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2006 RICHARD PRINCE, JOURNAL-ISMS - Increase in Latinos, Asians "The percentage of minorities in TV news rose a full point in the past year. At 22.2 percent, it's the highest level we've ever recorded in the survey," Bob Papper wrote as the Radio-Television News Directors Association released its annual RTNDA/Ball State University Annual Survey. . . "The growth came almost entirely from an increase in Hispanics (up 0.9 percent) and Asian Americans (up 0.8 percent). Native Americans edged up by 0.2 percent, and all of those increases more than offset a 0.8 percent drop in African Americans." However, the survey said, "The percentage of minorities in radio news dropped to its lowest level ever recorded in the survey: 6.4 percent. Blacks and Asian Americans actually recorded gains, but Native Americans fell, and Hispanics plummeted." http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/060706_prince/ 2005     2004 TV LOSING YOUNG MEN TO INTERNET AND OTHER THINGS JOHN SCHWARTZ, NY TIMES - The television industry was shaken last October when the ratings from Nielsen Media Research showed that a huge part of a highly prized slice of the American population was watching less television. As the fall TV season began, viewership among men from 18 to 34 fell 12 percent compared with the year before, Nielsen reported. And for the youngest group of adult men, those 18 to 24, the decline was a steeper 20 percent.. . . The so-called missing men might be more aptly called the missing guys, and they are doing what guys do: playing games, obsessing over sports and girls, and hanging out with buddies - often online. . . While no one activity is enough to account for the drop that Nielsen reported, all of them together create a vast cloud of diversion that has drawn men inexorably away from television. JOHN DOYLE, GLOBE AND MAIL, CANADA - This TV season, viewership for NBC is down 9 per cent, for CBS it's down 3 per cent, ABC is down 5 per cent and Fox isn't down at all, but it isn't growing either. In fact Fox can thank a handful of avidly watched baseball games for its holding-steady starts. . . What is grabbing viewers on network TV these days is one-shot reality shows. Fox found salvation in The Simple Life and NBC got a boost with the surprise success of The Apprentice. That's nice if you're a junkie for a ratings hit, but it also means that the economics of television are buggered. Most TV series, even hits such as Friends or Will & Grace, initially lose money. The profit is made in second-run airings and the pot of gold is in syndication. Nobody is going to be watching Survivor in syndication or the umpteenth edition of The Bachelor in 10 years time. And they won't be buying a DVD set of The Apprentice for $60 at Blockbuster. That revenue stream is nonexistent. The result is the end of long-term stability in the TV racket. 2003 TV VIEWERSHIP DIFFERENT THAN MANY BELIEVE STEVE JOHNSON AND JOHN COOK, CHICAGO TRIBUNE - At 6 p.m. weekdays in the Chicago area, the audience for all the national cable news programs combined can't equal the viewership of PBS' stodgy old "News Hour." Way up ahead, like an Olympic miler facing a Sunday jogger, are the numbers that the local news stations draw at the same time, or that the national newscasts do in the preceding half-hour. The same is true at 7 p.m., where WTTW-Ch. 11's newsmagazine "Chicago Tonight" not only kicks Bill O'Reilly's booty but that of all the national cable channels combined. The most popular evening cable program is O'Reilly's hour of argument at 7 p.m., with 36,250 average viewers over the last four major sweeps months. By contrast, the least popular broadcast news program after 6 p.m. is WMAQ-Ch. 5's "NBC 5 Chicago News at 6," with 186,000 viewers. The least popular evening cable program is CLTV's "Chicagoland News at 6:30," with 3,000. That last is not a misprint: 3,000 viewers, the student population of one midsize high school, in a market with 3.4 million television homes, 68 percent of which are wired for cable. But the schedule for CLTV (part of Tribune Publishing) is not alone in being full of sub-10,000 audiences. CNBC and MSNBC don't do much better here. CNBC shows "The News With Brian Williams" at 6 p.m. nightly, a solid informational hour drawing on the resources of NBC News and anchored by the anointed heir to Tom Brokaw at the big network. All that firepower lures just 6,625 Chicagoans to the set. MSNBC's Chris Matthews, parodied endlessly on "Saturday Night Live"? Fewer than 10,000 viewers tune in for his "Hardball" (in any of the time slots his show has aired during the periods surveyed here), which means his biggest audience, by far, is in comic imitation. CNN's Larry King, a broadcasting icon, talks to celebrities? 33,000 viewers. . . If you add up all the viewers for cable news programming between 6-10 p.m., it is significant, more than 250,000 people, just about what the distant third-place newscast of CBS-owned WBBM draws at 10 p.m. Microsoft estimates that more than 80 percent of the 2.5 billion e-mail messages sent each day to Hotmail users are spam - NY TIMES TELEVISION AND CHILDREN Children spend so many hours watching television, playing video games and the like, that media use could qualify as their full-time job, a recent study shows. The Kaiser Family Foundations found that the typical American child spends more than 38 hours a week as a "media consumer" in a home that averages 3 TVs, 3 tape players, 3 radios, 2 VCRs, 2 CD players, a video game player and a computer, as well as newspapers, magazines and comic books. Children are less likely to live in a home with just one television than in a house with five or more.   || MEDIA REFORM INFORMATION CENTER - In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" - controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation. MORE - Number of times 'South Park'
used the word 'shit' in one episode: 162 Percent of TV viewers who said
they watched commercials in 1985: 33% Percent of most popular G or
PG movies that feature alcohol: 76% Tobacco: 79% Drugs: 0% Percent of children 12-18 who have a TV in their bedroom: 53% [Kaiser Family Foundation] -- Number of radio stations owned
by top 50 firms in 1996: c.800 -- Percent of Americans with
Internet access: 56% Number of people using the Internet in 1993: 3 million. In 1998: 100 million. [California Voter Foundation] Percent of California voters who use e-mail: 42%.
Percent of junior and senior high schools that require students to watch the commercial program, Channel One: 40% [Center for Commercial-Free Education, Yes! Magazine] Only 15% of the public says that working in the is a high prestige occupation. That's below entertainers, bankers, union leaders and accountants. Top profession: doctor. 61% said being one had high prestige. [Harris Poll] The number of Americans who get some of their news from the I-Net has tripled in the past year to 36 million. Political talk radio, on the other hand, is reaching only 13% of Americans as compared with 23% in 1993. [Pew Research Center] Number of hours of TV watched by adults and teenagers down 14% since 1997. Total hours watched daily by adult women 4.5 hours, adult men, 3.8 hours, teenagers, 2.5 hours. [Nielsen, TV Free America] Percent of Washington reporters who voted for Bill Clinton in 1992: 89%. Percent who call themselves "liberal" or "moderate to liberal:" 61% [Roper Center] Percent of local television news content that is devoted to crime: 30%. To education: 2%. To race relations: 1% [Consortium for Local Television Surveys, Northwestern University] Percent of those 55-64 who read newspapers: 70%. Percent of those 18-24: 45%. [NYT] Percent of Americans on-line: 23%. Percent on-line a year and a half ago: 10%. Number of Americans on-line: 51 million [Neilsen Media Research and Intelliquest] Percent of Americans who say they watch the evening network news regularly: 40%. Percent who said so in 1993: 60% [LA Times] Average sentence length of a New York Times bestseller in 1936: 22.8 words. In 1996: 16.55 words. Average percent of book with dialogue in 1936: 25%. In 1996: 35%. [Nation] Percentage of Channel One newscasts (broadcast in millions of high school classrooms) that is devoted to recent political, economic, social and cultural stories: 20%. Percent of black news sources who are athletes: 42%. Prisoners: 13%. [William Hoynes of Vassar College for FAIR] Number of hours of television a young American has seen by the age of 15: 18,000. Number of hours spent in school: 11,000. [Rainbow Coalition] BACK TO TOP  URBAN GROWTH  THAN TOTAL POPULATION OF ALL BUT 15 U.S. CITIES [In 100 AD the largest city was Rome with 450,000. In 1500 the largest city was Beijing with 672,000. In 1800 the largest city was Beijing with 1.1 million. It was not only 1825 that any city - London - hit 5 million. No city exceeded 10 million until 1925 (New York) and Tokyo became the first city over 20 million in 1965. The global urban population reached 2.9 billion in 2000 and is expected to rise to 5 billion by 2030, according to the United Nations Population Division. While 30 percent of the world population lived in urban areas in 1950, the proportion of urban dwellers rose to 47 percent by 2000 and is projected to attain 60 percent by 2030. ENCARTA -
The early United States was predominately rural. According to
the 1790 census, 95 percent of the population lived in the countryside.
The 5 percent of Americans living in urban areas (places with
more than 2,500 persons) lived mostly in small villages. Only
Philadelphia, New York, and Boston had more than 15,000 inhabitants.
The South was almost completely rural. After 1830 the urban areas
of the country grew more rapidly than the rural areas. By 1890
industrialization had produced substantial growth in cities,
and 35 percent of Americans lived in urban areas, mostly in the
northern half of the United States. The South remained rural,
except for New Orleans and a few smaller cities. The number of
Americans living in cities did not surpass the number in rural
areas until 1920. By the 1990s three out of four Americans lived
in an urban setting, and since World War II the southern half
of the country has become increasingly urbanized, particularly
in Texas, Arizona, and the states along the eastern seaboard.]   [Noteworthy Trends of 2006 from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program] - For the first time in 2005 there are more poor residents of suburbs than central cities. - More than one-third of the nation's loss of manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2005 occurred in seven Great Lakes states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. - America's older, inner-ring first suburbs make up 20 percent of the nation's population and are more diverse and older than the nation as a whole. - The average U.S. household spends 19 percent of its budget on transportation, rendering household location a key component of housing affordability. Nationwide, more than 4.2 million lower income homeowners pay a higher than average APR for their mortgage. - The leading refugee destination metro areas have shifted away from traditional immigrant gateways, like New York and Los Angeles, over the past two decades to newer gateways - such as Atlanta, Seattle, and Portland. - The fastest growing metropolitan areas for minority populations from 2000 to 2004 now closely parallel the fastest growing areas in the nation. - Middle-income neighborhoods as a proportion of all metropolitan neighborhoods declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000, disappearing faster than the share of middle class households in these metro areas. http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/ NY TIMES - Once again, the fastest-growing cities in the United States are some of the far-flung exurbs in the Sun Belt and the Far West, according to fresh population estimates from the Census Bureau. The bureau's annual survey of municipalities with at least 100,000 residents shows that from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2005, four outer suburbs in California, three in Florida, two in Arizona and one in Nevada were the country's most rapidly growing. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/us/21cities.html?_r=1&oref=login THE VALUE OF LOCAL BUSINESS RICHARD LAYMAN, Washington planner/blogger passes on some striking stats from Julie Glover of the Denton, Texas Main Street program - 6 cents of every dollar spent with a big box retailer is retained or recirculated in a community. [Rocky Mountain Institute] - 20 cents of every dollar spent with a chain store is retained or recirculated in a community. [Small Business Administration] - 60 cents of every dollar spent with a sole proprietorship is retained or recirculated in a community. [Small Business Administration] Add to this the fact that the urban rich spend far more of their money outside of their city compared to the poor and middle class and you begin to see how misleading current talk about urban renaissances can be. This is a point your editor has been making for over 40 years: it's not the economy but what happens to the money afterwards. http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com AMOUNT SPENT PER RESIDENT
New Haven, $745 [Jonathan Finer, Washington Post] Based on an Allstate study of average years between driver collisions TOP 10 SAFEST CITIES 1. Cedar Rapids, 15
years CITIES ABOVE 500,000 1. Milwaukee, 11.5
years CITIES ABOVE 1 MILLION 1. Phoenix, 10 years Providence/New Bedford 46% Milwaukee 45% Hartford/New Haven 44% Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 44% Minneapolis/St. Paul 42% Rochester 42% Philadelphia 42% Syracuse 42% Pittsburgh 41%   TEN FASTEST GROWING CITIES Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the growth of the Hispanic civilian work force over the past 10 years is far greater than the non-Hispanic white labor force. During the same period, starting from a slightly smaller base, the Hispanic labor force has grown by more than three times the amount of the black labor force. The BLS figures show the white work force grew by 5.1 million (5 percent gain) from 1992 to 2002, the black work force increased by 2.1 million (almost a 16 percent gain), while the Hispanic work force grew by 6.6 million (a jump of more than 58 percent). At the close of 2002, the white work force stood at over 103 million, the Hispanic work force at 18 million, while blacks held 16 million jobs. [Washington Times] MEANEST CITIES FOR THE HOMELESS 1. Las Vegas Meanest States 1. California In Milwaukee, a church has been declared a public nuisance for feeding homeless people and allowing them to sleep there. In Gainesville, police threatened University of Florida students with arrest if they did not stop serving meals to homeless people in a public park. In Santa Barbara, it is illegal to lean against the front of a building or store, and no one can park a motor home on the street in one place for more than two hours. These ordinances and activities
demonstrate the increasingly hostile attitude in the United States
toward people who are homeless, according to a report by the
National Coalition for the Homeless. Cities are attempting to
make it illegal to perform life-sustaining activities in public,
while at the same time refusing to allocate sufficient funds
to address the causes of homelessness. RANKING TABLES The Census has ranking tables comparing states, counties, and places for poverty levels, educational attainment, median income, foreign born population, housing costs and other measures. Included:
DC FISCAL POLICY INSTITUTE  PERCENT OF RESIDENTS 25 OR OLDER WITH AT LEAST A BACHELOR'S DEGREE  NEARLY HALF OF NYC BLACK MEN FOUND JOBLESS JANNY SCOTT, NY TIMES - Mark Levitan, the report's author, found that just 51.8 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 held jobs in New York City in 2003. The rate for white men was 75.7 percent; for Hispanic men, 65.7; and for black women, 57.1. The employment- population ratio for black men was the lowest for the period Mr. Levitan has studied, which goes back to 1979. STUDY RANKS AMERICA'S MOST AND LEAST STRESSFUL CITIES MORE THAN HALF OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY IS FOREIGN BORN MATTHEW WAITE, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES - Florida's largest county is the only county in the country where more than half the residents are foreign-born, according to a U.S. Census Bureau survey released today. Miami-Dade's foreign-born residents account for 51.4 percent of its population of 2.3-million. That tops counties in larger metro areas, such as Queens and Kings counties in New York, and San Francisco and Los Angeles counties in California. . . "It's an extraordinary thing that's happened," University of Miami professor Thomas Boswell said Tuesday. Every school day, 3,000 secondary students in the United States drop out. Once the 2003-2004 school year gets under way, nearly 540,000 young people will walk away from the classroom without earning a high school diploma. The nation's high school graduation rate is 69 percent, although the number is worse in urban areas where school districts graduate fewer than half of their students. Those who continue on to college can find the going difficult. "About 40 percent of four-year college students and 63 percent of community college students are enrolling in remedial courses in reading, writing or math when they enter college," says Sen. Patty Murray, Washington Democrat. "And although approximately 70 percent of high school graduates enroll in college, only 7 percent from low-income families will have earned a bachelor's degree by age 24." [WASHINGTON TIMES] INCREASE IN HOUSING PRICES BY METRO AREA The Census has ranking tables comparing states, counties, and places for poverty levels, educational attainment, median income, foreign born population, housing costs and other measures. Included:
BAY AREA FAMILY OF 4 NEEDS MORE THAN $70,000 TO JUST GET BY RICK DELVECCHIO, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Bare-bones household costs for a two-income family of four in the Bay Area now top $70,000 a year, an increase of 14 percent since 2001, a new study has found. MEANEST CITIES FOR THE HOMELESS 1. Las Vegas Meanest States 1. California TEN FASTEST GROWING CITIES Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the growth of the Hispanic civilian work force over the past 10 years is far greater than the non-Hispanic white labor force. During the same period, starting from a slightly smaller base, the Hispanic labor force has grown by more than three times the amount of the black labor force. The BLS figures show the white work force grew by 5.1 million (5 percent gain) from 1992 to 2002, the black work force increased by 2.1 million (almost a 16 percent gain), while the Hispanic work force grew by 6.6 million (a jump of more than 58 percent). At the close of 2002, the white work force stood at over 103 million, the Hispanic work force at 18 million, while blacks held 16 million jobs. [Washington Times] THE MALLING OF AMERICA = ANDY SERWER, FORTUNE - In 1986 there were 28,496 shopping centers in the U.S., boasting 3.5 billion square feet of space. Today there are 46,438 malls and such with 5.8 billion square feet of space. . . The number of malls is growing faster than the number of babies. . . American households owe on average $8,940 on their credit cards, up 173% from 1992, when we had an average outstanding balance of $3,275.
 CNN 11 hours of annual traffic delay per person in the U.S. in 1982. 36 hours in 1999. 33 Percent of travel in U.S. urban areas that encounters traffic congestion. 6.8 Billions of extra gallons of gas used because of U.S. urban traffic in 1999. [Texas Transportation Institute] THE LIST 1. San Antonio, TX TIMOTHY EGAN, NEW YORK TIMES - Around the country, rural ghettos are unraveling in the same way that inner cities did in the 1960's and 70's, according to the officials and experts who have tried to make sense of a generations-old downward spiral in the countryside. In this view, decades of economic decline have produced a culture of dependency, with empty counties hooked on farm subsidies just as welfare mothers were said to be tied to their monthly checks. And just as in the cities, the hollowed-out economy has led to a frightening rise in crime and drug abuse. But unlike the cities' troubles, which generated a national debate about causes and solutions, the rural collapse has been largely silent, perhaps because it happened so slowly. . . Towns of 10,000 and 25,000 people are now the most likely places to experience a bank robbery. Drug-related homicides fell by 50% in urban areas, but they tripled over the last decade in the countryside. . . The 2000 census found that the percentage of people living below the poverty level is nearly 30% higher in rural areas than it is in cities. Of the 25 poorest counties in the nation, five are in Nebraska, five are in Texas and four are in South Dakota, the Commerce Department found. In Loup County, the dead center of Nebraska, per capita personal income is $6,606 per year, just 22% of the national average, according to a listing compiled by the Commerce Department. Most dangerous cities 1. Detroit Percent of English-speaking Asian-Americans
who use the Internet daily: 70% CHRIS KRAUL, LA TIMES - More than half of Latino immigrants in the United States are sending less money to their families back home since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a new study, which could have severe consequences for the region's economies that have come to rely on the informal cash transfers. The study, commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank and to be released today, confirms mounting anecdotal evidence that the deepening U.S. recession and rising unemployment is disproportionately affecting immigrants. Thus, they are sending less cash back to their homelands, a phenomenon some economists have characterized as a new form of foreign aid. The poll of 1,000 adults born in Latin America but who now reside in the United States found that 7% have lost their jobs since Sept. 11 and 26% have had their work hours reduced. More than half, or 56%, said they have cut back on the amount of their remittances. Although the study does not quantify the drop-off, Don Terry of the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank, said the reductions could be in the billions of dollars if the economic downturn persists. MORE Safest cities 1. Amherst NY [Morgan Quitno] Areas with the most vehicle-pedestrian fatalities Orlando LAURENT BELSIE, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: In several large cities across the United States, African-Americans are pulling out. Their out-migration is swelling suburbs, breaking down barriers, and building new ones. Although some observers call the movement "black flight," the trend suggests that African-Americans are finally treading the well-worn path of many American immigrants . . . The black exodus is most noticeable in California. Santa Ana, for example, saw its non-Hispanic black population drop by one-third - the biggest percentage decline of any of the nation's 100 largest cities. Of course, Santa Ana is so overwhelmingly Hispanic that its black population is minuscule. But the trend also holds true in other California cities with more sizable black populations: San Francisco (down 23 percent), Oakland (down 12 percent), and Los Angeles (down 12 percent). Of the top black-flight cities outside California, three lost a greater share of blacks than whites during the 1990s. Miami lost 2 percent of its non-Hispanic whites but 18 percent of its non-Hispanic blacks. The District of Columbia saw a 4 percent decline in non-Hispanic whites and a 14 percent drop in non-Hispanic blacks. Seattle actually gained whites during the 1990s but still saw a 9 percent drop in its non-Hispanic black population. MORE Were the New York metropolitan area a country, its $437.8 billion economy would rank 14th in the world, just behind South Korea, but ahead of Australia and Taiwan. In addition to New York, the
metropolitan areas of Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif. ($363.7
billion), and Chicago ($332.8 billion) would rank among the world's
top 20 economies were they countries, according to the study. The New York region included New York City and some northern suburbs, but Nassau and Suffolk Counties and Newark were counted separately. Of the 22.2 million jobs created
in 1990's, 84 percent were generated in metropolitan areas. Last
year, the average metropolitan area worker collected $38,000
in wages and benefits, compared with a non-metropolitan area
worker who earned $24,800. The income gap between metro and non-metro
workers has increased to $13,200 per worker from $4,600 in 1985. Percentage of those younger than 18 in most populous cities 1990 2000 San Francisco 16.1% 14.5% USA 25.6% 25.7% [Census, USA Today] UPI: Chicago likes to think of itself as a city of ethnic groups and immigrants. But a new study contends immigrants now bypass the city and head straight for its suburbs. The Fund for Immigrants and Refugees released a study contending 42 percent of the immigrants in the Chicago area live in suburbs, rather than the city. That is an increase from 34 percent in 1970. -- Number of trips taken by mass
transit in US last year: 9 billion Increase last years in requests to Philadelphia food banks: 22%. Increase in requests for shelter: 17% [Mayor Edward Rendell] -- Number of empty, buildable
lots in New York City: 14,000 * Number of middle-class blacks
leaving Los Angeles each month: 500 2007 EARTH'S TOP 10 WARMEST YEARS 1 - 2005 [NASA, USA Today]
 2006  FUEL CONSMPTION PROGRESS REPORT = America spends
$200,000 a minute on foreign oil. Sixty-five percent of oil consumed
in the United States comes from foreign sources, up from 58 percent
in 2000. Each year, more than $25 billion for oil imports goes
to Persian Gulf states. Over the last 30 years, oil market disruptions
have cost the economy seven trillion dollars. Last year, 58 percent
of Americans said that high gas prices in 2005 caused them "serious"
or "moderate" hardship. 2004 DEAD ZONES INCREASE EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE - Worldwide,
there are some 146 dead zones-areas of water that are too low
in dissolved oxygen to sustain life. Since the 1960s, the number
of dead zones has doubled each decade. Many are seasonal, but
some of the low-oxygen areas persist year-round.   ERIC MARGOLIS - Americans, who comprise only 5% of the world's population, account for a whopping 33% of total global sugar consumption - over 10 million tons annually. 2003   2002  FROM VITAL SIGNS 2002, PUBLISHED BY THE WORLD WATCH INSTITUTE HUMANS TAKE UP 83% OF EARTH'S SURFACE TO DO THEIR THING NY TIMES - The United States is losing two acres of mostly prime farmland every minute to development, the fastest such decline in the country's history, a new study has found. That loss has been on the edge of the outer suburbs, where some of the country's best fruit farms are being replaced by houses on large lots, linked by new roads, highways and malls, the study, by the American Farmland Trust, said. . . Using census data as well as Agriculture Department information about crops and soil, the study found that more than half of the lost farmland is being carved into 10-acre lots. Arkansas, New York, Illinois, Alabama and Mississippi top the list of states that have lost the greatest percentage of their best farmland in the last five years. CLIMATE CHANGE ALASKA: Permafrost thawing is causing the ground to subside 16-33 feet in parts of interior Alaska. The permafrost surface has warmed by about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1960's. All glaciers in Glacier National Park, Montana will be gone by 2070 if their retreat continues at its current rate. The current rate of the sea level rise in the Chesapeake Bay is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating 1999 -- Amount of LA surface that would need to be planted in trees in order to achieve a 4 degree drop in average summer temperatures: 5% -- Resultant drop in ozone levels: 10% -- Savings in cooling costs: $175 million annually [Newsweek] 2002 According to the 1997 Census of Agriculture, between 1987 and 1998, the number of dairy farms declined from 202,068 to 165,874. 2001 Chance that a processed food in a U.S. grocery store contains genetically modified ingredients: 1 in 2 [Harper's] Up to one-fifth of America's food goes to waste each year, an estimated 130 pounds of food per person. The annual value of this lost food is estimated at around $31 billion. Roughly 49 million people could be fed by those lost resources, more than twice the number of people in the world who die of starvation each year. [U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, "A Citizen's Guide to Food Recovery," 1999] 2000 Percent of Americans who think it is at least somewhat likely that genetically altered food will upset the balance of nature and damage the environment: 56% Percent of Americans who would
be less likely to buy food if they knew it was genetically modified:
57% 1999 -- Number of farmers in 1978
who listed farming as their primary occupation: 1.3 million --Number of acres, per year,
of farmland destroyed by development: 1 million -- Percent of farms that produce 72% of agricultural products: 7% -- Percent of farms that made a profit in 1996: 52% -- Food marketing system as a
percent of gross national product in 1972: 12% -- Animal and crop products as
a percent of food cost in 1951: 49% -- Increase in cost of seeds,
fertilizers and chemicals 1987-97: 86% - Number of farms in America,
1850: 1.4 million 2001 Air Pollution: Since 1970, aggregate air pollution emissions from all sources decreased 64 percent. Over the last 10 years alone, nine major cities that historically have had the worst air quality have reported decreases in the number of days reaching "unhealthful" thresholds on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Air Quality Index, ranging from a 57 percent decline to a 100 percent decline. Water Quality: Lake Erie was considered biologically dead in 1970, but today 98 percent of the Great Lakes' shoreline area has been declared fully safe for swimming and drinking. Urban Sprawl: Despite widespread media attention and public concern about "urban sprawl," only five percent of all U.S. land is developed. Pastureland, rural land, forestland, rangeland, cropland and federal land account for 93 percent of U.S. land today Toxic Emissions: Overall, there has been a 45 percent decline in toxic emissions since 1988, and the EPA continues to report a reduction of more than 1.5 billion pounds a year. SPECIES LOSS 1998 Species extinctions per day: 104 NUCLEAR 1999 -- Number of earthquakes over
the past 20 years in MISC 1999 Number of languages spoken in
the Peruvian Amazon during the period of early missionaries:
100-150 Items found by college student
Chad Pregracke and crew during a cleanup along the Mississippi
River between Grafton and Quincy IL: Number of miles of logging roads in the National Forest system: 370,000. Number of federal interstate systems that would fit into the forest road network: 8. Rank of Forest Service among Fortune 500 if it were a private corporation: in top five. In terms of revenues: 290th. In terms of net income from timber industry and other sources: Forest Service would be bankrupt. [Green Scissors]
HIGHEST TRANSIT RIDERSHIP IN HALF A CENTURY USA TODAY
- Ridership on public transportation jumped to the highest level
in nearly five decades in 2006 as high gas prices and expanded
bus and train service enticed people to park their cars. More
than 10 billion trips were taken on buses and rail lines last
year, the American Public Transportation Association says in
a report to be released today. That's up 2.9% from 2005 and the
highest level since 1957. Ridership rose three consecutive years
through 2006 and increased 28% in the 10 years since 1996. .
. 2006 TOP TEN SPEED TRAPS 1. Detroit, Mich. suburbs [National Motorists Assn] http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=836781 2005  2004 WALKING MORE DANGEROUS THAN
DRIVING STEVEN GINSBERG WASHINGTON POST - Walkers are far more likely to be killed in street accidents than are motorists, according to a report on pedestrian safety released yesterday. The report found that in 2001, the last year all data were available, the fatality rate per 100 million miles traveled for walkers was 20.1, compared with 1.3 for car and truck travelers. The "Mean Streets" report, a nationwide study released by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, [found that since] 1994, when the study first came out, to 2003, 51,989 pedestrians died. From the time of the first study period to the most recent, fatalities declined 12.8 percent USA TODAY - 3.4 million Americans endure a daily "extreme commute" of 90 minutes or more each way to work. They're among the fastest-growing segment of commuters, according to a Census study. Their commute times are more than triple the national average of 25.5 minutes each way. . . Extreme commuting is being driven by strong forces. And this year's surge in gasoline prices hasn't deterred people from driving longer distances to get to work. Workplace shifts make it easier to telecommute, use flextime or work part time. Accelerating prices for close-in housing push people farther from cities to find affordable homes. . . Surveys long ago established that 45 minutes is the threshold most commuters were willing to drive one way to work. But the number of Americans making commutes longer than that has grown steadily to more than 19 million, according to the Census. That's one in six commuters, up from one in eight in 1990. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-11-29-commute_x.htm THE LIST The 20 urban areas with heaviest traffic as measured by number of hours held up in rush hour traffic: Los Angeles 90 [Texas Transportation Institute] IT'S NOT ONLY WHAT YOU DRIVE There is a large difference in how many miles Americans drive based on their location. The ones with the most mileage are in Wyoming, where they drive an average of 21,800 miles annually. Alaskans drive the least: 9,900 miles a year. In 1984, Americans got an average of 21.8 miles to the gallon; today it is 20.8. In 1982 there were 0.96 vehicles for each driver; by 2002 there were 1.14. [Washington Post] [Your editor owns two cars but they are nine years old and have been driven an average of 4,600 miles a year] NYC, DC, SAN FRANCISCO, BOSTON TOP IN TRANSIT USE SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS JOURNAL - San Francisco is among the cities with the highest use of public transit, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Tuesday. San Francisco tied with Boston, where about 31 percent of workers commute on public transportation. The only U.S. cities with higher public transit use were New York, with 55 percent, and Washington, D.C., with 37 percent. One-third of the nation's 6.4 million people who travel to work on public transportation use systems in New York, according to the report. Of the approximately 6.4 million people nationwide who usually travel to work using public transportation, nearly one-third live in New York City, according to a new analysis of American Community Survey data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Chicago and Philadelphia each have 27 percent public transit usage among commuters. Newark, N.J. had 26 percent and Baltimore had 25 percent. Only one Los Angeles worker in eight uses public transportation, and in Houston, only 6 percent of workers use public transportation. Overall, 5 percent of the nation's 128.6 million workers use public transportation to get to work. Other survey highlights: Nationwide, 77 percent of workers drove alone to work, 10 percent carpooled and 2 percent walked. Bus transportation accounted for 55 percent of public transportation use nationally; subway or elevated rail use ranked second at 29 percent. WORST BOTTLENECKS IN THE COUNTRY KABC - The 24 worst highway bottlenecks, followed by the number of vehicles handled daily and annual hours of delay, according to a study by American Highway Users Alliance. Los Angeles - Ventura Freeway US-101 at I-405 interchange; 318,000 cars; 27,144,000 hours. Houston - I-610 at I-10 interchange; 295,000 cars; 25,181,000 hours. Chicago - I-90/94 at I-290 "Circle Interchange;" 293,671 cars; 25,068,000 hours. Phoenix - I-10 at SR-51/202 "Mini-Stack" interchange; 280,800 cars; 22,805,000 hours. Los Angeles - I-405 at I-10 interchange; 296,000 cars; 22,792,000 hours. Atlanta - I-75 at I-85 interchange; 259,128 cars; 21,045,000 hours. Washington, D.C. - I-495 at I-270 interchange; 243,425 cars; 19,429,000 hours. Los Angeles - I-10 at I-5 interchange; 318,500 cars; 18,606,000 hours. Los Angeles - I-405 at I-605 interchange; 318,000 cars; 18,606,000 hours. Atlanta - I-285 at I-85 "Spaghetti Junction" interchange; 266,000 cars; 17,072,000 hours. Chicago - I-94 at I-90 interchange; 260,403 cars; 16,713,000 hours. Phoenix - I-17 at I-10 "the Stack" interchange to Cactus Road; 208,000 cars; 16,310,000 hours. Los Angeles - I-5 at SR-22/57 "Orange Crush" interchange; 308,000 cars; 16,304,000 hours. Providence, R.I. - I-95 at I-195 interchange; 256,000 cars; 15,340,000 hours. Washington, D.C. - I-495 at I-95 interchange; 185,125 cars; 15,035,000 hours. Tampa, Fla. - I-275 at I-4 "Malfunction Junction" interchange; 201,500 cars; 14,371,000 hours. Atlanta - I-285 and I-75 interchange; 239,193 cars; 14,333,000 hours. Seattle - I-5 and I-90 interchange; 301,112 cars; 14,306,000 hours. Chicago - I-290 Eisenhower Expressway between exits 17b and 23a; 200,441 cars; 14,009,000 hours. Houston - I-45 Gulf Freeway at US-59 interchange; 250,299 cars; 13,944,000 hours. San Jose, Calif. - US-101 at I-880 interchange; 244,000 cars; 12,249,000 hours. Las Vegas - US-95 at I-15 "Spaghetti Bowl" interchange; 190,600 cars; 11,152,000 hours. San Diego - I-805 at I-15 interchange; 238,000 cars; 10,992,000 hours. Cincinnati - I-75 from Ohio River Bridge to I-71 interchange; 136,013 cars; 10,088,000 hours.  ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEW ORLEANS - Although ridership is at a 32-year peak, Amtrak is still not entirely safe from calls to dismantle the passenger rail company, Amtrak's head says. "It's a lot easier to defend full trains," Amtrak president David Gunn said Wednesday during a visit to New Orleans. But there will always be those on Capitol Hill who think the trains are an unnecessary luxury in the federal budget, Gunn said. . . New Orleans is served by the Crescent, which travels daily to New York through Washington; the City of New Orleans, which makes daily trips to Chicago; and the Sunset Limited, which runs between Los Angeles and Orlando. All three long-distance lines saw substantial increases in ridership over the past year, and the City of New Orleans posted some of Amtrak's greatest gains, boosting ridership by 15 percent. Last year, 24 million passengers rode an Amtrak train, up 2.7 percent compared to the previous year and topping the company's 2001 record of 23.5 million passengers. 2003 THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT spends between 30 and 40 billion dollars on surface transportation each year. How those dollars are spent and the impact it can have on minorities and their communities is the subject of a new report by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University and the Center for Community Change. Among the findings: - Greater dependency on public transit makes low-income and minority communities more susceptible to the negative effects of governmental financial and political support of highway systems over public transportation needs. - The vast majority of Americans rely on cars to meet their transportation needs, but minorities are less likely to own a car. Only 7% of white households own no cars whereas 24% of African American households, 17% of Latino Households, and 13% of Asian households own no cars. In urban areas, African Americans and Latinos comprise 54% of public transportation users. - Transportation policies encouraging travel by car and highway development have an inequitable effect on the finances of minority and low-income individuals with those in the lowest fifth of income earners spending 36% of their household budget on transportation compared with those in the highest fifth income spending 14% THE LIST The 10 Most Drivable Cities 1. Corpus Christi, TX The 10 Least Drivable Cities 1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Average vehicle maintenance costs nationwide ||| MOST EXPENSIVE San Francisco, CA 6.79 cents-per-mile ||| LEAST EXPENSIVE Bismarck, ND 3.56 cents-per-mile The cents-per-mile maintenance costs shown above are based on a typical intermediate-size vehicle represented by the 2003 Ford Taurus SEL sedan driven 15,000 miles per year and retained for 4 years. THE LIST Arizona 66% U.S. Total 38%
 2002 NATIONALLY, TRAVEL on interstates and other federal highways increased 38% from 1990 to 2000, from 606 billion annual vehicle miles to 839 billion. Over the same period, the total number of freeway lane miles grew just 8%, from 232,436 miles to 250,315. . . At the same time, the amount of time people spend in traffic delays in urban areas is increasing. In Atlanta, the average commute to work increased to 31.2 minutes in 2000 from 26 minutes in 1990 Average number of daily vehicles
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