Reports

Worldwatch Paper #161: Correcting Gender Myopia: Gender Equity, Women's Welfare, And The Environment

At international conferences throughout the 1990's--in Rio de Janeiro, Vienna, Cairo, and Beijing--a new vision of women's health, welfare, and rights was created. This vision acknowledged the deep connections between support for educational, economic, social, and political opportunity for women on the one hand, and progress in stabilizing population growth, protecting the environment, and improving human health on the other.

Despite its potency, this vision has yet to be fully realized. Gender myopia, or blindness to the inequities between women and men, continues to afflict women in many different settings. In Correcting Gender Myopia, Worldwatch researcher, Danielle Nierenberg, reviews the state of women around the globe, documents the links between women's welfare and population, and charts the progress, or lack thereof, in achieving the gender equity that must underlie any viable effort to attain sustainability.

Worldwatch Paper #159: Traveling Light: New Paths for International Tourism

Before September 11th, travel and tourism was the world's largest industry, accounting for one in every 12 jobs and, in the least developed countries, representing the second largest source of foreign exchange after oil. When the massive US$3.6 trillion industry almost ground to a halt after the terrorist attacks, the ripple effects extended well beyond the bounds of the United States, exposing the vulnerability of countries too narrowly dependent on international tourism.

Traveling Light looks at what developed and developing countries can do to ensure that the impacts of this mighty industry are positive for the world's people and their environment

Worldwatch Paper #157: Hydrogen Futures: Toward a Sustainable Energy System

Just as government played a catalytic role in the creation of the Internet, government will have an essential part in building a hydrogen economy. Research and development, incentives and regulations, and partnerships with industry have sparked isolated initiatives. But stronger public policies and educational efforts are needed to accelerate the process. Choices made today will likely determine which countries and companies seize the enormous political power and economic prizes associated with the hydrogen age now dawning.

Worldwatch Paper #155: Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis

Since the end of World War II, the richest countries have lent the poorest ones hundreds of billions of dollars, much of it in the name of democracy, freedom, and development. Yet scores of the borrowing countries are now mired in debt and poverty—some 47, according to World Bank benchmarks, all but 10 of them African. Together, they owe $422 billion, or $380 per person—a substantial sum for them, but just 11 months of military spending for western governments.

Responding to pressure from nongovernmental organizations such as the international Jubilee 2000 Campaign, creditor governments have recently offered to cancel up to 55 percent of the debt they are owed by 41 poor debtors. But these offers, though seemingly impressive, have major flaws.