World Watch articles from September 2008

World Watch archives from September 2008

Pencils.(LIFE - CYCLE STUDIES)
September 1, 2008... Introduction The modern pencil was once a controversial addition to the classroom. Some American schoolteachers said the 1858 invention of pencils with attached erasers would encourage student carelessness. But the pencil prevailed and is...

Alexander, not so Great?(FROM READERS)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... In your recent "Life Cycle Studies--Bananas" (March/April 2008), the phrase "Alexander the Great's conquest of India" drew my attention. A remnant of colonial beliefs of the superiority of Western man is both offensive to Indians and most...

On Tigers.(FROM READERS)(Poem)
September 1, 2008... The Tiger Human truth is exceedingly meager; Man's Denial an invariable Feast: Did Blake abolish the "I" from Tiger, So as not to see himself in the Beast? Tiger, Tiger - fading light Blake painted you a ghastly sight. Perhaps...

U.K. committee supports personal carbon trading.(EYE ON EARTH)(House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A United Kingdom House of Commons committee has suggested that Parliament create a personal carbon-trading scheme for all U.K. citizens. It was the strongest statement yet by any government in favor of an individual cap-and-trade system for...

European Union increases recycling targets.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The European Union increased its waste management targets in June. By 2020, EU households must reuse or recycle at least 50 percent of their waste, and construction waste is required to meet a 70-percent recycling target. The general...

U.S. Postal Service begins e-waste recycling.(EYE ON EARTH)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... In an effort to improve electronics recycling in the United States, the U.S. Postal Service is developing a free national collection program for small electronic items. The program, now in its pilot stage, provides courtesy envelopes with...

Brazil environment leader resigns.(EYE ON EARTH)(Marina Silva)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Brazil's outspoken environment minister, Marina Silva, resigned in May--a move that was widely expected after years of tension with the country's largely pro-development administration. In her resignation letter, Silva omitted specific reasons...

Green jobs find international support.(EYE ON EARTH)
September 1, 2008... Sitting in a warm Capitol Hill office building in Washington last May, a panel of green-collar job activists attempted to rally support among a room of sleepy congressional staffers. At the end of the briefing, Van Jones, a civil-rights...

Genetic Makeover.(UPDATES)(Genetic Makeover China plans to push development of genetically modified crops)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Genetic Makeover China plans to step up its development of genetically modified (GM) crops as it seeks to feed its population of 1.3 billion. The push to cultivate high-yielding and pest-resistant GM species is part of a "strategic" drive to...

Tainted trade.(UPDATES)(cutting emissions from marine transportation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Tainted Trade Officials from more than 50 ports in 35 countries met in July to discuss how to cut emissions from the roughly 100,000 large ships that ply global waters. Estimates of marine transport's contribution to global emissions range from...

Tiger-less woods.(UPDATES)(South China tiger is close to extinction due to deforestation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Tiger-less Woods Hunting and deforestation have driven the South China tiger close to extinction, with none seen or captured in the past two decades. An estimated 10-20 individuals remain in the wild. The tiger's decline was accelerated by...

Solar success.(UPDATES)(solar field becomes fully operational in 2009)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Solar Success In June, the world's largest solar field--spanning 110 hectares--came online at the Waldpolenz Solar Park east of Leipzig, Germany. When it becomes fully operational in 2009, the facility will displace some 25,000 tons of carbon...

Study supports U.S. wind expansion.(EYE ON EARTH)
September 1, 2008... Wind energy can supply 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs by 2030 at a "modest" cost difference, according to a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report released in May. The analysis predicts that the wind scenario would cost about 2 percent...

Rare iguanas struggle for survival as Grand Cayman Island population grows.(EYE ON EARTH)(rare blue iguana)
September 1, 2008... When a team of volunteers with the Blue Iguana Recovery Program arrived to work at their Grand Cayman Island breeding center in May, they were shockede by what they found: someone had savagely attacked the program's endangered reptiles,...

Editor's introduction; women: population's once and future key.(POPULATION FORUM)(Editorial)
September 1, 2008... Four years ago this August, World Watch published its "Population and Its Discontents" theme issue (September/October 2004). Although much has changed since then, it appears that the most important conclusion of that issue--that the best...

Unnatural increase? A short history of population trends and influences.(POPULATION FORUM)
September 1, 2008... From at least the Axial Age (800-200 BCE) until the late eighteenth century, most organized efforts to influence the size of populations aimed at boosting it. Women have been extolled, pressured, or coerced into having children early and often,...

Population, Health, and Environment through a "gendered" lens; When women are better off, so are populations.(POPULATION FORUM)
September 1, 2008... The water lapped at the side of our tiny outrigger boats as we struggled to get our sea legs up onto the dock. We had just arrived at Gilutongan, one of more than 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines nation. Coming from land-locked...

Talking pictures: know your energy source.(coronal mass ejections)(Photograph)
September 1, 2008... 8 January 2002: A widely spreading coronal mass ejection blasts over a billion tons of matter into space at millions of kilometers an hour. (Coronal images normally black out the disk of the sun here a sun image is superimposed for effect.) ...

U.S. attitudes on population: a mixed picture that seems to reflect confusing media messages.(POPULATION FORUM)
September 1, 2008... Our planet faces a "perfect storm" of unprecedented challenges, including climate change, food and water shortages, and a severe energy crisis. But while the urgency of addressing these issues is undisputed, many people in the United States...

Of butterflies, birds, and bees: one program that understands the links among education, economic opportunity, and population.(POPULATION FORUM)(Wafula launched butterfly farming enterprise with help from the Kakamega Environmental Education Program)
September 1, 2008... Before his fellow villagers understood what he was up to, they called Wafula "the moneyed mad man"--"moneyed" because he had enrolled his daughters in secondary school rather than send them off to hard labor in the nearby Kakamega Forest; and...

Population, urbanization, and the environment: growing cities stress their natural surrounding, but they can also help protect them.(POPULATION FORUM)
September 1, 2008... People have been moving from the countryside to the city for at least 9,000 years, but this key population trend has now become one of the most visible and profound forces on Earth: 2008 is the first year in which more than half of us have...

Population and security: risks from growth, youth, migration, and environmental stress.(POPULATION FORUM)
September 1, 2008... In April 2008, General Michael Hayden, director of the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency, cited population growth as one of three top destabilizing trends facing the world (the other two were the rise of Asia and the changing relationship...

The living earth ethical principles.(Essay)
September 1, 2008... Every day there is more news about floods, fires, hurricanes, acidifying oceans, bleaching coral reefs, drowning polar bears. Scientists and journalists increasingly point to climate change as the root cause. But what's at the root of climate...

Carbon tracks.(MATTERS OF SCALE)(Table)
September 1, 2008... Estimated carbon emissions per passenger-mile traveled (grams of [CO.sub.2]): Automobile 130-390 Commercial -jetliner 180-280 Bus ...