World Watch articles from November 2007

World Watch archives from November 2007

Coping with MR-GO.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... Your "Katrina: Unlearned Lessons" [September/October] is truly excellent and educational. I now feel that I understand. We knew that there was MR-GO, but we did not know enough. My follow-up is that we need now to consider the alternatives to...

It's the land, stupid.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... Ed Dodson ["From Readers," September/October] is absolutely correct in his analysis of current economic problems. Unless economists and policymakers recognize the role of land and natural resources in the creation of wealth, they will never...

How much oil?(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... Just a question about the article "Tar Sands Fever!" [September/October], in which you said, "The United States consumes more oil per capita than any other country in the world, absorbing two-thirds of global oil production" [p. 8]....

On New Capitalism.(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... "A New Capitalism" by Peter Barnes [September/October] talks of adding "a commons sector to balance the corporate sector." It goes on to say, "If the corporate sector devours nature, the commons sector would protect it." Under this "New...

Who analyzes countries' environmental health problems.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Thirteen million deaths could be prevented worldwide each year by improving the health of the environment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In June, the agency released the first ever country analysis of the effects of...

Europe's use of biofuels nearly doubles.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Biodiesel, ethanol, and other biofuels accounted for 1.8 percent of the European Union's transportation energy in 2006, compared with just 1 percent in 2005, according to the May 2007 Biofuels Barometer. The 25 EU member countries consumed 5.38...

Inequality gap grows in Asia, United States.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2007... In a new study, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) reports that the gap between rich and poor in many Asian countries, particularly China, has grown significantly in recent decades as economies have boomed. The United States is struggling with...

Pygmy elephants threatened by logging, oil palm plantations.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2007... Encroaching plantations and rampant logging are threatening populations of the pygmy elephant, a species unique to the dense tropical forests of Malaysian Borneo. Fewer than 1,500 of the elephants remain in the region, where clearing of forests...

Sao Paulo bans outdoor ads in fight against pollution.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2007... In January, the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, enacted a ban on virtually all outdoor advertising. Billboards, neon signs, and even buses and taxis have been wiped clean of advertisements in the municipality, the world's fourth most populous....

Companies commit to reducing climate risks.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2007... At the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in July, more than 150 companies from around the world signed a declaration pledging to reduce their carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. The statement, "Caring for...

Sudanese wildlife migration defies odds, rivals Serengeti.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2007... Despite 25 years of civil war, significant wildlife populations have survived and flourished in southern Sudan, according to a recent aerial survey of the area conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the regional government. "I...

More meat woes.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... See "Is Meat Sustainable?" July/August 2004, p. 12 Eating too much red meat isn't just bad for your health, it's bad for the planet, according to researchers at Cambridge University. In a September article in The Lancet, they note that...

Sinking species.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... See "Bye Bye, Birdie," July/August 2006, p. 28 More than 16,300 species are now in danger worldwide, from gorillas in Africa to corals of the Galapagos Islands, according to the World Conservation Union's 2007 "Red List" of threatened...

Global heatstroke.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... See "Climate Change, Coming Home," May/June 2007, p. 8 Climate change will have an overwhelmingly negative impact on human health, experts say. At a recent meeting of the World Health Organization, Alistair Woodward of the University of...

DIY politics.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... See "Climate Change: What the World Needs Now Is... Politics," January/February 2006, p. 25 Rates of volunteerism and civic participation in the United States are among the highest they've been since the 1970s, according to polls. Since...

Editor's introduction.
November 1, 2007... With this issue, World Watch marks the end of its 20th volume and year of publication. The magazine was launched with the January/February issue in 1988, when the Worldwatch Institute was already 14 years old, and has published six issues every...

Restoring the UN: take 2; With the UN's promise unfulfilled and environmental issues at the top of the international agenda, a critical opportunity is approaching.
November 1, 2007... Nineteen years ago this summer, I headed off for vacation with my first major World Watch feature article tucked in my bag. The headline for the article, "Restoring the UN," optimistically proclaimed that "after four decades of ideological...

Our first response to climate change: we badly need renewables to combat climate change, but we need ramped-up efficiency measures even more.
November 1, 2007... "Time is passing very quickly," Irving Mintzer wrote in his 1987 study A Matter of Degrees, which I reviewed for the very first edition of World Watch. Two decades later, Mintzer's words, like his report on ways to reduce the risk of global...

Slow-motion revolution: shifting the world onto a sustainable path is a big job, but progress is being made. It's just going to take awhile.
November 1, 2007... All over the world, the movement for sustainability--for a healthy, lasting prosperity grounded in place--is advancing in a slow-motion revolution. From faith communities to labor unions, from government leaders to business executives, people...

The heat was on: the same policy recommendations for stemming climate change that looked sound 20 years ago still look sound.
November 1, 2007... Re-reading the article I wrote for the November/December 1988 issue of World Watch was startling--and discouraging. The article, titled "The Heat Is On," was written just a few months after NASA scientist James Hansen testified before the...

Wired.(TALKING PICTURES)(Brief article)(Photograph)
November 1, 2007... It wouldn't be a wired (and electrified) world without the wires themselves--as problematic as they sometimes prove to be. Top left: Pedestrian safety: a monkey uses power lines to cross above a street in Delhi, India. Above: By a...

Breeding a sustainable agriculture: experiments under way around the planet are leading to techniques and crop varieties good for the long term. Now, about those subsidies ...
November 1, 2007... Author Wes Jackson warned us 20 years ago we're not getting any smarter. Critiquing modern farming in his book Altars of Unhewn Stone, he showed us how, in this age of overwhelming information, we're actually losing wisdom. So distracted are we...

China's unquenchable thirst: China's staggering growth over the last 20 years has strained much of its resource base, but nothing more than freshwater supplies.
November 1, 2007... On June 8,1988, I boarded a midnight train bound for Zhengzhou from Beijing, where my trip to research China's land and water challenges had begun just three days before. My senses were already brimming with the sights and sounds of the capital...

Car crash: a look in the rearview mirror; Once it looked as if the automobile's dominance of transportation might be checked, but it's still king of the road.
November 1, 2007... In 1988, when I wrote about the future of automobiles in the premier issue of World Watch, there were no Hummers on the road and SUVs had not yet reached their prime. It would be another decade before Toyota unveiled its revolutionary Prius...

The importance of connections: global interdependence ties our environmental fate to others, but also creates a public store of good examples to follow.
November 1, 2007... In nature everything is connected to everything else. Aldo Leopold taught us that back in the 1950s. Twenty years after the first issue of World Watch was published, an ever larger segment of the population seems to understand the implications...

Salience, or voting as if the environment matters: the path to a green energy future and a stable climate is clearer than ever--but we do need to start voting to put ourselves on it.
November 1, 2007... The professor who taught my college introductory political science course greatly emphasized a dry little word: salience--a measure of how much people's opinions on a given subject actually influence how they vote. Issues that are immediate or...

Shell game.(BETWEEN THE LINES)
November 1, 2007... Eureka! Royal Dutch Shell, the world's second largest oil company and producer of 2.5 percent of the world's oil, has finally acknowledged that we live in a closed environmental system. The acknowledgment goes beyond ads: in the company's 2006...

Notes from Bolivia.
November 1, 2007... Drew Wilkins is a former Worldwatch staffer who recently spent three months working with nurses at a rural university, la Unidad Academica Campesina, in an area known as Carmen Pampa, northeast of La Paz. These commentaries are adapted from a...

Career moves.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Career Moves Average salary of a corporate lawyer in Hanoi, Vietnam (U.S. 37,915 dollars) In Lagos, Nigeria 27,252 In London, U.K 93,521...