World Watch articles from July 1997

World Watch archives from July 1997

Peddling cigarettes abroad: the new opium war: (export and import of tobacco products)(Editorial)
July 1, 1997... When public health officials, tobacco control activists, and Chinese government authorities meet in late August at the 10th World Conference in Tobacco or Health in Beijing, they will be sitting on a ticking time bomb: China has the largest...

Fighting brushfires. (initiatives to solve environmental problems)
July 1, 1997... There are hundreds of thousands of people now engaged, like crews of volunteers battling brushfires, in the work of protecting life on Earth from the encroachments of unsustainable practices. They have achieved thousands of victories: cleaning up...

EU agrees to climate goals. (European Union)
July 1, 1997... As the breakup of the Antarctic ice shelf accelerates, so too does the endeavor to strengthen the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. This June, more than two years of talks among delegates from some 150 countries were boiled down to a...

Can we raise grain yields fast enough? (supply of food against population growth)
July 1, 1997... Many countries have tripled or even quadrupled the amount of grain they produce per hectare of land. But now these gains are slowing, while global demand continues to soar. We need a new strategy for food security. After a half-century of...

The nicotine cartel. (ill-effects of tobacco and cigarette smoking)
July 1, 1997... Despite their legal problems in the United States, the tobacco multinationals continue to make a killing in the developing world. Record cigarette sales threaten a public health crisis that could overshadow all infectious diseases combined....

Eco-farming in Fiji. (integrated farming in Fiji islands)
July 1, 1997... In a promising agricultural experiment, a boys' school is linking five different micro-industries so that the waste from each becomes a key input to another. Last November, a 72-year-old ecologist named George Chan met with four other men on...

Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.
July 1, 1997... In 1400 A.D., the Hohokam, a civilization of nearly 400,000 in what is now Arizona, simply disappeared. The Hohokam had developed one of the first purely agricultural civilizations in North America - in a desert where the average summer...

Last days for the G-7. (seven leading industrialized countries)
July 1, 1997... Now that the hype of the G7 Economic Summit in Denver is past, it is time to consider whether these annual gatherings of the "seven leading industrialized countries," are worth the time and money that goes into preparing them. Held each year...