Wars between states have given way almost entirely to intrastate wars and armed conflicts. In 1999-2000 there were no fewer than fifty such wars, and they had killed 7 milion civilians since their inception. More than 90 percent of them since 1945 have taken place in developing countries. These conflicts increasingly draw surrounding countries into violence.

One in six adults on the planet cannot read or write. Some 600 million women and 300 million men, 99 percent of them in developing countries, remain illiterate. Some 115 million children between six and eleven-one in five-are not in school. Of those who go to school, one in four drop out before completing five years of basic education.

One of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protien. Total fish production was estimated at around 160 million tons per year, worth about 70-80 billion. With the population increase and higher standards of living, demand will increase substantially. Fishing is central to the livelihoods and food security of many communities, indeed etnire countries and regions.

Many places in the world are getting drier-not just becuse of climate change but also because of the demands of irrigation and industry. Lak Chad has shrunk to one-twentieth of its size in 1960. The Aral Sea is about gone. The Colorado river no longer reaches the sea in the dry season. Just 10 percent of Mesopotamian marshlands are left.

Global Warming is rapidly emerging as one of the toughest and most threatening of the twenty or so inherently global issues. This issue is so big, so much in the limeligh, that the author spends more time on it than on the others in this chapter.