World Watch articles from January 2006

World Watch archives from January 2006

Chopsticks.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
January 1, 2006... Overview From the back roads of Yunnan to the sushi bars of New York, epicures of Asian cuisine the world over rely on chopsticks as a handy eating tool. In use since at least the Shang Dynasty (c. 1500 BCE), these slender sticks,...

Not wood.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... The "Trade and Consequences" article [November/December 2005] mentions invasive animal and plant species in the context of ballast water. However, the containers themselves still have cargo loaded onto untreated or improperly treated wood...

Integrated pest muddling.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... I found Mindy Pennybacker's tips on protecting children from environmental hazards very informative, but I was puzzled by her use of the term "integrated pest management" (IPM) when calling for an end to pesticide use [Green Guidance,...

Land and privilege.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... Gar Alperovitz ["You Say You Want a Revolution?" November/December 2005] reminds us that "economic instability radically weakens all forms of civil society network-building, including those that nurture democracy and communities' interests in...

Denmark most "development-friendly" donor country; Japan lags.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
January 1, 2006... When people think about how rich countries help or hurt poor ones, usually foreign aid comes to mind first. But rich and poor nations are connected in many other ways--through trade, investment, migration, the environment, military affairs, and...

New imaging techniques reveal greater Amazon logging.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Last August, the Brazilian government announced that rates of Amazon deforestation had declined by as much as 50 percent in 2005, largely because of stricter protection policies. But a new study by researchers from Stanford University suggests...

Government studies show health benefits of workplace smoking bans in Ireland and Norway.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
January 1, 2006... In March 2004, Ireland became the first nation to enact a ban on smoking inside enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. Three months later, Norway joined Ireland in enacting a total workplace ban. One year after these...

IPCC on carbon storage: two cheers.(carbon capture and storage )(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change )
January 1, 2006... An emerging technology for helping to address climate change is carbon capture and storage (CCS), in which the heat-trapping carbon in fossil fuels is stripped out, either before or after combustion, and then injected into a reservoir. CCS is...

Nepal brings clean bio-energy to rural communities.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
January 1, 2006... Rural communities in Nepal are now harvesting cow dung to process into biogas, thanks to an innovative program being implemented in 66 of the country's 75 districts. The Biogas Support Programme (BSP), founded in 1992, supports the construction...

Nitrogen: too much of a good thing?(fertilizers result in dead zones)
January 1, 2006... All things in moderation--especially when nitrogen fertilizer is being used near coastal areas, according to a new study from Stanford University scientists. Coastal areas depend on nitrogen, phosphorous, and other nutrients from inland...

U.S. corporate leadership on climate.(more companies are factoring climate change into business assessments)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... See "When Good Corporations Go Bad," May/June 2005, p. 16, and "The Role of Stakeholders," September/October 2005, p. 22 A new report by the Carbon Disclosure Project shows that more U.S. corporations than ever before are factoring climate...

Toxifying the generations.(dangerous chemicals found in people )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... See "Two New Reports Show Industrial Toxins Common in Human Bodies," Environmental Intelligence, November/December 2005, p. 7 European families are absorbing dangerous chemicals into their bodies from computers, textiles, cosmetics, and...

Cancer-causing cargo.(emissions at ports causes cancer)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... See "Trade and Consequences," November/December 2005, p. 23 U.S. ports aren't just more congested, they're also deadly, according to a recent study from the California Air Resources Board. The draft report found that emissions from idling...

Grim future for coral.(coral reefs may die due to climate change)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... See "Indonesia's Coral Reefs on the Line," May/June 2001, p. 12 Half of the world's coral reefs may die within the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them from climate change, the World Conservation Union (IUCN)...

Controlling energy costs.(GREEN GUIDANCE)
January 1, 2006... From the melting icescapes of the Arctic to islands and coastal cities threatened by rising seas, more and more of Earth's people are experiencing the harsh effects of global warming, caused in large part by combustion of fossil fuels. At the...

Peak oil forum.(Cover Story)
January 1, 2006... The world now has over a century's intense experience with oil, the most prized form of energy ever. Oil's benefits are many and undeniable. It accounts for one-third of global energy use and underpins the modern industrial way of life. ...

Oil: a bumpy road ahead.(PEAK OIL FORUM)
January 1, 2006... When I was born in 1945, none of the four small farms in my little Swedish village used oil for anything. Ten years later, the oil age had arrived: we had replaced coal with oil for heating, my father had bought a motorcycle, and tractors were...

Global oil production about to peak? A recurring myth.(PEAK OIL FORUM)
January 1, 2006... Once again, we are hearing that world oil production is "peaking," and that we will face a steadily diminishing oil supply to fuel the global economy. These concerns have been expressed periodically over the years, but have always been at odds...

Over the peak.(petroleum prices and forecast)
January 1, 2006... As oil prices soared from $24 per barrel in early 2003 to a peak of $70 per barrel in September 2005, the question being asked by experts and policy makers alike was whether we've "entered a new era," as Chevron Corporation CEO David O'Reilly...

Planning for the peak in world oil production.(PEAK OIL FORUM)
January 1, 2006... You will never wake to the headline, "World Runs Out of Oil." Rather, global oil production will rise, reach one or more peaks, and decline. Well before production declines to very low levels, the peak will mark a point of no return that will...

Peak oil: a catastrophist cult and complex realities.(petroleum industry forecast)
January 1, 2006... Proponents of the imminent peak of global oil extraction--led by Colin Campbell, Jean Laherrere, L.F. Ivanhoe, Richard Duncan, and Kenneth Deffeyes--resort to deliberately alarmist arguments as they mix incontestable facts with caricatures of...

Climate change: what the world needs now is ... politics.(ESSAY)
January 1, 2006... It is no exaggeration to say that unchecked global warming will kill more people and drive more animals, insects, and plants into extinction than has any other industrial pollutant in human history. Where I live, in Oregon in the northwestern...

Getting the message out.(TALKING PICTURES)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... The omnipresent billboard, one of the great hallmarks of the advertising age, can be a source of unintended truth or irony. For many of the world's people, the enormous posters feed material aspirations and offer the prospect of progression or...

"First, do no harm".(GROUNDWORK)
January 1, 2006... Groundwork appears in alternating issues of World Watch as a column and as small sidebars that unearth the concept from feature articles. The two are linked using the icon at left. I learned from our building contractor recently that the...

Sun, oil.(energy production data)(Illustration)
January 1, 2006... Sun, Oil World energy production from oil, 2003 148 quadrillion Btu* Energy production from "new" renewable 6 quadrillion Btu sources (excludes large hydroelectric power plants) Energy production from all renewables...