Fifty percent of the world’s population now lives in cities, a figure that is predicted to rise to 60 percent by 2030, and 70 percent by mid-century, according to UN figures. The majority of this growth will occur in the Global South, where most of the world’s slums are found.

Why the rampant urban migration? Prospects for better health care, education, and employment are drawing the world’s poor out of rural areas into cities. But as the number of impoverished city-dwellers and slums grows, it is becoming increasingly important for society to consider how it will address the problems associated with this unprecedented degree of global urbanization.

The BBC is reporting that Japan has reached an agreement with Vietnam that will help provide a secure supply of rare earth minerals, after China reportedly stopped exports to Japan during an ongoing territorial dispute last month.

China produces nearly all (97 percent, according to the GAO) of the rare earth minerals used around the world, minerals that are used in many advanced electronics including mobile phones, missiles, and key components of cleaner energy tech. Japanese companies are expected to gain exclusive exploration and mining rights in northwest Vietnam in exchange for technical assistance on nuclear reactors.

China’s reported export freeze on rare earths raised warning flags in the region as well as in Washington, where fears over exclusive supply of the crucial minerals have been growing for some time – particularly in the defense community. (Although Bloomberg reports a new Pentagon study says it’s not such a big deal after all.) Control over and access to resources has become an important concern in East Asian diplomacy, as population and consumption in the region rises. For more, check out The New Security Beat’s coverage of the many diplomatic fault lines at play between the lower Mekong countries, China, and the United States, rare earth minerals and green energy, and the conflict potential of future resource scarcity.

Sources: BBC, Bloomberg, Government Accountability Office, The New York Times, TechNewsDaily.

Image Credit: Adapted from “The Huc Bridge, Hanoi,” courtesy of flickr user -aw-.

With rising use in the developing world, cell phones and mobile technologies can create “connected and coordinated health systems that save more lives,” said Josh Nesbit at the GHI event “New Applications for Existing Technologies to Improve Maternal Health,” on October 27. Capitalizing on these new technologies could increase efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and efficacy of public health programs. Nesbit, executive director of FrontlineSMS: Medic, was joined by Alain Labrique, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and David Aylward, executive director of the mHealth Alliance at the United Nations Foundation, to discuss the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the prevention of maternal mortality.

Nathan Yaffe and Laura Dismore’s post on a Ethiopian land-grab case study, Marc Levy’s response to Halvard Buhaug, and India and China’s thirst for resources topped the list last month:

1. The Beat on the Ground: Ethiopian Case Study Illustrates Shortcomings of “Land Grab” Debate

2. On the Beat: Climate-Security Linkages Lost in Translation

3. India’s Maoists: South Asia’s “Other” Insurgency

4. U.S. v. China: The Global Battle for Hearts, Minds, and Resources

5. VIDEO: Peter Gleick on Peak Water

6. Brian O’Neill: Population Is Neither a Silver Bullet Nor a Red Herring in Climate Problem

7. DRC’s Conflict Minerals: Can U.S. Law Impact the Violence?

8. On the Beat: New Study Finds Lower Population Growth Could Cut Carbon Emissions, Lead Author Presents at SEJ 2010

9. Latin America’s Future: Emerging Trends in Economic Growth and Environmental Protection

10. Welcome Back, Roger-Mark: A Powerful Voice Returns to PHE

PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc. (PFPI) just released a short documentary, Population-Health-Environment (PHE) Leadership as a Way of Life in All Walks of Life. The video features interviews with peer educators and local government officials who have partnered with PFPI on integrated coastal resource management in the Philippines that combines family planning and reproductive health services with environmental services.

“We have millions of young children, babies, dying unnecessarily, hundreds of thousands of women dying in childbirth – most of them unnecessarily – in large part for lack of access to health, lack of access to health information,” said David Aylward, executive director of the UN Foundation’s mHealth Alliance. “And while wireless doesn’t solve any of those problems by itself, it is a conduit, a pathway to solve those problems.”

We spoke to Aylward before the Global Health Initiative (GHI) event “New Applications for Existing Technologies to Improve Maternal Health,” at the Wilson Center earlier this week.

“Climate Change and Security,” a short briefing by Paul Rogers of the Oxford Research Group, examines the recent trend of framing climate change in terms of a national security threat and presents some of the pros and cons of this viewpoint. Rogers says the recent uptick in interest by the military is expected – and welcomed – because military planners often perform more long-term analyses than other policymakers. However, Rogers also cautions that the military, in its role as protector of the state, will naturally focus on adapting to the effects of climate change rather than preventing them. Thus, while this willingness to think long-term is appreciated, work remains to convince the international security community of the importance of carbon-cutting measures as well.

“The backdrop to the whole issue of scarcity is that demand is rising, but on the supply side, we’re increasingly hitting restraints,” said Alex Evans of NYU’s Center for International Cooperation in this interview with ECSP.

“Global population is growing, a kind of new global middle class is expanding, especially in emerging economies, and that means demand is rising across the board – particularly for energy, for food, water, and air space for our carbon emissions.”