e2 - Eye on Earth

Special Features

green jobs photoThe Greening of Labor
High quality employment for environmentally sustainable industries is spreading worldwide—from Texas to Germany to Kenya.
Eye on Earth features the latest Worldwatch thinking through its reports, blogs, and World Watch magazine articles. A combination of global knowledge from the minds of Worldwatch Institute researchers and on-the-ground reporting from our staff and contributors, Eye on Earth offers new ideas and analysis on sustainability and related topics.

Trade Winds, Sound Policies Push Portugal to the Renewable Energy Forefront

by Camille Serre and Alexander Ochs on September 1, 2010
In the past five years, Portugal has made dramatic changes in its energy policy, becoming the fourth-greatest producer of renewable energy in Europe.

Leading the Fight for Food Sovereignty, An Interview with La Via Campesina’s Dena Hoff

by Ronit Ridberg on August 31, 2010
Dena Hoff, a farmer and activist in eastern Montana, is the North America coordinator for La Via Campesina, the international peasants movement credited with coining the term "food sovereignty."

OPINION: Low-Tech Trees Have High Benefits

by Frank Place and Danielle Nierenberg on August 24, 2010

While a few farmers in the United States plant trees around fields to prevent wind erosion, farmers in Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia are planting trees alongside crops to help conserve and clean water and air, build up soils, provide feed for livestock, and - perhaps most importantly - increase yields and incomes.

An Analysis of France’s Climate Bill: Green Deal or Great Disillusion?

by Camille Serre and Alexander Ochs on August 23, 2010
Three years after then-newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy launched the Grenelle de l'Environnement, the legislation defines the French sustainable development strategy for years to come.

OPINION: Take the Fear out of Environmental Action

by Michael Renner on August 20, 2010
It is time for a new brand of environmentalism - one that unreservedly embraces social goals and ideals as much as ecological ones, and that dares to question whether market forces are always the best tool to rely on.

Kenyan Professor Promotes Indigenous Crops to Solve Africa’s Food Crises

by Jeanne Roberts on August 19, 2010
For horticulturalist Mary Abukutsa-Onyango, a long-term solution is needed for Kenya that uses the country's arid soil and indigenous vegetables to effect a lasting revolution in regional agriculture.

OPINION: A Global Reason to Eat Locally

by Shayna Bailey and Danielle Nierenberg on August 17, 2010

In the United States and Canada and all over Africa, decreased consumption of locally produced foods has led to a weakened local economy, rising poverty levels and health problems.

Maintaining Food Crop Diversity: An Interview with Gary Paul Nabhan

by Fred Bahnson on August 16, 2010
Gary Paul Nabhan, a food and farming advocate, folklorist, and conservationist, discusses his new book, the future of agriculture, and how 1,400-year-old Lebanese farming techniques influence his land ethic. 

China Prepares to Steal United States’ Thunder, May Launch Cap-and-Trade within Five Years

by Alexander Ochs and Haibing Ma on August 11, 2010
Just when leaders in the U.S. Senate admit to abandoning their plan of voting on a federal climate bill this year, top Chinese officials discuss how to launch carbon trading programs under their country's next Five-Year Plan.

Fighting for Farmworkers’ Rights: An Interview with Baldemar Velasquez

by Ronit Ridberg on August 9, 2010
Incensed by the injustices suffered by his family and other farmworkers, Baldemar Velasquez founded the Farm Labor Organizing Committee to improve working and living conditions for migrant farmworkers across the United States.