Vital Signs 2010

Please note that hard copies of Vital Signs 2010 are no longer available for purchase.

“Vital Signs is absolutely invaluable.”
—Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor of the Independent on Sunday


March 2010
ISBN: 978-1-878071-94-1
127 pages

From rising meat and seafood production to changes in the climate, Vital Signs 2010 documents 24 trends that are shaping our future and includes concise analyses and clear graphs.

This seventeenth edition of the Worldwatch Institute series shows that climate change continues to cast a long shadow over the world’s leading economic, social, and environmental trends.

Some of the trends revealed are:

• Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were up 2 percent, despite high oil prices and the economic recession.
• The most devastating types of natural disasters continued to rise steadily, especially for weather-related events.
• Meat consumption in the developing world has increased 17 percent over the last 10 years, although people in the industrial world still eat more than twice as much meat per person.
• Grain yields have increased 146 percent over the last 46 years, even though the land dedicated to grain has remained relatively stable for the past 15 years.
• Aquaculture continued to expand, with exports for species like catfish and tilapia growing at more than 50 percent a year.

Table of Contents

Sample figures from Vital Signs 2010:

Table of Contents