIENCE bionet.biology.grasses HIV-MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY bionet.molbio.hiv HUMAN-GENOME-PROGRAM bionet.molbio.genome-program IMMUNOLOGY bionet.immunology INFO-GCG bionet.software.gcg JOURNAL-NOTES bionet.journals.note METHODS-AND-REAGENTS bionet.molbio.methds-reagnts MICROBIOLOGY bionet.microbiology MOLECULAR-EVOLUTION bionet.molbio.evolution MOLECULAR-MODELLING bionet.molec-model MOLLUSC-MOLECULAR-NEWS bionet.molbio.molluscs MYCOLOGY bionet.mycology NEUROSCIENCE bionet.neuroscience N2-FIXATION bionet.biology.n2-fixation PARASITOLOGY bionet.parasitology PHOTOSYNTHESIS bionet.photosynthesis PLANT-BIOLOGY bionet.plants POPULATION-BIOLOGY bionet.population-bio PROTEIN-ANALYSIS bionet.molbio.proteins PROTEIN-CRYSTALLOGRAPHY bionet.xtallography PROTISTA bionet.protista RAPD bionet.molbio.rapd SCIENCE-RESOURCES bionet.sci-resources STADEN bionet.software.staden STRUCTURAL-NMR bionet.structural-nmr TROPICAL-BIOLOGY bionet.biology.tropical URODELES bionet.organisms.urodeles VIROLOGY bionet.virology WOMEN-IN-BIOLOGY bionet.women-in-bio YEAST bionet.molbio.yeast ZBRAFISH bionet.organisms.zebrafish Listing newsgroups on the comment: line is optional, of course. Thanks again for your cooperation! --------------- please cut here and return portion below --------------- New information or Update to old record (enter N or U): date (DD-MM-YY): first name: middle initial: family name: job title: e-mail address: e-mail network: phone number: FAX number: institution: address1: address2: address3: city: state/province: country: postal code: research interest: research interest: comment: comment: comment: comment: comment: From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Mon Jul 24 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!satisfied.apocalypse.org!news2.near.net!cocoa.brown.edu!news From: Massimo Pigliucci Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: second (and last) pdoc announcement for ecol. genetics Date: 25 Jul 1995 23:42:16 GMT Organization: Brown University Lines: 33 Message-ID: <3v3vgo$oqu@cocoa.brown.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.148.153.12 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) SECOND (AND LAST) ANNOUNCEMENT: POST-DOC IN EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY AVAILABLE A post-doc position in evolutionary ecology is anticipated (pending final award) for the beginning of 1996 in Dr. Massimo Pigliucci's lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The position will be funded by a collaborative NSF grant to Dr. Pigliucci and Dr. Johanna Schmitt (Brown University). The research will include field work on the crucifer plant Arabidopsis thaliana to measure natural selection, as well as quantitative genetics work. There will be opportunities to interact with the research environment at Brown University, which is focusing on a different part of the project involving the characterization of mutants affected in their response to environmental heterogeneity. Also, the successfull candidate will find plenty of opportunities for scientific collaboration at the newly established Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UTK, as well as at nearby Oak Ridge National Labs. Experience with field and/or greenhouse experiments is preferred. Knowledge of statistical analysis and software appropriate for this kind of study is also a plus. There will be time and facilities to pursue independent projects in the same area of research. The position will start not later than February-March 1996, with possibility an early start, if needed. The duration will be 1.5 years. The salary is competetitive, and benefits are included. If interested, please contact Massimo Pigliucci, currently at Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Box G-W, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912. Phone 401-863-2897, fax 401-863-2166, email pigliucc@brownvm.brown.edu Applications by email are encouraged. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF CV, LIST OF PUBLICATIONS, AND LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION IS AUGUST 10, 1995. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Mon Jul 24 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!rutgers!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!sgigate.sgi.com!enews.sgi.com!news.igc.apc.org!cdp!zpgcomm From: Sharon Pickett Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: ZPG Children's Environmental Index, Message-ID: Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 09:54:00 -0700 (PDT) X-Gateway: notes@igc.apc.org Lines: 127 CONTACTS: Sharon Pickett Tim Cline 202-332-2200 UPDATE, July 12, 1995 CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTAL INDEX RANKS BEST AND WORST U.S. CITIES Nationwide Study Reveals Correlation Between Population Pressures and Problems Afflicting Children Washington, D.C. -- Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, is a lot healthier than it is in San Bernardino, California, according to a new report released by Zero Population Growth (ZPG). The Children's Environmental Index rates 207 U.S. cities on a broad range of population-related social, economic, and environmental pressures that affect the well-being of children. Each city was scored on 14 indicators and then ranked in relation to all other cities. ZPG researchers gathered data on education, crime, pollution, percent of children living in poverty, and other environmental indicators. "Environment" is used in its broadest sense to include both the social and physical conditions that influence a child's development. Top ten cities include (1) Madison, WI (2) Burlington, VT (3) Stamford, CT (4) Fargo, ND (5) Lincoln, NE (6) Overland Park, KS (7) Sioux Falls, SD (8) Livonia, MI (9) Green Bay, WI and (10) Honolulu, HI. Cities scoring at the bottom of the Index include (198) Tampa, FL (199) Pomona, CA (200) Riverside, CA (201) Inglewood, CA (202) Fresno, CA (203) Miami, FL (204) El Monte, CA (205) Los Angeles, CA (206) Newark, NJ and (207) San Bernardino, CA. A complete list of all city scores with related articles and graphs is available in the full report. The Index findings show that, in general, our nation's largest cities provide the worst environment for children. The average population of the 20 lowest scoring cities was 438,000 people while the 20 highest scoring cities had average populations of only 146,000. Lower scores in larger cities generally reflect higher rates of poverty, unemployment, crime, teen pregnancy, school drop-outs, and pollution -- conditions that obviously create a negative environment for children. "But simply reducing the population of our cities is not the answer," says ZPG Board President Dianne Dillon-Ridgley. "Moving people into the suburbs and putting more commuters on the highways will only make environmental problems worse. We need to find comprehensive, long- term solutions to slow population growth while working to address problems that face people today." Index data reveals the interrelated nature of many urban problems. For example, the ZPG study revealed a strong correlation between poverty and other social problems. Cities with a high percentage of children living in poverty were much more likely to have high unemployment rates, crime rates, and drop-out rates. An extremely high correlation was found between child poverty and births to teens. On average, 22 percent of children in the cities ZPG studied currently live below the poverty line. The Index found that 33 cities have more than one-third of their children living in poverty and 10 cities have more than 40 percent. Eight of the 10 cities with more than 40 percent of children in poverty also have more than 20 percent of all births born to teenage girls. "High teen pregnancy rates are related to lack of educational attainment and opportunities," says Dillon-Ridgley. "This, in turn, leads to poor job skills and unemployment and more child poverty. The Index challenges citizens to examine factors that affect this vicious cycle of poverty and population growth and re-evaluate community priorities. In the long run, communities that can stabilize population and ensure sustainable development will enjoy a higher quality of life than communities that do not." The U.S. population is currently about 260 million and growing by more than 3 million people a year, a rate faster than any other industrialized nation. The U.S. is the third most populated nation in the world, after China and India, and set to double to 500 million by 2050. This exploding population exacerbates many of the problems that already plague our cities and is intensified by the fact that Americans produce more waste and consume more natural resources than any other nation. While population pressures affect everyone, they take their greatest toll on children. Children are more susceptible to pollution because they spend more time outdoors, breathe more air per pound of body weight, and have fewer detoxifying enzymes than adults. They are more vulnerable to malnutrition and disease and less able to defend themselves against violence and neglect. The Children's Environmental Index pinpoints areas of failure and success and gives people solid data they can use to facilitate changes in their cities. The Index is not intended to suggest that people should relocate from one city to another. Rather, the Index should be viewed as a vehicle to examine current conditions and plan improvements accordingly. The Children's Environmental Index was produced by Zero Population Growth, the nation's largest grassroots organization concerned with the impacts of population growth. ZPG supports a comprehensive approach to reducing population pressures including access to safe and affordable contraceptives, reproductive choice, school-based sexuality education and health services, international support for basic education and voluntary family planning programs, green technologies and recycling programs, and the adoption of a national population policy. In combination with responsible personal choices such as reducing consumption and having smaller families, these actions can help to ensure a quality environment for present and future generations. Copies of the Children's Environmental Index are $7.50 each plus $1.50 postage and handling ($9.00 total). Checks should be made payable to ZPG and sent to ZPG Publications, 1400 16th Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 or VISA/Mastercard orders can be placed by calling 202-332-2200. ZPG speakers are available upon request to discuss the Index and population issues. Copyright (c) 1994 Zero Population Growth. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim electronic copies of this document for nonprofit educational purposes provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is also granted to copy and distribute translations of this document into another language, under the above conditions, except that this permission notice must be stated in a translation approved by Zero Population Growth. 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 ZERO POPULATION GROWTH GIVE EARTH A BRAKE, STOP OVERPOPULATION VOICE 202-332-2200 e-mail zpg@igc.apc.org FAX 202-332-2302 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Tue Jul 25 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!huey.cc.utexas.edu!minerva From: minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu (lotte stavenhagen) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Zero Population Growth Date: 26 Jul 1995 14:21:34 GMT Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas Lines: 9 Message-ID: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: huey.cc.utexas.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] I would like to open a discussion, or join one in progress, on the issue of world population growth and it's impact on society, environment, and other issues. Anyone up for it? Ursa From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 27 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!news.uoregon.edu!mars.efn.org!usenet From: Patrick Bronson Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Zero Population Growth Date: 27 Jul 1995 23:19:15 GMT Organization: Eugene Free Net Lines: 11 Message-ID: <3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org> References: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: dynip39.efn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) To: minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu (lotte stavenhagen) wrote: >I would like to open a discussion, or join one in progress, on the >issue of world population growth and it's impact on society, environment, >and other issues. > > >Anyone up for it? Yes! There's a newsgroup called KZPG, but I can't find the e-mail address! If you write me back I should be able to retrieve it. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 27 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!news.uoregon.edu!mars.efn.org!usenet From: Patrick Bronson Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Zero Population Growth Date: 28 Jul 1995 04:47:15 GMT Organization: Eugene Free Net Lines: 19 Message-ID: <3v9q4j$t40@mars.efn.org> References: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: dynip91.efn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) To: minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu,(lotte,stavenhagen) Patrick Bronson wrote: >minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu (lotte stavenhagen) wrote: >>I would like to open a discussion, or join one in progress, on the >>issue of world population growth and it's impact on society, environment, >>and other issues. >> >> >>Anyone up for it? > >Yes! There's a newsgroup called KZPG, but I can't find the e-mail address! If you write me back >I should be able to retrieve it. > I just looked it up. E-mail to: heimlich@iti.com for info on KZPG. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 27 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!daresbury!nntp-trd.UNINETT.no!Norway.EU.net!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!in1.uu.net!news.io.com!usenet From: richb@io.com (Rich Bernstein) Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Historical US birthrates and Dent Date: 28 Jul 1995 21:55:59 GMT Organization: Illuminati Online Lines: 11 Message-ID: <3vbmdf$bdg@anarchy.io.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: tokyorose.natinst.com Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: WinVN 0.93.11 I am in the midst of reading a book by Dent called The Coming Boom (or something like that). In it, Mr. Dent claims that there is a close correlation between population peaks and economic well-being. I want to check out his theories but I need the birth rates from about 1900 until now. Can anyone point me to a URL or a FTP site where I can get these numbers in a format so I can import them into Excel? I also need some historical data on interest rates or stock market averages. Anyone know where to find this stuff, or have any comments on Dent's book? -Rich From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 27 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!news.uoregon.edu!mars.efn.org!usenet From: Patrick Bronson Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Zero Population Growth Date: 28 Jul 1995 04:48:23 GMT Organization: Eugene Free Net Lines: 19 Message-ID: <3v9q6n$t40@mars.efn.org> References: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: dynip91.efn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) To: minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu Patrick Bronson wrote: >minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu (lotte stavenhagen) wrote: >>I would like to open a discussion, or join one in progress, on the >>issue of world population growth and it's impact on society, environment, >>and other issues. >> >> >>Anyone up for it? > >Yes! There's a newsgroup called KZPG, but I can't find the e-mail address! If you write me back >I should be able to retrieve it. > I just looked it up. E-mail to: heimlich@iti.com for info on KZPG. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Thu Jul 27 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bcm!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!gatech!news.uoregon.edu!mars.efn.org!usenet From: Patrick Bronson Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Zero Population Growth Date: 28 Jul 1995 04:47:58 GMT Organization: Eugene Free Net Lines: 19 Message-ID: <3v9q5u$t40@mars.efn.org> References: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: dynip91.efn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) To: minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu,(lotte,stavenhagen) Patrick Bronson wrote: >minerva@huey.cc.utexas.edu (lotte stavenhagen) wrote: >>I would like to open a discussion, or join one in progress, on the >>issue of world population growth and it's impact on society, environment, >>and other issues. >> >> >>Anyone up for it? > >Yes! There's a newsgroup called KZPG, but I can't find the e-mail address! If you write me back >I should be able to retrieve it. > I just looked it up. E-mail to: heimlich@iti.com for info on KZPG. From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sat Jul 29 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.compuserve.com!news.production.compuserve.com!news From: Patrick Loewen <75121.677@CompuServe.COM> Newsgroups: bionet.microbiology,bionet.population-bio,sci.bio.microbiology Subject: Help! Salmonella in sewage sludge Date: 30 Jul 1995 19:56:12 GMT Organization: CompuServe, Inc. (1-800-689-0736) Lines: 23 Message-ID: <3vgo4s$6h5$1@mhafn.production.compuserve.com> Xref: biosci bionet.microbiology:2834 bionet.population-bio:1482 sci.bio.microbiology:1256 Hello, My name is Patrick Loewen. I am living in Luxembourg, in a small town called Lintgen. I am a member of our local environment commission. I need an advice on something that happened a month ago. A neighboring sewage plant had her sludge bring out on several fields on top of a hill near Lintgen. This was authorized by the environment administration, as analyses showed no metal or bacteriological contamination. But several people in Lintgen worried about the quantity of sludge that was brought out. They protested at the environment administration. This one did another analyse at the sewage plant 2 weeks later. This analyse showed a Salmonella infection of the sludge. Was it already contaminated as it was brought out? No one could give an answer. Now, many people worry, because on the foot of this hill is a fountain where Lintgen gets its drinkeng water from. The administration says that the sludge was not brought out in the water protection zones, but they are small because of the agricultural activity on the hill. My questions are: Can Salmonella survive in the soil and contaminate the groundwater? If not, is there any danger of bringing out Salmonella in this way? Should we convince our municipality to prevent future sludge bring outs? You would really help me if you can give me answers. Thank you Patrick Loewen 75121.677@compuserve.com From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sun Jul 30 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!uunet!in2.uu.net!news1.digital.com!nntp-hub2.barrnet.net!news3.near.net!saturn.caps.maine.edu!dartvax.dartmouth.edu!usenet From: julio gurdian Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: Re: Zero Population Growth Date: 30 Jul 1995 23:34:50 GMT Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Lines: 3 Message-ID: <3vh4uq$c8e@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> References: <3v5j1e$d0h@geraldo.cc.utexas.edu> <3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: kip-2-sn-170.dartmouth.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Macintosh; I; 68K) To: patrickb@efn.org X-URL: news:3v96tk$loa@mars.efn.org Oh yeah, well your momma! From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sun Jul 30 23:00:00 1995 Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio,comp.ai.neural-nets,bionet.plants Path: biosci!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.kei.com!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!gail.ripco.com!inquire From: inquire@ripco.com (Resampling Stats) Subject: Internet Resources on Statistics (P07295) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: foley.ripco.com Message-ID: Sender: usenet@rci.ripco.com (Net News Admin) Reply-To: P07295@qcnet.com Organization: Ripco Internet BBS Chicago X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Followup_to: P07295@qcnet.com Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 00:26:40 GMT X-Ident-Sender: inquire Lines: 24 Xref: biosci bionet.population-bio:1484 comp.ai.neural-nets:16817 bionet.plants:7775 ANNOUNCEMENT (Internet Resources on Statistics) The Resampling Project offers you a variety of free materials on the practice of resampling and its pedagogy. These include articles in _Science News_ and _Chance_ and _MD Computing_, full length books, research on the results of using and teaching resampling, and much more. For lists of such materials and information on how to get them, please reply to this message or contact inquire@qcnet.com. Background: Over the past couple of decades, the resampling method (including the bootstrap) has revolutionized the field of statistics. Resampling tests are now the method of choice for much everyday work. But this is not yet well known outside the community of professional statisticians. Peter Bruce Resampling Stats phone 703-522-2713 612 N. Jackson St. fax 703-522-5846 Arlington, VA 22201 inquire@qcnet.com USA From owner-population-bio@net.bio.net Sun Jul 30 23:00:00 1995 Path: biosci!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!msunews!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newsmaster From: McComas Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio Subject: New Book Announcement Date: 31 Jul 1995 02:00:08 GMT Organization: Australian National University Lines: 61 Message-ID: <3vhdf8$9m3@manuel.anu.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: 150.203.184.72 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) 'Risk of Extinction: Ranking management options for Leadbeater's Possum using Population Viability Analysis. DB Lindenmayer and HP Possingham. Australian National University, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies. Canberra. 204pp. A$20 + $5 handling ($10 international handling). Details: e-mail: publications@cres.anu.edu.au WWW Site and ofer form : http://cres20.anu.edu.au/possum/possum.html Abstract This book by David Lindenmayer and Hugh Possingham contains recommendations for forest management to minimise the chance of extinction of Leadbeater's Possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri. These recommendations are based on the consideration of the biology of Leadbeater's Possum and an extensive population simulation study in which the likelihood of extinction of the species was assessed under a wide range of scenarios. A brief overview of Population Viability Analysis (PVA) is outlined in Chapter 1. The computer simulation model (ALEX) that was applied in this study is described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 contains a short summary of aspects of the biology and ecology of Leadbeater's Possum relevant to our investigation. Key results from PVA are presented in Chapters 4-7. Baseline explorations of the dynamics of populations of Leadbeater's Possum within existing patches of suitable habitat are described in Chapter 4. An investigation of population behaviour resulting from catastrophic wildfire events is outlined in Chapter 5. Further complexity is added to our analyses in Chapter 6, in which we model the impacts of disturbances arising from a combination of fire and logging operations. In that chapter, the relative merits of different management strategies for the conservation of Leadbeater's Possum within wood production forests is examined. Given that a major outcome of Chapter 6 was that the permanent reservation of key forest patches was one of the most useful conservation strategies, the analyses in Chapter 7 focus on aspects of reserve size, position and number. Notably, in many parts of Chapters 6 and 7 we have concentrated on ranking different management options. In these cases we are primarily concerned with the relative effectiveness of different conservation strategies rather than precise values for the probability of extinction. The key findings and conclusions associated with each phase of analysis are presented in several places in this document. A brief overview of the results is given in the Executive Summary at the front of the book, together with key recommendations for forest management to enhance long-term conservation strategies for Leadbeater's Possum. In addition, there are Summary and Conclusions sections accompanying each chapter where we completed PVA. Finally, in Chapter 8 we present a synthesis of some of the key findings of the study. An important part of PVA is to understand the limitations of the analyses that have been completed. On this basis, an Assumptions and Limitations section accompanies each chapter in which the results of analyses are presented.