People & Population

"Three years into Lisa Jackson’s tenure as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than a dozen formal complaints alleging air pollution is disproportionately harming low-income, minority communities remain unresolved. Each of these complaints has languished — in some instances, for more than a decade — in the EPA’s Office of Civil Rights despite Jackson’s stated commitment to environmental justice."

"Up to three million people in Afghanistan are facing hunger, malnutrition and disease after a severe drought wiped out their crops and extreme winter weather risks cutting off their access to vital food aid, a group of aid agencies warned Friday."

The Martins, a Latino family who live in Maywood, California, 10 minutes from downtown Los Angeles amid a sea of heavy industry, suffered from a variety of chronic sicknesses. Test results finally showed "The Martin family had traces of eight dangerous heavy metals and 17 industrial byproducts in their bodies. Levels of arsenic, chromium, mercury, manganese and vanadium were far higher than for most Americans."

"Monday marks the birth of the world’s seven billionth baby, according to the United Nations. In all likelihood, that child will probably take its first breaths in a city in a developing country, where projections say the majority of new children will be born."

"LONDON -- In five days, there will be an unprecedented seven billion people on Earth, the United Nations projects in a new State of World Population 2011 report released today in London and in more than 100 other cities throughout the world."