NATURE: Afforestation is the cozy climate solution everyone likes. Fred Pearce believes it is far more important to fight logging and rather let the forest grow back on its own. He points out that with 25 per cent more trees, these would be able to pull as much as 200 billion tonnes of CO000 out of the atmosphere – enough in itself to keep us below the target of a 2 degree temperature rise by 1,5.
Urbanization: Moving from the countryside to the city has lifted many people out of poverty, particularly in developing countries. The city provides better access to work, services and freedom from inhibiting social norms. At the same time, life for the city's poor can be difficult.
Brazil: Security in Rio Janeiro is about much more than police operations. It is about the people who live there, outsiders and how they live in a society where they are denied public services.
CAPTURE: The authorities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico are now investing in start-ups, incubators and training programs. But at the same time, Colombia can confiscate protesters' phones; in Ecuador, the authorities block the same access to servers; and in Nicaragua and Venezuela, governments have routinely restricted access to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The United States and China are on aggressive courtship trips to countries throughout the region.
POLICE POLICY IN BRAZIL: A forensically detailed catalog of state-sponsored killings paints a dark picture of life and death for poor, black youth in Rio's vast slums.
While Brazil is gearing up for this summer's Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the country's poor in particular are characterized by fears of a disease with little knowledge. "If all the Olympics had been used differently, there might have been less mosquitoes here today," says pregnant Marcelle.
The class differences are striking in beautiful Rio de Janeiro. A city that has been honored with – or perhaps haunted by – two major sporting events in two years: the Soccer World Cup 2014, and the upcoming Summer Olympics in August 2016.
In Brazil, global problems and opportunities are very visible, both in terms of racial conflicts, environmental politics and the distribution of goods. A trip to South America's largest country can therefore provide an exemplary insight into the global contemporary.
Much suggests that sailing competitions during Olympics 2016 will be held in a running garbage dump. The attempts to clean up the heavily polluted Guanabara Bay have so far been half-hearted.
The Brazilian Navy uses a Norwegian reactor in the development of nuclear fuel for its submarines. Halden reactor gave Brazil uranium to "avoid bureaucracy".