e2 - Eye on Earth, a service of
World Watch Magazine in partnership with the
Blue Moon Fund, provides our community with a unique perspective on current events, newly released studies, and important global trends. This update service offers context to critical world events that are seemingly disparate yet often closely related, highlighting the connections between human consumption and the natural world, while telling the stories of individuals and organizations that are supporting new approaches to resource use, energy use and urban development. Eye on Earth presents the news of today with an eye towards tomorrow, illustrating how current events will shape our own future and that of generations to come.
The residents of Kara Agach, a mountain village in western Kyrgystan, are receiving radiation doses as much as 40 times the internationally recognized safety limit, according to a new study cited in the June 10 issue of
New Scientist.
Police and customs officials across Southeast Asia have joined forces to fight illegal international wildlife trade, according to a May 25 announcement by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) and the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Acre, Brazil’s westernmost state, is preparing for yet another onslaught of out-of-control forest fires following one of its driest rainy seasons in years.
At a Capitol Hill conference yesterday to discuss the findings of a new global study on biofuels, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz spoke about the importance of expanding the large-scale production of these fuels—which include ethanol and biodiesel—in a world where 1.6 billion people lack access to basic energy supplies.
This year’s World Environment Day theme, “Deserts and Desertification,” celebrates the unique biological, ecological and cultural characteristics of the world’s dryland regions. Commemorated today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the event also aims to raise awareness of the problems associated with desertification, or the degradation of dryland areas.
June 1 marked the official beginning of hurricane season in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. But many
coastal residents are still focused on recovery and clean up from last year’s deadly storms.
Although the United States has not signed on to the Kyoto Protocol, many U.S. corporations are realizing that taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions makes good business sense.
For the first time since the avian flu reemerged in Asia, the virus is believed to have passed to a third human after jumping to first one individual, then another, reports the
New York Times.
From May 18–20, Madison, Wisconsin, hosted a conference to generate discussion on ways that citizens can become more involved in the “smart” growth of their communities.
More than 200 scientists, policymakers, non-profit leaders, and concerned citizens convened in Washington, D.C. from May 7–9 to discuss the consequences of “peak oil” production, the point when the maximum amount of oil that can be extracted from the Earth is reached.
