Development

This page relates to economic sustainable development in Third World countries. Protecting the environment is not possible, or even desirable, without eliminating hunger and poverty.

See also Economics, Environmental JusticeGlobalization, Entrepreneurship, Colonialism,Consumption, and Sustainability (especially Appropriate Technology), Population. Food Scarcity, and Women

Currently, some of biggest problems to track are in Haiti, Pakistan and Africa, especially Sudan/Darfur.

Big Picture

Human growth has strained the Earth's resources, but as Johan Rockstrom reminds us, our advances also give us the science to recognize this and change behavior. His research has found nine "planetary boundaries" that can guide us in protecting our planet's many overlapping ecosystems. TEDtalk.

Articles/Reports

Population: Mother Jones Magazine has a series of articles on population (5/10)One of the authors participated in a radio panel 5/10 . There's a consensus that Earth doesn't have enough resources to support the world's growing population -- but there's disagreement about the root of the problem. Some think the problem lies with the growing third world, others that it is the consumption habits of the developed nations that cause the problem. More. Hans Rosling video and other links. Here are so more amusing and opinionated takes videos. See also Population Page.

Growing a Better Future: Food justice in a Resource-Constrained World 5/11 report from Oxfam.

Gender Inequality and economic development from Oxfam.

Land grab by China and multinational corporations such as Monsanto and private equity funds (sometimes as tax dodge) may be the largest threat to food security. "Inefficient" small subsistence farmers (mostly women) become refugees and miners. Extensive research by Oakland Institute.

Websites

New Doctors Without Borders has a website with video documentaries on hunger. DWB/MSF has had great results helping kids with peanut butter.

Causes of poverty slideshow.

Oxfam International deals with poverty eradication, especially in terms of hunger.

A motley but interesting set of links

Envisiongood.com has video interviews with a collection of people with interesting ideas.

Interactive

UCSC's Atlas of Global Inequality

Gapminder.org by Hans Rosling is stunning. Hans Rosling created Gapminder.org, video overview. 2009 TEDtalk.

OECD Better Life Index

National Development Game: You've just been elected as Prime Minister of Blendia for the next 50 years! Blendia is an imaginary island located off the western cost of Africa. Your job is to help promote the sustainable growth of its economy by minimizing debt and interest payments.

Online game: contribute your ideas to fight global poverty!

Video

"Kiva.org: a transparent, web-based microfinance system". Premal Shah, President, video on micro-finance 2008 5 min interview video. Kiva co-founder TEDtalk.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Sheryl WuDunn makes a convincing case for the idea that gender inequality is the greatest moral challenge of the 21st century TEDtalk video.

You've probably heard about the hundred dollar laptop (TEDtalk video), which provides a rugged, easy to use but powerful tool to kids in the developing world. The Bee is a mobile computing system that allows communication, connectivity and data access in field conditions where such technologies are often difficult or impossible to use. As access to both power and connectivity are limiting factors in many emergency and field settings, the Bee has been built with these limitations in mind. It can be charged with solar power, a car battery, or a conventional power source and can use WiFi, GSM Networks, a FM radio transmitter, or a satellite uplink to communicate.

Impact of Air Pollution from Household Cooking Fires. More than half the world's population cook their meals with solid fuels over open fires or on primitive stoves inside their homes. UCSFs Lisa Thompson explains that this indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants which causes 1.6 million deaths a year. Amy Smith, an amazing MIT engineer and her students have taken on this challenge in Haiti TEDtalk video. UC Livermore lab also has a project in Darfur. video. 9/10 update on US/UN initiative (audio).

Director Lucy Walker spent months filming the stories of garbage pickers working at Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's largest landfills, for her 2011 Academy Award-nominated documentary, Waste Land. (trailer)After her Waste Land experience, Lucy set out to learn what happens to Los Angeles' garbage. slideshow and video) 7/11

TEDtalk theme Re-Thinking Poverty includes:

Cat Laine draws on the Greek myth of Tantalus to explain the frustration developing countries face. She shows how we might help communities rich in human capital, but poor in resources and infrastructure, with cleverly engineered solutions. via TEDtalk

Haiti: Saving the Environment, Preventing Instability and Conflict 28 April 2009. Reversing a decades-long trend of environmental destruction is essential to Haiti’s development, social and economic stability and, ultimately, security. video overview

The Price of Sugar In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens.

Kevin Bales is the co-founder of Free the Slaves, whose mission is to end all forms of human slavery within the next 25 years. He's the author of "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves." Slavery (27 million today) is an important factor in eco-destruction. TEDtalk video

Shaffi Mather explains why he left his first career to become a social entrepreneur, providing life-saving transportation with his company 1298 for Ambulance. Now, he has a new idea and plans to begin a company to fight the booming business of corruption in public service, eliminating it one bribe at a time.

Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.

Iqbal Quadir says mobile phones fight poverty (2005 TEDtalk)

Low cost eye care TEDtalk.

Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen argues that reducing humanity's ecological footprint is incredibly vital now, as the western consumer lifestyle spreads to developing countries. TEDtalk.

Books

Poor Economics addresses the pitfalls of current aid programs and advocates for a radical new approach to thinking about poverty. audio interview. 5/11

See "We Are Still Here" in Earth Odysseyor e-book on the origins of Darfur, Sudan.

Peter Singer, author of The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

In his new book, World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse, Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown looks at the state of the world's resources ( a "food bubble"), warning that the outlook does not look good when it comes to feeding the world's population.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Sheryl WuDunn makes a convincing case for the idea that gender inequality is the greatest moral challenge of the 21st century TEDtalk video.

Audio

Tom Friedman interview based on his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded excerpt/intro 09/08

Interview with Jeffrey Sachs, an economist interested in ecological and social justice issues. Author of the excellent book The End of Poverty. Here's a more recent text interview, with a reference to his new book Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet

Debal Deb discusses his new book Beyond Developmentality: Constructing Inclusive Freedom and Sustainability. audio

Women raising chickens in Uganda has surprising benefits. LOE.org 2/10

UCSC Resources

Ben Crow has expertise in water and hunger issues. He teaches SOCY-167 - Development & Underdevelopment SOCY-179 - Nature, Poverty, and Progress, as well as SOCY-220 - Global Transformation. He also works on Atlas of Global Inequality. His new article on water projects in Kenya 11/11

Paul Lubeck has expertise on globalization and advises Global Information Internship Program GIIP. After 12 years, GIIP has transformed from an idea to a full-fledged academic program. Last summer, GIIP became a major and a minor. The sociology department now includes an honors major and minor, Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies (GISES), that is modeled after GIIP.