World Watch articles from July 2006

World Watch archives from July 2006

Ballpoint pens.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
July 1, 2006... Overview Argentina was the cradle of the ballpoint pen, America its nursery, and France its intensive care unit. Ballpoints were first patented in 1888 and then another 350 times, without making their mark, by 1935. That's when Hungarian...

A promise, tested again.(massacres in Darfur, Sudan)(Editorial)
July 1, 2006... "Never again." Sixty years ago a horrified international community, stunned by the realities of the Holocaust, invoked this statement to banish the specter of systematic killings. But with numbing frequency--after massacres in Cambodia, Iraq,...

Andrew Wilkins: the innocent abroad.(college students )
July 1, 2006... It's springtime, and as another cohort of university graduates prepares to embark from the safe-havens of its classrooms and cloistered study nooks, I think back on my own recent commencement and have for them only this advice: Stay in school....

High-impact air travel.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2006... Lisa Mastny shares worthwhile sentiments in her "Are Americans Really Xenophobes?" essay (March/April 2006), but her advocacy of travel is inappropriate as we grapple with the dilemma of global warming. Travel generates significant C[O.sub.2]...

Low-impact vacations.(GREEN GUIDANCE)
July 1, 2006... It's vacation season again, the time for sunblock, snorkeling, and surf, while trying to see the world with 760 million other international travelers. All that tourism has a major environmental impact: a typical cruise ship dumps more than...

Corporations urge mandatory carbon caps.
July 1, 2006... Wal-Mart, General Electric, Shell Oil, and Duke Energy are among several major retailers and energy companies that have urged the U.S. Congress to impose mandatory carbon caps on their businesses. The companies made the plea at an April 4...

Bicycles leave Kenyan taxis in the dust.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Bicycle taxis are rapidly supplanting gasoline-powered minibus taxis in parts of western Kenya, according to an April 26 report by Inter Press Service. Residents of Kisumu, a small city 500 kilometers from Nairobi, have long relied on aging...

Eat vegetables, save energy.(vegetarian diet are the most energy efficient)
July 1, 2006... In addition to driving hybrid cars and installing solar panels on their homes, consumers may have another tool in the fight against global warming. In a study published in the April 12 issue of Earth Interactions, researchers at the University...

Artists graphically convey dangers of climate change.
July 1, 2006... At an April 20 panel discussion in Washington, D.C., three artists and a communications professional spoke about the unique ways art can be used to raise public awareness of global climate change. Held at the Center for American Progress, the...

Tuberculosis even more drug resistant.(United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
July 1, 2006... According to a recent survey by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 in 30 human cases of tuberculosis (TB) is now resistant to both primary and secondary antibiotic treatments. The...

Rare species long part of New Guinean tradition.(EYE ON EARTH)
July 1, 2006... Scientists may know little about certain rare animals in western New Guinea (the Indonesian province of Papua), but some of them have long been a part of local knowledge and tradition, according to Bruce Beehler, an ornithologist and vice...

Small victories in the battle against human trafficking.(EYE ON EARTH)
July 1, 2006... Human trafficking involves the transport and coercion of human beings into providing sexual and other services. The reluctance of many governments to admit their countries' involvement in human trafficking makes accurate data collection and...

Investing responsibly.(United Nations)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... See "The Role of Stakeholders," September/October 2005, p. 22 New United Nations principles offer institutional investors guidance for investing in environmentally and socially responsible ways, including helping to address climate change,...

Oil high.(petroleum hike)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... See "Peak Oil Forum," January/February 2006, p. 9 In April, Brent North Sea crude, the standard used to price 65 percent of the world's crude supplies, passed the $70 level for the first time ever. The price hike was attributed to a...

Hot vehicles.(United Nations)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... See "Diesels versus Hybrids," July/August 2005, p. 19 The head of the UN Climate Secretariat warned last month that governments have to work harder at cleaning up auto and truck emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Vehicles account for...

Capturing the sun: the future of China's solar power.(solar industry)
July 1, 2006... With retailers now advertising "solar" backpacks and camera bags to consumers, it's clear solar power has hit the big time. The world's solar industry registered growth rates above 30 percent a year for each of the last five years, and...

Brave nuclear world? Radiation, reliability, reprocessing--and redundancy. Second of two parts.(Chernobyl, Ukraine, Nuclear Accident, 1986)
July 1, 2006... This year marks the 20th anniversary of the world's most notorious nuclear disaster. At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, the Number Four reactor at the Chornobyl* nuclear plant in northern Ukraine exploded and burned uncontrolled for 10 days,...

Nuclear revival? Don't bet on it!(nuclear power coming in use)
July 1, 2006... In January this year, Newsweek magazine's cover boldly proclaimed "The Return of Nuclear Power." As I gazed at the cover photo of a glowing red nuclear power plant, I realized that I had seen virtually the same cover--on Time magazine, roughly...

E-wasted: toys and gadgets become toxic junk, thanks to the circuit-bored.
July 1, 2006... Charlie, a trader hooked on the eBay auction site, is offering to sell a "Roboraptor, unwanted gift used once." He posts a heavily discounted asking price, about one-third the cost of this hit robotic toy during last December's pre-Christmas...

Wheels R us.
July 1, 2006... Or at least us boys. So what's the fascination? Raw speed, the mechanical advantage, the wind in the face? Is this where adrenaline junkies begin? We don't know, but one thing is clear from these pictures: a shortage of resources doesn't...

Bye bye, birdie ... and myriad other creatures humans are wiping out.
July 1, 2006... In April 2004, a computer and electronics professor named David Luneau paddled a canoe through a swamp forest in eastern Arkansas and captured a blurry video of a crow-sized bird perching on the trunk of a tupelo tree and then flying off into...

Environmental award spotlights grassroots environmentalists.
July 1, 2006... Every April, six activists from around the globe are awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's largest cash prize for grassroots environmentalists. "These six winners are among the most important people you have not heard...

Ripe for change: agriculture's tipping point.
July 1, 2006... Now, in the midst of so much unnecessary human and ecological destruction, we are facing the necessity of a new start in agriculture. --Wendell Berry The story of agriculture is usually told as an epic struggle between people and...

Reaction times.(Statistical table)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Reaction Times Elapsed time between stimulus and 220 milliseconds involuntary human response (e.g., blink) Between stimulus and voluntary response 384 milliseconds (e.g., braking to avoid obstacle) Between...