What international agreement produced 10 times the climate benefits of Kyoto and could produce several times more greenhouse gas reductions than any post-2012 climate agreement? The answer: the Montreal protocol, which Kofi Annan described as “perhaps the most successful international agreement to date”. Because a new climate agreement is unlikely to emerge in Copenhagen in December, it is time to look for possible interim alternative ideas in the Montreal protocol, which supporters call the best kept secret in the war against climate change.

Urban society may seem a modern phenomenon but cities have been around for a lot longer than one might think. Indeed, once nomadic tribes began to settle in one location, they saw that it was good, became fruitful, and multiplied. Decades, centuries and millennia passed while war, climate change and human migration all took their toll. Relatively few ancient cities have managed to survive the test of time. Here are 10 that have not only survived, but continue to thrive.

This is a self-initiated project based on the scenario – If the world were a village of 100 people. There are a few different versions of this text in circulation about the world’s statistics. I found the data very striking and neatly summarises the world that we live in. So I used information graphics to re-tell the story in another creative way. I designed a set of 20 posters, which contain most of the information. I used simple vector graphics that related to a statistic in order to present the information in the simplest and most accessible way.

Fact: World Bank has been collecting massive amounts of data, for the past 50+ years, and now possesses one of the richest repository of information about economic development in the world. World Bank Open API is an initiative of the World Bank that opens the wealth of the World Bank's global economic data to the outside world, in a standard, easily accessible way. Open API allows third parties to develop mash-ups and applications with the World Bank data and easily create different kinds of interesting visualizations and insightful reports.

Essay: As the world faces economic turmoil, cleaner energy can create jobs and reignite global growth.

If you're one of those people hoping to change the world in 2009, writer Mark Bittman says you can start by changing what you eat. In his new book, Food Matters, The New York Times food columnist writes about the environmental impact of industrial farming — and how individuals can make a difference by cutting down on the amount of animal products they consume.

Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion

2008 has been an eventful year to say the least - it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I've done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It's not the story of 2008, it's certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Watch for part 2 and part 3 tomorrow and the next day.

Ever wondered how you rank with the rest of the world in the amount of money you spend on food in a week? I got this email and it has some great pictures along with the amount of cash each family spends in feeding themselves for a week all around the world. From the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio

I’ve learned that the World Bank now offers an API for several of its data sets on development, governance, and business conditions, plus a collection of photos.

Article about the fundamental difference between a steady-state economy and continuous growth economy. A steady state — a system that permits qualitative development but not aggregate quantitative growth.

In many places — the atolls of the Pacific, the shrimp beds of the Eastern Seaboard, the fiords of Norway — some of the most advanced forms of ocean life are struggling to survive while the most primitive are thriving and spreading. Fish, corals and m

De FAO, de voedsel- en landbouworganisatie van de Verenigde Naties, staat aan de rand van de afgrond. Dat is de harde conclusie van een extern onderzoek naar de organisatie, dat in opdracht van de lidstaten is uitgevoerd.

As we've noted before, there is a strong relationship between environmental crises and social instability. Similarly, developing world communities with healthy environments and sound practices (from farming sustainably to building greenbelts) often see fa