World Watch articles from November 2005

World Watch archives from November 2005

Plywood.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
November 1, 2005... Overview Plywood may be the most prosaic building material ever. Even concrete, polished to a mirror finish, can be made into high-end kitchen counters; there's no equivalent glory for softwood-based plywood. (Hardwood laminates are...

Who cares about farmers?(EDITORIAL)
November 1, 2005... From my desk, I can see a wall calendar with glossy images of happy farmers. For March, a group of Mozambican fisherman haul seine. For May, an Ecuadorean woman in a traditional wool sweater and felt hat harvests massive collard greens from her...

Darcey Rakestraw: dancing across the culture gap.(WORLDWATCH FIRST-PERSON)
November 1, 2005... "Do you know Arabic dance?" asked Souha, my husband Atef's cousin, on my first night in his home on the Tunisian coast--somewhere between the unrelenting Sahara and the tourist-laden beaches of the Mediterranean. I was meeting most of Atef's...

Conservationists: don't forget the academics.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... Mac Chapin's November/December 2004 article "A Challenge to Conservationists" and the responses to it [January/February 2005] failed to address a key element in the bigger picture with respect to indigenous people and conservationists. Chapin...

Misguided Tompkins.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... While I admire the Tompkins's intentions and efforts to conserve biodiversity ["Buy Now, and Save!" July/August 2005], I find their approach economically inefficient and politically naive. As Frank Zeller indicates in his article, the...

Corn maze.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2005... "Reducing 'Globesity' Begins at Home," [Green Guidance, Sept/Oct 2005] unfortunately mischaracterizes high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a natural, home-grown sweetener from U.S. cornfields, by stating that it raises blood triglyceride levels....

Online species trade booming.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2005... The Internet has become a key marketplace for the global trade in threatened and endangered species, according to a recent report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). In a one-week period, the London-based organization...

U.S. Great Lakes thawing earlier.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The Great Lakes region of the United States, home to the largest concentration of fresh water on Earth, is thawing earlier each spring, according to findings reported in the August 20 issue of New Scientist. Scientists with the University of...

Two new reports show industrial toxins common in human bodies.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2005... Heavy metals, pesticides, solvents, fire retardants, glues, coatings, and combustion emissions are just some of the pollutants absorbed into our bodies on a daily basis, according to two recent studies on human exposure. In the National Report...

U.S. EPA environmental justice plan falls short.(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... A draft environmental justice plan released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has alarmed critics, who charge that the plan will stall any further progress toward remedying the disproportionate pollution load suffered by...

Land use is top global environmental concern.(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2005... The large-scale conversion of natural landscapes to agriculture and other human uses is a leading threat to human health and global sustainability, researchers reported in the July 22 issue of Science. The authors conclude that accelerated...

World Bank involvement in economic reform: "a warning flag"?(ENVIRONMENTAL INTELLIGENCE)
November 1, 2005... The World Bank, one of the world's leading development lending agencies, has long faced criticism about its role in international development and poverty-reduction efforts. Now, a study by economists from the Universities of Pennsylvania,...

Hydrogen promise not just gas?(UPDATES)
November 1, 2005... See "California Drives the Future of the Automobile," March/April 2005, p. 26 General Motors, Honda, and BMW say they all plan to produce small numbers of hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars within five years, mainly for use by public fleet...

Climate lawsuit will proceed.(UPDATES)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... See "Everybody's Talking About the Weather... and Now They're Suing. Too." Environmental Intelligence, May/June 2005, p. 9 A lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court by environmental groups and four U.S. cities passed an important milestone in...

Clones cloning around.(UPDATES)
November 1, 2005... See "Beyond Cloning: The Risks of Rushing Into Human Genetic Engineering." special theme issue, July/August 2002 The prospect of using cloning to save endangered species got a boost last summer, when male and female clones of African...

Pumalin park goes public.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... See "Buy Now, and Save!" July/August 2005, p. 24 U.S. eco-philanthropist Doug Tompkins, co-founder of the Esprit clothing chain, has finally succeeded in turning over his nearly 290,000-hectare Pumalin Park Nature Sanctuary to the Chilean...

Environmental tipping points: a new slant on strategic environmentalism.
November 1, 2005... Step off the outrigger canoe and Apo Island greets you like a palm-shaded Shangri-La. It's early afternoon, but the men have already come in from fishing. A dive shop and two small hotels overlook the shore, catering to tourists enticed by the...

Attending to children's health at home and school.(GREEN GUIDANCE)
November 1, 2005... No sooner have the kids returned to school, it seems, than it's back to sniffles and sneezes. As flu season starts, it's important to guard against pollutants that can trigger or worsen illnesses, from asthma and allergies to learning and...

Street children.(TALKING PICTURES)
November 1, 2005... These pictures were taken in Rio de Janeiro, but could easily come from any of the world's large cities where one of the wealthy minority's byproducts is a social gulf of misery. Living under the most extreme conditions, these children have no...

You say you want a revolution? Emerging economic strategies may hold the key to broadening democracy and enhancing environmental protection at the same time.
November 1, 2005... Since the modern environmental movement was born in the 1970s, enormous funds and energies have been expended globally to understand and cure our environmental ills. The result has been some spectacular successes--the Montreal Protocol to...

Trade and consequences: the globalization of trade is having some unexpected--and unwelcome--effects.
November 1, 2005... Walk into any Wal-Mart, Target, or Sears store in the United States, pick out a selection of goods from the shelves, and look at the manufacturer's label. The portable DVD player for your teenage daughter costs less than $100 and is made in...

At democracy's edge.(ESSAY)
November 1, 2005... It's far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism. --Dee Hock Under the banner of exporting democracy, Americans are sacrificing our lives abroad--even as many fear we are losing democracy here at home. But it's not too late,...

Seven tons.(ESSAY)
November 1, 2005... I never thought I was very attached to the stuff I own. But it sure is attached to me. This little epiphany struck while I was standing in the middle of my basement a few weeks ago, paralyzed by exhaustion after the fourth consecutive...

We're number [begin strikethrough]1[end strikethrough]29!(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Illustration)
November 1, 2005... We're Number [begin strikethrough]1[end strikethrough]29! Rank of Norway on the United Nations Human Development Index (2003) 1 Rank of United States 10 Rank of Cuba ...