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Could we increase the food supply while also protecting precious wild resources?
By Adam Majendie, Bloomberg
20 Dec 2020 07:45
Image: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
By the end of this year, 270 million people could be living in famine conditions, according to the United Nations World Food Programme, up from an already staggering 149 million before Covid-19. Add in the disruptive effects of climate change and our planetâs ever-increasing population, and weâre looking at difficult times ahead.
By 2050âthe year when a growing list of nations aim to have zeroed out their contributions to climate changeâthe UN projects the global population will be 9.7 billion, on its way to topping out at 11 billion in 2100. The pressure to produce more food, or at least to make more money from agriculture, is driving nations to clear forests and wetlands for farms and divert scant freshwater to grow crops in the desert. But is that really necessary? C
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Gold climbs as stimulus, Fed and fresh lockdowns support advance
Spot gold rose as much as 0.4% to $1,835.17 an ounce and was at $1,832.75 at 11:39 a.m. in Singapore, after a 0.7% drop on Monday.
By Ranjeetha Pakiam, Bloomberg
15 Dec 2020 08:59
Image: David Gray/Bloomberg
Gold advanced as investors weighed the prospects for a US spending package and possibility of further action from the Federal Reserve at its last meeting of the year, against the progress on the roll-out of vaccines.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers delivered details of a $908 billion relief package, splitting it into two parts in recognition of deep differences over state aid and a liability shield for employers. With Joe Biden now confirmed as president by the Electoral College, leaders in Congress need to find a way to get one or both parts through the House and Senate before the last of the relief provisions from earlier stimulus expire at the end of the year.