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July 21, 2011 | Amid Famine, Somalia Requires Immediate Help

More than 10 million people in the Horn of Africa are “in urgent need of food, water and emergency health care” as the UN declared a famine in southern Somalia. ++ Previous warnings by the UN about a drought and impending food crisis in the region have gone mostly unheeded. Britain has pledged $84 million to support drought victims, but other Europeans, such as Italy which mustered

March 3, 2008 | Food Prices Soar: Few Are Able to Reap Benefits

Farmers are among the few beneficiaries of skyrocketing global food prices. ++ Governmental subsidies for producing biofuels combined with droughts and a growing demand for animal feed account for the high prices. ++ Food and energy issues are beginning to collide. ++ Speculation accounts for some of the price escalation, but as arable land becomes scarcer, prices are likely to remain high.

August 16, 2007 | Jeffrey Sachs: Hundreds of Millions Destined to Flee Environmental Pressures in the Coming Decades

Jeffrey D. Sachs writes in the Scientific American that the coming decades may see the mass-migration of hundreds of millions of “environmental refugees” seeking better living conditions and above all available water. It will be important to keep an eye on at least four vulnerable climate zones:

• Coastal areas. The 10% of the global population living in these areas is highly vulnerable to