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SOUTH AFRICA may no longer have the chunkiest economy in Africa, now that Nigeria's has been revalued upwards, but it still has the fattest people. This is evidence, to many South Africans, of the good life: fast food, a fast car, an urban lifestyle.

* Released June, 2004 * Running time: 120 minutes * Description: This documentary discusses how countries such as, Africa, India and Japan are facing different problems related to their current and changing population demographics. It provides a number of good graphics (population pyramids) and statistics, but also relates these issues to individual, very personal, stores. The film discusses birth control and women's rights in India, how HIV/AIDS in Africa has resulted in tragic cases that change the role of extended Draft 78 families, and how modernization has caused dramatically decreased fertility rates in Japan. * PBS.org has a great interactive site dealing with this issue: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/worldbalance/ * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions Section: Population

This article connects issues of migration and remittances to African economies, poverty, and terrorism.

* Running Time: 3:35 * Description: This short program shows how lake Chad (one of the largest lakes in Africa) has shrunk to 10% of its size only a few decades ago. * Rating; Excellent (very good for link in lectures) * 7-Revolutions: Resources (water)

In this sobering but optimistic manifesto, development economist Sachs (The End of\nPoverty) argues that the crises facing humanity are daunting-but solutions to them are\nreadily at hand. Sachs focuses on four challenges for the coming decades: heading off\nglobal warming and environmental destruction; stabilizing the world's population;\nending extreme poverty; and breaking the political logjams that hinder global\ncooperation on these issues. The author analyzes economic data, demographic trends\nand climate science to create a lucid, accessible and suitably grim exposition of looming\nproblems, but his forte is elaborating concrete, pragmatic, low-cost remedies complete\nwith benchmarks and budgets. Sachs's entire agenda would cost less than 3% of the\nworld's annual income, and he notes that a mere two days' worth of Pentagon spending\nwould fund a comprehensive anti-malaria program for Africa, saving countless lives.\nForthright government action is the key to avoiding catastrophe, the author contends,\nnot the unilateral, militarized approach to international problems that he claims is\npursued by the Bush administration. Combining trenchant analysis with a resounding\ncall to arms, Sachs's book is an important contribution to the debate over the world's\nfuture. (Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All\nrights reserved.)

* Released December 2008 * Running time: 84 minutes * Description: This is a powerful documentary of the current state of freshwater ownership, privatization and distribution around the world. The film discusses the conflict between "predatory" corporations and engaged citizens over water rights and usage. For example, it discusses how companies like Coke and Pepsi use of water in India and Nestles use of water in Michigan for bottled water. This film also documents water wars in Bolivia, privatization in Africa, and issues of pollution of freshwater around the world. It promotes lively and emotional discussion in class. * Rating: Excellent * 7-Revolutions Section: Resources, Technology, Economics, Conflict.

Summary: The world's leading international institutions may be outmoded, but Brazil, China, India, and South Africa are not ready to join the helm. Their shaky commitment to democracy, human rights, nuclear nonproliferation, and environmental protection would only weaken the international system's core values.

Summary: With one billion people already going hungry and the world's population rising, global food production must urgently be increased. The countries that managed such surges in the past -- Brazil, China, India, the United States -- cannot do so again. But Africa can -- if it finally uses the seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation methods common everywhere else.