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NEWS FROM THE WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
Contents:
1. State
of the World 2001 press release, plus Facts and Findings
2. Ordering
Information for State of the World 2001
Press Release for State of the World 2001
GLOBAL
ENVIRONMENT REACHES DANGEROUS CROSSROADS
Global environmental trends have reached a dangerous
crossroads as the
new century begins, according to State of the World 2001,
which was
released today by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based
research
organization. Signs of accelerated ecological decline have
coincided
with a loss of political momentum on environmental issues, as
evidenced
by the recent breakdown of global climate talks. This failure
calls
into question whether the world will be able to turn these trends
around
before the economy suffers irreversible damage.
"Governments squandered a historic opportunity to reverse
environmental
decline during the prosperity of the 1990s," said Christopher
Flavin,
President of the Institute and co-author of the report. "If in the
current climate of political and economic uncertainty, political leaders
were to roll back environmental laws or fail to complete key
international agreements, decades of progress could unravel."
New scientific evidence indicates that many global
ecosystems are
reaching dangerous thresholds that raise the stakes for
policymakers.
The Arctic ice cap has already thinned by 42 percent, and 27
percent of
the world's coral reefs have been lost, suggesting that some of
the
planet's key ecological systems are in decline, say the Institute's
researchers. Environmental degradation is also leading to more severe
natural disasters, which have cost the world $608 billion over the last
decade-as much as in the previous four decades combined.
With many life support systems at risk of long-term damage,
the choice
before today's political leaders is historic, even evolutionary,
in
nature: whether to move forward rapidly to build a sustainable economy
or to risk allowing the expansion in human numbers, the increase in
greenhouse gas emissions, and the loss of natural systems to undermine
the economy.
Unless fossil fuel use slows dramatically, the Earth's
temperature could
rise to as high as 6 degrees above the 1990 level by
2100, according to
the latest climate models. Such an increase could lead
to acute water
shortages, declining food production, and the proliferation
of deadly
diseases such as malaria and dengue fever.
One sign of ecological decline described in this year's
State of the
World is the risk of extinction that hangs over dozens of
species of
frogs and other amphibians around the globe, due to pressures
that
range from deforestation to ozone depletion. Co-author Ashley Mattoon
describes amphibians as "an important bioindicator-a sort of barometer
of Earth's health-more sensitive to environmental stress than other
organisms."
Environmental decline is also exacting a toll on people.
Even after a
decade of declining poverty in many nations, 1.2 billion
people lack
access to clean water and hundreds of millions breathe
unhealthy air.
And poor people in countries such as the Philippines and
Mexico are
pushed to destroy forests and coral reefs in a desperate effort
to raise
living standards.
"Environmental degradation is worsening many natural
disasters," said
co-author Janet Abramovitz. "In 1998-1999 alone, over
120,000 people
were killed and millions were displaced, mainly poor people
in regions
such as India and Latin America."
Population growth has led people to settle in flood-prone
valleys and
unstable hillsides, where deforestation and climate change have
increased their vulnerability to disasters such as Hurricane Mitch,
which produced economic losses of $8.5 billion in Central America in
1998-equal to the combined GNPs of Honduras and Nicaragua.
"Mobilizing the worldwide response needed to bring
destructive
environmental trends under control is a daunting task," said
coauthor
Gary Gardner. "But people have surmounted great challenges before,
from
the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, to the enfranchisement
of
women in the early twentieth. Change can move quickly from impossible
to inevitable."
Some early signs of progress have emerged in the past year:
* In December, negotiators from 122 countries agreed to a
historic legally binding treaty that will severely restrict 12 persistent
organic pollutants.
* Iceland launched a pioneering effort to harness its
geothermal and hydropower to produce hydrogen, which will be used to fuel its
automobiles and fishing boats-an effort that is attracting investments from
major oil and car companies.
* Organic farming, which avoids the use of synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides, has surged to a worldwide annual market of $22
billion-and may get a further boost from strict organic farming standards
issued by the U.S. government in December.
Industry is one key to environmental progress. Last year,
Ford Motor
Company Chairman, William Ford, questioned the long-term future
of both
the internal combustion engine and the personal automobile, as his
company stepped up its efforts to develop new transportation
technologies. At the same time, three oil companies announced that they
are moving "beyond petroleum" to a broader portfolio of energy
investments.
With oil, natural gas, and electricity prices all rising
simultaneously
during the past year, the world has had a timely reminder
that
over-dependence on geographically concentrated fossil fuels is a
recipe
for economic instability. In many regions, renewable energy is now
the
most economical and inflation-proof energy source available, and can be
installed much faster than the three-year minimum for a natural
gas-fired power plant.
Co-authors Hilary French and Lisa Mastny note that failure
to enforce
many existing international environmental agreements is
hampering
progress on many fronts. State of the World 2001 calls for
stronger
enforcement of treaties, and for increased North-South
cooperation,
particularly among the environmentally and economically
influential E9
countries: China, India, the United States, Indonesia,
Brazil, Russia,
Japan, South Africa, and the European Union. "Globalization
must go
beyond commercial relationships to embrace strengthened political
and
civil-society ties between diverse nations if we are to avoid a shared
catastrophe," according to the report.
One example of the potential influence of the E9 countries
is the effort
to slow climate change. These nine nations account for nearly
three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions. A collective
commitment by the E9 to new energy systems could have a dramatic impact
on energy markets and reduce the rate of global warming.
"The prospect of a new U.S. President entering office has
raised
questions about whether the United States will choose to be a leader
or
an impediment to global environmental progress in the decade ahead,"
said Flavin. "The U.S. has the world's largest economy and its
environmental impact is second to none, so the signal it sends is
crucial."
Amid the December 1999 breakdown in global trade talks and
the collapse
of climate negotiations a year later, it is clear that the
world is
still searching for consensus on how to forge an environmentally
sustainable economy. If the U.S. retreats to a more defensive view of
global environmental threats, it would create a leadership vacuum.
International negotiators are worried by the anti-environmental rhetoric
of the Bush campaign, but hopeful that once in office, the new
administration will follow through on the climate treaty and other
policies that were launched by the earlier Bush administration a decade
ago.
"The question now is one of leadership," Flavin said. "Will
the United
States help lead the world to a sustainable economy in the
twenty-first
century-as it led the way through global crises in the last
century? Or
will it be left to other countries to show the way to a
sustainable
economy in the new millennium?"
-END-
Facts and Findings
Excerpted from State of the World
2001
Economics
Recycling: The recycling rate for batteries in the United
States has
surged from 2 percent in 1993 to 25 percent in 1998.
International Debt: Zambia devoted 40 percent of its
national budget to
foreign debt payments in 1997, and only 7 percent to
basic health and
education, clean water, sanitation, family planning, and
nutrition.
Economic Growth: The annual output of the world economy has
grown from
$31 trillion in 1990 to $42 trillion in 2000; in 1950, total
world
output was $6.3 trillion.
China's Booming Economy: China has the world's third largest
economy,
with 420 million radios, 344 million television sets, 24 million
mobile
phones, and 15 million computers.
Debt Crisis: By 1998, the heavily indebted poor countries
had
international debts of $214 billion-a huge sum for them, but equal to
only 4.5 months of western military spending.
Environmental Crime: In 1999, U.K. customs officials
confiscated some
1,600 live animals and birds, 1,800 plants, 52,000 parts
and derivatives
of endangered species, and 388,000 grams of smuggled
caviar.
Technology
Fuel Cell Cars: DaimlerChrysler is devoting
$1.5 billion to fuel cell
development, and plans to produce and sell
100,000 fuel cell cars by
2004.
Bicycles: Bicycle production fell to 79 million units in
1998, 25
percent below the peak of 107 million bicycles in 1995.
Technological Vulnerability: The "Love Bug" computer virus
caused an
estimated $10 billion in damages to computer systems on every
continent.
Telecommunications: The number of host computers on the
Internet grew
from 376,000 in 1990 to 72,398,000 in 1999-an increase of
19,100
percent.
Accelerating Rates of Change: In the United States, it took
46 years for
a quarter of the population to adopt electricity early in the
twentieth
century; 35 years for the telephone, 26 years for television, 16
years
for the computer, 13 years for the mobile phone, and only 7 years for
the Internet.
Pollution & Resource Use
Global Warming: The
transportation sector is the fastest-growing source
of carbon emissions.
Road traffic, which accounted for 58 percent of
worldwide transportation
carbon emissions in 1990, claimed 73 percent by
1997.
Transportation: The United States uses more than one third
of the
world's transport energy.
CFCs: Following the adoption of the Montreal Protocol on
Substances That
Deplete the Ozone Layer, global production of CFCs dropped
by 85 percent
between 1986 and 1997.
Leaking Gas Tanks: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
estimates
that 100,000 underground storage tanks in the United States are
leaking.
Pesticides: In the United States in the 1990s, nearly 60
percent of
wells sampled in agricultural areas contained synthetic
pesticides.
Groundwater Pollution: Sixty percent of the most hazardous
liquid waste
in the United States-34 billion liters of solvents, heavy
metals, and
radioactive materials-is injected into deep aquifers via
thousands of
"injection wells."
Social
Educating Women: As female education levels rise, fertility
falls. At
the same time, the nutrition of their children improves, even if
their
incomes do not rise.
Natural Disasters: Approximately 37 percent of the world's
population-more than 2 billion people-lives within 100 kilometers of a
coastline. Of the world's 19 megacities-those with over 10 million
inhabitants-13 are in coastal zones.
HIV/AIDS: By 2000, HIV infection rates had reached a
stunning 20 percent
in South Africa, 25 percent in Zimbabwe, and 36 percent
in Botswana.
Micro-credit: The system of small-scale micro-credit
pioneered by the
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and BancoSol in Bolivia is
taking root in
various forms in scores of countries, reaching over 10
million borrowers
with tiny loans that turn them into entrepreneurs, able
to own and
operate their own small businesses.
Meat Eating: World meat consumption has climbed from 44
million tons in
1950 to 217 million tons in 1999, an increase of nearly
fivefold. This
growth, roughly double that of population, raised meat
intake per person
worldwide from 17 kilograms in 1950 to 36 kilograms in
1999.
NGOs: The number of NGOs has expanded steadily throughout
the century,
from 176 in 1909 to more than 23,000 in 1998.
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