World Watch articles from November 2008

World Watch archives from November 2008

Population: get serious about numbers.(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Worldwatch has gone stale on population issues. It billed its September/October issue as being devoted to population, but it flopped: "totally bland, no message of urgency, no call to action, no directions to activist organizations, and...

Water Corruption prevents progress.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2008... "Dirty" water politics is responsible for much of the stalled progress in improving access to water resources worldwide, according to the 2008 Global Corruption Report. "Corruption in water can lead to skewed and inequitable water resources...

U.S. bottled water demand slowing.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... While bottled water continues to expand in global popularity, the U.S. market is expected to grow only 6.7 percent this year, the smallest increase this decade, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. Following the lead of cities...

Green buildings sprout in Indian country.(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2008... The walls of Elmer Bear Eagle's house are covered in mold. It began in the basement, then crept up the sides. Now it blocks the sunlight through the windows. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The problem is fairly common throughout the Pine Ridge...

A solar future for Kenya's youth?(EYE ON EARTH)
November 1, 2008... Frederick Ouko left western Kenya when he was 20, in search of a college education. Unemployed, he moved to the capital city of Nairobi and settled in Kibera, the second largest slum in Africa. Basic services such as electricity, water, and...

Roundtable reveals international biofuel standard.(EYE ON EARTH)(Discussion)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... An international stakeholder group known as the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels has released the first-ever global standard for biofuel production. The draft guidelines, voluntary for now, require biofuel producers to consider the entire...

World Bank struggles to prioritize sustainability.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... World Bank investment projects fail to dedicate sufficient attention to longterm sustainability, an internal review said in July. Although the Bank has strengthened its focus on mitigating environmental degradation and climate change in recent...

Going ... gone.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Going... Gone Data from the Zoological Society of London reveal that between a quarter and a third of the world's species has been lost since 1970. Since the mid-1990s, populations of land-based species have fallen by 25 percent, marine...

The New Black?(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... The New Black? Climate change could be slowed significantly if the world's 100 largest cities installed white roofs and more-reflective pavement, according to a study in the journal Climatic Change. Roofs account for 25 percent of the surface...

Water diets?(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Water Diets? According to a WWF study, the average UK citizen uses the equivalent of about 58 bathtubs full of water every day. This includes not only the 150 liters of actual water a person drinks, flushes, or washes away daily, but also the...

Slashing subsidies.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Slashing Subsidies A new report suggests that cancelling fossil fuel subsidies could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 6 percent a year, while contributing 0.1 percent to global GDP. Each year, some US$300 billion, or 0.7 percent of...

Lifeless coasts.(UPDATES)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Lifeless Coasts Research indicates that the number of "dead zones" in coastal waters--areas so deprived of oxygen that most marine species cannot survive--has risen by roughly a third this decade alone, to 405 worldwide. Scientists attribute...

Love 'EM, then leave 'EM.(TALKING PICTURES)(Brief article)(Photograph)
November 1, 2008... Clockwise from above: A Fiat in Ireland, where rust never sleeps. Derelict in a derelict landscape, 100 kilometers from anywhere in Namibia. Fallen from the pantheon in Kefalonia, Greece. Steve Ford Elliot [ILLUSTRATION...

The Ainu's modern struggle learning politics to survive.(Ainu Mosir )
November 1, 2008... Ainu Mosir is a country of sweeping vistas: forested slopes reach up to steaming volcanic peaks, waterfalls plunge down rugged mountains, and plains stretch to the horizon. Its forests team with wildlife. Migratory cranes overwinter in coastal...

Pollination panic: honeybees are in trouble. can native pollinators rebound to fill the gap?
November 1, 2008... Outside my office window as I write this article, I can see the tomato plants in our garden heavy with fat, red fruits, like strings of big Christmas bulbs. Perhaps my favorite part of gardening is its alchemical quality, the way a crop seems...

Microfinance surging.(VITAL SIGNS)
November 1, 2008... Microfinance--financial services such as loans, savings accounts, and insurance products designed to serve people with very low incomes--grew rapidly in 2006. The number of "microborrowers" worldwide increased by 17 percent in 2006 and averaged...

Jobs in renewable energy expanding.
November 1, 2008... Driven by the gathering sense of a climate crisis, the notion of "green jobs"--especially in the renewable energy sector--is receiving unprecedented attention. At least 2.3 million people worldwide work either directly in renewables or in...

The living Earth Ethical Principles; Right diet and renewing life rituals.(ESSAY)
November 1, 2008... Right Diet. Eat a healthy diet of the right amount of calories, of foods that are produced fairly and do not cause systematic suffering to ourselves, to others, to farmed animals or other living creatures, or to the Earth itself. ...

Deaths-defying odds.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Deaths-Defying Odds Annual odds of an asteroid colliding with the Earth 1 in50,000,000 and obliterating all life Annual odds of being killed in an 1 in 432,484 airplane crash (United States) Of being killed...