Resources 101

The World Bank's East Asia blog links to a fantastic graphic of the world's resources by country. There is a clear correlation between size and supply: the United States, Canada, Russia, China and Brazil dominate the list. In many categories, such as soy, uranium, rice, natural gas, cotton, and corn, over half of the world's supply is controlled by three countries or fewer.

Another interesting observation is that Brazil has almost 20 percent of the world's water resources (roughly on par with Saudi Arabia's share of oil reserves). Perhaps another reason to study Portuguese?