Today, over 22,000 children died around the world.

This daily tragedy, from poverty and other preventable causes, rarely makes headline news.
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Energy security is a growing concern for rich and emerging nations alike. The past drive for fossil fuel energy has led to wars, overthrow of democratically elected leaders, and puppet governments and dictatorships. Leading nations admit we are addicted to oil, but investment into alternatives has been lacking, or little in comparison to fossil fuel investments. As the global financial crisis takes hold and awareness of climate change increases, more nations and companies are trying to invest in alternatives. But will the geopolitics remain the same? A wave of protests has erupted throughout the Middle East and North Africa. A combination of the global financial crisis, rising costs of living, high unemployment especially of educated youth, frustration from decades of living under authoritarian and corrupt regimes, various document leaks revealing more details about how governments around the world are dealing and viewing each other, have all combined in different ways in various countries, leading to a wave of rising anger.

Some protests have become revolutions as governments such as those in Tunisia and Egypt have been overthrown. Others have not got that far but have sometimes been peaceful, other times met with very brutal repression. Is this a wave of democracy that cannot be stopped, and will forever change the region, and the global power politics? The climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is now overwhelming scientific consensus that it is happening, and human-induced. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions, and/or increasing extremities in weather patterns. This section looks at what causes climate change, what the impacts are and where scientific consensus currently is. One type of ecosystem that perhaps is neglected more than any other is perhaps also the richest in biodiversitythe coral reefs. Coral reefs are useful to the environment and to people in a number of ways. However, all around the world, much of the worlds marine biodiversity face threats from human and activities as well as natural. It is feared that very soon, many reefs could die off. An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 16), held in Cancn, Mexico in the December 2010. This conference came a year after the Copenhagen conference which promised so much but offered so little. It also came in the wake of WikiLeaks revelations of how the US in particular tried to cajole various countries to support an accord that served US interests rather than the worlds. What resulted was an agreement that seems much watered down, even an almost reversal, from original aims and spirit of climate change mitigation. In effect, the main polluters (the industrialized nations) who should have borne the brunt of any emission reduction targets, have managed to reduce their commitments while increasing those of the developing countries; a great global warming swindle if any! Around the world, in rich or poor nations, poverty has always been present.

In most nations today, inequalitythe gap between the rich and the pooris quite high and often widening.

The causes are numerous, including a lack of individual responsibility, bad government policy, exploitation by people and businesses with power and influence, or some combination of these and other factors. Many feel that high levels of inequality will affect social cohesion and lead to problems such as increasing crime and violence. Inequality is often a measure of relative poverty. Absolute poverty, however, is also a concern. World Bank figures for world poverty reveals a higher number of people live in poverty than previously thought. For example, the new poverty line is defined as living on the equivalent of $1.25 a day. With that measure based on latest data available (2005), 1.4 billion people live on or below that line. Furthermore, almost half the worldover three billion peoplelive on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day: If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. Bertrand Russell, Roads to Freedom