Worldwatch has released Vital Signs 2000: The Environmental Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. The series is known for graphically depicting key trends that often escape the attention of the news media and world leaders.
The general conclusion of this year’s report is that severe social and economic inequities are confounding attempts to reverse environmental degradation. “From the global digital divide to the devastating AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics, the trends in Vital Signs 2000 are exposing numerous fault lines between the North and the South, within nations, and between men and women,” says Worldwatch senior researcher Michael Renner, co-author of the report. “At the same time, however, we need an unprecedented level of cooperation to solve global problems.”
Third World debt hit a new high of $2.5 trillion in 1999, with some of the
world’s poorest nations devoting 30 percent of their national budgets to debt
servicing. Developing countries have been hit hard by devastating floods and landslides, worsened by deforestation.
The report points to other problematic trends: the proliferation of synthetic chemicals;
deteriorating water supplies; and increasing infections from HIV and Tuberculosis. Worldwide, carbon emissions fell .2 percent in 1999, marking a second consecutive year of decline. But much more serious reductions are necessary to achieve the 70 percent cut many scientists believe is needed to avert dangerous climate change. Increases in motor
vehicle production, and erosion of fuel efficiency as a result of surging SUV sales
in rich countries are the main obstacles in this case.
“We have begun to address these global challenges,” says Renner, “but all too often we are only slowing destructive trends, rather than reversing them. If we are going to build a more environmentally stable, healthy, and equitable society, we need to massively scale up our efforts.”
On the positive side, Vital Signs highlights the expansion of renewable energy and efficiency technologies, and organic agriculture as encouraging trends. They recommend tax reform (green taxes) and strengthening international treaties as ways to accelerate environmental reform.
Vital signs is being published in numerous countries. You can order it in PDF form.
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