STATE OF THE WORLD 2002 and also:
STATE OF THE WORLD 2002 Live Discussions with the authors

Climate Special
2. Special Offer: Free Downloads of New Articles on Global Warming
3. Hilary French to appear on global environmental governance panel
4. Worldwatch participates in 6-part environmental series on CNN

Press Release for State of the World 2001 GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT REACHES DANGEROUS CROSSROADS

Vital Signs 2001, the 10th anniversary edition of Worldwatch's review of the trends that are shaping our future. Commentary Part One.

Vital Signs 2001, the 10th anniversary edition, Commentary Part two;
Social and Economic Inequities Impeding Global Environmental Action

"Unnatural Disasters" by Janet Abramovitz,
explores the growing toll of unnatural disasters, and shows what we need to do to reduce their impact.

New Book on Globalization and the Environment

Global Tourism

Population Growth Sentencing Millions to Hydrological Poverty

Toxic Chemicals

Why Poison Ourselves? A Precautionary Approach to Synthetic Chemicals

Dust Bowl Threatening China's Future

Many article links and Commentary: Energy After September 11

Working for the Environment: A Growing Source of Jobs

Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis

HIV Epidemic Restructuring Africa's Population

Fish Farming

Worldwatch Briefing on Agricultural Biotechnology

Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, afflicting a growing number of people in industrial and developing countries alike.

The Bioterror in Your Burger

OPEC has World over a Barrel again.

Watch Seth Dunn on the Voice of America

Worldwatch Editor goes into the Lion's Den

The Worldwatch CD-ROM pulls together fully searchable text and data in color-enhanced Excel format from annual publications State of the World 2001 and Vital Signs 2001 as well as an archive of data from all Worldwatch publications from 1999 to 2000.

Christopher Flavin, new president at Worldwatch

Lester Brown Launches Earth Policy Institute
Today, Lester R. Brown, announced the formation of a new organization: the Earth Policy Institute. Brown will continue as Chairman of the Board of Worldwatch Institute and will become a Senior Fellow at Worldwatch. "During the year since I moved from President to Chairman of the Board at Worldwatch, I've had more time to think," said Brown "Three things have become much more apparent. First, we are losing the war to save the planet. Many battles have been won, but the gap between what we need to do to arrest the environmental deterioration of Earth and what we are doing continues to widen. Somehow we have to turn the tide."

Rising Temperatures and Falling Water Tables Raising Food Prices, Record World Grain Harvest Shortfall of 83 Million Tons in Prospect, Lester R. Brown, August 21, 2002

Water Deficits Growing in Many Countries, Water Shortages May Cause Food Shortages, Lester R. Brown, August 6, 2002

Primates Disappearing
March 5, 2002, EPI

The Rise and Fall of the Global Climate Coalition
www.earth-policy.org/Alerts/Alert6.htm, EPI.

This Year May be Second Warmest on Record, EPI.

Iran birth rate falling,
December, 2001, EPI..

World Wind Generating Capacity Jumps 31 Percent in 2001,
January 8, 2002, EPI

Rangeland Deteriorating

March 12, 2002,
Earth's ice cover is melting faster than projected

October 31, 2002,
Fuel Cell-Powered Cars Hitting the Road Ahead of Schedule
earth-policy.org/Updates/Update19.htm

World Fish Catch Indicator, 12 Nov 2002,
"The extent to which world demand for seafood is outrunning the sustainable yield of fisheries can be seen in shrinking fishery stocks, declining catches, and collapsing fisheries."
earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator3.htm

Forest Cover Shrinking by Janet Larsen
"Shrinking forest cover shows we are cutting more trees than we are planting. The shrinkage of forested area means not only that the forest's capacity to supply products is diminished, but also that its capacity to provide services, such as flood control, soil protection, and the purification of water, is also reduced."
earth-policy.org/Indicators/indicator4.htm

Worldwatch News is maintained by the Worldwatch Institute for subscribers interested in keeping up-to-date on global environmental issues. Postings to this list will include news releases and notification of new publications. The Worldwatch Institute is a nonprofit research organization that analyzes global environmental and development issues.
To contact Worldwatch directly, send email to worldwatch@worldwatch.org

The first two levels of understanding ecology and especially biodiversity are mostly academic. Mostly moot. Mostly irrelevant. Human numbers have pushed humanity well beyond the limits. For Level Three of ecology understanding there are two adequate alternatives to a rigorous scientific education. Arithmetic. Geography. Either one or both will suffice. Arable land per person. Hectares of forest logged or burned per year by country. Caloric intake per person per day. Per capita water consumption. Millions of tons of fish farmed or caught per country. Tons of CO2 per person per year. Hectares of land turned to desert per year. Kilos of grain stocks per person. URR, ultimately recoverable oil reserves as a percentage of total by region or country. Geographic arithmetic computations such as these define the distance humans have exceeded the limits. Complex mathematical formulae and probabilistic statistical analyses are not necessary. The reality of where humanity finds itself has become greatly simplified. It can be defined in terms of simple arithmetic. It can be described geographically by region or by country. In fact it used to be called the study of geography. The christening of a new academic field of study such as earth science is at best unnecessary. At worst it represents a diversionary waste of time.

Where does Worldwatch information come from? They aren't decievers. They aren't making it up. They aren't pulling rabbits out of hats. They aren't magicians. Worldwatch gets information from the same sources that publishers of textbooks of geography get information, various standard governmental statistics bureaus. Prosaic, mundane, common, ordinary statistics bureaus. Birth and death statistics are compiled at census bureaus in every country in the world. Agricultural statistics are compiled by every country in the world. Health statistics are complide for every country. Economic statistics are compiled by every country in the world. Manufacturing statistics are compiled by every country in the world. Etc. The statistics are no secret. Every think tank around the world has access the the same information. Go to the statistics bureaus and they'll load you down with reams of statistics. Take those statistics, sort them out and categorize them, tabulate and graph them and show the trends and presto! You've got a bunch of unwelcome information. Lester Brown and his groups present geographic information which has been thematically organized. Worldwatch issues numerous alerts and briefs. They compile the content of these alerts into two series of books. Vital Signs and States of the World are published each year.

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