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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.

Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman interviews Eurasia Group analyst Damien Ma on China's political transition, economic slowdown, and social inequality.

* Running time: 20 minutes * From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. Description directly from http://www.storyofstuff.com/ web site, from which the animation can be played directly * Rating: Excellent; used in class as an example of a systems perspective; related to "resource management" and "economic integration"

* Released: September 2008 * Running time: 103 minutes * A phone sales manager must travel to India to train operators and his own replacement.

* Released 1999 * Running time: 60 minutes * Produced by Berkeley Media and available through their website http://www.berkeleymedia.com/ * Educational discounts are available; be sure to ask. A review quoted on their site says: "This film manages, miraculously, not to fall into the simplistic trap of equating population growth with abstract numbers that count up doom and disaster. Rather, it reminds us that this is the most human of all subjects, and its future depends above all on the human lives of young women, who live in many different circumstances in many parts of the earth. It depicts these young women, appropriately, as looking ahead to lives very different from those of their mothers -- lives at a global turning point toward lower birth rates and population stabilization." -- Donella Meadows, Prof. of Environmental Studies, Dartmouth Univ.

* Originally released November 2006 * Running time: 96 minutes * Description: Former Vice President Al Gore presents a compelling look at the state of global warming in the fascinating and startling documentary. Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don't act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired. Description from http://www.climatecrisis.net/aboutthedvd/ and from amazon.com, where it is available for $16 * Rating: excellent; used inside and outside class; directly related to climate change topic within "resource management" revolution

This is a brief article in The Economist focusing on managing information today and in the future. Good overview of some issues from revs three and four.

Recent anti-corruption protests have managed to stoke anger among significant segments of India's electorate. The current government will not be able to fend it off without making some tangible concessions, such as extending the scope of the anti-corruption bill currently under discussion in India's parliament.

Could technology and good management bring the public-sector up to scratch?

This is a thought-provoking article that links technology and governance. It is sure to invoke interesting classroom discussions.

What were the most intriguing books featured on The Globalist Bookshelf in 2011?

As you look at the world, how do you see water as a function of development? How do droughts and floods play a role?

How much more water will we need?

VIETNAM and China share a long history of enmity-and of managing to patch things up when they go wrong. But their latest dispute is not running true to form. Vietnam was taken aback in early May when China parked an oil rig on its doorstep.

Would you like paper or plasma? That's the question book lovers face now that e-reading has gone mainstream. And, as it turns out, our brains process digital reading very differently. Manoush Zomorodi, managing editor and host of WNYC's New Tech City, recalls a conversation with the Washington Post's Mike Rosenwald, who's researched the effects of reading on a screen.