World Watch articles from July 2003

World Watch archives from July 2003

New leadership from the South. (Editorial).(environmentally minded ministers in Kenya, Brazil, Mexico)(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... International environmental leadership is a scarce commodity at the moment. The vacuum was evidenced most dramatically by the U.S. rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in 2001, and then by the complicity of many governments in the weakening of...

Weapons of mass distraction. (Note from a Worldwatcher).(pro-war propaganda campaign in US)
July 1, 2003... Soon after the start of the U.S. war on Iraq, polls found that only about 25 percent of Americans opposed the attack. Once the game got under way, with bombs bursting in air and tanks racing toward Baghdad, that U.S. opposition shrank still...

From readers.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2003... Does the Buy-Local Ethic Always Make Sense? In "The Argument for Local Food" (May/Tune 2003), Brian Halweil persuasively argues for buying food from nearby farmers because of the resulting benefits for the local economy. However, his...

Water scarcity could overwhelm the next generation. (Environmental Intelligence).
July 1, 2003... Up to 7 billion people in 60 countries--more than the whole present population of the world--will face water scarcity within the next half-century, according to the United Nations' World Water Development Report released in March. The UN report...

Roundup-resistant weeds embarrass Monsanto. (Environmental Intelligence).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The world's most popular weed-killing chemical is losing its effectiveness. Glyphosate, popularly known by the brand-name Roundup, has been used so extensively on mass-produced crops of soybeans, cotton, and corn that it has triggered an...

World's largest wind farm planned for Iowa. (Environmental Intelligence).
July 1, 2003... Iowa will soon have the world's largest wind farm, if MidAmerican Energy Company, part of Warren Buffet's MidAmerican Energy Holding Company, goes ahead with plans to build a 310 megawatt (MW) wind farm across 200 acres of the state's farmland....

Organic produce found to be higher in health-promoting compounds. (Environmental Intelligence).(higher concentrations of antioxidants than in crops produced with pesticides )
July 1, 2003... Foods grown without pesticides contain substantially higher concentrations of antioxidants and other health-promoting compounds than crops produced with pesticides, according to a new study from the University of California at Davis (UCD). The...

China's desertification is growing worse. (Environmental Intelligence).
July 1, 2003... The world's most populous country is losing ground, literally, in its long-running battle to save farmland from drying up and turning to dust. The problem is not new, but recent signs indicate that attempts to stem the loss may actually be...

Patagonians say no to an invasive gold mine. (Environmental Intelligence).
July 1, 2003... Residents of the town of Esquel, Argentina voted last March not to approve the digging of a proposed open-pit gold mine near their town. The vote was a major setback to the Canadian mining firm that has been planning to work there. Seventy-five...

WHO reaffirms: it's not dirty needles, it's unsafe sex. (Environmental Intelligence).
July 1, 2003... A politically volatile finding about how HIV is transmitted in sub-Saharan Africa has been refuted by an expert group convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS. The controversy erupted in recent months with the publication...

Rogue GMO corn. (Updates).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The largest U.S. seed company, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (a subsidiary of Dupont) failed to notify the government when genes from an experimental crop of its bioengineered corn in Hawaii spread to other corn being grown...

European wind power. (Updates).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Four cities in the Netherlands are installing wind power turbines on rooftops. Most commercial turbines are erected in wide-open rural places. But MSNBC reports that the cities of the Hague, Tilburg, Twente, and Amsterdam are now installing...

Antibiotic resistance. (Updates).(use of antibiotics in shellfish cause increased concern)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... A pending new U.S. law would authorize routine new uses of antibiotics in "minor species" of animals, including fish and shellfish--a provision that could accelerate the already worrisome trend toward increased resistance of bacteria to...

The risks of rushing into human genetic engineering. (Updates).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bill McKibben, who wrote the closing essay of our special issue on "inheritable genetic modification," has just come out with a new book on the subject: Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age (limes Books, 2003). It is a definitive...

Red past. Green future? Sustainable development for Ukraine and the post-communist nations.
July 1, 2003... The methane explosion that blasted through the Gaegova coal mine last October added seven names to the list of nearly 4,000 Ukrainian miners killed in accidents since 1991. Newspaper reports said the victims were suffocated or crushed beneath...

This old barn, this new money: tobacco farmers are in trouble. Except that is, the ones who have discovered a lucrative alternative.(traditionalist tobacco farmers switch to organic farming and findhealth and economic benefits)
July 1, 2003... From the outside, this old barn in Stickleyvile, Virginia looks like any other barn you might find among the remote mountain hollows of Appalachia. Rough pine and hemlock siding keeps out the rain and wind. Chestnut and oak beams hold up the...

Between the lines.(demographic history and the impact on the the Ukraine between 1914 - 2001)
July 1, 2003... AGE PYRAMIDS can track the demographic history of a nation by showing how new births add to population (giving the country a wide base of infants and young children), and aging reduces population overtime (narrowing the numbers remaining as age...

Matters of Scale.(chemicals and health)(Illustration)
July 1, 2003... MATTERS OF SCALE CHEMICAL WARFARE Maximum safe level of perchlorate, the main ingredient of rocket and missile fuel, in drinking water 0.03 MICROGRAMS ...