Because of other calamities and disasters making news headlines lately, not as much attention has been given recently to a different problem. This is the problem of drought increasing around the world. Although occasional monsoons, snowstorms and typhoons continue to make headlines, rainfall shortages and worsening drought conditions—from Asia to Australia to the Americas—are affecting once rich agricultural land around the world.

“The Ukraine crisis has dramatically worsened relations between NATO and Russia. With cooperation on nuclear security now suspended and the lack of a ‘red telephone,’ experts at the Munich Security Conference warn any escalation in tensions could grow deadly” (Der Spiegel, February 13, 2015).

“Copenhagen police shot and killed on Sunday morning (15 February) a man suspected to have carried out two terror attacks in the Danish capital over the weekend. ‘Once again Europe is shocked by what appears to be another brutal terrorist attack targeted at our fundamental values and freedoms, including the freedom of expression’” (EU Observer, February 15, 2015). The Danish-born Palestinian gunman opened fire on a conference about “freedom of expression” and later on a Jewish synagogue.

In the last few days ISIS has burned 45 people to death in a western Iraqi town (Daily Mail, February 18, 2015), beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya (Mail Online

“The Copenhagen Consensus Center… puts the global costs of violence, excluding conflicts, at $9.5 trillion a year, equivalent to around 11 per cent of world GDP” (New Scientist, February 9, 2017). Encouragingly, “VIOLENT crime is on the retreat in most advanced economies. The latest US figures, for 2013, show that murder rates are lower now than in the early 1960s. In the same year, homicides in Japan hit a post-war low.