Group items tagged

The head of the UN's Population Fund, Babatunde Osotimehin, talks to Annie Kelly about the key issues driving the debate around population and food security

Population growth and water supply are on a collision course. Hunger is set to become the main issue

Twenty years on from the Rio Earth summit, the environment of the planet is getting worse not better, according to a report from WWF. Swelling population, mass migration to cities, increasing energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions mean humanity is putting a greater squeeze on the planet's resources then ever before.

It's been a severe start to the spring season in the United States. Tornadoes have ravaged the southeastern US, flooding threatens much of the Midwest, and wildfires are scorching Texas. But according to researchers, a confluence of seasonal oscillations in weather patterns, rather than climate change, is to blame. And growing populations mean that grim casualty figures from such events may become the norm.

Glacial lakes in the Himalayas could pose a major hazard to population centres if they are ruptured by earthquakes, scientists say.

To give a better sense of the challenge facing these areas, here is data pulled together and mapped from two sources With a rising global population, increasing water use per capita and depleting reserves of groundwater, there's no doubt that blue gold, as water is sometimes called, is an increasingly precious resource.