World Watch articles from July 2008

World Watch archives from July 2008

Burials.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
July 1, 2008... Background As the old saying goes, the only things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. Burial rites have become increasingly involved over time, particularly for those who can afford it--as the Great Pyramids testify. Today, in the...

Limits to renewables.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2008... I don't think your answer to Richard Firn's comment ["From Readers," May/June] responded to what he was saying--that renewable energy resources of any kind still only offer limited niche opportunities. When used to supply a growing energy...

North American commission pushes for green building design.(EYE ON EARTH)(Commission for Environmental Cooperation )(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... An organization led by North America's top environmental officials is calling for greater continental collaboration to build green. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a March report, the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation...

Rise in legal philanthropy may help China's environment.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... A new coalition of law firms in eastern China may represent a rise in the use of legal measures to address the country's mounting environmental woes. This spring, 10 firms in Zibo City, an industrial city in Shandong province, voluntarily set...

EU behind in meeting key environmental targets.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... The European Union has fallen behind in meeting several critical environmental targets, according to an annual assessment released in March. The EU uses 37 core indicators to measure progress in achieving region-wide goals in the areas of...

More companies discontinuing farm-animal confinement.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... More companies around the world are adjusting their farm-animal confinement policies, largely in response to U.S. voter-led initiatives and to the implementation of European Union farm-policy reforms. Forcing chickens, pigs, or young cattle...

Arctic melting may lead to expanded oil drilling.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... More than half of the Arctic Ocean was covered in year-round ice in the mid-1980s. Today, satellite evidence released by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows that perennial Arctic ice cover remains on less than 30...

Not just hot air.(UPDATES)(wind power )(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... See "Home Grown Juice," May/June 2008, p. 20 Wind power currently provides only 1 percent of U.S. electricity but could meet 20 percent of national energy demand by 2030, according to the Department of Energy. Achieving this target, which...

Wildlife woes.(UPDATES)(decline in wildlife population)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... See "bye, bye, birdie," July/August 2006, p. 28 Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London. Populations of land-based species fell by 25...

Chronic Flu.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... See "A Fowl Plague," January/February 2007, p. 24 According to the South Korean newspaper Chosun llbo, bird flu is now considered indigenous in Southeast Asia, China, and South Korea, meaning the virus has mutated to adapt to local...

Amazon attack.(UPDATES)(addressing the problem of deforestation and illegal logging in the Amazon)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... See "The Incredible Shrinking Amazon Rainforest," May/June 2008, p. 12 In May, Brazil unveiled its "Sustainable Amazon" plan to address rising deforestation and illegal logging, though critics say the scheme is too pro-development. The...

Tigers: worth more dead than alive; It's time to choose whether we will memorialize wild tigers, or save them.
July 1, 2008... Like most people, I have never seen a tiger in the wild. Despite being a conservation biologist, the only tigers I regularly encounter at close range are popular icons in Western culture, like Hobbes, Tiger, Sher Khan, and the jolly Tony on my...

Green building goes mainstream: a wide-angle view of sustainable materials and practices.
July 1, 2008... Not long ago Bill and Becka Doering, of Santa Barbara, California, decided they needed a bigger house to accommodate their two young children. After a fruitless search of Santa Barbara's pricey real estate market, the Doerings took Becka's...

Better off in prison.(TALKING PICTURES)(living inside prisons)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... It is about 9 in the morning. A small door at Hyderabad's Central Prison for Women opens and seven children in khaki school uniforms emerge and board a minibus. It's time for the ride to a private school nearby. The seven children are the...

Ocean motion power: aquabuoy and Wave Dragon sound like superheroes. Can they help save us from climate change?
July 1, 2008... As every school child knows, the oceans cover most of Earth's surface. And as every blue-water sailor and hurricane victim knows, the power embodied in the waves and surging waters of the oceans is immense, often terrifying, and beyond human...

James Hansen talks about climate change.(INTERVIEW)(Interview)
July 1, 2008... Editor's Note: If any single event can be said to have put climate change on the world's policy radar, it was the testimony of NASA scientist James Hansen before Senator Tim Wirth's committee in Congress on June 23, 1988. On the eve of the...

A visit to the Living Earth Cafe.(Essay)
July 1, 2008... Editor's Note: Worldwatch Research Associate Erik Assadourian has been developing a code of ethics grounded in the reality that we are utterly dependent on a fragile Earth system for our ability to survive and thrive, and that our choices must...

Environmentalists Take On The Economy.(The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability)(Book review)
July 1, 2008... The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, by James Gustave Speth Yale University Press, 320 pages Earth: The Sequel, by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn W.W. Norton & Co.,...

Wind power continues rapid rise.(VITAL SIGNS)
July 1, 2008... Global wind power capacity reached 94,100 megawatts by the end of 2007, up 27 percent from the previous year, and then topped 100,000 megawatts by April 2008. The roughly 20,000 megawatts installed in 2007 was 31 percent above the 2006 record...

Despite obstacles, biofuels continue surge.(VITAL SIGNS)
July 1, 2008... World production of biofuels rose some 20 percent to an estimated 54 billion liters in 2007. These gains meant biofuels accounted for 1.5 percent of the global supply of liquid fuels, up 0.25 percent from the previous year. Global production of...

FRIENDS OF WORLD WATCH: Many thanks to the thousands of people who recognized the urgency of our work and supported Worldwatch in 2007, allowing us to reach decision makers and concerned citizens in over 100 countries.
July 1, 2008... COUNCIL OF SPONSORS $50,000 + Tom and Cathy Crain James and Deanna Dehlsen The Hitz Foundation BENEFACTOR'S CIRCLE $10,000 + Geeta Aiyer Russell Bennett Gilbert Butler Robert and Chandra Friese Caroline...

(Space)Ship of Fuels.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)
July 1, 2008... Percent rise in overall global food prices, 2005-08 83 Percent decline in global cereal stocks, 2006-07 to 5 2007-08 Years since global stocks have been as low as they were in 25 2007-08...