Vital Signs Facts
by Worldwatch Institute on December 7, 2005 The trend in many countries is toward greater automobile use, often at the expense of non-motorized transport. In Asia, bicycles, rickshaws and other non-motorized means of transport are being marginalized on city streets to make room for fast-growing car fleets.
by Worldwatch Institute on November 29, 2005 Nearly 90 percent of AIDS-related fatalities occur among people of working age, making it the leading cause of death worldwide for people ages 15-49. The seven most seriously AIDS-affected countries, all in sub-Saharan Africa, now lose as much as 10-18 percent of their working-age adults ever five years, mainly to this disease. (Industrial countries, in comparison, typically lose about 1 percent of this age group to all death in five years.) Largely because of this rising pandemic, death rates have actually reversed their decline in more than 30 countries.
by Worldwatch Institute on November 21, 2005 After a small increase in 2003, global cigarette production declined 2.3 percent in 2004 to 5.5 trillion units. Per-capita production worldwide has not been this low since 1972.
by Worldwatch Institute on November 15, 2005 Production and use of biofuels—fuels derived from crops and agricultural wastes—advanced rapidly in 2004, spurred by agricultural, environmental, and consumer interests.
by Worldwatch Institute on October 31, 2005 Nearly one in four mammal species is in serious decline, mainly due to human activities. Hunting provides the most immediate threat to large animals such as rhinoceroses, elephants, tapirs, jaguars, and many primates.
by Worldwatch Institute on October 19, 2005 An estimated 8,210 megawatts of wind energy capacity were added globally in 2004, bringing the total to approximately 47,760 megawatts, enough to provide power to more than 22 million average homes in Europe.
by Worldwatch Institute on October 5, 2005 In 2004, global grain production broke 2 billion tons for the first time in history, marking a 9-percent increase from the 2003 level. Also in 2004, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the number of hungry people around the world increased for the first time since 1970. Starvation now kills more than 5 million children each year.
by Worldwatch Institute on September 27, 2005 Fish is the last wild meal in the human diet, but roughly two-thirds of the world's major stocks are now fished at or beyond their capacity, and another 10 percent have been harvested so heavily that populations will take years to recover.
by Worldwatch Institute on September 7, 2005 According to the World Bank, less than one-fifth of all countries arecurrently on target to reduce child and maternal mortality and provideaccess to water and sanitation, while even fewer are on course tocontain HIV, malaria, and other major diseases slated for reductionunder the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
by Worldwatch Institute on September 1, 2005 In 2004, weather-related disasters caused nearly $105 billion in economic losses (in 2003 dollars)—almost twice the total in 2003.Roughly 12,000 weather-related disasters since 1980 have caused just over 618,200 fatalities and cost a total of 1.3 trillion.
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