Steve
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| From: | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
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| Subject: | NPG Population News Update 2-22-02 |
| To: | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
*** NPG Population News Update ***
--Growth Remains Coloradans Top Issue-- Colorado residents number one issue of concern remains growth, according to a new poll. Fifty-two percent of Coloradans cited growth as the most important issue facing the state, more than double the number of voters who cited education or the economy (the numbers two and three issues, respectively). Sixty-four percent of Coloradans said lawmakers have not done enough to control growth, and 61 percent believe that a citizen ballot initiative is the only way to get effective action taken. The poll was commissioned by the Colorado Environmental Coalition and conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Talmey-Drake Research and Strategy earlier this month. The findings mirror the results of a poll commissioned by NPG last year. Those results are available on our web site, at http://www.npg.org/poll0301/CO_ NPG_Survey.html . NPG’s report “Colorado's Population in 2050: A Road Paved With Good Intentions” is online at http://www.npg.org/poll0301/Colorado.pdf . --Schools Going Year-Round to Ease Overcrowding-- The Chicago Tribune reported this week that a growing number of schools are switching to year-round schedules in an effort to avoid building new schools to accommodate their ballooning enrollments. “Rather than spend the $15 million or so that it costs to build a new school, administrators in those schools have tinkered with their calendars and staggered vacations so that classrooms are seldom empty,” writes the paper. “While one group of students and their teachers are off on break, another group, the ‘rovers,’ moves into their classrooms until the vacationers return.” “Rovers” are nomadic classes that bounce from room to room. Teachers say the monthly disruptions use up valuable instruction time and distract students. “This is not a choice you would want to make unless you had to,” said principal Marjorie Joy of Chicago’s Lee School, which will have to create rover teachers and students next year because of overcrowding --Overcrowded Schools May Lead to Unhealthy Eating Habits-- School overcrowding may be linked to unhealthy eating, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported on Tuesday. When schools are overcrowded, cafeteria lunch lines can be so long that students often don’t have time to get their food and eat. One student told the newspaper that she usually found herself just paying for her food when the bell rang for her next class, and she would have to throw the food away. Now she gets lunch from whatever she can find in the vending machines instead. Some students have given up on trying to eat at school at all, especially if their lunch period falls during an od d part of the day. At some Florida schools, lunch starts as early as 10 a.m. to accommodate overcrowding. --Florida Tap Water Costs to Double in 10-15 Years-- Florida state water officials says that the Floridian’s monthly tap water costs could double in the next ten to 15 years, as it becomes an increasingly precious commodity. “Our greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century will be water, both quantity and quality,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman told a University of Central Florida conference on water resources last week. Florida draws most of its water supply from an underground aquifer. But population growth, drained wetlands, farming, and drought have taxed the supply. About 800 new people arrive in Florida each day. --What You Can Do-- Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, drawing the connection between population growth and problems like school overcrowding, water shortages, and hab itat destruction. For information to use in your letter, visit www.npg.org. _____________________________________________________________________ NPG Population-News Listserv www.npg.org To unsubscribe from this list, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and type "unsubscribe population-news" in the body of the email. ____________________________________________________________________
-- http://magma.ca/~gpco/ http://www.scientists4pr.org/ Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.—Kenneth Boulding
