The Lifeboat4 Network
Using ships and boats to reach those in need
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...australia
...bahrain
...cambodia
...canada
...croatia
...faroe islands
...france
...germany
...iceland
...india
...ireland
...madagascar
...malawi
...malaysia
...malta
...mauritius
...namibia
...nederland
...new zealand
...paraguay
...reunion
...seychelles
...singapore
...south africa
...south korea
...sri lanka
...switzerland
...thailand
...uae
...united kingdom
...united states
...ukraine
...zambia

 

Description

 

Friends in Places: Places that those serving with Lifeboat4 personaly impacted and where they had a meaningful time of interaction establishing an ongoing friendship with someone living in the specified location.

 

Planet Earth - Background

 

Globally, the 20th century was marked by: (a) two devastating world wars; (b) the Great Depression of the 1930s; (c) the end of vast colonial empires; (d) rapid advances in science and technology, from the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (US) to the landing on the moon; (e) the Cold War between the Western alliance and the Warsaw Pact nations; (f) a sharp rise in living standards in North America, Europe, and Japan; (g) increased concerns about the environment, including loss of forests, shortages of energy and water, the decline in biological diversity, and air pollution; (h) the onset of the AIDS epidemic; and (i) the ultimate emergence of the US as the only world superpower. The planet's population continues to explode: from 1 billion in 1820, to 2 billion in 1930, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1988, and 6 billion in 2000. For the 21st century, the continued exponential growth in science and technology raises both hopes (e.g., advances in medicine) and fears (e.g., development of even more lethal weapons of war).

 

The People

 

Earth's Elevation Extremes

Lowest point: Bentley Subglacial Trench -2,540 m


Note: In the oceanic realm, Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the lowest point, lying -10,924 m below the surface of the Pacific Ocean


Highest point: Mount Everest 8,850 m

 

Coatline: 356,000 km at sea level

Population

6,602,224,175 (July 2007 est.)

Age structure

0-14 years: 27.4% (male 931,551,498/female 875,646,416)
15-64 years: 65.1% (male 2,174,605,518/female 2,124,494,703)
65 years and over: 7.5% (male 217,451,123/female 278,474,917) (2007 est.)

Life expectancy at birthtotal population: 65.82 years
male: 63.89 years
female: 67.84 years (2007 est.)

Birth rate

20.09 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)
Death rate8.37 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)
ReligionsChristians 33.03% (of which Roman Catholics 17.33%, Protestants 5.8%, Orthodox 3.42%, Anglicans 1.23%), Muslims 20.12%, Hindus 13.34%, Buddhists 5.89%, Sikhs 0.39%, Jews 0.23%, other religions 12.61%, non-religious 12.03%, atheists 2.36% (2004 est.)
Unemployment rate30% combined unemployment and underemployment in many non-industrialized countries; developed countries typically 4%-12% unemployment (2006 est.)
Refugees and internally displaced personsThe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that in December 2005 there was a global population of 8.4 million registered refugees, the lowest number in 26 years, and as many as 23.7 million IDPs in more than 50 countries; the actual global population of refugees is probably closer to 10 million given the estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees displaced throughout the Middle East (2006)

 

Data (Background & The People) provided by The World Factbook