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I think this email from David Simmons sums up the experience we are heading for in the following week :
As we prepare to leave, a few thoughts...... When it is 6am in Hanoi, it will be 7pm in Washington DC; when it is 39C in Dubai, it will be 15C in Cape Town. The USA"s GDP is 13,843,825,000,000 USD; Ghana"s is 14,863,000 USD. China"s population is 1,324,201,000; the population of all the states comprising the UAE is 4,380,000. It is estimated that UAE has 97.8 billion barrels of oil; China has 18.3. In Japan you can expect to live to be 82.02 years; in Russia 65.87; in South Africa the average life expectancy is 49.3 years. More doctors are trained per head of the population in Cuba than anywhere else on the planet. Under-five mortality rate (deaths/1,000 live births) is 180.6 in Burkina Faso, 31.6 in Turkey, 29.1 in Brazil, 23.2 in Vietnam, and 4.2 in Japan. The UAE produced 37.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in 2004; the USA 20.4, Brazil 1.8, Vietnam 1.18 and Ghana 0.33. Just to put the IBE in perspective. By a rough calculation we will, collectively, be flying more than 3.5 million kilometres or, to put it another way, roughly 5 return trips to the moon. Some thought - some carbon emission!
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