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AARHUS, Denmark, Jun 15, 2011 (IPS) - Images of the immense, dark stain of oil covering the waters of the Gulf of Mexico made their way across the globe last year as one of the largest oil spills in history unfolded. Other images - of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch', a gigantic pile of litter floating in the North Pacific Ocean; of countless felled trees in the Amazon; of tar sands in Canada - have gained much fewer headlines, but are likely to remain as monuments to the price tag of wanton human appetites.

"HONOLULU, Hawaii, U.S., May 26, 2011 (IPS) - For the past quarter century, the United States' relations with Pacific island nations were framed by the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which combines foreign aid, subsidies to the U.S. fleet of purse-seine fishing vessels and their largely unfettered access to the islands' waters, which contain the world's last major stocks of tuna."

"UNITED NATIONS, Jun 2, 2011 (IPS) - As the world continues to marvel at the widespread progress in modern technology and home electronics, there are still about 2.5 billion people - out of a global population of nearly 6.9 billion - who have little or no access to electricity."

" LDCs: Least Developed, Most to Gain. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) rank among the world's poorest, exhibiting low health and education indicators and high economic vulnerability. LDCs also make up more than half of the world's countries - the majority of which are in Africa, followed by Asia - comprising over 800 million people. The United Nations describes the Least Developed Countries as "the poorest and the most vulnerable segment of humanity at the very epicentre of the developmental emergency", but with only a few countries "graduated" from LDC status in the last decade, the plight of the Least Developed Countries is as pressing as ever."