By lancefreeman76 April 5, 2010 Americans, I have some bad news for you: You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin. If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in […]
By Sean O’Grady, Economics EditorThursday, 18 November 2010 A food crisis could overtake the world in 2011, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an agency of the United Nations. Climate change, speculation, competing uses such as biofuels and soaring demand from emerging markets in East Asia are the factors that will push global food […]
Pest infestations are on the rise as cash-strapped councils phase out free extermination services By Emily DuganSunday, 21 November 2010 They spread disease, feast on our blood and destroy our clothes. And their numbers are soaring. Britain’s populations of rats, mice, cockroaches, bedbugs, wasps and moths are growing, in some cases unchecked, as more local […]
By Jacob GoldsteinOctober 8, 2010 The recession ended more than a year ago, but the jobs picture is still very bleak. There are about 130 million non-farm jobs in this country, according to the employment numbers out this morning. That’s down from nearly 138 million in December of ’07, when the recession began. Those job […]
Geneva (AFP) Nov 3, 2010 – The United Nations on Wednesday launched an appeal for 38.9 million dollars in aid for 120,000 people struck by a five year drought in the east African state of Djibouti. United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said many people were unable to feed their families, leaving one […]
By Megha Sandhu, TNNOct 23, 2010, 03.57am IST LEH: As an unforgiving winter waits to descend on the mountainous desert of Ladakh, its people face the grim possibility of spending the bitter months without a proper roof on their heads. Having suffered due to the August cloudburst, residents of Leh’s many villages have been banking […]
Paris (AFP) Oct 20, 2010 – South Asia is the world’s most climate-vulnerable region, its fast-growing populations badly exposed to flood, drought, storms and sea-level rise, according to a survey of 170 nations published on Wednesday. Of the 16 countries listed as being at “extreme” risk from climate change over the next 30 years, five […]
Measured on conventional indicators, water stress is increasing. Today, about 700 million people in 43 countries live below the water-stress threshold of 1,700 cubic metres per person—an admittedly arbitrary dividing line. By 2025 that figure will reach 3 billion, as water stress intensifies in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on national averages, the projection […]
[Desdemona remembers when only “developing nations” had austerity measures clamped onto them.] By Daniel Pimlott and Chris Giles in London and Robin Harding in WashingtonOctober 20 2010 23:30 | Last updated: October 20 2010 23:30 The UK’s Conservative-led coalition has announced the most drastic budget cuts in living memory, outstripping measures taken by other advanced […]
By MARTIN FACKLERPublished: October 16, 2010 OSAKA, Japan — Like many members of Japan’s middle class, Masato Y. enjoyed a level of affluence two decades ago that was the envy of the world. Masato, a small-business owner, bought a $500,000 condominium, vacationed in Hawaii and drove a late-model Mercedes. But his living standards slowly crumbled […]
