The world’s largest, fastest-emerging industrial economies are posing grave questions for the coming generation: for how long will the inequalities produced by the unending pursuit of economic growth remain sustainable, for how long will our finite natural resources last if they continue to be rapidly commercialised, and can the environment stand the future demand of several billion new consumers?
Climate change will reverse decades of social and economic progress across Asia, campaigners claim. A report by a coalition of environment and aid agencies - called 'Up In Smoke? Asia and the Pacific' - calls for urgent action to avert the threat.
East Asian poverty has dropped dramatically but rural areas risk being left behind threatening a widening income gap to urban regions, the World Bank said Thursday.
Nuclear-armed states are criminal states. They have a legal obligation, confirmed by the World Court, to live up to Article 6 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which calls on them to carry out good-faith negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely. None of the nuclear states has lived up to it.The United States is a leading violator, especially the Bush administration, which even has stated that it isn’t subject to Article 6.
15th October 07, Alana Herro, World Watch Institute
Over the next decade, India’s burgeoning consumer class is likely headed for an onslaught of chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. A new report from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the proportion of deaths nationwide from long-term maladies will skyrocket from 53 percent in 2005 to nearly 67 percent by 2020. Diets high in fats and sugars and a lack of exercise—two lifestyle trends that increasingly afflict people in developing countries—are major factors behind the rise in certain chronic diseases, according to medical experts.
