What’s New August 2001

This page lists recent changes made to this site such as new pages, or updates to existing sections. The "Find Out More" links will take you to the changes. If this jumps to the middle of a page, you can easily scroll up to understand the context of the new information a bit further.

Date of Update

Description


August 24, 2001


  1. In 2000, worldwide arms sales rose to 36.9 billion dollars (up from 34 billion in 1999). Of that, 25.4 billion dollars in arms transfer agreements were to poor countries. Furthermore, U.S. sales in 2000 were approximately half of the total, and 68 percent of U.S. weapons output in 2000 was bought by poor countries. All this from a new U.S. Congressional Research Service Report titled "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1993 - 2000". The arms trade is big business. In terms of military expenditure (including sales, military budgets etc), the world spends 800 billion dollars approximately, per year (while the U.S. military budget is around 300 billion dollars per year). Find Out More »
    - Related Section(s): Arms Trade / Military Expansion / Geopolitics


  2. Some of the conclusions made by studying ecological limits point to populations as a major reason for environmental degradation. However, looking at deeper factors, it seems to be more in consumption of resources. The United Nations point out that the wealthiest fifth of humanity consume 86% of the world's resources while the poorest fifth consume just 1.3%. Often many studies (not all) of ecological limits do not factor in the waste in the current political and economic models that are followed today (and throughout history), or why land is used and how and so forth. As a result then, the blame for environmental degradation gets attributed to the larger populations which are typically poor. Hence, intentional or not, the victims get the blame, while underlying causes remain in place. Find Out More »
    - Related Section(s): Population / Environment Issues / Causes of Poverty / Trade and Economic related issues


  3. During the protests in Genoa at the G8 summit, political and business leaders and commentators blamed the protestors for wanting to keep the poor in poverty! This occurred after other major protests as well. Underlying this though is the fact that so many people are now protesting the policies of the world leaders of overly corporate-led globalization that they are trying to hit back. As well as with tactics like surveillance, violent crackdowns, discrediting protest organizations and so forth, they are trying to even claim that protestors are anti-poor! Various updates have been added, including links to articles refuting such claims. Find Out More »
    - Related Section(s): Causes of Poverty / Free Trade and Globalization