World Watch articles from September 2000

World Watch archives from September 2000

Climate Change: Putting the "Good News" in Context.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In mid-June, the U.S. Global Change Research Program posted for public comment a draft assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on the United States. Prepared by a team of experts from government, the private sector, and academia,...

From Gombe, Bombay, Wittenberg, and Williams.(Janet Abramovitz, Chris Bright, Anne Platt McGinn, David Malin Roodman, Payal Sampat, Molly O'Meara Sheehan, Michael Renner, Sandra Postel, John Tuxill, Lori Brown)
September 1, 2000... In the last issue, to mark the Worldwatch Institute's new "second generation" strategy for the critical years ahead, I profiled some of our research staff members, in hopes of making it clear that our authors are not just scholarly wonks, but...

FROM READERS.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2000... A Case for Closing the World Bank and IMF I found your editorial (July/August) on the IMF/World Bank protests right on target except for one point. Surely we do need strong and effective international institutions. But shouldn't we be...

Russia axes its environment agency.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In a move that has provoked outrage from environmentalists around the world, Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 23 dissolved the State Committee for Environmental Protection, Goskomekologil, the only government body responsible for...

Nuclear power fading out.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Fourteen years after the world's worst nuclear accident, officials announced on June 5 that Ukraine will shut down the Chernobyl power plant by the end of 2000. Ten days after the decision was made to close Chernobyl, German chancellor Gerhard...

Fires burn around the world.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A large number of intense fires, many of them close to urban areas, blazed across thc United States this year. Fires burned in New Mexico, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, California, and other states throughout the summer, exacerbated by the...

Brazil's greens win forest showdown.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Rallying record public and political support, Brazilian environmentalists in May halted legislation that would have paved the way for the country's large land owners to redouble their efforts to clear forests and grasslands to make way for...

Road Rage.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Percent of surface area in the city of Los Angeles dedicated in some way to the automobile (roads, parking garages, etc.) - 70 percent Percent of surface area in Los Angeles devoted to parks and open space - 5 percent Number of people...

Where Have All the Farmers Gone?
September 1, 2000... The globalization of industry and frade is bringing more and more uniformity to the management of the world's land and a spreading threat to the diversity of crops ecosystems, and cultures. As Big-Ag takes over farmers who have a stake in their...

A Return to the Local: You Stay Home Too.(Interview)
September 1, 2000... Wendell Berry, a Kentucky farmer, essayist, and poet, argues that the basis of a sustainable economy is the vitality of local economies, which are fundamentally different from the omnipresent global system now swallowing up local enterprise all...

Tougher Germs, at Home and On the Farm.
September 1, 2000... Almost all major infectious diseases are becoming resistant to existing medicines, according to a June 2000 World Health Organization report (see "Super-bugs Arrive," March/April 1999). In the United States alone, an estimated 14,000 people are...

World Bank Approves Controversial Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The World Bank on June 6 voted to support the controversial Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, lending $192 million for the project despite warnings from environmental and human rights groups that the plan does not incorporate adequate safeguards to...

Human Motion, Still Pictures.(Review)
September 1, 2000... Sebastiao Salgado, Migrations: Humanity in Transition (New York: Aperture, 2000, www.aperture.org) The stories reflected in the pictures of photo journalist Sebastiao Salgado are not simple; they cannot be told in 1,000 words. Driftwood...

Farmhouse in Provence.(Vincent Van Gogh)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Vincent Van Gogh painted this farmhouse near Aries in 1888. He wrote that his studies of provencal wheatfields were "done quickly, quickly, quickly, and in a hurry just like the harvester who is silent under the blazing sun, intent only on the...