Inequality, poverty and water

In response to an article by Wendy Barnaby (Do nations go to war over water?) that dispels the notion that population growth and climate change will lead to "water wars," Thomas H. Meek and Laura A. Meek write (Increasing inequality is already making shortages worse):

Barnaby's implication that poorer nations will become wealthier in the coming decades is at odds with the global reality of an increasing gap between rich and poor and with the repeated failure of such development plans. [I edited the literature references out.]

I am much wealthier now than twenty years ago. The same is true for several hundred million Chinese and Indians. There is an increasing gap between Bill Gates and I and my Chinese and Indian fellows. The fact that I and the others are wealthier is not at odds with the "global reality of an increasing gap between" Bill Gates, or the average Norwegian or the average Irish, and us.

Access to water is already a serious issue for people in many parts of the world and, given recent United Nations estimates, the situation is not likely to improve.

Access to water is still a serious issue but, according to recent United Nations estimates, the situation is improving and likely to keep improving in the future.

The language of science - heroes and villains

Toñi Fenoy, a Spanish housewife, is learning English so that she can read scientific papers on the rare Alexander disease, which affects her child Juanma. Meanwhile, some scientists strive to write their papers in as opaque a language as possible.

Cultural heritage and private property

Officials at the University of California are moving to give two of the oldest-known skeletons in North America to a local Native American tribe, against the recommendation of university scientists who say the bones should be retained for study.

Under federal law, bones are returned to a tribe that can prove 'cultural affiliation' through artefacts or other analyses. At nearly 10,000 years old, the skeletons in question — unearthed in 1976 at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) — are so ancient that they are not culturally linked to any tribe. [From Nature]

Whoever wants those bones should buy them from UCSD.