Eight months before the first game of the 2014 World Cup, Brazil is on a feverish construction binge. The country is also planning for the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, its biggest city. Development workers have never been busier, and Brazil’s economy has swelled in anticipation of all of the tourists. To show off...
China eats about 20 percent of the world’s food, reasonably expected for its 1.3 billion people. But the country only has nine percent of the world’s farmland. For decades, the disparity was tolerable. China found ways to maximize its domestic food supply with its agrarian society. Now as China’s population continues to rise, fueled by...
China eats about 20 percent of the world’s food, reasonably expected for its 1.3 billion people. But the country only has nine percent of the world’s farmland. For decades, the disparity was tolerable. China found ways to maximize its domestic food supply with its agrarian society. Now as China’s population continues to rise, fueled by...
China eats about 20 percent of the world’s food, reasonably expected for its 1.3 billion people. But the country only has nine percent of the world’s farmland. For decades, the disparity was tolerable. China found ways to maximize its domestic food supply with its agrarian society. Now as China’s population continues to rise, fueled by...
The Norwegian town of Rjukan sits in an unfortunate spot. During the winter, the nearby Gaustatoppen mountains block the sun entirely, leaving the town’s 3,500 people in a frigid shadow for five months. Rather than wait for the Earth’s tilt to change, which might take a few million years, the town has a more immediate...
It isn’t just Syrians who are worried about a potential strike on their country—especially those who live close to military bases. Airlines are also creating contingency plans and preparing for the worst. Military activity won’t hit commercial airliners. It does, however, affect airspace in the Middle East for long-haul flights that have normal flights patterns...
I’ve always found something enchanting in the idea of eating bugs. Partly for the exoticism, introducing new things into our diet that challenge chefs and provoke our taste buds. But more than that, there are unending benefits to the planet and our health that seem attractive when thinking about a growing population and limited resources....
I’ve always found something enchanting in the idea of eating bugs. Partly for the exoticism, introducing new things into our diet that challenge chefs and provoke our taste buds. But more than that, there are unending benefits to the planet and our health that seem attractive when thinking about a growing population and limited resources....
I’ve always found something enchanting in the idea of eating bugs. Partly for the exoticism, introducing new things into our diet that challenge chefs and provoke our taste buds. But more than that, there are unending benefits to the planet and our health that seem attractive when thinking about a growing population and limited resources....
Anyone who’s ever gone on vacation in a country with cheap prices has heard some variation of the following advice: Go with your suitcases empty. Buy everything there and then bring it all back. Favorable exchange rates and developing economies can make everything cheap, much cheaper than you’d find back home. It’s a fascinating trend...
Anyone who’s ever gone on vacation in a country with cheap prices has heard some variation of the following advice: Go with your suitcases empty. Buy everything there and then bring it all back. Favorable exchange rates and developing economies can make everything cheap, much cheaper than you’d find back home. It’s a fascinating trend...
One catch-22 of climate change has always been that it’s a global problem that must be addressed locally. Global governments won’t agree on action until individual nations have a plan. And individual nations are reluctant to make a plan until the rest of world takes the plunge too. The reason for this stems from the...
Every four years, the premier event at the summer Olympics is the 100 meter dash, the swift sprint that you can literally miss by sneezing. In the past two summer games in London and Beijing, the man who won the race was the Jamaican phenom Usain Bolt. Bolt quickly earned the nickname of being the...
A few shortages on the planet pose fairly ominous threats to humanity. Clean water is becoming scarce in some regions, and energy that simply can’t meet future demands. Some endangered animals have too few remaining individuals. And the political will to solve these problems? We’ve heard that’s been in short supply for decades. One shortage...
A few shortages on the planet pose fairly ominous threats to humanity. Clean water is becoming scarce in some regions, and energy that simply can’t meet future demands. Some endangered animals have too few remaining individuals. And the political will to solve these problems? We’ve heard that’s been in short supply for decades. One shortage...