Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature

Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature: "The notion that emissions mitigation is a global commons problem, requiring consensus among more than 170 countries, lies at the heart of the Kyoto approach. Engaging all of the world's governments has the ring of idealistic symmetry (matching global threat with universal response), but the more parties there are to any negotiation, the lower the common denominator for agreement — as has been the case under Kyoto."

Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature

Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature: "Climate change is not amenable to an elegant solution because it is not a discrete problem. It is better understood as a symptom of a particular development path and its globally interlaced supply-system of fossil energy. Together they form a complex nexus of mutually reinforcing, intertwined patterns of human behaviour, physical materials and the resulting technology. It is impossible to change such complex systems in desired ways by focusing on just one thing."

Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature

Time to ditch Kyoto : Article : Nature: "Influenced by three major policy initiatives of the 1980s, the Kyoto strategy is elegant but misguided. Ozone depletion, acid rain and nuclear arms control are difficult problems, but compared to climate change they are relatively simple. Ozone depletion could be prevented by controlling a small suite of artificial gases, for which technical substitutes could be found. Acid rain was mainly caused by a single activity in a single industrial sector (power generation) and nuclear arms reductions were achieved by governments agreeing to a timetable for mutually verifiable reductions in warheads. None of this applies to global warming."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "India imports more than 70 percent of its oil consumption and half of its gas consumption. At the same time, India's energy dilemmas are shared by many states in East Asia. Asia accounts for a quarter of the world's energy consumption, meets 41 percent of its energy needs from burning coal, holds 3.5 percent of the world's proven oil reserves while having the world's second-, third-, fifth- and sixth-largest oil importers, namely Japan, China, South Korea and India."

Apocalypse Now? - Empire? - Global Policy Forum

Apocalypse Now? - Empire? - Global Policy Forum: "One reason for Johnson's end-of-days gloom is that he can identify no power center capable of resisting the forces that currently drive American foreign policy. He claims that because of the costliness of re-election campaigns and the insidious influence of Congressional lobbyists, 'the legislative branch of our government is broken.' An elected body that owes its incumbency partly to military contractors (who, in turn, provide not only campaign funding but also jobs for voters in swing districts) cannot reasonably be expected to swivel around and eliminate the corruption that nourishes it. In Johnson's words, 'our political system may no longer be capable of saving the United States as we know it, since it is hard to imagine any president or Congress standing up to the powerful vested interests of the Pentagon, the secret intelligence agencies, and the military-industrial complex.'"

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews: "“The goal is to handle conflict areas in a manner that leads to stability and support so war is not necessary,” Rozenblit said. “That’s the philosophy behind much of the ATRAP effort.”"

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews: "“Deep Blue is a good analogy because it illustrates the complexity of the problems, but in chess you have a finite court and a well-defined set of operations,” Rozenblit added. “Therefore, a move constitutes a valid move. But what we’re dealing with now is a world with no rules, with infinite possibilities and moves that defy logic, such as total disregard for the basic instinct of self preservation.”|"

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews: "Deep Blue, the first computer program to beat a world chess champion, is an example of how ATRAP can respond to changing factors, Ten Eyck explained. “Every time its opponent made a move, Deep Blue recalculated all the possibilities and likely courses of action, eventually settling on the fittest move that would achieve its goal of winning the game.” However, chess is not an exact analogy because only two players are involved and the end goal is for one player to win. In unstable areas, winning often means establishing an environment in which the factions co-exist in a win-win situation or at least in an equilibrium in which there are no rewards, and some penalties, for disturbing the status quo, Rozenblit said."

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews: "Genetic algorithms analyze situations in an evolutionary context, where actions with the highest “fitness factor” (chance of achieving the greatest success) gravitate toward one another, produce offspring and eventually rise to the top. Co-evolutionary algorithms analyze how the actions of one group affect the other groups and how those other groups adapt, or co-evolve, in response to the changing situation. For instance, if one group becomes more influential in an area where ethnic factions are vying for supremacy, the other groups will respond in ways that will try to make that first faction less influential, Rozenblit said. The algorithms are designed to recognize links and patterns within the data and to find connections, much as an investigative reporter might do when examining financial records - but on a vastly more complex and detailed scale."

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews

$2.2 Million Grant Calls for Designing Computer Software to Predict the Unpredictable | UANews: "University of Arizona Professor Jerzy Rozenblit has received a $2.2 million grant to design computer software that will analyze volatile political and military situations. The software will predict the actions of paramilitary groups, ethnic factions, terrorists and criminal groups, while aiding commanders in devising strategies for stabilizing areas before, during and after conflicts. It also will have many civilian applications in finance, law enforcement, epidemiology and the aftermath of natural disasters, such as hurricane Katrina. The Asymmetric Threat Response and Analysis Project, known as ATRAP, is a massively complex set of computer algorithms (mathematical procedures) that sift through millions of pieces of data, considering many factors including social, political, cultural, military and media influences, said Rozenblit, who holds the Raymond J. Oglethorpe Endowed Chair in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the UA. The software can handle data loads that would overwhelm human analysts, while dispassionately exploring actions and behaviors based solely on the data, sidestepping human cultural biases that might prematurely rule out unorthodox or seemingly bizarre courses of action."

The Future of Electronic Paper - TFOT

The Future of Electronic Paper - TFOT: "Thirty-five years in the making, electronic paper is now closer than ever to changing the way we read, write, and study — a revolution so profound that some see it as second only to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Made of flexible material, requiring ultra-low power consumption, cheap to manufacture, and—most important—easy and convenient to read, e-papers of the future are just around the corner, with the promise to hold libraries on a chip and replace most printed newspapers before the end of the next decade."

The Future of Electronic Paper - TFOT

The Future of Electronic Paper - TFOT: "Thirty-five years in the making, electronic paper is now closer than ever to changing the way we read, write, and study — a revolution so profound that some see it as second only to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Made of flexible material, requiring ultra-low power consumption, cheap to manufacture, and—most important—easy and convenient to read, e-papers of the future are just around the corner, with the promise to hold libraries on a chip and replace most printed newspapers before the end of the next decade."

Computerworld - BT Futurist: AI entities will win Nobel prizes by 2020

Computerworld - BT Futurist: AI entities will win Nobel prizes by 2020: "I do a lot of reading. I try to keep in touch with what's happening. I read some business and news magazines and technology journals and Web sites, to try to keep up with what's happening around the world. And then I spend a lot of time listening to other people and giving them insights on what they think will happen on their respective fields. Reading consumes a lot of my time as well as being in touch with another people, one way or another. Then I spend a long time daydreaming, thinking about how the thing interacts, and gradually I come up with a view of the future. When I talk with other people about it of course they argue with me sometimes. For example someone can say: 'That is a very stupid conclusion,' and I think again. This allows me to refine my ideas by sharing it with other colleagues, and find better conclusions."

India, China to be world's new R&D hub- Indicators-Economy-News-The Economic Times

India, China to be world's new R&D hub- Indicators-Economy-News-The Economic Times: "LONDON: The focus of global research and development is shifting from the US to Asia, specifically India and China, a new study shows. In 10 years, the global research and development activity will shake loose the near-domination that the US has held for the past 50 years, and be split into thirds between the US, EU, and China and India in terms of efforts , funds and activity. The shift, finds the study, is not just in terms of expenditures and investments, but a structural upheavals in the R&D enterprise and the complex interplay between funders and performers."

Sam Harris: OnFaith on washingtonpost.com

Sam Harris: OnFaith on washingtonpost.com: "Now, it just so happens that religion has more than its fair share of bad ideas. And it remains the only system of thought, where the process of maintaining bad ideas in perpetual immunity from criticism is considered a sacred act. This is the act of faith."

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - The Nature of the New World

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - The Nature of the New World: "The world is facing the emergence of a geopolitics of scarcity, which is already highly visible in the efforts by China, India, and other developing countries to ensure their access to oil supplies. In the future, the issue will be who gets access to not only Middle Eastern oil but also Brazilian ethanol and North American grain. Pressures on land and water resources, already excessive in most of the world, will intensify further as the demand for biofuels climbs. This geopolitics of scarcity is an early manifestation of civilization in an overshoot-and-collapse mode, much like the one that emerged among the Mayan cities competing for food in that civilization’s waning years."

Gmail - [World Beat] We Get Religion

Gmail - [World Beat] We Get Religion: "The 19th century was the age of nations; the 20th century the age of ideologies; the 21st century is shaping up to be the age of fundamentalism. Thanks to Bush, Christian fundamentalism has attained political power in the United States. Jewish fundamentalism resists a political solution in Arab-Israeli conflict. Hindu fundamentalism has reshaped Indian politics. And Muslim fundamentalism has somehow blotted out the diversity of Islam in both politics and media. Communism is largely gone; liberalism is under attack; globalization is rampant. Fundamentalism offers a comforting set of bedrock truths at a time of flux and uncertainty."

Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam: Digital generation has less and less contact with traditional culture

Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam: Digital generation has less and less contact with traditional culture

The generation of young people who were born into the digital era may
be more connected to each other, but less connected to their cultural
heritage, warns sociologist Jos de Haan of Erasmus University
Rotterdam. They are "chatting" more but reading less; playing more, but
researching and learning less than preceding generations.

Though adept at finding their way around the virtual world, digital-era
youth are not finding their way to institutions that connect them with
the cultural riches of their past, according to de Haan.

The Internet is perceived as a rival to traditional culture, but it
could become an ally: De Haan challenges museums, libraries, archives,
and other institutions to do more to connect with the digital
generation than merely digitize their collections.

39070305.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

39070305.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

The availability of statistical indicators of economic, social, and environmental outcomes and their dissemination to citizens can contribute to promoting good governance and the improvement of democratic processes. It can strengthen citizens’ capacity to influence the goals of the societies they live in through debate and consensus building, and increase the accountability of public policies..

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature - Steven Pinker - Books - Review - New York Times

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature - Steven Pinker - Books - Review - New York Times: "The dialectic of creativity and reality-testing has taken us far beyond other animals and can take us farther. The next step is to dump our most natural and mistaken metaphor — education as the filling of empty minds — and recognize that we learn by extrapolating, testing, modifying and recombining mental models of the world."

KurzweilAI.net

KurzweilAI.net: "Although U.S. robot numbers are not yet measured in millions, the industrial automatons are nonetheless playing strategic roles in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, with more than 171,000 robots now at work in U.S. factories, placing the U.S. second only to Japan in overall robot use. Read Original Article>>"

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

Fading superpower? – (LA Times – September 9, 2007)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18347.htm
Whether it is imperial Rome, imperial Spain or imperial Britain, economic strength and political strength have always gone together. Because no one denies that the U.S. will decline in comparative terms economically (though it will almost certainly remain one center of the world economy), the only way one can believe that geopolitics will not also become multipolar is to believe that the U.S. is somehow exempt from what seems one of history's few ironclad laws. However, that is not analysis; that is faith.

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

The Future of the Workplace: No Office, Headquarters in Cyberspace – (August 27, 2007)
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3521725&page=1
Imagine a work world with no commute, no corporate headquarters and perhaps not even an office in the physical world at all. 42% of IBM's 350,000 employees rarely comes in to an IBM office. IBM says it saves $100 million a year in real estate costs because it doesn't need the offices. The work force at the Accenture management consulting firm is so mobile not even the CEO has an office with his name on the door. However, maintaining a community is essential at IBM, where isolation can be a "significant" issue. There's even a joke at the company that the name stands for "I'm by Myself."

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years: "A Planet Under Stress: Rising to the Challenge — We need to restructure our economy with lower income taxes and increased taxes on environmentally destructive activities, such as use of fossil fuels, says one environmental advocate."

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years: "The productivity boom in the U.S. economy during the twentieth century created a massive consumer culture--people made more money, so they bought more stuff. In the twenty-first century, however, workers will increasingly choose to trade higher salaries for more time with their families. Nearly a third of U.S. workers recently polled said they would prefer more time off rather than more hours of paid employment."

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years

WFS Forecasts for the Next 25 Years: "For the first time, the United States will see a significant proportion of its population emigrate due to overseas opportunities. According to futurists Arnold Brown and Edie Weiner, Generation Y, the population segment born between 1978 and 1995, may be the first generation in U.S. history to have many of its members leave the U.S. to pursue large portions of their lives, if not their entire adult lives, overseas."

KurzweilAI.net

KurzweilAI.net: "Life expectancy rates in the United States are at an all-time high, with people born in 2005 projected to live for nearly 78 years, up from 69.6 in 1955, a new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics finds. Despite the upward trend, the United States still has a lower life expectancy than some 40 other countries, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The country with the longest life expectancy is Andorra at 83.5 years."

KurzweilAI.net

KurzweilAI.net: "Organized crime may have brought in more than $2 trillion in revenue last year, about twice all the military budgets in the world combined, according to the '2007 State of the Future' report, published by the Millennium Project of the World Federation of United Nations Associations, by Jerome C. Glenn and Theodore J. Gordon. The report called organized crime one of the most pressing global issues that needs to be addressed in the next 10 years, along with global warming, terrorism, corruption, unemployment, and income disparities. But the report noted success in tackling other issues, saying the world has made progress on ending poverty, improving access to education and settling conflicts. It also says the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa has begun to level off."

OECD Observer: Foreign class

OECD Observer: Foreign class: "Some 82,900 foreign scholars were in teaching or research at US higher education institutions in the 2003-04 academic year. Most were engaged in research, although the share in teaching has increased. Two-thirds are engaged in scientific or engineering fields, with a fast-growing proportion in life and biological sciences."

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

AUGMENTED/ARTICIAL INTELLIGENCE Unmanned "Surge": 3000 More Robots for War – (Wired – August 13, 2007)
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/08/3000-more-bomb-.html
U.S. military robots ran 30,000 missions in 2006 -- hunting for, and getting rid of, improvised explosives. Now, the military has launched a crash project to radically increase its unmanned ground forces. 1000 machines are supposed to be enlisted by the end of the year, with two thousand more in five years. Word of the robot recruitment comes just weeks after the military revealed it had deployed armed robots to Iraq

About TAI | The Arlington Institute

About TAI | The Arlington Institute
China Enacting a High-Tech Plan to Track People – (New York Times – August 12, 2007)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/worldbusiness/12security.html?ex=1188532800&en=
09f8aa49c390745d&ei=5070
Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by American-financed company will be issued to most citizens. Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.

Ian Ayres

Ian Ayres: "Here are some applets that give you a sense of the kinds of things that Super Crunching can help predict. Use them at your own risk (The lawyer in me feels compelled to emphasize that I make no representation as to their accuracy). ."

Technology Review: Higher Games

Technology Review: Higher Games: "Yes, but so what? Silicon machines can now play chess better than any protein machines can. Big deal. This calm and reasonable reaction, however, is hard for most people to sustain. They don't like the idea that their brains are protein machines. When Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997, many commentators were tempted to insist that its brute-force search methods were entirely unlike the exploratory processes that Kasparov used when he conjured up his chess moves. But that is simply not so. Kasparov's brain is made of organic materials and has an architecture notably unlike that of Deep Blue, but it is still, so far as we know, a massively parallel search engine that has an outstanding array of heuristic pruning techniques that keep it from wasting time on unlikely branches."

Technology Review: Higher Games

Technology Review: Higher Games: "In an editorial written at the time of the Deep Blue match, 'Mind over Matter' (May 10, 1997), the New York Times opined: The real significance of this over-hyped chess match is that it is forcing us to ponder just what, if anything, is uniquely human. We prefer to believe that something sets us apart from the machines we devise. Perhaps it is found in such concepts as creativity, intuition, consciousness, esthetic or moral judgment, courage or even the ability to be intimidated by Deep Blue. The ability to be intimidated? Is that really one of our prized qualities? Yes, according to the Times: Nobody knows enough about such characteristics to know if they are truly beyond machines in the very long run, but it is nice to think that they are."

Tar Sands Fever | Worldwatch Institute

Tar Sands Fever | Worldwatch Institute: "It's well known that the United States consumes more oil per capita than any other country in the world, absorbing two-thirds of global oil production. This heavy dependence has often, and aptly, been described as an addiction; even U.S. President George W. Bush trotted out the metaphor in his 2006 State of the Union address ( America is addicted to oil )."

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)
As the world moves toward ubiquitous computing
with collective intelligence for just-in-time knowledge,
decisions should improve. Decisionmaking
will increasingly be augmented by the integration
of ubiquitous sensors, a more intelligent Web,
and institutional and personal intelligence software
that helps us receive and respond to feedback for
improving decisions.
The world is expected to produce more data in
2007 than it can store. According to the IDC, the
world produced 161 exabytes (billion gigabytes)
in 2006 and had 185 exabytes of storage capacity.

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)
If much of the global complexity
cannot be managed efficiently by current systems,
then new decisionmaking systems may emerge.

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)
According to Freedom House, the number
of free countries grew from 46 to 90 over the
past 30 years, accounting for 46% of the world's
population, and for the past several years 64% of
countries have been electoral democracies. Since
democracies tend not to fight each other and
since humanitarian crises are far more likely under
authoritarian than democratic regimes, the trend
toward democracy should lead to a more peaceful
future among nation states. Unfortunately, massively
destructive powers will be more available
to individuals. Future desktop molecular and
pharmaceutical manufacturing and organized
crime's access to nuclear materials give single
individuals the ability to make and use weapons
of mass destruction—from biological weapons
to low-level nuclear (“dirty”) bombs. The IAEA
reported 149 confirmed incidents of illicit use
of radioactive materials in 2006. Only 10% of
the 220 million sea containers that transport 90%
of the world’s trade are inspected, giving organized
crime and terrorism easier supply lines.

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)
According to UNESCO, in 1970 about 37% of
all people over the age of 15 were illiterate. That
has fallen to less than 18% today. Between 1999
and 2004 the number of children without primary
education fell by around 21 million to 77 million.

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

The global economy grew at 5.4% in 2006 to $66 trillion (PPP). The population grew 1.1%, increasing
the average world per capita income by 4.3%. At this rate world poverty will be cut by more than half
between 2000 and 2015, meeting the UN Millennium Development Goal for poverty reduction except
in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the majority of the world is improving economically, income disparities
are still enormous: 2% of the world’s richest people own more than 50% of the world’s wealth, while
the poorest 50% of people own 1%. And the income of the 225 richest people in the world is equal to
that of the poorest 2.7 billion, 40% of the world.

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

sof2007-exec-summ.pdf (Objet application/pdf)

People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, and
increasingly connected and they are living longer, but at the same time the world is more corrupt,
congested, warmer, and increasingly dangerous. Although the digital divide is beginning to close, income
gaps are still expanding around the world and unemployment continues to grow.

Foreign Affairs - The Great Leap Backward? - Elizabeth C. Economy

Foreign Affairs - The Great Leap Backward? - Elizabeth C. Economy: "China's environmental problems are mounting. Water pollution and water scarcity are burdening the economy, rising levels of air pollution are endangering the health of millions of Chinese, and much of the country's land is rapidly turning into desert. China has become a world leader in air and water pollution and land degradation and a top contributor to some of the world's most vexing global environmental problems, such as the illegal timber trade, marine pollution, and climate change."

Foreign Affairs - The Great Leap Backward? - Elizabeth C. Economy

Foreign Affairs - The Great Leap Backward? - Elizabeth C. Economy: "Summary: China's environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms."

Global trends-The world in 2030

Global trends-The world in 2030: "Clearly, we have known more discoveries from 1945 until today than since the beginning of mankind until 1945. This high flow of discoveries will boost the future growth."

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - Farewell to "Flush and Forget" - Reducing Urban Water Use

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - Farewell to "Flush and Forget" - Reducing Urban Water Use: "The existing water-based waste disposal economy is not viable. There are too many households, factories, and feedlots to simply try and wash waste away on our crowded planet. To do so is ecologically mindless and outdated—an approach that belongs to an age when there were many fewer people and far less economic activity."

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - Farewell to "Flush and Forget" - Reducing Urban Water Use

Earth Policy Institute Book Byte - Farewell to "Flush and Forget" - Reducing Urban Water Use: "In urban settings, the one-time use of water to disperse human and industrial wastes is becoming an outmoded practice, made obsolete by new technologies and water shortages. Water enters a city, becomes contaminated with human and industrial wastes, and leaves the city dangerously polluted. Toxic industrial wastes discharged into rivers and lakes or into wells also permeate aquifers, making water—both surface and underground—unsafe for drinking. And their toxic wastes are destroying marine ecosystems, including local fisheries. The time has come to manage waste without discharging it into the local environment, allowing water to be recycled indefinitely and reducing both urban and industrial demand dramatically."

Foreign Policy in Focus - A Think Tank Without Walls

Foreign Policy in Focus - A Think Tank Without Walls:

If there were only one factory producing U.S. military armaments located in Rhode Island, there would be a dramatic reduction of congressional support for a rising defense budget. The problem is: virtually all weapons systems have been broken down into a supply chain that turns the 50 states into an assembly line for the military-industrial complex. Almost every member of Congress therefore supports the whole hog in order to bring home some of the bacon to their home district.

State of the World 2007: Notable Trends | Worldwatch Institute

State of the World 2007: Notable Trends | Worldwatch Institute: "* In the last half-century, the world’s urban population has increased nearly fourfold, from 732 million in 1950 to more than 3.2 billion in 2006. (p. 7)

* Africa now has 350 million urban dwellers, more than the populations of Canada and the United States combined. Asia and Africa are expected to double their urban populations to roughly 3.4 billion by 2030. (p. 4)

* The vast majority of net additions to the human population—88 percent of the growth from 2000 to 2030—will be urban dwellers in low- and middle-income countries. (p. 7)"

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "Yet, contrary to what many in India might think, China is not a malevolent, sinister international entity out there to demolish India, but a state which is simply pursuing its own strategic interests in a hard-headed fashion on its way to great power status. It is time for India to realize that India's great power aspirations cannot be realized without a similar cold-blooded realistic assessment of its own strategic interests in an anarchic international system where there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests."

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR)

The Power and Interest News Report (PINR): "There is also nothing extraordinarily benign in China's attempts to improve its bilateral relations with India in recent times. After cutting India down to size in various ways, China does not want India to move closer to the United States in order to contain China. On this geopolitical chessboard, while both Washington and Beijing are using India toward their own strategic ends, India has ended up primarily reacting to the actions of other."