For the well-off in both rich and poor countries around the world, lives are enriched by plentiful access to energy that provides light, fresh food and clean...
Across all cultures, raising a child is considered one of the most rewarding things a person can do. Yet a chorus of campaigners, scientists and journalists...
Humans are partial to bad news. Media outlets reflect and shape this preference, feeding us woe and panic. Long, slow, positive trends don’t make it to the...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s steel tariffs have brought the prospect of a trade war closer to reality. The European Union warns that it has “a whole arsenal...
Two years after the Paris climate Agreement was signed, the French capital this month again attracted the world’s good and great, who gathered for President...
When famine strikes, governments and international donors step in with lifesaving aid. And rich countries give more than $130 billion each year not only to...
Even climate activists increasingly recognize that the lofty rhetoric of the global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, concluded in Paris just over...
According to popular wisdom, 2016 was a terrible year. Horrific terror attacks struck many countries. The Syrian crisis claimed tens of thousands of lives....
If the global media were your only source of information, you could be forgiven for thinking that the world’s biggest health concern right now is the Zika...
Some $1 trillion was lost to corruption last year. This is money that was not available for expanding health care, broadening access to education, improving...
Africa is the world’s most “renewable” continent when it comes to energy. In the rich world, renewables account for less than a 10th of total energy supplies....
The beautiful Champs-Elysées is lit with millions of sparkling lights. This year, they are powered by renewable energy. There is a wind turbine as tall as the...
In 1950, people in South Korea and Pakistan earned roughly the same amount of money annually. Today, the two countries are scarcely comparable. South Korean’s...
One-quarter of all the food in the world is lost each year, owing to inefficient harvesting, inadequate storage, and wastage in the kitchen. Halve that waste,...
Where should the global community focus its attention over the next 15 years? Health, nutrition and education may seem like obvious choices; more...
At the start of the 21st century, the international community made some smart and simple promises with the so-called Millennium Development Goals. The world...
One of the biggest problems affecting the world’s poor is one that few have ever heard about: illicit financial flows. Though such flows cost people in...
What is the biggest source of violence in our world? With the brutal conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere constantly in the news, many people would...
With the deadline for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals fast approaching, the world is gearing up to establish a new set of goals for the next...
Despite gains in life expectancy, expanded access to education, and lower rates of poverty and hunger, the world has a long way to go to improve the quality...
The world has generally become a much better place during the last half-century. Skeptics will scoff at the idea of overall improvement, but the numbers don’t...
When politicians around the world tell the story of global warming, they cast it as humanity’s greatest challenge. But they also promise that it is a...
According to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, “Climate change harms the poor first and worst.” This is true, because the poor are the most...
At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos last month, leading participants called for a rapid shift to cleaner energy to tackle climate change....
Read a newspaper or watch the evening news, and the world always seems to be getting worse. One problem after another is put under a spotlight. The more...