In recent years, the geoscience sector in Africa has benefited from important international investment to meet a significant global increase in demand for mineral and energy resources.

UNESCO: EARTH SCIENCES FOR SOCIETY

And long-term human settlement will follow at some point, mainly to develop mineral and energy resources available on the Moon, but also to emplace protective systems aimed at avoiding large asteroid impacts of the type we were all recently made aware with that grazing meteor strike in Chelyabinsk and the simultaneous near-miss by big-rock DA14.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Subsidies to agricultural production, energy and mineral extraction, in particular, need to be reviewed in terms of both trade distortions and sustainability.

FORBES: Rio+20: What's Trade Got to Do with It?

Lucky (if ironic) for them, nearly half of goods exports are in energy and mineral resources, where the sky's the limit these days, but that leaves plenty else to sell in tougher world markets.

FORBES: Ruddy Complexion

The growth of good news and an explosion of books by ubiquitous Africa experts also speak of a new age of confidence taking advantage of the fastest-growing economies on the planet, huge discoveries of energy and mineral resources and more billionaires and millionaires than at any other African age.

BBC: African viewpoint: Taming volcanoes

In mid-July, the department's Mineral Management Services, which controls the mineral rights on federal lands, asserted its jurisdiction over renewable energy projects--wind, wave, solar and tidal energy--on federal waters in the Outer Continental Shelf.

FORBES: Alternatives

Like a mineral lease, the efficiency developer assumes the risk and covers the costs in exchange for a share of the implemented energy savings.

FORBES: Log Baby Log: The Race to The Big New Resource Play You Haven't Heard Of