This week the PARIS OF THE SOUTH RADIO HOUR invite you to listen to two programs from RFI (Radio France International)
OVERPOPULATION .Human births exceed deaths by about 75 million each year, with an annual increase of 3 million in the usa. No other large animal comes close to our level of growth. As of 2008 there are over 6.6 billion people on earth. That number could double by the year 2100 if people don’t prioritize balance over “personal “decisions. As our numbers grow, other species’s decline.
1/ French bees take refuge in Paris
While bees all over the world are dying in hoards, hives are sprouting up on Paris’s rooftops, balconies, parks and gardens. Fewer pesticides and a wider variety of plants and trees are helping bee colonies thrive in the French capital. Rendezvous visits a teaching apiary run by the Central Apiculture Society and looks at the “Bee, sentinel of the environment” programme which encourages urban bee- keeping. Both remind us that bees are as crucial as sun and rain in ensuring our food supply!
AIDS WORLD DAY / A discussion of population growth must now include a consideration of HIV/AIDS. This problem is most dramatic in Africa, but is a growing problem in many other parts of the world. In some of the African countries, more than 20% of the adult population is infected. Death rates are going up. In these areas the HIV/AIDS is creating a great number of orphans.
2/ The 2008 winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine
Two French scientists, Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, were this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. They won the award for their discovery 25 years ago of the virus that causes AIDS. They talk to Voices about that discovery and how it changed their lives. They are also both keen to point out that in the absence of a vaccine or a cure, more still needs to be done to prevent the spread of the disease.
