How can we feed 9 billion?

The world’s population is set to soar in the coming decades – but food   supplies are already under pressure. Meanwhile, Britain and Europe have   turned their backs on a great agricultural revolution.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8258167/How-can-we-feed-9-billion.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The US-China power balance

Talks between US President Barack Obama and Chinese
President Hu Jintao are being billed as the most important meeting between the
two countries for 30 years. It comes at a time when relations have been strained
by issues such as the trade imbalance and China's growing military might.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12224578?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

On the map

Until recently, what is often billed as one of Africa's largest slums
- Kibera, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi - was a blank spot on official maps. But
a group of volunteers have been training young people living there to create
their own digital map of the area.


The result is the first complete map of Kibera, which it is hoped can form
the basis of plans to improve the area and the lives of its residents

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12164081?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The population explosion

This year, there will be 7 billion people on Earth. But how will the planet will cope with the expanding population – and is there anything we can, or should, do to stop it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/population-explosion-seven-billion

Brisbane floods: the submerged city in pictures

The Brisbane river peaked at 4.46 metres, just short of record levels. The city centre and several suburbs have been inundated with floodwater with more than 100,000 homes without power.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jan/13/australia-natural-disasters

Brazil landslides' death toll climbs as rescue teams dig for survivors

Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, is due to visit a string of mountain towns devastated by floods and landslides, as the death toll from the disaster reached at least 361.

Heavy rains on Tuesday night triggered some of the deadliest landslides in Brazilian history, sending mud sweeping through three towns and burying entire families as they slept.

In Teresópolis, a small town about 60 miles from Rio de Janeiro, 146 deaths have been confirmed, but local authorities expect that figure to rise.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/13/brazil-landslides-death-toll-rises

J Henry Fair: Abstraction of Destruction

Abstraction of Destruction is an exhibition showcasing J Henry Fair's images of environmental degradation, most of them taken out of planes at 1,000 feet. From oil refineries to paper mills and the oil-slicked Gulf of Mexico to the ravaged West Virginia mountaintops, the pictures appear in his recent book, The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis. The exhibition is running at the Gerald Peters Gallery in New York

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2011/jan/13/abstraction-destruction-in-pictures#/?picture=370558414&index=0