Only in a centrally controlled economy could you pull off what China is attempting to do by moving a quarter billion of its people from rural villages and farms to new urban centres. This begs the question – why? The government argues that there is little value creation in rural

What’s in this week’s headlines? Three medical stories, one on world population and food, and another on China and capping carbon emissions.   MS Breakthrough Holds Promise for Treating Autoimmune Diseases and Responses; Non-invasive Treatment May Be a Cure for Blindn

There is a finite amount of arable land on which to raise food crops and livestock on our planet. There is only so much freshwater to go around. So if today we are struggling to feed more than 1 billion of the 7 billion on Earth, what do we need to do to ensure that 2.5 billion more m

Here’s an interesting fact. Greater than half of the population of this planet prepares meals each day using indoor open fires or cook stoves. There are enormous health implications for those families, and in particular infants, who breathe in the toxic smoke that includes carbo

Last week I finished reading Al Gore’s latest tome, a follow up to his well publicized “An Inconvenient Truth,” probably his most significant contribution to the global climate change debate, although I would think “debate” is an over statement at this st

As I was reading my morning paper today I came across a quote from Robert Friedland, an entrepreneur and mining engineer who in giving a speech to the MineAfrica event of the Prospectors and Developers Association annual conference being held in my hometown of Toronto, talked about th

Humans are hard-wired social creatures. We have always organized ourselves starting with nuclear families and extending to formal and informal groupings such as tribes, gangs, clubs, political parties, nations and religions. Today we are on a macro level politically organized around t

The GMO (genetically modified organism) FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) needs to be addressed because we humans are at a cross roads in selectively improving our food sources to ensure that we have enough for a growing world population in the 21st century. Humans have been improving wh

Late in January researchers at Cornell University announced the discovery of a gene they have called Scarecrow. The gene controls the photosynthesis structures found in plant leaves. Known as Kranz anatomy, this novel leaf anatomical structure provides plants which have it considerabl

Last Friday I was sitting on a balcony in Jamaica with the sound of the sea and reggae in the background. Today as I look out my window here in Toronto we are experiencing a winter storm that will dump 40 centimeters (up to a foot-and-a-half) of snow on the city. You can see the befor