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Respond is an alliance of European and International organisations working with the humanitarian community to improve access to maps, satellite imagery and geographic information. As a community response to real and urgent User need for global humanitarian mapping, Respond began during 2004, as one of the 2nd tranche of ESAs GMES Service Element (GSE) projects. Stage 2 began in November 2006 and will run until the end of October 2009.

Scientists and development experts across the globe are racing to increase food production by 50 percent over the next two decades to feed the world’s growing population, yet many doubt their chances despite a broad consensus that enough land, water and expertise exist.

The number of hungry people in the world rose to 1.02 billion this year, or nearly one in seven people, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, despite a 12-year concentrated effort to cut the number.

Agronomists and development experts who gathered in Rome last week generally agreed that the resources and technical knowledge were available to increase food production by 50 percent in 2030 and by 70 percent in 2050 — the amounts needed to feed a population expected to grow to 9.1 billion in 40 years.

n February 2008, Karen Armstrong won the TED Prize and called for the creation of a Charter for Compassion to bring together people of different religions and moral codes in a powerful common cause. The Charter launches November 12, accompanied by thousands of self-organized events, services and sermons. To help prepare the way, today on TED.com we offer six talks from six perspectives. Be ready for a surprise. Compassion is not the soft, fuzzy notion you might expect. Indeed, it might just be the best idea humanity’s ever had.