World Watch articles from January 1998

World Watch archives from January 1998

Indonesia ablaze. (forest fires in Asian country)(Environmental Intelligence)
January 1, 1998... Forest fires "raged out of control" in Indonesia beginning in early September, spreading quickly across Borneo and leaving the whole island "covered in a thick layer of smoke.... Fires also raged in Sumatra... and Sulawesi, as well as the...

Europe's illegal trade in ozone-altering substances. (atmosphere-destroying chlorofluorocarbons)(Environmental Intelligence)
January 1, 1998... Law enforcement officials in the Dutch city of Rotterdam and other ports in Europe are beginning to grapple with a problem that their counterparts in Miami know all too well: the illicit trade in chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which destroy the...

GDP and the smoke signals from Southeast Asia. (gross domestic product; economic indicators in relation to environmental degradation)(Environmental Intelligence)
January 1, 1998... In the past year, two major shocks to the Southeast Asian economy - the fires that blanketed Indonesia and Malaysia and the financial crisis of currency devaluation and falling stockprices - have forced many observers of the Asian boom to...

Judgement protects indigenous knowledge. (intellectual property rights ruling by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)(Environmental Intelligence)
January 1, 1998... A recent decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) may add a new twist to the debate over intellectual property rights. In August the PTO canceled a patent on the use of turmeric (Curcuma longa) in healing wounds. The...

Putting a value on nature's "free" services.
January 1, 1998... Contrary to conventional economic wisdom, most of the value in the world economy does not come from pulling things out of nature - it comes from the normal functioning of healthy rivers, forests, and fields. During the last half of 1997,...

Before the next doubling. (population explosion)
January 1, 1998... Nearly 6 billion people now inhabit the Earth - almost twice as many as in 1960. At some point over the course of the next century, the world's population could double again. But we don't have anything like a century to prevent that next...

Fertile ground or toxic legacy? (modern sewage and farming systems)
January 1, 1998... Recycling human waste isn't like recycling newspapers. The use of "night soil" on cropland is ancient, but modern sewage and farming systems have greatly complicated the risks of using our most obvious fertilizer. In 1997 the U.S....

Clearing the haze. (international environmental policies needed regarding the Earth's ongoing climate changes)
January 1, 1998... In the winter of 1995, an article appeared in Harper's magazine which thrust into public view a symbiotic relationship between members of the coal and oil industry and a handful of scientists who were vocally disputing the overwhelming consensus...

The Heat is On: The High-Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate.
January 1, 1998... In the winter of 1995, an article appeared in Harper's magazine which thrust into public view a symbiotic relationship between members of the coal and oil industry and a handful of scientists who were vocally disputing the overwhelming consensus...