Issues & Trends

	Clean Energy Top Priority, U.N. Chief Tells NREL Providing clean, renewable energy to the 1.4 billion people who are living without electricity is the No. 1 priority of the United Nations, the secretary general of the U.N. said during a visit Aug. 24 to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
2011-08-25	Time to Start Work on a Panic Button? For two decades, the world’s governments have failed to meet their own commitment to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas. As frustration builds among scientists, some of them have begun to argue for research on a potential last-ditch option in case global warming starts to get out of control.
	Climate cycles linked to civil war, analysis shows Changes in the global climate that cut food production triggered one-fifth of civil conflicts between 1950 and 2004
	Counting the Earth's living riches is a landmark moment
	Return to London please, via Moscow: Kremlin paves way for East to West rail link after after 'approving' $99bn Bering Strait tunnel Trip of a lifetime would take the best part of three weeks through picturesque Alaska and Siberia Russia set to complete extension of rail network to tip of Siberia by 2030 $99 billion plan would see 65-mile tunnel bored under Bering Strait and linking East and West
	World humanitarian day: which countries gave the most aid and who received the most? On World humanitarian day we look at countries who give aid and those that are in need World humanitarian day celebrates people who help others - the aid workers who risk their lives to support people in great need.
	Pakistan May Be Standing in Way of Polio's Eradication Several Pakistani news outlets today are dissecting a troubling finding from the U.N.
2011-08-18	Microfinance's sober reckoning It's like a hangover after a big party. For over a decade microfinance has boomed as donors' have poured millions into the sector – now there is a sober reckoning. David Roodman picked up on it on Tuesday in his blog on the Centre for Global Development site, calling it the "new realism".
	Water systems at risk from growing demand for food - expert LONDON (AlertNet) – Efforts to feed an extra 2 billion people by mid-century could lead to widespread destruction of forests, wetlands and other natural systems that protect and regulate the world’s water, researchers warn.
	Map tracks Antarctica on the move Scientists have produced what they say is the first complete map of how the ice moves across Antarctica. Built from images acquired by radar satellites, the visualisation details all the great glaciers and the smaller ice streams that feed them.