Photo by Umit Bektas // Timur Xaligov carries his 10-months-old daughter, Narin, who was killed with five other relatives, including her mother Sevil, when a rocket hit their home during the fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan October 17, 2020.

Nine-year-old Alladin collects used ammunition to sell as metal in Aleppo, Syria.

The UN projects that the global population increases from a population of 7.7 billion in 2019 to 11.2 billion by the end of the century. Population growth has unfavorable effects for the world and us.

Natural resources are not enough for us. For energy, it has to build more fossil fuel-powered power plants and be constantly operational. Sorry, but renewable energy sources are not enough for us. It will never be enough for us. You can see that these countries are the world's material production center when you look at the countries with high fossil fuel consumption. Why? To supply our needs and demands.

It causes changes in social and demographic balances. It causes significant inequality and problems such as income inequality, education, career, and job employment. The level of wealth and inequality at low population countries is less. In countries with a larger population, it is the opposite.

Reducing fertility is essential if future population growth is to be reined in. Cynthia Gorney wrote about the dramatic story of declining Brazilian fertility as part of @natgeo's 7 Billion series. The average family size dropped from 6.3 children to 1.9 children per woman over two generations in Brazil, the result of improving education for girls, more career opportunities, and the increased availability of contraception.

A paradox of lower fertility and reduced population growth rates is that as education and affluence improve, consumption of natural resources increases per person. In other words, as we get richer, each of us consumes more natural resources and energy, typically carbon-based fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. This can be seen in consumption patterns that include higher protein foods such as meat and dairy, more consumer goods, bigger houses, more vehicles, and more air travel.

We need educated and conscious generations when keeping the population low. Or IT'S NOT ENOUGH FOR US!

Girl cleans plastic on a beach in Bali, Indonesia. Plastic pollution in Bali, Indonesia.

According to of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced every year for use in a wide variety of applications. At least 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year and make up 80% of all marine debris from surface waters to deep-sea sediments. Marine species ingest or are entangled by plastic debris, which causes severe injuries and deaths. Plastic pollution threatens food safety and quality, human health, coastal tourism, and contributes to climate change. Recycling and reuse of plastic products and support for research and innovation to develop new products to replace single-use plastics are also necessary to prevent and reduce plastic pollution.

Aurora, 13, waits for her groom to receive and marry her in an illegal Bosnian Roma camp called Monachina on the outskirts of Rome, Italy, where she lives, Oct. 10, 2010.

Brazil, which has the second-worst death toll worldwide with 146,000, and the third-most cases, with 4.9 Million, canceled its carnival parade, which usually takes place in February, for the first time in 100 years.

Photo by Wissam Nassar @wissamgaza // Children from the Al Atawna family are sitting amid the rubble of their destroyed house which was damaged during the last war of 2014, in the Al-Shejaiya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City.

Photo by Abdulmonam Eassa @abdulmonam_eassa // Wounded Syrian children cry as they wait to receive treatment following a reported airstrike on the rebel-controlled town of Hammuriyeh, in the eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus, on March 25, 2017. At least 16 civilians were killed and dozens wounded in an airstrike on a rebel-held area outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Climate Change

Photo by Ivan Romano // A baby girl in the Moria refugee camp on January 31, 2020, in Moria, Lesbos Island, Greece. Fires completely destroyed the camp on September 9, 2020, in Moria Camp.

Photo by Ron Haviv // Senad Medanovic, the sole survivor of a massacre finds his home in ruins after the Bosnian army recaptured his village from Serb forces. He is standing on what is believed to be a mass grave of sixty-nine people, including his family. 1995.

Photo by Amer Almohibany // A Syrian government forces' MiG-23 fighter-bomber drops a payload during a reported airstrike in the rebel-held area of Qabun, east of the capital Damascus, on May 6, 2017.

Photo by Naoufel Dridi // Refugees leave their jerrycan in the queue to the water point on March 23, 2015 in Minawao Camp, Mokolo, Cameroon.

MSF intervenes in the Far North Region of Cameroon to provide medical assistance to Nigerian people who had fled the Boko Haram conflict as well as to the Cameroonian displaced population. MSF works in the district hospital of Mokolo (ITFC and pediatric care) and in the camps of Minawao and Gawar with water and sanitation activities in both camps, and also a provision of medical care in the second. MSF is the only organization in charge of water supply for both camps.

Photo by Ami Vitale @amivitale // A Tamil woman working for a NGO take out mines near one of the front lines of the brutal 26-year-war in Sri Lanka February 18, 2016.

According of the Landmine Monitor Report 2019, 3,789 people lost their lives due to mines in 2018. The vast majority of recorded landmine casualties were civilians (71%). Children accounted for 54% of all civilian casualties.

A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it.

The use of landmines is controversial because of their potential as indiscriminate weapons. They can remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming civilians and the economy. 78 countries are contaminated with land mines and 15,000–20,000 people are killed every year while countless more are maimed. Approximately 80% of landmine casualties are civilian, with children as the most affected age group. Most killings occur in times of peace.

With pressure from a number of campaign groups organized through the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global movement to prohibit their use led to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Treaty. To date, there are 164 state parties to the treaty. One state (the Marshall Islands) has signed but not ratified the treaty, while 32 UN states, including China, Russia, and the United States have not; making a total of 33 United Nations states not party.

Photo by Chris Hondros // An Iraqi man is held against a Humvee by a US Marine after being searched during snap vehicle checks on February 8, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq. Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Regiment frequently take to Ramadi's tense streets in Humvee convoys, randomly stopping vehicles to search for weapons and insurgents. Sniper attacks are common, so the Marines usually set off smoke bombs to screen them from attackers.

An Iraqi man comforts his 4-year-old son at a holding center for prisoners of war, in the base camp of the US Army 101st Airborne Division near An-Najaf. Photo by Jean-Marc Bouju

Bitcoin consumes “more electricity than Argentina”

Bitcoin uses more electricity annually than the whole of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests. "Mining" for the cryptocurrency is power-hungry, involving heavy computer calculations to verify transactions. via @bbcnews

The worldwide sources of electricity were coal and peat 38%, natural gas 23%, hydroelectric 16.2%, nuclear power 10.1%, oil 2.9%, solar/wind/geothermal/tidal/other 7.4%, biomass and waste 2.4%.

Naked detainees with bags over their heads placed into a human pyramid as Spc. Sabrina Harman, middle, and Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., above, pose behind them in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

2020 is among the 3 hottest years on record.

Climate change continued its relentless march in 2020, which is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record. 2011-2020 will be the warmest decade on record, with the warmest six years all being since 2015, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Ocean heat is at record levels and more than 80% of the global ocean experienced a marine heatwave at some time in 2020, with widespread repercussions for marine ecosystems already suffering from more acidic waters due to carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption, according to the provisional WMO report on the State of the Global Climate in 2020.

The report, which is based on contributions of dozens of international organizations and experts, shows how high-impact events including extreme heat, wildfires, and floods, as well as the record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, affected millions of people, compounding threats to human health and security and economic stability posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the COVID-19 lockdown, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continued to rise, committing the planet to further warming for many generations to come because of the long lifetime of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to the report.

We realized how important hygiene is for us.

Kanyaruchinya refugee camp in Goma in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 20th October 2012.

“Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest-income country -- not 25 million, not 25,000 -- just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off the WHO’s week-long executive board meeting by lamenting that one poor country received a mere 25 vaccine doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.

“It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first,” he said. “But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone.”

Photo by Darko Vojinovic // Plastic bottles and waste float at the Potpecko accumulation lake near Priboj, in southwest Serbia, Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. Serbia and other Balkan nations are virtually drowning in communal waste after decades of neglect and lack of efficient waste-management policies in the countries aspiring to join the European Union.

The global waste trade is the international trade of waste between countries for further treatment, disposal, or recycling. Toxic or hazardous wastes are often imported by developing countries from developed countries.

China once importing nearly half of the planet’s plastic recyclables. China banned the import of plastic waste in 2019. While the recycling of foreign plastic waste can be lucrative, lack of regulations and oversight has caused a myriad of problems in receiving countries. After China backed out, Vietnam and Malaysia became some of the biggest plastic waste importers in Asia, while Turkey also appeared on the scene as a net importer of European plastic waste. Most of the plastics arriving in Asia are routed through Hong Kong.

Most of the plastic waste comes from countries like Japan, the United States, and Germany, which were the biggest net exporters of plastic scrap and waste in 2019. According to data retrieved from the UN Comtrade platform, Japan shipped more than 550,000 tons abroad in the previous year, while importing almost no foreign plastic waste, resulting in net exports of around 530,000 tonnes. Germany was responsible for net exports of 413,000 tons, while the U.S. clocked in more than 317,000 tons. via @statista

The EU banned the export of unsorted plastic waste to poorer countries as of January 2021.

British soldiers check Iraqis leaving the southern Iraqi town of Basra, 30 March 2003.

Weapons seized by Iraqi security forces during recent operations in Sadr City, June 18, 2008. Photo by Khalid Mohammed

12-year-old Kurshida holds her drawing at a CODEC and UNICEF "child-friendly space" on September 21, 2017, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo by @allisonsarahjoyce

Hundreds of Rohingya people crossing Bangladesh's border as they flee from Buchidong in Myanmar after crossing the Naf River in Bangladesh, 10 September 2017.

Photo by Felipe Dana // Young drug traffickers pose for photos holding their guns at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 11, 2016.

Photo by Marco Gualazzini // On May 22, 2012, in Africa, Somalia, Benadir region, Mogadishu. The last outposts conquered by the government army in the northern districts of Karan in Mogadishu. Areas of the city freed by the Amisom and Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops, close to the front line: the border between the area of the capital in the hands of Al-Shabab and the area controlled by the Somali government.

Photo by Diego Ibarra Sanchez // Pakistani girls attends a school attacked twice by The Taliban. Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan in 2013.

Photo by Afshin Ismaeli @afshinismaeli // A child flees the Moria refugee camp after fires completely destroyed the camp on September 9, 2020. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after a fire broke out in Moria camp destroying their homes and belongings.

"Fires that consumed Europe’s largest refugee camp, Moria, on the Greek island of Lesbos have left nearly 13,000 men, women, and children without shelter or access to basic services.

Prior to the fires, security in the camp had already deteriorated and tensions were high. The refugees were crammed into overcrowded, inadequate tents, with limited access to food, water, sanitation, and health care, despite the risk of Covid-19.

Now they have nothing."

Photo by Samar Abu Elouf @samarabuelouf // A newborn in an incubator the moment electricity went off in the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip in 2019.

Providing the population of the Gaza Strip with a 24/7 power supply requires about 600 megawatts of electricity. Yet the Gaza Strip receives only 180 megawatts — 120 directly from Israel via 10 power lines, and 60 generated by Gaza’s power plant with Qatari-funded fuel provided by Israel. As a result, residents usually receive power in eight-hour rotations: eight hours on and eight hours off. In summer, the power can go off for up to 12 hours.

On 10 August 2020, at the height of a blistering summer, after militants in Gaza continued to launch incendiary and explosive balloons into Israeli territory, Israel decided to close the crossings with Gaza and stop the fuel supply. Within about a week, on 18 August, the power plant shut down due to lack of fuel. This reduced the power supply to residents to a mere four hours a day. Three weeks later, on 1 September, Israel reopened the crossings and the power supply went back to eight-hour rotations.

It is hard to imagine families living several dozen miles from Tel Aviv without regular electricity. With erratic, brief supplies of power, residents cannot lead a reasonable daily routine in a world that relies on electricity for everything from transporting and storing food to work, education, health, and communication. Basic appliances such as refrigerators, fans, washing machines, and ovens cannot function. The power cuts make life even harder for people with disabilities or medical problems, who rely on a steady supply for treatment. The outages also damage infrastructure – primarily Gaza’s water and sewage systems and the operation of hospitals.