In the face of an expanding world population and rapid economic growth, global agriculture has kept apace via incredible growth in scale and intensity. It has provided increasing quantities of crops, livestock and fish every decade, but often at the cost of other, undervalued ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water provision, and biodiversity. As the largest managed ecosystem in the world, agriculture holds the potential to halt, if not reverse, rapid ecosystem degradation through environmentally sound policies. In particular, the possibility of paying farmers for the environmental services they provide has generated growing interest worldwide and has already been implemented in several countries.

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.

In our continuing efforts to provide the most reliable and current information, the EarthTrends team has recently updated some of our most popular indicators, including the latest population estimates and fossil fuel production data, along with many others. Here are a few interesting factoids from this latest data. Test your global knowledge or discover even more interesting trends by accessing the full datasets below.

• The most densely populated country in the world:
  Singapore, with 6,699 people per square kilometer (the global average is 51!)
• Country with lowest life expectancy:
  In Swaziland, the average person lives only 31.2 years
• Country producing the most coal:
  China produces over one billion toe (tonnes of oil equivalent) of coal each year, nearly twice that of the second largest producer, the United States.

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.

Since early 2007, global food prices have increased by 30%, placing the issue of food price inflation as a top priority for policymakers at the local, national, and international level. The price of cereals such as wheat, rice and corn has risen by 50%, while the cost of dairy products, oils, and fats has increased by an even higher percentage (see Figure 1 below).

While rising food prices can have economic impacts across all segments of the population, the results are felt most acutely by the global poor. Nearly three billion people earn less than $2.00 a day and spend, on average, well over one-half of their household income on food. The urban poor, who typically do not produce their own food, are particularly vulnerable to price fluctuations.

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.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released its Year Book 2008, providing some exciting glimpses into the emerging "green economy." According to the Year Book, growing numbers of companies are embracing environmental strategies and investors are pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into clean and renewable energies. In 2007, for example, nearly 60 percent of Financial Times 500 companies were implementing greenhouse gas reduction initiatives, reflecting a dramatic increase from the previous year.

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.

The warmest winter ever recorded in Finland may boost the country's agricultural production by lengthening the growing season, demonstrating some of the early impacts of global climate change. Finland's southern regions experienced average temperatures above freezing point this year and had snow cover for only 20 days, far below the typical 70. Although global warming appears to favor agriculture in this Nordic country, world agriculture as a whole is predicted to suffer as global temperatures rise. The greatest production losses are expected in developing countries due to natural vulnerability and limited capacity to adapt, threatening already food-insecure regions.

Now home to half of the world's people, cities are increasingly at the forefront of our most pressing environmental challenges. While the current pace of urbanization is not unique in human history, the sheer magnitude of urban growth--driven by massive demographic shifts in the developing world--is unprecedented, with vast implications for human well-being and the environment. However, where cities pose environmental problems, they also offer solutions. As hotspots of consumption, production, and waste generation, cities possess unparalleled potential to increase the energy efficiency and sustainability of society as a whole.