World Watch articles from March 2005

World Watch archives from March 2005

Automobiles.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
March 1, 2005... Overview Worldwide, there are 551 million cars on the roads, and we're buying about 44 million new ones every year. The United States invented the car culture and hosts a quarter of the total. (In a few years, China will own another...

The ever-whirling wheel.(NOTE TO READERS)
March 1, 2005... This issue of World Watch is the first since late 1991 without Ed Ayres's name on the masthead. As he announced in the last issue, in his final "Note From a Worldwatcher," Ed has retired from Worldwatch Institute and is in the throes of moving...

Danielle Nierenberg: population and parasites.(WORLDWATCH FIRST-PERSON)
March 1, 2005... It sounded like a good deal: an all-expenses-paid trip to Morocco, to take part in a reproductive-health study tour and accept a "Best Population Journal" award on behalf of World Watch from the Population Institute (PI). I would travel with...

Shady enterprises. .(GREEN GUIDANCE)(green products, sustainable forestry)
March 1, 2005... The latest news about global warming may tempt you to throw up your hands and run for the shade--preferably some with a hammock. After all, it's a vast problem that can easily make individuals feel inadequate. Yet consumers can help quite a...

Bad and irrelevant.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I am amazed by the lack of judgment shown in the lead editorial of your population issue [September/October 2004]. The first thing one encounters is an irrelevant rant about Iraq. This is sure to turn off the conservatives you really need to...

Live long, don't necessarily prosper.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... The September/October 2004 issue featuring "population and its discontents" was very interesting. There is an additional variable that merits considerable emphasis, and that is the potential for extraordinary longevity. From antiquity to the...

Meat and sustainability.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Your recent articles on the meat industry's unsustainability (July/August 2004) and impacts of human overpopulation (September/October 2004) are more than welcome in a world out of control regarding the need to protect people, ecosystems, and...

Relative size matters.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... In an otherwise interesting article ["A New Paradigm for Human Security," January/February 2005], Gregory Foster presents statistics that actually undermine its premise. He compares deaths from terrorist attacks over a 37-year period with...

More responses to "A Challenge to Conservationists".(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... Editor's Note: Following are several additional responses to "A Challenge to Conservationists" (November/December 2004), by Mac Chapin. A number of other letters, which we do not have space to print, can be seen on our website at...

Ocean census reveals how little we know.(ENVIRONMENTAL Intelligence)
March 1, 2005... New data from a global survey of the world's oceans is revealing how little is really known about marine ecosystems. In November, scientists with the 10-year Census of Marine Life announced the discovery of 106 new species of fish in 2004...

China, the WTO, and the Environment.(ENVIRONMENTAL Intelligence)
March 1, 2005... China's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) is having profound environmental impacts, particularly in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, automaking, energy, and textiles, according to a report from the government's Task Force on...

The price of hunger.(ENVIRONMENTAL Intelligence)
March 1, 2005... For the first time since it began keeping track in the 1970s, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that the number of hungry people around the world has increased. According to the latest edition of the agency's...

Global warming's impacts evident worldwide.(ENVIRONMENTAL Intelligence)
March 1, 2005... Global warming is already affecting humans, plants, and animals worldwide, and these impacts are arriving faster than many climate scientists predicted. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment [Environmental Intelligence, January/February...

Global anti-tobacco treaty enters into force.(UPDATES)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... See "U.S. Hampers Global Anti-Tobacco Treaty." Mar/Apr 2002, p. 9 Global anti-tobacco treaty enters into force The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force on February 27th, after ratification by over 40 countries. The...

Isolating pharma crops from food would take "major effort".(UPDATES)
March 1, 2005... See "Silent Winter," May/June 2004, p. 10; "Trespass: Genetic Engineering as the Final Conquest," Jan/Feb 2004, p. 24 Isolating pharma crops from food would take "major effort" Corn and soybean crops are being bio-engineered to make...

Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid problems.(UPDATES)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... See "A Little Rocket Fuel With Your Salad?" Nov/Dec 2003, p. 12 Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient linked to thyroid problems and found in drinking water supplies in 35 states, is safe for humans at far higher levels than allowed by...

Recent studies reveal that antibiotic drugs used mainly in animals are showing up in public waters.(UPDATES)
March 1, 2005... See "Factory Farming in the Developing World," May/June 2003, p. 10 Recent studies reveal that antibiotic drugs used mainly in animals are showing up in public waters (Colorado State University), that there is a connection between the use...

Yours, mine, ours--or nobody's?(GROUNDWORK)(conservation of public resources)
March 1, 2005... My two young children are wrestling with one of life's more difficult concepts: sharing. They are particularly challenged when it comes to sharing things that are owned by nobody in particular, like a favorite seat in the car, our set of...

The irony of climate: archaeologists suspect that a shift in the planet's climate thousands of years ago gave birth to agriculture. Now climate change could spell the end of farming as we know it.
March 1, 2005... High in the Peruvian Andes, a new disease has invaded the potato fields in the town of Chacllabamba. Warmer and wetter weather associated with global climate change has allowed late blight--the same fungus that caused the Irish potato...

Plastic bags.(TALKING PICTURES)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Tool, clothing, shelter, toy--possibly even food, if the dolphin below thinks it's sneaking up on a jellyfish--is there anything the plastic bag cannot do? Well, yes: go away. The bags are discarded by the tens of billions every year, and...

California drives the future of the automobile: impatience with fossil fuels is shaking California, which is the world's sixth-largest economy and has the dirtiest air in the United States. The state's leaders have their sights set on hydrogen.
March 1, 2005... In October 2003, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger came to office in a recall election promising to create the world's first "hydrogen highway," with hydrogen fueling stations situated along the state's major roads. "I intend to show...

Less is more.('Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape our Future' by Ben J. Wattenberg )(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape our Future, Ben J. Wattenberg (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004), 256 pp. Like a Big Three automaker, Ben Wattenberg regularly rolls out a new version of his best-selling product. So here...