Green Options

This week at the CDC’s National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, the government agency will discuss whether to recommend routine circumcision for all baby boys to protect them from the disease.

Research is split on whether routinely cutting boys at birth will protect them from sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDs and HIV. Most research points to a decrease in diseases only in high-risk populations where such diseases are prevalent.

One of the groups lobbying against such a blanket recommendation is Intact America, a newly-formed group in the U.S. with the aim of lowering the circumcision rate.

But those who state simply that “circumcision prevents STDs” may need to get their facts straight.

By Lester R. Brown

In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds or tipping points in nature. In my latest book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, I state that scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger the collapse of a fishery.

We know there were social tipping points in earlier civilizations, points at which they were overwhelmed by the forces threatening them. For instance, at some point the irrigation-related salt buildup in their soil overwhelmed the capacity of the Sumerians to deal with it. With the Mayans, there came a time when the effects of cutting too many trees and the associated loss of topsoil were simply more than they could manage.

The social tipping points that lead to decline and collapse when societies are overwhelmed by a single threat or by simultaneous multiple threats are not always easily anticipated. As a general matter, more economically advanced countries can deal with new threats more effectively than developing countries can. For example, while governments of industrial countries have been able to hold HIV infection rates among adults under 1 percent, many developing-country governments have failed to do so and are now struggling with much higher infection rates. This is most evident in some southern African countries, where up to 20 percent or more of adults are infected.

A similar situation exists with population growth. While populations in nearly all industrial countries except the United States have stopped growing, rapid growth continues in nearly all the countries of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Nearly all of the 80 million people being added to world population each year are born in countries where natural support systems are already deteriorating in the face of excessive population pressure, in the countries least able to support them. In these countries, the risk of state failure is growing.

Scientists out of the University of Utah have created a new substance, heralded as a molecular condom, which blocks HIV from entering the vaginal tissue. HIV infection is a huge problem in Africa, and other impoverished areas, mostly because of a taboo or unavailability of condoms. The gel is meant to give woman a way to protect themselves from infection without any approval of their partner.

“This is important – particularly in resource-poor areas of the world like sub-Sahara Africa and south Asia where, in some age groups, as many as 60 percent of women already are infected with HIV. In these places, women often are not empowered to force their partners to wear a condom.” - Patrick Kiser, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Utah

For many years, scientists agreed that chimpanzees (and other animals) could not get anything like AIDS. New Research from Dr. Beatrice Hahn at the University of Alabama changes all of that.

Dr. Hahn and others released a report last week showing that chimpanzees can get an AIDS-like illness.

Oh, I’ve heard many reasons why we should circumcise a baby boy. Some of the popular ones are:

I want him to look like me.
He’ll be a freak in the locker room.
You have to.  Boys who aren’t circumcised are dirty.

Jennifer’s post last week, WTF? Baby Boys’ Circumcised Foreskins Used for Wrinkle Treatment made me laugh out loud.  Mostly it was her shock at upcycling foreskins.

As I commented on that blog, I’d already known they “reused” foreskins.  My sister had been involved with a skin grafting on a foot that used those circumcised scraps. If feet and penises combined for life aren’t your idea of fun, perhaps you’ve already hopped on the no-circumcise bandwagon.

Still not sure? Here are 11 Reasons to Avoid Circumcising Your Son…

In spite of the sweltering heat, smallholder farmers in this border district of Zimbabwe can cheer about the black-eyed beans. The beans – a new crop in the area - are small, creamy white, with a black mark at the sprouting point, making them easy to recognize.

From the way they cook to the way they sell, black-eyed beans have proved a big hit among the small farmers in this district, traditionally known for growing maize, groundnuts, cotton and sunflowers.

In 2002, USAID’s Linkages for the Economic Advancement of the Disadvantaged (LEAD Program) sub-contracted VeCO, a non-governmental organization, to provide 1,250 farmers with the necessary extension support services, skills and resources to produce both black-eyed beans and Macia sorghum, crops which are drought tolerant. The overall objective was to reduce food insecurity, improve food intake with a new edible crop, and provide a new source of income for poor smallholders in drought prone regions.

Nyarai Njenge, 35, one of the beneficiary farmers, did not know anything about black-eyed beans prior to 2002. But, now, as most of the beneficiary farmers, she knowledgeably recounts the nutritional, income and food security benefits of the crop.

Cida University is the first virtually free university in South Africa. Located in downtown Johannesburg, it serves young people from previously disadvantage backgrounds, but who are academically deserving. It offers a Bachelor of Business Administration and students can learn skills like bio-intensive farming.

This university has a special program, called the Nelson Mandela extranet. In this program, Students go back to their communities and teach them about HIV/AIDS , bio-intensive farming, and money management. Remembering your ancestors and going back to the community to raise the consciousness level of the society is a fundamental principle of ethical leadership.