World Watch articles from November 2006

World Watch archives from November 2006

Currency.(LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES)
November 1, 2006... Overview Trade is an ancient practice that depended for a very long time on barter. But sometime between 9000 and 6000 BCE, the pluses of a medium of exchange emerged, and cattle became the first form of currency. Better, but still awkward...

Beyond Kyoto.(EDITORIAL)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... I was fortunate to be an American "fly on the wall" at a recent conference of Asians and Europeans probing the possibilities for a post-Kyoto climate change regime. What struck me was the contrast between their sense of urgency on the issue and...

Katrina and race.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Your issue on New Orleans/Katrina was one of the best and most comprehensive treatments of the subject I've seen. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Too much of the media are obsessed with the localized destruction to look at the larger...

Recycling aseptic cartons.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Thank you for the good advice about disaster preparedness [Green Guidance] in the Sept/Oct '06 issue. And I particularly appreciate the mention of avoiding bisphenol-A in most food cans. Sadly, toxic concerns usually disappear in emergencies....

Agriculture and population.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... Your recent essay "Ripe for Change: Agriculture's Tipping Point" [by Claire Cummings, July/August 2006], was good in so many ways. However, it failed to state that in order for any society, and its agriculture, to be sustainable for the long...

Bee and wildflower diversity decline together.(EYE ON EARTH)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2006... The diversity of bees and the wildflowers that depend on them for pollination are declining simultaneously, according to new research conducted in Britain and the Netherlands. While other studies have documented dwindling numbers of specific...

Tradable permits proposed to slow deforestation.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2006... Environmental groups are pushing for the use of market mechanisms to address one of the world's largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions: deforestation. Environmental Defense and the Amazon Institute for Environmental Research are among the...

Global action required to avert water crisis.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2006... The world's water situation continues to deteriorate, according to two studies released during World Water Week in late August. The first, a comprehensive report from global conservation organization WWF, details how the looming water crisis is...

Plant-based chemicals could be boon for Africa.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... In July, the Ethiopian government signed an agreement allowing a British biotechnology firm to commercialize the oilseed plant vernonia as a renewable source of industrial chemicals. Long dismissed by farmers as a nuisance shrub, vernonia (also...

Capitalism grows more socially conscious.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2006... Recent trends suggest that both corporations and investors are taking socially responsible investing (SRI) more seriously. A study released by the Social Investment Research Analysts Network on July 11 reveals that 34 companies listed on the S...

Soy traders agree to protect Amazon forest.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2006... On July 24, the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Producers (ABIOVE) and the National Grains Exporters' Association (ANEC), an industry group representing the world's leading soy exporters, agreed to a two-year moratorium on using soybeans...

Bhopal campaigner's death highlights victims' plight.(Sunil Kumar Verma commits suicide)
November 1, 2006... Sunil Kumar Verma, founder of "Children Against Carbide" and a dedicated campaigner for justice for the victims of the deadly 1984 gas explosion in Bhopal, India, committed suicide on the evening of July 26, 2006. The 34-year-old activist was...

Bird boomerang.(UPDATES)
November 1, 2006... See "Bye Bye, Birdie," July/August 2006, p. 28 Scientists with BirdLife International credit successful conservation efforts with rebounds in the populations of 31 bird species that would otherwise have gone extinct, including the Norfolk...

GM rice contamination.(UPDATES)(genetically modified )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... See "Trespass," January/February 2005, p. 24 In late August, the discovery of unapproved genetically modified (GM) grains in U.S commercial rice supplies caused rice futures to plummet and led Japan to temporarily ban imports of U.S....

Foreign study.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... See "Are Americans Really Xenophobes?" March/April 2006, p. 3 Since the 2000-01 school year, the number of U.S. college and university students studying abroad has jumped nearly 20 percent, according to the Institute of International...

U.S. oil discovery.(UPDATES)
November 1, 2006... See "Peak Oil Forum," January/February 2006, p. 9 In early September, Chevron Corp. and two other oil companies announced their tapping of a vast petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Analysts have called the find, which could...

Climate kudos.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... See "Black Water Rising." September/October, p. 26 In August 2006, California passed a bill establishing the strictest U.S. carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) controls yet. The law requires a 25 percent reduction in state C[O.sub.2] emissions by...

Unexpected promise: disaster creates an opening for peace in a conflict-riven land.(Aceh connected after Tsunami )
November 1, 2006... Aceh--For centuries, this territory at the northern tip of Sumatra was at the crossroads of several of the world's major cultures and trade routes, leading some to say that Aceh really stands for Arabia-China-Europe-Hindustan. It was there that...

Supersized TVs and electronics.(GREEN GUIDANCE)(television)
November 1, 2006... The world's consumers own about 1.7 billion television sets--one for every four people--and 150 million new ones are added each year. Yet while in the poorest countries there is only one TV per dozen people, the average U.S. household has 2.4....

Be here now.(TALKING PICTURES)
November 1, 2006... This 1971 invocation from Ram Dass (former Harvard professor turned guru) appears even more challenging today. Are we too well connected? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION...

Missing in action: Iceland's hydrogen economy; Once aimed boldly at the 21st century, Iceland's hydrogen dream seems to have been hijacked by privateers with a 19th-century vision.
November 1, 2006... In 1998, the tiny country of Iceland (population 300,000) stunned the world by announcing its intention to be the vanguard of the scientific and engineering quest to achieve a hydrogen energy economy--that is, to eliminate its dependence on...

Swift boating, stealth budgeting, & Unitary Executives.
November 1, 2006... The American Revolution launched the radical proposition that the commonest of men should have a vote equal in weight to that of the richest, most powerful citizen. Our forefathers devised a remarkable Constitution, with checks and balances, to...

Water world.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Water World Percent share of all water on Earth that is freshwater 2.5 Percent share of all freshwater that is frozen in 70 glaciers and polar icecaps Percent share of all freshwater that is available for <1 human use ...