World Watch articles from January 2002

World Watch archives from January 2002

Biosecurity requires drug reform. (Editorial).(overuse of antibiotics)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... Before those anthrax-laced letters hit the U.S. postal system last October, most people had probably never heard of Ciprofloxacin, the anthrax-killing drug more commonly known as Cipro. Even fewer were likely to have heard of its cousin,...

The Cynical "Environmentalist". (Essay).(author Bjorn Lomborg aims to discredit environmental movement)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. Mark Twain Over the past several months, we have received numerous alarmed queries from readers about a new book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, by...

Economic growth as a social value. (From Readers).
January 1, 2002... Robert Ayres's critique of the economic argument underlying the Bush Administration's policy on global warming (September/October 2001) is sound, but it places too strong a reliance on growth as a legitimate economic objective. As long as...

[CO.sub.2] Emissions are a matter of personal consumption. (From Readers).
January 1, 2002... As a self-confessed energy conservation "nut," I was interested in Robert Ayres' article, "The Energy We Overlook" (November/December 2001). The suggested prescription is a good one, but impractical in that it requires political will and...

If only there were enough of them. (From Readers).
January 1, 2002... "The Energy We Overlook" was an especially informative piece. Nonetheless, I can't help poking a little fun about the sentence on page 37, "A third [generic possibility for reducing global warming gases in the atmosphere] is to find a way of...

Outlawed GMO corn shows up in Mexico. (Environmental Intelligence).(genetically modified corn)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A team of scientists studying ancient corn varieties in a remote part of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico have found genetically engineered corn despite the country's ban on bioengineered seeds. This sort of "contamination" has become a...

Pesticides interfere with crop nutrients. (Environmental Intelligence).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A number of pesticides and other chemicals classified as "oestrogenic compounds" interfere with the ability of crops to absorb the key nutrient nitrogen, according to new research published in the September 2001 issue of Nature. In addition to...

Researchers required to show money trail. (Environmental Intelligence).(corporate financing of research)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In an effort to curtail corporate influence over medical and scientific studies, a number of prominent journals have adopted a new policy requiring authors to reveal any "competing financial interests" that may influence their research. The...

BP drops bid for China's West-East oil pipeline. (Environmental Intelligence).(British Petroleum)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In September 2001, British Petroleum (BP) dropped its bid for China's massive West-East pipeline project, which will run 4,200 kilometers from the oil-rich Tarim Basin north of Tibet in the Xinjiang Region. As planned, the $18 billion pipeline...

Seeds of discontent. (Interview).(canola farmer sued by Monsanto)(Interview)
January 1, 2002... In the past decade, the Monsanto chemical company has reshaped itself into a biotech firm positioned to supply farmers with much of what they need--pesticides and seeds. But these seeds, which farmers agree to buy each year, have been...

Future of risk. (Matters of Scale).(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Number of people in Washington, D.C. who were murdered by anthrax poisoning between September 11 and November 9: 2 Number of people murdered by other means in the same city during the same period: 53 Number of U.S. residents who died...

What will it take to halt SPRAWL?(urban sprawl)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Urban sprawl may pose greater dangers to the sustainability of civilization than even many anti-sprawl activists realize. But in three of the world's most prominent cities, citizen actions have begun to raise awareness of the problem-and to...

Oil dependence, urban vulnerability, and wealth: A view from Australia.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Cities across the world felt the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York. We all felt immediately vulnerable, fragile, exposed. New York has been not lust a city of pre-eminent financial power, but also a city of refuge for the past...

Exportable righteousness, Expendable Women.(global gag rule on abortion)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... The "global gag rule" is stifling debate about reproductive health. It's going to force a lot of poor women in developing countries to bear children they don't want. It's likely to increase (not decrease) the number of "coat hanger" abortions....

Dust in the wind: Fallout from Africa may be killing Coral Reefs an ocean away.
January 1, 2002... Coughing her way downriver on a slow boat to Timbuktu, Ginger Garrison is a little out of her element. As Bozo tribesmen pull catfish from the Niger River and boatmen pole their dugout canoes through the midday gloom, the strong winter wind...

Unnatural history. (Book Review).
January 1, 2002... Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century by J.R. McNeil (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001). In late October 2001, the Washington Post ran an article entitled "War Effort Pushes 'Green' Issues...

The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance. (New and Noteworthy).
January 1, 2002... The Future in the Balance: Essays on Globalization and Resistance, by Walden Bello (Oakland: Food First Books, 2001). In this collection of scathing critiques of globalization Walden Bello shares his perspective as a Thailand-based activist on...

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's Eye View of the World. (New and Noteworthy).
January 1, 2002... The Botany of Desire: a Plant's Eye View of the World, by Michael Pollan (New York: Random House, 2001). "About ten thousand years ago," writes Michael Pollan in the introduction of The Botany of Desire, "a group of... plants hit on a...

Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas. (New and Noteworthy).
January 1, 2002... Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas, by David Helvarg (New York: W.H. Freeman and Company, 2001). The westward push for new land to be logged, mined, farmed, and otherwise extracted reshaped much of the United States in the last 200...

Peering into the future.(sport utility vehicle fuel consumption)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... "When you're the best on Earth, Earth is your only competition." --Recent TV commercial showing a rugged off-road sport utility vehicle powering its way over a wilderness ridge The sport utility vehicle (SUV) is perhaps the most...