And they are exacerbated by bad management, says Simon Long AS IT SCOURS the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life, NASA has a motto-cum-mission-statement: “Follow the water”. About 70% of the human
A landslide at a Manila rubbish dump on July 10th, was a deadly reminder that eradicating the symbols of poverty does not eradicate poverty itself. Weakened by days of heavy rain, the side of a
The Arctic National Wilife Refuge, 8m hectares of it, is the last protected piece of the Alaskan Arctic. Just to the west is Prudhoe Bay, the largest single oilfield in North America, and 18
Devastating fires are a part of summer in the south west of America. They ravage thousands of acres in the region each year. Drought and strong winds propel fires; but the biggest fires were begun by
The UN, the World Bank, the IMF and the OECD jointly issued their interim report which makes bleak reading. In 1998, 1.2 billion people were in dire poverty throughout the world. This is the same
The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest inland sea. But since the 1960s it has lost three-quarters of its volume. Towns that were once ports are now far from the water. As it shrinks, the
After 40 years of agreeing that it should be done, will the rich countries finally untie their aid? On June 20th the rich-country Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will meet for
One of the Blair government's bolder aims is to eradicate child poverty in Britain within 20 years. A study released by the United Nations Children's Fund suggests that Britain has quite a problem.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has come up with a new measure of population health, called disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE). Rather than estimating only how long a child can expect to
After the long-drawn-out case, the ruling that Microsoft should be split in two was not a surprise. Yet the company still insists it did nothing wrong : a
Angola has incredible eco-tourism potential. And because of the twenty-five years of civil war in Angola, the country offers one of the most "unspoilt" ecosystems in the world. This vision of a post
