And more awards.... Showcase Award for the Joint Luncheon (listed alphabetically)
Posts
5 DAYS & COUNTING! Only 5 days until we all converge on Orlando! Aren't you excited!? If you are unable to attend, don't worry - we will bring back all kinds of information, handouts, and other goodies to share with you! There is a 40% chance of rain Saturday, Sunday & Monday - hopefully Orlando has real rain storms & not haboobs!
Final reason we are better off than we used to be: 10) Population Growth is not a Threat. Although the world population is growing, the rate of increase has been falling for 50 years. Across the globe, national birth rates are lower now than in 1960, and in the less developed world, the birth rate has approximately halved. This is happening despite people living longer and infant mortality rates dropping. According to an estimate from the United Nations, population will start falling once it peaks at 9.2 billion in 2075 – so there is every prospect of feeding the world forever. After all, there are already seven billion people on earth and they are eating better and better every decade. (Readers Digest 04/12 pg. 152) See – isn’t it nice to get some good news for a change!
9) The Good Old Days Weren’t Some people argue that in the past there was simplicity, tranquility, sociability and spirituality that’s now been lost. This rose-tinted nostalgia is generally confined to the wealthy. It’s easier to wax elegiac for the life of a pioneer when you don’t have to use the outhouse. The biggest-ever experiment in back-to-the-land hippie lifestyle is now known as the Dark Ages. (Readers Digest 04/12 pg. 152)
8) More Farm Production = More Wilderness While world population has increased more than fourfold since 1900, other things have increased too-the area of crops by 30 percent, harvest by 600 percent. At the same time, more than two billion acres of “secondary” tropical forest are now regrowing since farmers left them to head for the cities, and it is already rich in biodiversity. In fact, I will make an outrageous prediction; The world will feed itself to a higher and higher standard throughout this century without plowing any new land. (Readers Digest 04/12 pg. 152)
7) Global Trade Enriches our Lives By 9 a.m., I have shaved with an American razor, eaten bread made with French wheat and spread with New Zealand butter and Spanish marmalade, brewed tea from Sri Lanka, dressed in clothes made from Indian cotton and Australian wool, put on shoes of Chinese leather and Malaysian rubber, and read a newspaper printed on Finnish paper with Chinese ink. I have consumed minuscule fractions of the productive labor of hundreds of people. This is the magic of trade and specialization. Self-sufficiency is poverty. (Readers Digest, 04/12 pg.152)
6) Shopping Fuels Innovation Even allowing for the many people who still in abject poverty, our own generation has access to more calories, watts, horsepower, gigabytes, megahertz, square feet, air miles, food per acre, miles per gallon, and of course, money than any who lived before us. This will continue as long as we use these things to make other things. The more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be. (Readers Digest 04/12, pg 152)