State of the World
This product is out of print and no longer available for purchase. This sixth annual examination of the world's ecological health by the Worldwatch Institute comes at a time when people are worried about record hot summers, polluted beaches, and drought-induced food shortages. This rising concern results from personal experiences in 1988 reinforced by the news that global warming has arrived, that tropical forests are disappearing much faster than we thought, and that a thinning of the earth's protective ozone layer threatens the health of people everywhere.
In preparing this assessment in each of the last five years, the Worldwatch Institute has in effect given the earth an annual physical examination, checking its vital signs. The readings are not reassuring: The earth's forests are shrinking, its deserts expanding, and its soils eroding - all at record rates. Each year thousands of plant and animal species disappear, many before they are named or catalogued. The very temperature of the earth appears to be rising, posing a threat of unknown dimensions to virually all the life-support systems on which humanity depends.
This product is out of print and no longer available for purchase.  "Our relationship with the earth and its natural systems is changing, often in ways that we do not understand," writes former Worldwatch Institute President Lester R. Brown and Senior Researcher Sandra Postel. "The scale of human activities threatens the habitability of the earth itself. A sustainable society satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of the next generation. But by many measures, contemporary society fails to meet this criterion."
This product is out of print and no longer available for purchase. "The collective actions of a world population approaching 5 billion now appear capable of causing continental and even global changes in natural systems," writes former Worldwatch Institute president, Lester R. Brown. "Our security and well-being may be threatened less by the conflicts among nations than by the deteriorating relationship between ourselves and the natural systems and resources that sustain us."
This product is out of print and no longer available for purchase. This is the second in an annual series of reports that measures worldwide progress in achieving sustainability - the extent to which our economic and social systems are successfully adjusting to changes in the underlying natural resource base.
"Observers generally agree on the principal actions needed to put society on a sustainable footing, such as stabilizing population, conserving soil, and developing renewable energy resources," writes former Worldwatch president, Lester Brown. "But confusion persists over how well the world is doing in meeting these goals."
|
|
Shopping Cart
