World Watch articles from January 2008

World Watch archives from January 2008

Golf.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
January 1, 2008... Introduction "A good walk ruined" is how Mark Twain described a round of golf, but something about the game nevertheless inspires deep devotion. Fans have been shanking drives since at least the mid-fifteenth century and probably far...

Biofuels, food, and population.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... It is in my judgment a tragedy that the well-meaning and prestigious World-watch Institute endorses biofuels by publishing the book Biofuels for Transport [authored by Worldwatch and published by Earthscan Publications, London]. ...

Better than corn? Algae set to beat out other biofuel feedstocks.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Forget corn, sugar cane, and even switchgrass. Some experts believe that algae are set to eclipse all other biofuel feedstocks as the cheapest, easiest, and most environmentally friendly way to produce liquid fuel, reports Kiplinger's Biofuels...

Crop yields expand, nutrients decline.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Farmers today can grow two to three times as much grain, fruit, and vegetables on a plot of land as they could 50 years ago, but the nutritional quality of many crops has declined, according to a new report from The Organic Center, a group...

Rise in grain prices crimps U.S. food donations.(EYE ON EARTH)
January 1, 2008... From Illinois corn to Kansas wheat, U.S. grain crops are undergoing their fastest price hike since 1990. The jump in prices is being felt not only at the grocery store, but also in international food policy, as the costs of corn, cooking oil,...

"Zero" Amazon deforestation possible by 2015, Brazilian NGOs say.(EYE ON EARTH)
January 1, 2008... Halting deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is the objective of nine Brazilian nongovernmental organizations that have drafted an ambitious plan to stop clear-cutting in the region within seven years. The groups, which include national...

Gas flaring wastes resources, pollutes atmosphere.(EYE ON EARTH)
January 1, 2008... Every year, the oil industry burns off up to 170 billion cubic meters of natural gas released in the oil extraction process, according to a new report from the World Bank. The practice, known as gas flaring, not only harms the environment by...

"BRIC" countries top many industrialized nations in environmental commitment.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brazil, Russia, India, and China)
January 1, 2008... The so-called "BRIC" countries--Brazil, Russia, India, and China--all scored in the top 11 in a recent ranking of countries' commitment to the environment. The list evaluates the efforts of these four nations alongside those of 21 members of...

Demand for exotic creatures widespread.(EYE ON EARTH)
January 1, 2008... In September, the Chinese government invited law enforcement officers from Southeast Asia's Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) to meet with local counterparts to address the cross-border illegal wildlife trade. Conservationists applauded...

Note just fever.(UPDATES)(oil sands and community health )(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... See "Tar Sands Fever!" September/October 2007, p. 8 A recent study commissioned by the health authority of Fort Chipewyan, Canada, identified high levels of carcinogens and toxic substances in fish, water, and sediment downstream from...

Shell, shocked.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... See "Shell Game," November/December 2007, p. 28 In November, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority required Royal Dutch Shell to pull its media ad portraying an oil refinery with flowers sprouting from its chimneys. Regulators took...

Coal feat.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... See "Coal Rush," January/February 2007, p. 8 Of the roughly 200 coal-fired power plants proposed in the United States since 2000, more than a quarter have been canceled. As of October 2007, 121 plants were scheduled for construction,...

Housing holes.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... See "Patching Up Paradise," September/October 2007, p. 22 According to UN-HABITAT, at least 76 percent of Sri Lanka's total housing requirements in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami have been met, with just over 92,200 houses built in...

Sick ships.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... See "Trade and Consequences," November/December 2005, p. 23 Emissions from ocean-going ships cause an estimated 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to a November report in Environmental Science and...

Planting hope on Hispaniola: Haiti and the Dominican Republic are both grappling with ravaged forests, each in its own way.
January 1, 2008... In a country whose national symbol could be a motorcycle with a blown-out muffler, the Dominican Republic's Armando Bermudez National Park is an oasis of tranquility. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Not much has changed in the park since its...

War and the environment: war can wreck landscapes and ecosystems as well as people.
January 1, 2008... In 1998, the environmental group Green Cross International sent a team of four scientists to Kuwait to investigate the environmental effects of the Gulf War seven years earlier. What the team found was very different from the surreal inferno of...

Be it ever so humble.(TALKING PICTURES)(Brief article)(Photograph)
January 1, 2008... Shanty town, slum, informal housing, vernacular architecture... whatever else you might call it, when you live there you call it home. Right: Manila, Philippines. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Below: Mumbai, India. [ILLUSTRATION...

Lordly langurs.
January 1, 2008... There was once a creature that could trap the moon between his jaws, carry the sun in his armpit, transport mountains in his hand, change his size and shape at will, slay dragons, melt rocks with his songs of devotion, and write the finest...

Alana Herro: the call of the wild.(WORLDWATCH FIRST-PERSON)
January 1, 2008... On a bus traveling north through the Alaskan tundra last summer, my fellow passengers and I were quietly enjoying the blossoming landscape out our windows. Suddenly I straightened up and bellowed, "CARIBOU! 2 O'CLOCK!" Sleepiness and stiff...

Notes from Bolivia.
January 1, 2008... Drew Wilkins is a former Worldwatch staffer who recently spent three months working with nurses at a rural university, la Unidad Academica Campesina, in an area known as Carmen Pampa, northeast of La Paz. These commentaries are adapted from a...

Pointless PC pollution.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Pointless PC Pollution Number of office personal computers in use in the United 104 million States (2007 est.) Estimated maximum share left on overnight (percent) 60 Resulting quantity of C[O.sub.2] emitted per year by ...