Are you in a happy mood?  Take a look at this World Database of Happiness, a great scientific & inspirational directory for everything from a selection on valid measurement to a state happiness ranking.
Heard about Bhutan’s policy to measure ‘Gross National Happiness‘ instead of the traditional economic measure of GDP?
Or watch Goldfrapp’s ‘Happiness’, something you [...]

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Usually I’m quite an optimist when talking about future-related trends, how to act on climate change etc. But this article in The Guardian struck me quite a lot…
Time is fast running out to stop irreversible climate change, a group of global warming experts warns today. We have only 100 months to avoid disaster. Andrew Simms [...]

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Al Gore takes the opportunity to address one of the key challenges of this time: he calls upon bold action to make a 100% reduction in non-renewable energy commitment within 10 years, in the US.
Can this be called one of the defining moments of the beginning of the 21st century? Would other leaders in both [...]

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As drylands get drier and violence grows, new crises resembling Darfur will arise.
By Jeffrey Sachs | NEWSWEEK. July 7-14, 2008 issue.
The world will experience a growing risk of conflicts over food, energy and water in coming years. The population rises each year by about 80 million people, with most of the increase in impoverished regions [...]

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The refugee challenge in the 21st century is changing rapidly. People are forced to flee their homes for increasingly complicated and interlinked reasons. Some 40 million people worldwide are already uprooted by violence and persecution, and it is likely that the future will see more people on the run as a growing number of push [...]

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DUBLIN (Reuters) - More than 100 nations formally agreed on Friday to ban the use of cluster bombs but debate continued on loopholes that could benefit powers such as the United States, which has refused to take part in talks on a ban.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged states to quickly sign and ratify the [...]

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The cost of conflict on African development was approximately $300bn between 1990 and 2005, according to new research by Oxfam International, IANSA and Saferworld. This is equal to the amount of money received in international aid during the same period.
The study “Africa’s Missing Billions” is the first time analysts have calculated the overall effects of [...]

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[David Batty] The United Nations is using the mapping programme Google Earth to highlight the plight of millions of refugees and its humanitarian work to help them.
The outreach programme, a joint initiative between the internet giant and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), weaves together satellite maps, photos, videos and eyewitness accounts to give viewers a [...]

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The continuous attention in the media for the latest news can sometimes cause painstaking forgotten issues. West Bengal’s Cooper Camp, a ‘forgotten’ refugee camp in India, is such a forgotten story.
Coopers Camp is the sub-continent’s oldest and least-known refugee camp. A hangover from another era, it represents a major embarrassment for the progressive West Bengal [...]

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Five years on, and still we have not learnt. With each anniversary, the steps crumble beneath our feet, the stones ever more cracked, the sand ever finer. Five years of catastrophe in Iraq and I think of Churchill, who in the end called Palestine a “hell-disaster”.
Read more in The Independent…

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