The Future (79 page)
Authors: Al Gore
262
even though it has only 5 percent of the world’s population
Global Migration Group, “International Migration and Human Rights,” October 2008,
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/opendocPDFViewer.html?docid=49e479cf0&query=migration
.
263
outnumbered Caucasian babies for the first time
Conor Dougherty and Miriam Jordan, “Minority Births Are New Majority,”
Wall Street Journal
, May 17, 2012.
264
experts as a major factor causing the surge of hate groups
Colleen Curry, “Hate Groups Grow as Racial Tipping Point Changes Demographics,” ABC News, May 18, 2012,
http://abcnews.go.com/US/militias-hate-groups-grow-response-minority-population-boom/story?id=16370136#.T7Zy1O2I3dl
.
265
“nation’s population growth in the decade that ended in 2010”
Sabrina Tavernise, “Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.,”
New York Times
, May 17, 2012.
266
as the number of Hispanic and Asian children increased by 5.5 million
William H. Frey, “America’s Diverse Future: Initial Glimpses at the U.S. Child Population from the 2010 Census,” Brookings Institution, April 6, 2011,
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0406_census_diversity_frey.aspx
.
267
Hispanics at 26 percent and African Americans at 22 percent
William H. Frey, “Melting Pot Cities and Suburbs: Racial and Ethnic Change in Metro America in the 2000s,” Brookings Institution, May 4, 2011,
http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0504_census_ethnicity_frey.aspx
.
268
represent the largest minority group in the United States
Dennis Cauchon and Paul Overberg, “Census Data Shows Minorities Now a Majority of U.S. Births,”
USA Today
, May 17, 2012.
269
bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City
Brian Levin, “U.S. Hate and Extremist Groups Hit Record Levels, New Report Says,”
Huffington Post
, March 8, 2012,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/hate-groups-splc_b_1331318.html
.
270
renewed upsurge in 2009–12
Ibid.
271
“precisely coinciding with Obama’s first three years as president”
Curry, “Hate Groups Grow as Racial Tipping Point Changes Demographics.”
272
immigration from several other countries has continued
Jeffrey Passel, D’Vera Cohn, and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera, Pew Research Center, “Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero—and Perhaps Less,” May 3, 2012,
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/23/net-migration-from-mexico-falls-to-zero-and-perhaps-less/
.
273
Flows of Asian immigrants to the U.S. overtook Hispanics
“Asians Overtake Hispanics as Largest US Immigration Group,”
Telegraph
, June 20, 2009.
274
“by around 2023 if current immigration trends continue”
William H. Frey, “A Demographic Tipping Point Among America’s Three-Year-Olds,” Brookings Institution, February 7, 2011,
http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2011/02/07-population-frey
.
275
democratic principle of majority rule
“Arab Majority in ‘Historic Palestine’ After 2014: Survey,” Agence France-Presse, December 30, 2010.
276
higher standards of living in developed countries
Report of the Secretary-General, “International Migration and Development.”
277
results in less support for public school budgets
Tavernise, “Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.”
278
United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom
Report of the Secretary-General, “International Migration and Development.”
279
totaled $351 billion in 2011 and is projected to reach $441 billion
Dipil Ratha, World Bank, “Outlook for Migration and Remittances 2012–14,” February 9, 2012.
280
back home from the cities where they work
Overseas Development Institute, “Internal Migration, Poverty and Development in Asia, October 2006,”
http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/29.pdf
.
281
as much as 60 percent of their income
Ibid.
282
majority of money flowing into those three states
Ibid.
283
persecution to new communities within their own country
United Nations Refugee Agency, “UNHCR: Global Trends,” 2010.
284
“it’s becoming more and more difficult to find solutions for them”
“UN Report Predicts Increase in World’s Displaced,” Associated Press, June 1, 2012.
285
meaning they have no place to go home to
United Nations, Millennium Development Goals Report 2011.
286
more refugees moved to cities than to refugee camps
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), “2009 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-Seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons,” June 15, 2010,
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4caee6552.html
.
287
80 percent of refugees live in poor regions of the world
Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire, UNESCO, “International Migration, Border Controls and Human Rights: Assessing the Relevance of a Right to Mobility,”
Journal of Borderlands Studies
21, no. 1 (Spring 2006).
288
Myanmar, Colombia, and Sudan
UNHCR, “2009 Global Trends.”
289
countries for refugees are Afghanistan and Iraq
Ibid.
290
mostly to Pakistan (1.9 million) and Iran (one million)
UNHCR, “Global Trends 2010,”
http://www.unhcr.org/4dfa11499.pdf
.
291
Iraq have also gone mostly to neighboring countries
Ibid.
292
are hosted in nations neighboring their country of origin
“The Impacts of Refugees on Neighboring Countries: A Development Challenge,” World Development Report 2011 Background Note, July 29, 2010,
http://wdronline.worldbank.org/worldbank/a/nonwdrdetail/199
.
293
the Middle East and North Africa (another 1.9 million)
UNHCR, “Global Trends 2010.”
294
Muslims already make up 5 percent of Europe’s population
Ibid.; Kurt M. Campbell et al., “The Age of Consequences.”
295
nativist groups exploit the public’s uneasiness
Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor, “Far Right on Rise in Europe, Says Report,”
Guardian
, November 6, 2011.
296
“to the relentless advance of climate change”
“UN Report Predicts Increase in World’s Displaced,” Associated Press.
297
to protect against a predicted wave of climate refugees
Sharon Udasin, “Defending Israel’s Borders from ‘Climate Refugees,’ ”
Jerusalem Post
, May 15, 2012.
298
Israeli environmental protection minister Gilad Erdan
Ibid.
299
“where it is possible to escape this”
Ibid.
300
“they shoot, in Japan they shoot”
Ibid.
301
many climate refugees eastward into the Darfur region
Ibid.
302
Palestinian territories, Syria, and the Nile Delta in Egypt
Ibid.
303
“exactly as Europe is doing now”
Ibid.
304
“spur additional migration from Africa and South Asia”
Campbell et al., “The Age of Consequences.”
305
the dangerous journey across to the Canaries
“Canaries Migrant Surge Tops 1,400,” BBC, September 4, 2006,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5310412.stm
.
306
one meter or less higher than the current sea level
“Sea Levels May Rise by as Much as One Meter Before the End of the Century,”
ScienceDaily
, June 10, 2012.
307
abandon the places they call home
Hugo Ahlenius, “Population, Area and Economy Affected by 1m Sea Level Rise,” UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 2007,
http://www.grida.no/graphicslib/detail/population-area-and-economy-affected-by-a-1-m-sea-level-rise-global-and-regional-estimates-based-on-todays-situation_d4fe
.
308
rate of less than one half of one percent per year
WorldWatch Institute, “World Population, Agriculture, and Malnutrition,” 2011.
309
approximately 2.5 centimeters every 500 years
Pete Miller and Laura Westra,
Just Ecological Integrity: The Ethics of Maintaining a Planetary Life
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), p. 124.
310
productivity on almost one third of the arable land on Earth
Jims Vincent Capuno, “Soil Erosion: The Country’s Unseen Enemy,” Edge Davao, July 11, 2011,
http://www.edgedavao.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4801:soil-erosion-the-countrys-unseen-enemy&catid=51:on-the-cover&Itemid=83
.
311
ten times faster than it can be replenished
Tom Paulson, “The Lowdown on Topsoil: It’s Disappearing,”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
, January 21, 2008.
312
erodible soils down the steep slopes of its terrain
Lester Brown, “Civilization’s Founding Eroding,” September 28, 2010,
http://www.earth-policy.org/book_bytes/2010/pb4ch02_ss2
.
313
have many experts beginning to get very worried
“Groundwater Depletion Rate Accelerating Worldwide,”
ScienceDaily
, September 23, 2010,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100923142503.htm
.
314
many aquifers are now falling several meters per year
“No Easy Fix: Simply Using More of Everything to Produce More Food Will Not Work,”
Economist
, February 24, 2011.
315
“costs and the benefits in separate accounts for comparison”
Jorgen Randers,
2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years
(White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2012), p. 75.
316
“practical confusion between income and capital”
R. H. Parker and G. C. Harcourt,
Readings in the Concept and Measurement of Income
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1969), p. 81.
317
holds true for nations and for the world as a whole
Kevin Holmes,
The Concept of Income: A Multi-disciplinary Analysis
(Amsterdam: IBFD, 2001), p. 109.
318
“system of environmental-economic accounts”
Janez Potočnik, “Our Natural Capital Is Endangered,” European Union press release, June 20, 2012.
319
argument is often contingent on oversimplification
Simon Kuznets,
National Income 1929–1932
, Report to the U.S. Senate, 73rd Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934),
www.nber.org/chapters/c2258.pdf
.
320
“the center of conflict of opposing social groups”
Ibid.
321
“farmers did not get enough scientific guidance”
Li Jiao, “Water Shortages Loom as Northern China’s Aquifers Are Sucked Dry,”
Science
, June 2010.
322
U.S. depends far less on irrigation
Brown,
Plan B 4.0
.
323
all twenty-one of the world’s longest rivers
“Dams Control Most of the World’s Large Rivers,” Environmental News Service, April 2005,
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/apr2005/2005-04-15-04.asp
.
324
when it was built seventy years ago
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, “What Is the Biggest Dam in the World?,” June 2012,
http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/History/essays/biggest.html
.
325
global freshwater was used for agriculture
“No Easy Fix,”
Economist
.
326
780 million people in the world still lack access to safe drinking water
Ibid.; UNICEF, “Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: Introduction,” March 2012; World Health Organization, “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation: 2012 Update,” 2012,
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2012/9789280646320_eng_full_text.pdf
.
327
has water found to be one million years old
Jack Eggleston, U.S. Geological Survey, “Million Year Old Groundwater in Maryland Water Supply,” June 2012,
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3246#.UGS3kRh9lbo
.
328
all have water more than one million years old
Ibid.
329
classic case of “out of sight, out of mind”
Jiao, “Water Shortages Loom as Northern China’s Aquifers Are Sucked Dry.”
330
will dramatically increase sea level rise later in this century
“Groundwater Depletion Rate Accelerating Worldwide,”
ScienceDaily
.
331
Central Valley of California, and northeastern China
Ibid.
332
unsustainably to irrigate crops in dryland areas
Jiao, “Water Shortages Loom as Northern China’s Aquifers Are Sucked Dry.”
333
intended to remedy water shortages in northern China
Edward Wong, “Plan for China’s Water Crisis Spurs Concern,”
New York Times
, June 1, 2011.