Hunger and Poverty

The UN reported that its goal of halving the number of people living in poverty by 2015 is unlikely to be reached due to several factors including the economic climate and, more dramatically, the predicted continued rates of population growth. (Read more here.) The world population is expected to reach 7 billion at some point in 2011.

Meanwhile, a separate UN report says that due to population growth in Asia, specifically, the continent is at risk for a major hunger crisis and the resulting social upheaval. Hundred of billions of dollars needs to be invested in infrastructure, especially in irrigation systems:

India, China, Pakistan and other large countries avoided famines in the 1970s and 1980s only because they built giant state-sponsored irrigation systems and introduced better seeds and fertilisers. But the extra 1.5 billion people expected to live on the continent by 2050 will double Asia's demand for food, says the report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Bank-funded International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

A combination of very little new land left for cultivation, an increasingly unpredictable climate and water supplies stretched to the limit means the only realistic option to feed people in the future will be better management of existing water supplies, according to the report.

For the full article see here.

SO LETS GO DO THAT!!! I'd be surprised if it happens though, for some reason or another.. call me cynical.