I would encourage you to use your wealth to erect a windmill, put up solar panels, and to plant an organic garden ... or use it to invest in large projects in this direction because I believe this to be a relatively clean and worthy direction to put our resources. I would discourage you however, from limiting Americas energy development in any way.
Limiting access to energy, limits productivity and limiting productivity limits societal advancements. America has been the most productive country on the planet and as a result has been able to reach out and contribute to advances and productivity elsewhere.
Still ...
There are 25,000 children dying every day in poverty. There are two hundred million orphans in the world. Two billion people lack access to clean water and 1 billion people do not have enough to even meet their daily needs.
Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.
Water problems affect half of humanity:
•Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
•Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
•More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
•Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
•1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
•Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
•The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
•Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
•Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
•To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.
Survival for children
Worldwide,
•10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
•1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children
Worldwide,
•2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
•15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom
globalissues.org |
