Vital Signs 2003

May 2003
ISBN: 0-393-32440-0
158 pages

“Vital Signs does for the environment what stock market indicators do for the City [in London]. But it says more about the future of our world than the FTSE [Financial Times Stock Exchange] ever can.”  BBC Wildlife Magazine

From devastating resource wars fueled by oil or diamonds to a surge in clean, cheap wind power, Vital Signs 2003 documents the trends that are shaping our future in concise analyses and clear tables and graphs.

This twelfth volume of the Worldwatch Institute series finds that the twin goals of protecting Earth’s fragile ecosystems and improving the prospects of billions of people will not be achieved as long as humanity remains divided into the extremes of rich and poor.

Among the important trends highlighted in Vital Signs 2003:

• Infectious diseases kill twice as many people worldwide as cancer each year.
• Roughly one-quarter of the 50 recent wars and armed conflicts have involved a struggle for control of natural resources.
• The most rapidly expanding energy source is wind power—with an annual average growth rate of 33 percent between 1998 and 2002.
• With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States uses 26 percent of the oil, 25 percent of the coal, and 27 percent of the natural gas.
• 82 percent of the world’s smokers now live in developing countries.

With Vital Signs 2003, you’ll have the cogent analysis you need to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges. So don’t delay. Order your copy of Vital Signs 2003 today.