Reports
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Worldwatch Paper #172: Catch of the Day: Choosing Seafood for Healthier OceansBuyers of seafood—including individual consumers, schools, supermarkets, and large food distributors—can play an important role in reversing fishery declines and preserving the fresh catch of tomorrow. This report offers a refreshing reminder that we are not doomed to face an ocean wasteland "inhabited primarily by sea slime and jellyfish." Rather, a public that better understands the state of the world's oceans can be a driving force in helping governments pass legislation to ban destructive fishing, mandate seafood labels, decrease consumption of endangered fish, and create sustainable marine preserves. |
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American Energy - The Renewable Path to Energy SecurityIn advocating the thoughtful expansion of renewable technologies, American Energy presents a clear and practical path to end this country’s troublesome addiction to fossil fuels. |
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Worldwatch Paper #171: Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat IndustryFrom transmission of disease and loss of livestock diversity to hazardous and unsanitary processing methods, factory farming is an unsafe, inhumane, and ecologically disruptive form of meat production. This report documents the harmful effects of factory farming in both industrialized and developing countries and explains the range of consequences for the environment, human health, and communities. |
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Worldwatch Paper #170: Liquid Assets: The Critical Need to Safeguard Freshwater EcosystemsBy taking advantage of the work that healthy watersheds and freshwater ecosystems perform naturally, cities and rural areas can purify drinking water, alleviate hunger, mitigate flood damages, and meet other societal goals at a fraction of the cost of conventional technological alternatives. But because commercial markets rarely put a price on these "ecosystem services," and because governments around the world are failing to protect them, they are being lost at a rapid rate. |
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Worldwatch Paper #169: Mainstreaming Renewable Energy in the 21st CenturyRecent surges in gasoline prices and deepening instability in the Middle East are reminders that the world's heavy dependence on fossil fuels carries an array of hidden costs, including energy insecurity and damage to human health and the natural environment. Fortunately, more and more nations are recognizing that they can address these problems by investing in renewable energy. Solar and wind power are the world's fastest growing energy sources, and investors are pouring billions of dollars into these industries every year. |
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Worldwatch Paper #168: Venture Capitalism for a Tropical Forest: Cocoa in the Mata AtlanticaBrazil's Atlantic Forest is one of the world's biological "hotspots," a region of extraordinary, and threatened, biodiversity. Saving this forest will require a variety of strategies, one of which hinges on one of the world's favorite foods--cocoa--which in parts of Brazil is grown using a longstanding agroforestry system called cabruca. A revived and modernized form of cabruca would promote the ecological goal of forest restoration, the social goal of creating a strong and green rural economy, and the political goal of building an international consumer constituency for the endangered forest. |
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Worldwatch Paper #167: Sustainable Development for the Second World: Ukraine and the Nations in TransitionAuthor: Viktor Vovk ISBN: 1-878071-71-8 The 27 nations of the Second World—the former Soviet Union and its Central and Eastern European satellites—are undergoing a wrenching transition following the collapse of communism. The process is complicated by the history and legacy of communist rule, including severe economic,... |
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Worldwatch Paper #166: Purchasing Power: Harnessing Institutional Procurement for People and the PlanetAuthor: Lisa Mastny ISBN: 1-878071-70-X Through the things that they buy, large institutions wield great influence over the future of our planet. Nearly every institutional purchase, from office paper to buildings, entails hidden costs for the natural environment and the world's people. Shifting just a portion of that spending away from... |
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Worldwatch Paper #165: Winged Messengers: The Decline of BirdsAuthor: Howard Youth Birds inspire people with their beauty, song, and powers of flight. But birds cannot fly far enough to escape the dangers posed by our modern, ever-more-crowded world. Birds are under threat as never before; at least 103 species have vanished since 1800, and as many as 1,200 of the world's 9,800... |
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Worldwatch Paper #164: Invoking the Spirit: Religion and Spirituality in the Quest for a Sustainable WorldAuthor: Gary Gardner ISBN: 1-878071-67-X A powerful pro-environmental coalition may be emerging worldwide as religious people and institutions begin to partner with advocates of sustainable development. The past decade saw a small but growing number of meetings, advocacy initiatives, educational programs, and lobbying efforts by the two... |