by Rachel Donadio - The New York Times - January 8, 2012

Vassilis Ballas and his wife, Roula Boura, extracted the gum from a mastic tree on their 400-tree farm in Chios, Greece.  Eirini Vourloumis for The New York Times

CHIOS, Greece — Nikos Gavalas and Alexandra Tricha, both 31 and trained as agriculturalists, were frustrated working on poorly paying, short-term contracts in Athens, where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is high. So last year, they decided to start a new project: growing edible snails for export.

As Greece’s blighted economy plunges further into the abyss, the couple are joining with an exodus of Greeks who are fleeing to the countryside and looking to the nation’s rich rural past as a guide to the future.

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submitted by Theresa Bernardo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- WILL Interactive, Inc., the nation's most experienced developer of computer-based interactive training simulations, today announced the launch of the $500,000 Simulate a Better World Challenge.

The winner of the Challenge will have the unique opportunity to select the subject matter and help guide the creation of an interactive simulation.  The finished program will be distributed nationally to address an issue of major societal importance in an effort to create real, sustainable change. The competition is open to applications from all organizations and individuals through February 29, 2012. Learn about the Challenge.

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by Megan Erickson - bigthink.com - December 23, 2011

submitted by Albert Gomez

ibm.com

Science fiction becomes reality. Worlds collide. The future is now...or within five years, at least.

At the end of each year, IBM examines market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's global labs, to develop a multi-year forecast called The Next 5 in 5.

IBM predicts that over the next five years technology innovations will change the way we work, live and play in the following ways:

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By PAT BRENNAN - The Orange County Register - miamiherald.com - December 19, 2011

Global warming could bring a major transformation for Earth's plants and animals over the next century, a NASA study says, driving nearly half the planet's forests, grasslands and other vegetation toward conversion into radically different ecosystems.

The ecological stress could give a boost to invasive species, but at the expense of natives, reducing the diversity of plants and animals overall.

December 21, 2011

(CNN) -- The devastation in the southern Philippines left by Tropical Storm Washi has created "huge" humanitarian needs in the area, the United Nations said Wednesday, estimating that nearly a half-million people are in need of assistance.

"The first priority is to help those who are displaced as a result of the floods," Valerie Amos, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said in comments published on the organization's website. "People urgently need shelter and clean drinking water, as well as bedding, food and basic household items."

Amos called on other countries and international organizations to increase relief efforts for the stricken region. A number of U.N. agencies, including the World Food Program and the World Health Organization, have stepped up humanitarian measures in the past few days, she said.

The storm, known locally as Sendong, plowed across the southern Philippines over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless and aid agencies struggling to deal with the aftermath.

The United Nations estimated that about 285,000 people had been displaced, with many of them are finding shelter with relatives or in makeshift structures.

CBS News - December 17, 2011

Rescuers paddle their rubber boat to search for survivors following a flash flood that inundated Cagayan de Oro city, Philippines, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Froilan Gallardo)

(AP) 

Last Updated 2:37 p.m. ET

MANILA, Philippines - Flash floods devastated a southern Philippines region unaccustomed to serious storms, killing more than 400 people while they slept, rousting hundreds of others to their rooftops and turning two coastal cities into muddy, debris-filled waterways that were strewn Saturday with overturned vehicles and toppled trees.

Most of the victims were asleep Friday night when raging floodwaters cascaded from the mountains after 12 hours of rain from a late-season tropical storm in the southern Mindanao region. The region is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the nation of islands.

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submitted by Samuel Bendett

by Spengler - atimes.com - December 13, 2011

(The essay below appears as a preface to my book How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam is Dying, Too). [1]

Population decline is the elephant in the world's living room. As a matter of arithmetic, we know that the social life of most developed countries will break down within two generations. Two out of three Italians and three of four Japanese will be elderly dependents by 2050.

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Ruth Greenspan Bell

Published by the Council on Foreign Relations

Foreign Affairs - May / June 2006

THE HEAT IS ON

In the years ahead, climate change will have a significant impact on every aspect of the daily lives of all human beings -- possibly greater even than war. Shifting precipitation patterns and ocean currents could change where and how food crops grow. If icecaps melt and low-lying areas are flooded, as is predicted, entire populations could be forced to move to higher ground. The tsunami of 2004 and Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, provided vivid examples of what large-scale climactic catastrophes entail.

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Ruth Greenspan Bell and Barry Blechman

Published by the Council on Foreign Relations

Foreign Affairs - December 13, 2011

Why more of the same could be dooming the planet.

The outcome of the recent Durban climate conference represents a victory, of sorts, for a particular vision of how the community of nations might eventually gain control over greenhouse gases. But that vision is flawed, perpetuating an approach that, after more than 20 years of negotiations, has not reversed warming trends. Of particular concern is the continued insistence on a comprehensive deal negotiated by all nations through a UN process. The degree to which the meme of a "legally-binding" agreement has dominated thinking is likewise troubling.

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