World Watch articles from January 2007

World Watch archives from January 2007

Cut flowers.(flower industry)(Industry overview)
January 1, 2007... Overview In most cultures, receiving a red rose would be an occasion to smile. Symbolic of love and passion, the rose is a flower of choice--compared, say, to the poppy, which is the staple funeral flower of England and the gift of which...

Renewables: what we meant to say.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... Thanks for your response to my previous letter [on renewables, Sept/Oct 2006]. Unfortunately I was hoping for a more substantive, less touchy-feely response to such an important issue. Are we to place all our eggs in the renewables basket...

Blame markets, not farmers.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... I sure hope World Watch can avoid the temptation to cop out and blame farmers for the problems with American food production ("Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?" May/June 2006). Like all businesses, farms respond to market pressure. If we want...

Killing vampires.(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2007... The article by Paul W. McRandle ["Green Guidance," Nov/Dec 2006] had a major omission: he didn't talk at all about "phantom" power--appliances and electronics that consume electricity even when they're "off." Maybe you could follow up on that...

Salmon farms spread deadly lice to wild salmon.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Salmon farms can pass fatal infections of sea lice (small parasitic crustaceans) to young salmon in the wild, according to a study published October 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research, conducted in British...

Nobel laureate calls for "greening" of globalization.(Joseph Stiglitz )
January 1, 2007... In his latest book, Making Globalization Work, 2001 Nobel laureate and Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz discusses the many issues and challenges--including environmental--associated with globalization. The book follows on...

Bus rapid transit systems coming of age.(Bogota, Colombia)
January 1, 2007... In July 2006, the bus rapid transit (BRT) system of Bogota, Colombia, became the first mass transport project to be approved under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Under the deal, the city's TransMilenio bus system will sell...

Organic farmers feeling the squeeze at both ends.
January 1, 2007... Even as sales of organic food are rising, organic farmers in the United States and elsewhere face a potential decline in profits. On the one hand, reports have brought attention to the low wages and poor living conditions of many farm workers,...

Sustainability is growing theme of business schools.
January 1, 2007... Environmentally conscious entrepreneurs looking to get a business degree now have several options when choosing a graduate school. Four U.S. institutions offer "Sustainable MBAs," or Masters of Business Administration programs that infuse...

Hunger still rampant.(United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... See "Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?" May/June 2006, p. 18 More than 852 million people worldwide--about 13 percent of the total population--remain undernourished, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In...

Hotspot saving not enough?(Imperial College study on conservation)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... See "A Challenge to Conservationists," November/December 2004, p. 17 A new study from London's Imperial College suggests that conservation efforts focused on "biodiversity hotspots" may be insufficient in saving the planet's species...

Fatter and gassier.(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study on gasoline use by Americans who are overweight)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... See "Fat City," September/October 2005, p. 10 As waistlines expand, Americans are also using more gasoline, according to a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Researchers concluded that U.S. vehicles consume 3.6...

Depression down under.(Australia)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... See "The Irony of Climate," March/April 2005, p. 18 One Australian farmer commits suicide every four days as the country endures its worst drought in 100 years, according to a national mental health body. Six years of below-average rainfall...

Coal rush! With carbon caps on the horizon, U.S. utilities are racing to build dozens of antiquated coal-fired power plants.
January 1, 2007... For all the talk about renewable energy, the extraction industry is alive and well in the United States. In Texas, utility company TXU Energy has proposed building 11 new coal-fired power plants. American Electric Power, of Columbus, Ohio, is...

China and Her Coal: China has coal to burn--and plans to.
January 1, 2007... Coal-related statistics on China make for sobering reading. China is the world's largest coal producer (2.2 billion short tons in 2004) and consumer (2.1 billion tons). China's production in 2004 roughly equaled the combined production of the...

Coal faces.(TALKING PICTURES)
January 1, 2007... Coal mining is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it. These men do. They are "pitmen" of the Ost Heinrich Robert coal mine in Hamm, western Germany. They were photographed in September 2000. Photos by Markus Matzel/Peter Arnold, Inc....

Portraits in carbon: forget oxygen--carbon may be the most important element on the planet.(Cover story)
January 1, 2007... It's hard to avoid the number six in talking about carbon: It's the sixth element in the periodic table, and normally has six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus and six electrons hovering in loose formation around it. This form, called...

A fowl plague: small farmers are the main victims of avian flu--even when they don't get sick.
January 1, 2007... Since the latest avian flu outbreak began in late 2003, the virus has struck at least 250 people, killed more than 100 worldwide, terrified millions, and prompted governments to take rapid and decisive action. Agriculture and health...

Shed that excess carbon!(GREEN GUIDANCE)
January 1, 2007... In October, a groundbreaking report from Britain warned that it's almost too late to avoid climate catastrophe, but that countries can help if they're willing to spend just 1 percent of world GDP to do so. While most individuals can't build...

The Great Warming.(Movie review)
January 1, 2007... To anyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth, The Great Warming will feel like the Disney version of Al Gore's film. It is family oriented, with almost a Learning Channel feel, and was clearly made for an American audience. The film opens...

Can we talk?(MATTERS OF SCALE)(telecommunications)(Statistical table)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Number of people per landline telephone: Benin 102 China 3.7 Ecuador 7.9 India ...