All Posts Tagged as 'Population'

A few weeks ago, I read a gripping account of a man in his early thirties who recounted his experience of being raped when he was in his mid 20s. He only recently decided to share his story with others. The person in question made the case that he decided not to use his real name, but rather employed a pseudonym as he told his experience. His story was intense, graphic, gripping, dramatic and gut wrenching. My heart ached at the pain and psychological trauma this man endured and kept concealed from others. Indeed, it was a wonder the level of understandable anguish he harbored did not overwhelm him or cause him to resort to more drastic measures such as suicide.

Over the past few years, we have seen a number of cases where men have been the victims of rape. From the military to college campuses, private homes and other avenues of American society. In fact, a few years ago in 2012, Trey Malone, a junior at Amherst College and a distinguished student both academically and athletically, took his on life after he was unable to deal with the immense trauma and intense emotions he suffered after being the victim of rape by a co-ed.

Rats aren't only a part of New York City’s underground — they're an inseparable part of its pop culture. There’s Master Splinter from the Ninja Turtles, Pizza Rat, and even Cannibal Rat. But for every celebrity rat, there’s another 250,000 to 2 million anonymous rodents living in the city — and the city health department is fighting to bring down.

Last year, three people in a Bronx city block made the news for contracting leptospirosis through rat urine. Only two survived.

For the third year running, life expectancy in the U.S. has declined, per new data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

Children born in 2017 are expected to live an average of 78.6 years, down from 78.7 the year prior. This most recent decline makes the last three years the longest period of decreasing life expectancy since the years of 1915 to 1918, USA Today reports. Considering that time period included World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, those factors might at least partially explain the reduced life expectancy.

“Climate Apartheid”

If our global climate change catastrophe continues unchecked, vast swaths of the world will likely become harsher and far less hospitable for humanity.

When that happens, an even greater rift will appear between the global haves and have-nots, as many people will be left without the means to escape the worst effects of the climate crisis, according to a new report published Tuesday by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council that describes an impending “climate apartheid.”

While the rich hire private firefighters or move to more expensive habitable areas, the report predicts that 120 million people will be pushed into poverty by 2030 by climate change. Many more will die.

Californians dutifully load up their recycling bins and feel good about themselves. They’re helping the environment and being good citizens.

But their glow might turn to gloom if they realized that much of the stuff is headed to a landfill.

Climate change is already having an extraordinary impact on human health worldwide — affecting the spread of infectious diseases, exposing millions to air pollution and heat waves and dramatically reducing labor productivity, according to a report released Monday.

"The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible," the report by the British medical journal The Lancet says, and the situation is so serious that significant gains by modern medicine and technology are being undercut.

"The delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardized human life and livelihoods," the report says.

“Get that thing out of you!” my boyfriend’s cousin exclaimed after learning about my IUD.

A few bottles of wine into celebrating the 40-something’s birthday at a casual-chic French restaurant, she had asked when I was “finally” going to have a baby. To drive home the point that I still wasn’t quite ready, I pointed to the 99 percent effective birth control device implanted in my uterus, which emits copper ions toxic to my boyfriend’s most determined little swimmers.

Of course, I recognized that her comment was born out of respect for my relationship with her cousin, and a sincere desire for us to experience the joys of building a family. Still, I wasn’t thrilled to receive yet another reminder that my biological clock is ticking. Every. Single. Second.