The waters of the Mediterranean have for centuries brought people and ideas from all over the world to Barcelona, where the soil and buildings carry memories of Catalonia and the sea air burns with the salt of truth.

We need to be optimists even if the situation is bleak and does not look very appealing. Optimism is a key to happiness.
Pedro Arrojo

replied Mario Soares to the question about what optimism means to him

Breaking The Ice

An Extreme Peace Expedition to Antarctica

Cities — engines for growth, culture and tolerance

As we enter the 21st century two trends are setting an indelible stamp on modern culture.
Anna Tibaijuka

Religion and Ecology: A Growing Alliance

The environmental crisis has been well documented in its various interconnected aspects and has been subject to extensive analysis by the scientific and policy communities.
Mary Evelyn Tucker

While nobody really knows how the mankind gained control over fire, one thing is certain: over the past few centuries, since the advent of the industrial revolution, the man has made a gigantic progress.
Pierre Chomat

This article asks us to consider the phenomenon of pseudoscience, and its inherent challenges and threats to the dynamic development of modern society.
Yevgeny Tolkachev, Valentina Dynich

Economically developed Western countries used non-renewable sources of energy, e.g. oil, gas and coal, to attain prosperity and wealth.

A faulty navigation system gives rise to the wrong decisions
Bertrand Charrier

"Money Makes the World Go'round… and solves problems"

The purpose of this article is to identify an untapped funding resource and propose a Global Premium Bonds (GPB) plan as a new permanent and politically acceptable ‘private sector system’ for significant annual increases in monetary resources applied to GRIPES.
Mitchell J. NewDelman

Vegetarianism And Planetary Well-Being

Many people have begun to accept that adopting a vegetarian diet is not only a prudent ay to improve their own health, but also signifies a new vision of how our lives on the planet should be led
Michael Allen Fox

Nothing short of bold and courageous leadership is needed to successfully stem the tide against HIV/AIDS…

The Russian Federation is still blighted by the environmental legacy of the Cold War, in the form of weapons stockpiles, dilapidated military installments and horrific pollution from the former Soviet military-industrial complex, all of which seriously effect people’s health.
Green Cross Russia

Low quality of potable water created social tension between different community groups, on the one hand, and city and regional administrations, on the one. Compared to a wealthier portion of the population, low-income families have to use clean water from alternative sources, a practice which has far greater implications for family budget.
Alexander Kosarikov, Natalia Davydova

Drought is not longer a temporary natural phenomenon linked to the partial failure of rainfall, but a permanent and utterly mismanaged affair.
Sunita Narain

Cultural Diversity, Sustainability and Democracy in India

Once the water of Sind is crossed, everything is in the Hindustan wayland, water, tree, rock, people and horde, opinion and custom.
Vandana Shiva

A Mission to Preserve:Safeguarding Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage

Cultural heritage can become a point of mutual interest for former adversaries, enabling them to rebuild ties, to engage in dialogue and to work together in shaping a common future.
Christian Manhart

In poverty lurks the seed of desperation and social instability, which de-legitimizes any government, even one that claims to be democratic.
Oscar Arias

Advancing Human Security Through the Sharing of Water Perspectives in the Middle East

Water has been a prime issue in the Middle East that has both created possibilities for conflict as well as opportunities for cooperation.
Gidon Bromberg, Violet Qumsieh

The crisis of politics

At the present time, there are actors basically in four relevant public spaces: the local community, the classic nation state, the regional-supranational, and the global, but political activity generally takes place in the first two of these.
Felipe GONZALEZ

The Human Right to Peace: Ethics and Policy

The culture of peace prepares the way for greater understanding of the human right to peace.
Douglas Roche

The Spring 2004 inaugural issue of this magazine was enthusiastically received at special launching events in the United States, Spain and Russia.