World Watch articles from March 1996

World Watch archives from March 1996

The decline of nations and the future of the U.N.
March 1, 1996... The last year of the U.N.'s first half century could hardly have been more schizophrenic. The organization found itself in growing demand for services that individual nations are finding harder to provide for themselves - ranging from...

Green tax shift begins in Europe.
March 1, 1996... A modest but momentous change in taxing strategies is taking place across Western Europe. In the past five years, five European countries have cut income or payroll taxes while increasing taxes on energy use, waste generation, or pollution. More...

Used materials enter the economic mainstream.
March 1, 1996... The U.S. recycling industry passed a landmark last October, as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) launched its Recyclables Exchange. Secondary materials such as glass, PET and HDPE plastics, and paper now have their own market on the CBOT, which...

Americans reassessing high consumption.
March 1, 1996... A recent study examining U.S. attitudes on consumerism has found that 82 percent of Americans agree that "Most of us buy and consume far more than we need; it's wasteful." Results from the study, "Yearning for Balance," conducted on behalf of the...

Income gap widens.
March 1, 1996... The gap in income among the people of the world has been widening. In 1960, according to United Nations statisticians, the richest 20 percent of the world's people received 30 times more income than the poorest 20 percent. By 1991, they were...

Micro-enterprises. (importance of small businesses to the global economy)
March 1, 1996... It is not big corporate or government employers, but millions of tiny one- or two- or five-person businesses, that will have to provide a large share of the jobs - and the critical ties to local community and ecology - that are so vital to the...

IPM and the war on pests. (Integrated Pest Management)
March 1, 1996... In the long run, using chemical weapons against weeds and bugs is a losing proposition. So, what are the hopes for Integrated Pest Management? "Paraquat and Nature working in perfect Harmony," proclaims the caption of a Malaysian ad for one of...

Water-borne killers. (infectious diseases from contaminated water)
March 1, 1996... In the global resurgence of infectious diseases, the flow of water - for drinking, sanitation, and irrigation - is playing a central role. Along the dying Aral Sea, in central Asia, the people are dying too - of cancer, typhoid, and hepatitis....

Material World: A Global Family Portrait.
March 1, 1996... In 1955, Edward Steichen described The Family of Man, the landmark Museum of Modern Art photography collection he conceived and directed - and published in book form - as "a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world." A...