Cuba's agricultural system was turned on its head by the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was one of the most dramatic agricultural collapses of recent history--suddenly Cuba's heavily-subsidized exports to Russia and East Germany disappeared, the large state farming operations had no fuel or spare parts to keep their thousands of tractors running, and the heavy chemical inputs Cuba had become accustomed to were no longer available. Almost overnight, Cuba's agriculture radically transformed.

Of the World Health Organization's data on alcohol use, at the other end of the spectrum from Uganda is India. The country has been among the bottom 15 percent of nations in terms of per capita alcohol consumption for most of the past 40 years. As of 2003, the average Indian citizen consumed 0.3 liters of alcohol, roughly the amount in a drinking glass.

The World Health Organization records alcohol consumption around the globe, and the leading consumers on a per capita basis are almost exclusively European. This makes Uganda, the global leader in consumption, a surprising outlier.

As of 2003, Uganda was the world's highest per-capita consumer of alcohol. At 17.6 liters per person per year, the average Ugandan consumes twice as much alcohol as the average American, and more than twice the amount of a resident of any of Uganda's neighboring countries. And this number probably doesn't tell the whole story, since Uganda also has one of the highest estimated levels of unrecorded consumption--that is, smuggled, imported, or home-brewed alcohol--in the world.

Of the countries with highest child mortality, only one-quarter are on track to meet the millennium development goals for reducing child mortality says a recent analysis. The authors examined 68 countries that together have 97 percent of maternal and child deaths worldwide. They concluded that the majority of these most critical sites haven't made significant progress toward the U.N.'s goal of reducing under-5 child mortality by two-thirds by 2015. Some countries have even seen reversals of progress. However, two countries which have successfully lowered child deaths -- India and Tanzania -- took two very different approaches to beat the odds.

In July 2006, Brazil's biggest soy traders enacted a two-year moratorium on soybeans grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon. It was groundbreaking for the way in which it was accomplished--rather than Brazil's government enforcing the ban, it was NGOs and giant soybean buyers that pressured the change. Now, a new report says the market approach seems to be working. Researchers found no soybeans in large areas of the Amazon cleared between August 2006 and August 2007--which means, at a broad glance, that more rainforest isn't being cut down to grow soybeans.

The presence of black carbon, a component of soot, in the atmosphere is holding in more solar energy than any other air pollutant besides carbon dioxide, according to new research. This new estimate says the heating potential of black carbon is three to four times greater than prevailing estimates.

To thank Kenyans for leaving wildlife safe amidst the nation's eruption of violence after the December 27 national elections, Kenya's national parks are offering free admission to children for the next month. The gesture is nice, but the more interesting question it raises is why wildlife preservation during wartime is noteworthy, or even the exception to the rule. In fact, in diverse war settings in places around the world, wildlife numbers have dwindled due to fighting. Animal casualties in these wars are understandably overshadowed by towering numbers of human deaths--in Kenya, more than 1,000 have died from the fighting. But for already endangered species, like Rwanda's mountain gorillas, the pressure of war can be a life or death situation.

Illegal animal trade, once a high-profile environmental concern, has largely taken a back seat to climate change, habitat destruction, and pollution as a threat to biodiversity. Despite being out of the spotlight, however, so-called wildlife trafficking is a big business. The U.S. Department of State estimates that black-market trade in illegal ivory, snake skins and venoms, live birds, primates, tiger parts, rhino horns, and other wildlife and wildlife products generates between 10 and 20 billion dollars per year. China is the number one destination for such products; the U.S. is number two.

A new study of Hawaii's rainforests finds that more trees aren't always better. According to the study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, certain species of trees are actually destructive to the biodiversity that is the hallmark of tropical rainforests. Not only do non-native trees crowd out other trees, but they alter the ecosystem as a whole, changing soil fertility, available sunlight, and hospitability to other plants and animals.

No-till farming has been around since the 1960s, when it was developed to reduce erosion of valuable topsoil from cropland. Since then, the realization of the method's other benefits--reduced need for irrigation, less labor for farmers, increased soil quality--has encouraged its adoption across the U.S. and around the world. In recent years, however, interest in no-till has risen due to its greenhouse gas benefits, which have farmers seeing another kind of green: cash.