Food is a pleasure that has found many ways to adapt to the country where they are prepared. The ingredients, although they may appear similar to those of other continents, there is always a unique stamp associated with the taste of each dish depending on processing, origin of meat or vegetables and spices being used (http://www.whichcountry.co/countries-with-best-food/).

However, food is not only a pleasure of the taste. There are very much to learn about global cultures and habits and importance of agriculture, farming, food production and processing. Why some countries are better than others and why, for example, The Netherlands is ranked best in world food systems (http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2014/01/15/netherlands-ranked-best-in-world-food-systems/). Also, why European countries and Australia are among the ten best countries. The challenges countries faced in getting enough of the right food are dependent on many factors. Oxfam’s Good Enough to Eat Index asked four core questions using two measures each in order to get a global ranking of eating in terms of accessibility, affordability and quality of food, and the unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet. Here are these questions and measures used in the global assessment and ranking:  1. Do people have enough to eat? – Measured by levels of undernourishment and underweight children; 2. Can people afford to eat? – Measured by food price levels compared to other goods and services and food price volatility; 3. Is food of good quality? – Measured by diversity of diet and access to clean and safe water; and 4. What is the extent of unhealthy outcomes of people’s diet? – Measured by diabetes and obesity.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/the-best-and-worst-countries-in-the-world-for-eating#i7aod3

Sustainability issues are imperative for the survival and any technology. Lead, as other toxic compounds, has negative environmental and ecological impacts both what concerns air and water quality.

Researchers from USA and U.K. came up with new research where they claim could be a win-win solution for new long-lasting solar panels that provide emissions-free power. The idea is to use recycled lead from discarded car batteries to produce solar cells using perovskite “organo-lead halide perovskite”. This technology has rapidly progressed from initial experiments to a point where its efficiency is nearly competitive with other types of solar cells. Perovskite technology identified its use of lead as a drawback. Researchers claim that using recycled lead from old car batteries can save the environment insteed of the energy and waste demanding lead mining. Also, such technology can benefit from excess lead in the future markets because of production of new lead-free batteries.

Production of “perovskite” solar cells is relatively simple and economic as the process can be done at low-temperature with reduced number of steps as compared with the manufacture of conventional solar cells. So, it would be “easy to get to large scale cheaply”. Questions still remain (https://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/8/19/solar-energy/revolutionary-perovskite-solar-cells-could-be-game-changer-questions) about how this technology become sustainable: (1) would large-scale production require additional lead mining as lead-recycling is currently used to produce lead-batteries, i.e. before there is complete shift to new car-batteries?; (2) would lead used in this technology be capsulated with no leak to the environment under the life-time of solar cells?; (3) would the life-time of “perovskite-based” solar cell be as long as traditional solar cells?

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/08/recycling-old-batteries-into-solar-cells?cmpid=SolarNL-Tuesday-August19-2014

“Knowledge” is needed in all sectors and on all levels in any society, however the content of knowledge for achieving “sustainable socio-economic developments” needs not necessarily to be of the same components, structure and organization. To bring about changes and developments in any society knowledge has to be “fresh” in the sense that it has to be up-dated or “refreshed” not only to mitigate historical imparities but also to meet emerging necessities and to have capabilities and instruments to deal with any future known or unknown challenges. Knowledge has, also, to be individually adapted to maximize engagement and integration of all citizens and stakeholders for the benefits and welfare of the society.

In our ICT-based “Information Communication Technology” societies there are huge capital and diversity of knowledge resources, though needs of more knowledge still remain to be among essential priorities. Problems and difficulties in many societies for bringing about changes, especially what regards sustainable developments, are not a priori related to availability and accessibility of knowledge but rather the management of knowledge in terms of structure, transfer and adaption on both vertical and horizontal levels. In this context, instruments for appropriate coupling of science and technology to society and market needs is an imperative part of structuring, transferring and adapting knowledge. This is the essence core of successful knowledge-management policies where the coupling goes through citizens and stakeholders, i.e. within and between the very building blocks in the society, i.e. “individuals” and “groups”, in all society levels and sectors.

Services, i.e. serve and get served, production and consumption have to be shaped and based on sound economic policies involving all basic sustainability requirements, i.e. the conservation and protection of natural resources. If all natural resources are consumed, wasted and/or degraded, then it wouldn’t be possible to have life any more. In a knowledge-based society difficulties don’t exist in how knowledge can be obtained and how “citizens”, as carriers, transformers and generators of knowledge, can be engaged to form and shape “consumption”, “production” and “services” for the benefit of their society. The optimum functioning of any society is therefore a balance of these components: why knowledge is needed; what and when knowledge is required; how can knowledge can be produced, transferred, disseminated and propagated.

A major part of the capital knowledge of humans is stored in “virtual memories” around the world. However, such knowledge is accessible but not necessarily affordable for everyone. The Internet provides knowledge with variable quality and in a very scattered and random way though search engines may provide certain limited structuring. Traditional sources of knowledge through libraries are still important sources to “on-line” publishing with excellent audio-visual illustrations and “open-access” versions. In social and human sciences, for example, morals and ethics can be biased by historical misconceptions with negative impacts on freedom of speech as expressed by the public on the Internet. Quality of knowledge is, therefore, essential not only for sustainable socio-economic development but also for lasting security, safety and political stability.

Issues and topics of relevance for achieving socio-economic developments around the world are being discussed and detalied in http://sustain-earth.com

According to a report by sustainability investment firm Robecosam Sweden is ranked as the most sustainable country in the world. But why? and such a status was achieved? What long-time is took to get their? and how it was possible to revert Sweden poverty to what Sweden is today?

Some reasons are its use of renewable energy sources and low carbon dioxide emissions, as well as social and governance practices such as labor participation, education and institutional framework.

Follow http://sustain-earth.com to know more about sustainability.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2013/08/19/sweden-most-sustainable-country-in-the-world/

Water quality is often understood in its narrowest meaning where the focus is limited and reduced to portable water. Often at homes, schools, and communities as well as even among policy-makers and politicians, especially in developing countries, the knowledge is still limited to drinking water. This can be true on short-term and small-scale levels to secure affordable and accessible water resources with acceptable quality to mitigate immediate and epidemic impacts on human health.

However, this understanding has generated serious and widespread global threats with disastrous impacts on ecosystem and human health worldwide. This is evident from historical “palaeo-environmental” data that gives information on evolution of water quality and its degradation in natural water resources, e.g. rivers, lakes, reservoirs, marine coasts, wetlands and groundwater. Long-term and large-scale monitoring of the quality of natural water resources and associated impacts on eco-system and human health are IMPERATIVE and there are standard ways to do such studies. Typically, there are two approaches: (1) continuous monitoring of contemporaneous water quality status, such as those given in the present report given in the provided link; (2) full historical records on the evolution of water quality due to point/diffuse pollution sources.

Both approaches are necessary have different and important benefits. The first one is used for “Early Warning” with direct coupling to enforce regulation and laws on stakeholders regarding production of waste/pollution, also to take necessary measures and solutions to cope with the threats, and to give relevant information to the public. While, the second is important for uncovering long-term and large-scale impacts on water quality, e.g. acidification, eutrophication, chemical pollution, other industry/agriculture associated threats and climate impacts. It is, also, useful for assessing consequences of environmental and ecological impacts of pollution/waste in terms of their cycles from source to sink. This outcome of the seconds approach has feedback impacts on international laws and regulations and for implementation appropriate rehabilitation strategies.

Click to access water_quality_human_health.pdf

The magic actions and power of water have been the major drivers for the creation of the most beautiful natural places on earth which can be seen in Turkey, China, Columbia, Thailand, Iceland, Indonesia, USA, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Maldives Islands, Norway, Venezuela, Australia, Canada, France, Croatia, Northern Vietnam, Seychelles Islands, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Alaskan glaciers, Switzerland and New Zealand.

Among these natural formations from the long journey of evolution are: volcanic deposits; natural mountain forests; exotic waters and marvelous lakes; beautiful islands and exotic fjords embedded in green mountain landscape; water falls; forested and exotic islands; mountain rivers; spectacular green landscape; glacial mountains; virgin beaches; national parks; sea reefs with exotic sea life; canyons and rocky mountains; ocean Polynesians, exotic vegetation’s and fauna; limestone’s mountains; ice formations; sand and rocky deserts; the Alps; and rocky coasts; wadis and oasis.

Pioneer experiments to be carried out by Norwegian scientists, at the Technological Center Mongstad, to capture carbon dioxide and turn it into food, in form of algae, for fish farming in sea water. This means reducing global warming, enhancing bio-production and conservation of fresh-water. Similar innovations where natural resources are being used as essential parts for multi-solutions of complex threats are needed in long-term and large-scale policies to mitigate the collective threats from global warming, i.e. fresh-water scarcity, food constrains and other associated impacts from climate change threats.

The new technique could, in theory, absorb the gases responsible for global warming and at the same time provide sustainable fish food. It involves, also, production of omega-3 rich raw material for fish feed from algae. Fish need Omega-3 fatty acids that can be hard to get in the farmed fish sector, however in natural habitats fish accumulate these essential chemicals by ingesting algae. Farmed fish cannot do this and instead require a food supplement.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/science/norway-experiments-with-fish-food-made-from-carbon-dioxide/article/390634?utm_content=buffereb09c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Solar panels don’t come falling out of the sky – they have to be manufactured. As is the case in any production of electronics and computer chips, this is a dirty and energy-intensive process. Raw materials have to be mined, transported and treated,  i.e. quartz sand for silicon cells and other metal ores for thin film cells. Treatment requires different steps, e.g. purification, crystallization and wafering, also deposition). Upgraded materials have to be manufactured into solar cells, assembled into modules and transported. These steps brings with them air pollution, heavy metal emissions, and they consume energy and add more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

How electricity from solar panels is generated (existing three scenarios of energy mix), in which part of the world (solar insolation), and for which purpose (energy generating or energy guzzling equipment) solar panels are being used, these factors allow more appropriate assessment of the ecological burden of solar panel technology. Additional relevant factor for full assessment are how solar-technology is likely to develop in future and manufacturers warranties of life expectancy versus existing consumers laws/incentives. With these factors more realistic conclusions can be deduced what concerns “energy-ecological assessment” of solar panels.

Now What is New and have to be taken in consideration. First, solar cells are far from a zero emission technology, they do add pollution and carbon dioxide to the environment, and with considerable amounts. Solar panels can be a doubtful choice in less sunny regions and solar panels mounted on gadgets are completely insane. Solar cells should be recycled but who would do it, would the huge amount of waste be transported all the way around the world to the manufacture? Also, some law or incentive should be introduced to guarantee longtime of life expectancy so as the technology can survive. If possible and as an important conclusion, solar thermal power should have priority over solar PV power.

These facts mean that ALL SUSTAINABILITY factors should be taken in consideration for the best promotion of solar technology. For example, it’s much better using solar panels to make energy generating equipment instead of energy guzzling equipment (like computers, mobile phones and car electronics). It should be realized that solar panels first raise the amount of greenhouse gasses before they help lowering them. If the world collectively would embark on giant deployment of solar energy, the first result would be massive amounts of extra greenhouse gasses, due to the enormous production of the cells. Rush using a technology that is still developing and to accept it as universal solution anywhere and for anything wouldn’t be the best eco-friendly optimized solution specially that the recycling-technology of used solar panels is not yet in place. Recycling-technologies and handling of waste and pollution of all types of industries are IMPERATIVE for conservation and protection of natural resources and the environment.

Solar planels can be only used as energy resource but petroleum “oil” is not just a fuel but thousands of products can be processed and produced from petroleum (http://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm). About 54% of petroleum is used for the processing of these products and their production doesn’t necessarily yield carbon dioxide and/or pollution and recycling technologies of these products are already in place.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/03/the-ugly-side-o.html

The global food chain involves people that are enslaved, tortured and even killed while working to get the food that ends on our tables. One example is the seafood sold in the US, UK and Europe where enslaved people are forced to work hard and with no pay and under huge threat of extreme violence. They work under horrific conditions, including 20-hour shifts, regular beatings, torture and execution-style killings. Trafficking victims tell stories about fellow slaves murdered or committing suicide in front of them.

“Asian slave labor” are bought and sold like animals and held against their will on the fishing boats of prawns or shrimp sold in leading supermarkets around the world, including the top four global retailers: Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco. The world’s largest prawn farmer, the Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, buys fishmeal, feeding its farmed prawns, from some suppliers that own, operate or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves. CP Foods – annual turnover of $33bn (£20bn) that brands itself as “the kitchen of the world” – sells its own-brand prawn to other farms, international supermarkets, food manufacturers and food retailers, with frozen or cooked prawns and ready-made meals, also raw prawn materials for food distributors.

The alarm over slavery in the Thai fishing industry has been sounded before by non-governmental organizations and in UN reports. But the Guardian has established how the pieces of the long, complex supply chains connect slavery to leading producers and retailers. “If you buy prawns or shrimp from Thailand, you will be buying the produce of slave labor,” said Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International.

An interesting observation made by a US researcher is that global warming introduced negative impacts on the labor market and forced people to slavery. Increasing sea level caused enhanced salinity of agricultural land in coastal areas of Asia with effects on people to leave agriculture to fishing industry and the threats of being unemployed made them victims for slavery.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jun/10/supermarket-prawns-thailand-produced-slave-labour

Poverty as dealt with in relative terms is not the same as in absolute numbers of poor people. That becomes very clear when we take in consideration the growing world population, the declining access to natural resources on the planet, the accelerating scarcity of water because of increasing competition on water resources, accelerating pressures on fertile land because of degradation in soil quality and associated increase in food prices.

Under such conditions the global market of slaves find it way and has expanded into a big multi-billion industry with many people just living under extremely bad conditions with daily threats and mistreatment.  An example is Thai seafood slavery; with four simple things you can do and contribute in improving the working conditions of many people that are crying for help with voices that are not heard in cruel economic systems without fair-trade policies.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2014/jun/11/thai-seafood-slavery-four-simple-ways-you-can-help-video

African fertile farmland has potential not only to feed Africans but many other countries around the world. Indeed, Africa can be the next breadbasket of the world but what are the best sustainable approaches for developing the agriculture in Africa with consideration to the existing threats and needs in Africa. Agriculture in Africa doesn’t yield enough food for its population, Thailand for example currently exports more agricultural products than all sub-Saharan countries combined, yet climate change has many known and unknown threats to Africa’s yields.

Would big corporations grabbing up land on the planet’s hungriest continent be able to solve Africa’s current and future needs? Giant corporations versus small farming are two models with contrasting advantages for a continent coping with famine, poverty, threats of climate change and degradation in water quality from pollution and waste.

So far, most land deals have occurred in Africa, one of the few regions on the planet that still have millions of acres of fallow land and plentiful water available for irrigation. Cheep land and labor makes Africa very attractive for agricultural investments but with negative impacts on poor African small farmers. Chirime’s situation is what small farmers are currently facing in Africa and it is hardly unique. She’s just one character in the biggest story in modern global agriculture reality. The situation as such is an unlikely quest to turn sub-Saharan Africa, historically one of the hungriest places on the planet, into a major new breadbasket for the world. But who will do the farming in Africa’s future? Will it be poor farmers like Chirime working one-acre plots, who make up roughly 70 percent of the Africa’s labor force? Or will it be giant corporations like Wanbao, operating industrial farms like those of American Midwest?

Humanitarian groups that deal with global hunger and peasants’ rights call corporate land deals neocolonialism and agri-imperialism. Yet veterans of agricultural development say the massive infusion of private cash, infrastructure, and technology that such deals may bring to poor rural areas could be a catalyst for desperately needed development—if big projects and small farmers can work together. But, how the land rights of the people can be protected, the global poverty be significantly reduced? Who would implement sustainable policies for the mitigation of climate change? Who would develop large-scale and long-term actions for conservation of water resources and protection against pollution and waste? With the existing threats of increasing soil erosion, and expected degradation in soil fertility, how/when land-water management strategies would be planned, coordinated and implemented to achieve sustainable socio-economic developments in Africa?

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/land-grab/

Our environment, in particular water, land and air, has been the victim of all sorts of attacks, either of natural, e.g. hurricanes and earthquakes, and/or of man-made origins. Waste and pollution from man-made activities such as wars, explosions, accidents, chemical spills, etc. has caused enormous threats to all life forms on earth. This video gives a summary on the 25 biggest environmental disasters of history, however waste and pollution remain to be major threats for all life forms on earth.

Mismanagement of freshwater resources is still taking place around the world though previous disasters that is worthwhile to learn from. The overuse of water resources is currently a major global problem and the outcome from such overuse wouldn’t be different than what happened to Aral Sea. Water management policies should be based on appropriate “Environmental Consequence Analysis” with consideration to large-scale and long-term impacts and not on short-term economic interests only.

The story of the Aral Sea is one of such lessons. In 1950’s the water of the Aral Sea were largely untouched with two rivers replenishing the sea. The Soviet Union that managed the region at that time did major water projects with the goal of boasting the economy by converting land-use from pasture to cotton fields. Along with farming and other industries considerable amounts of water were consumed from the rivers, the water feeding the sea became so scarce and gradually evaporated away.

The vanishing of the Aral Sea and the associated transformation the landscape to huge desert and salty areas is “one of the planet’s worst environmental disasters”. The Aral sea-region once prosperous fishing industry with natural land that could otherwise be used for many other purposes has been essentially destroyed, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. Such destruction brought severe environmental degradation and heavily pollution with consequent serious public health problems. The blown up sand, dust and salt caused large-scale degradation of soil fertility. In addition to these impacts, the retreat of the sea has also caused local climate change, with summers becoming hotter and drier, and winters colder and longer. Local citizens can tell about the damage brought about by short-term policies without consideration to the existing population. The local population was faced with lack of future, increasing unemployment for young people and no work for decades.

The people there have already begun to reverse the drain and restore the Aral Sea “Back From The Brink” through loans from the World Bank. Dried up wells started to be replenished and life started to be better (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEd0hz4Axp4&feature=youtu.be)

Safe water and air are essential for all life forms on earth and there are “safety limits” where water and air can turn unsafe, dangerous or even toxic. Healthy water is carrier of nutrients and healthy air is carrier of oxygen and carbon dioxide (with specific composition), both of which are required for healthy life. Healthy water and healthy air are, also, fresh and free from toxic matter “clean”, under such conditions all forms of life are healthy.

Fresh water, fresh air and healthy eco-systems are related in complex web of functioning, interactions and metabolism. Nature managed to great extent to “clean” itself, to optimize and fix all life parameters in an extremely accurate and delicate balance. Evolution of life on earth struggled for millions of years to bring about perfect living environments and climate conditions. As a reslut of such long struggle earth provided humans with healthy food. What didn’t happen over-night we succeeded to change over-night. We are competing more and more to degrade the life quality on the earth and we are succeeding.

The water and air we are polluting are the raw material and the natural resources for our life. If we ignore them and don’t take care of them, i.e. make them fresh, they wouldn’t care about us and they will ignore us. If we turn them to victims, they will also turn us to victims!

file:///Users/farid/Desktop/Chemical%20pollution%20of%20European%20waters%20is%20stronger%20than%20anticipated%20%7C%20Science%20Codex.webarchive

The role and involvement of individuals in achieving sustainable water resources is becoming an important component in water management. Understanding how to act, react and interact to protect water resources involves understanding the major components that influence water quality of the natural water resources.

“POLLUTANTS” that influence “WATER QUALITY” have different “SOURCES” and get mobilized to  “WATER SYSTEMS” by various ways and dynamics by which water move and get transported from one place to another “HYDROLOGY”. How pollutants get mobilized is dependent on the “USES” of water and the “Practices” utilized by all involved stakeholders/consumers. In order to take part in SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS it is essential to understand how different pollutants are produced from various sources and stakeholders, their pathways and their impacts of on water quality. This allows active participation in sustainable management of water resources.

The human waste is growing faster than the increasing global population. By the end of this century, the production of waste is expected to peak at three-times today’s current generation rate. Urbanization “Cities” is supposed to be the best bet we have to meet global poverty reduction targets through feedbacks on wealth, culture, and innovation. However, there are many severe negative impacts from urbanization on environmental conditions in particular aquatic and ecological qualities as well as the global biodiversity. Urbanization is taking place and expanding so rapid that it is, at the same time, bringing with it huge shares of the world’s GHG “Green House Gas” emissions, increasing decline in biodiversity, lots and fast generation of amounts of solid waste.

If we don’t urgently invest and put huge efforts in management of our waste and mitigating their impacts on water, eco-systems and biodiversity future generations will be forced to spend their lifetime in environmental and ecological bankruptcy resulted from our “production-consumption” civilization. Most of the time for future generation, in particular in the next century, have to be spent not only for searching about food but, also, for finding non-toxic and healthy food. The priorities of the next century will shift towards fighting against increasing degradation of environment and water resources; putting more resources, energy and efforts in waste-treatment, fighting against diseases, spending much of their resources on medication and protection from pollution and waste.

http://blogs.worldbank.org//sustainablecities/peak-waste-and-poverty-powerful-paradox

The Sahara or the Great Desert, in Arabic Al Sahra al-Kubra “الصحراءالكبرى” is one of major deserts on planet Earth, i.e. landscape that receives very little precipitation, rain or snow, less than 250 mm per year. It is as big as the USA and its sand can burry the whole world 20 cm deep. Desert land does not necessarily mean sand and sand dunes; many deserts are rocky surfaces as well. One third of the earth’s surface is desert lands that exist in polar, subtropical, cold winter and cool coastal regions. Deserts have no surface streams because of rapid evaporation, transpiration (by plants and subsequent release to atmosphere) or/and infiltration into the ground. Deserts have unique fauna and flora that are adapted to the harsh climate and environment conditions, i.e. intense sun, limited precipitation, severe temperature ranges, dry wind and low humidity. 

The Sahara Desert is located in subtropical North Africa and it is the hottest place on the planet. The mystery of what created and changed the Sahara desert has revealed a turbulent past. The African tectonic plate collided with Europe and what was a huge sea turned gradually to land, with the Mediterranean as remaining sea, many million of years ago. Finding whales in the desert is not a climatological story but rather a geological evolution. Indeed, the Sahara has the highest fossil remains in the world, almost all of them are marine animals such as those found in Wadi Al Hitan, Egypt “Whales Valley”. The reconstruction of the evolution and the history of the Sahara were made possible through the remaining fossils of sea creatures in the desert itself along with geological information from deep sediment cores. Sediment cores are excellent archives for obtaining historical, environmental and climatological information. Whale bones in the desert showed that 40 millions years ago the Sahara was a sea bed, deep ocean sediment cores containing wind blown sand revealed that sea water dried up three millions years ago. Freshwater shells buried in sand showed that 90 000 years ago the “wobbles” of the earth’s axis (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html) created huge freshwater lakes and rivers and turned the Sahara green every 20 000 years. Ostrich eggshell, used by prehistoric settlements for manufacturing beads, indicated that just 7000 years ago the Sahara enjoyed its final burst of life before returning into desert.

The story of the Sahara showed that it wasn’t always a barren wasteland. Life was not static, it could shift, change, evolve and it can bloom again into green terrain, i.e. in the distant future. Ground penetrating radars showed that there are huge freshwater lakes “groundwater” under the surface of the Sahara Desert. Such fossil water can be million of years old. This gives hopes for turning the desert to green land by being reclaimed for agriculture and farming. Nubian Aquifer (Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Chad) is an example of such fossil water and is already in use. Fossil water is non-renewable resource, can only be used once and is sufficient for a short period of time depending on consumption, probably can last something like 100 years. After being consumed the desert has to wait for another 15000 years before once more earth “wobbles” turns it green again.

Note. The earth wobbles in space makes it tilt around its axis on a cycle of 41 000 years with introduction of changes in the seasons. More tilt means more severe seasons, i.e. warmer summers and colder winters; less tilt means less severe seasons – colder summers and milder winters.

This new chapter of history that tells the story of the past turbulent landscape of the Sahara gives interesting information on how the earth and desert was made. 

New research data is pointing towards population peak around 2055, about 8.7 billions, followed by decline to 8 billions by 2100 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/101018722).  However, according to data given below peak population could occur by the year 2070 when the population might be 9.5 or 10 billion. Previous data by the United Nations “UN” foresee further rise until 2100 to reach 10.9 billions with no peak population.

The carrying capacity of planet earth is a very much-discussed topic with many different scenarios and predictions. However, increasing amount of data have shifted towards more clear trends a converging world population towards a peak around 2050 due to the declining of global fertility. All developed, less developed and least developed regions show declining fertilities that already started around 1960. The period of continuous increase in global population because of increasing average human life span and decline in human mortality will soon be over.

http://www.camelclimatechange.org/view/article/51cbee0b7896bb431f695b54/?topic=51cbfc8ef702fc2ba812d477