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What is it about London? Population growth is slowing across most of Europe - people are having fewer children and, it could be argued, steps are being taken to try to reduce social inequalities. But London is unusual. London continues growing, and London is becoming more youthful. The middle aged and those who are poor, but not desperately poor, are being squeezed out. Graduates from the rest of Britain and the rest of the world flow in ever greater numbers and require ever higher degrees of optimism. Many fail to achieve their aspirations. Above them a few are becoming ever richer. Below them, as private rents and social housing becomes too expensive for huge numbers of lowly paid families and many leave, a new poor may be growing, less well documented, less well protected, with even less to lose.

"Since 1750 the human race has been responsible for 2,000 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. These human carbon emissions have added to the much larger natural carbon cycle and resulted in the growing atmospheric concentrations so well documented by the Keeling Curve."

"Ghanaian authorities have arrested 124 Chinese citizens for illegal gold mining in the resource-rich west African country, highlighting the social and environmental challenges posed by China's growing presence on the continent."

"For more than 30 years, China has upheld a strict one-child policy. And despite the country's growing prosperity, novelist Ma Jian discovered that ruthless squads still brutally enforce the law with vast fines - and compulsory sterilisations and abortions"

Thanks largely to vehicle emissions, Mexico City was once the world's most polluted urban centre. But over the past decade, a focus on sustainable alternative transport has persuaded a growing number of citizens to leave their cars at home. A heavily subsidised underground network caters for 22m journeys daily, and conditions on the city's overcrowded roads have improved, with the metro bus system and the introduction of public bicycles contributing significantly to reduced pollution levels

"A quarter of UK consumers said they would buy Fairtrade products, organic foods and green cleaning products even if it cost them more money"

"Millions of Brits drink a cup of Assam tea each day, but it comes at a terrible price. Plantation workers on 12p an hour are easy prey for traffickers who lure away their daughters to India's cities. Now pressure is growing on big tea brands to safeguard better pay"

"Technology company's renewable energy-powered Arizona laboratory set to grow sapphire crystals for fingerprint scanners"

"In a paper published Thursday in Science, demographers from several universities and the United Nations Population Division conclude that instead of leveling off in the second half of the 21st century, as the UN predicted less than a decade ago, the world's population will continue to grow beyond 2100. (Read "Population Seven Billion" in National Geographic magazine.)"

I would read this as it summarises the main issues

Hefei nesr Shanghai

"y 2210, the global population is expected to grow from just more than 7bn to 11.3bn, with 87 per cent of the population living in urban areas, according to a new working paper by researchers from New York University's Marron Institute."

"You hear the squeals of the pigs long before reaching a set of long buildings set in rolling hills in southern China. Feeding time produces a frenzy as the animals strain against the railings around their pens. But this is no ordinary farm. Run by a fast-growing company called BGI, this facility has become the world's largest centre for the cloning of pigs."

"The gardens are home to one of a growing number of azoteas verdes - or green roofs - that are springing up around Mexico City as part of the metropolis's efforts to purge its air of the pollution that has long been among its least-desired claims to fame."

Sales of ethical goods and services have increased despite the recession, growing to more than £47bn last year. Since the onset of the economic downturn five years ago, the value of ethical markets from Fairtrade products and green energy to free-range and sustainable food has grown from £35.5bn to £47.2bn, according to a report produced by the Co-operative Bank.