World Watch articles from November 1997

World Watch archives from November 1997

Kyoto: the days of reckoning. (Kyoto Protocol to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change)(Editorial)
November 1, 1997... The desire for harmony, historians tell us, is a central theme of Japanese culture that has endured through the centuries. Perhaps, then, it is appropriate that this country's ancient capital should become the focus of our effort to reestablish...

Flying blind. (global warming's impact on the environment and economy)
November 1, 1997... In a recent issue of Newsweek magazine, columnist Robert Samuelson declared that "without a break through in alternative energy," the reduction of carbon emissions from fossil fuels, as required by the forthcoming climate treaty, would end up...

No asylum for refugees. (countries' unwillingness to provide asylum to refugees)
November 1, 1997... Last year, the number of international refugees reached a seven-year low of 15 million, according to the 1997 World Refugee Survey, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees. But during the last decade, the number of internally displaced...

Sick planet, sick people. (links between environmental decline and disease)
November 1, 1997... About 25 percent of the global burden of disease and injury is linked to environmental decline, according to a recent U.N. World Health Organization report. Health and Environment in Sustainable Development was released in June, at the five-year...

Tuna embargo falls. (withdrawal of the US tuna import embargo)
November 1, 1997... The six-year-old U.S. tuna import embargo has been withdrawn, amidst a controversy over whether the ban had begun to undercut its objective of promoting "dolphin safe" tuna. The embargo banned imports of tuna caught in purse seine nets, the...

Giant dam postponed indefinitely. (Malaysia's proposed Bakun dam)
November 1, 1997... Amid deepening chaos in Malaysia's financial markets, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad announced in September that he had indefinitely postponed several megaprojects, most prominently the Bakun dam, which he had once strongly supported. The dam,...

The risks of disrupting climate. (climate change's impact on humans and the environment)
November 1, 1997... In ancient civilizations, questions of future risk were usually left to soothsayers. With the modern analytical tools of risk management, we've come a long way in shaping our fate. Does it make sense to throw those tools aside in the face of...

Banking against warming. (World Bank's role in fight against global warming)(includes related article on the bank's Asia Alternative Energy Unit)
November 1, 1997... At the Kyoto Climate Summit in December, the World Bank - the world's biggest funder of fossil-fuel projects - may ask for a leading role in reducing global carbon emissions. Some critics doubt that such a reversal is possible. Others believe...

Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take It Back.
November 1, 1997... In the late 1950s, a senior editor for Fortune magazine named Jane Jacobs began - to the surprise of her colleagues - bicycling to work. Disturbed by the deterioration of the streets of New York City, she channeled her community activism into the...