THE EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE’S YEAR IN REVIEW
The mission of the Earth Policy Institute is to offer the world a vision
of an environmentally sustainable economy--an eco-economy--and a road map
of how to get from here to there. As a small organization with a global
mission, we have designed a unique information dissemination model,
capitalizing on the synergy between a worldwide network of book
publishers, the communications media, and the Internet.
This year has brought increased awareness of the major environmental
problems the world is facing, such as ice melting. At the institutional
level, staff members have done some 150 radio and television interviews,
given more than 50 conference addresses and public lectures in Asia,
Europe, and North America
(http://www.earth-policy.org/Lectures/index.htm ). The more than 900
websites linked to our site have brought a record number of hits. The
membership in our Plan B Team, those who have purchased 5 or more copies
of Plan B, now exceeds 600
(http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PlanB_team.htm ).
We’ve also received a number of comments from readers around the world,
some of which can be found at
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Talking.htm
ECO-ECONOMY UPDATES RELEASED IN 2004:
GLACIERS AND SEA ICE ENDANGERED BY RISING TEMPERATURES by Janet Larsen
By 2020, the snows of Kilimanjaro may exist only in old photographs. The
glaciers in Montana's Glacier National Park could disappear by 2030. And
by mid-century, the Arctic Sea may be completely ice-free during
summertime. As the earth's temperature has risen in recent decades, the
earth's ice cover has begun to melt. And that melting is accelerating.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update32.htm
TROUBLING NEW FLOWS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES by Lester R. Brown
In mid-October 2003, Italian authorities discovered a boat carrying
refugees from Africa bound for Italy. Adrift for more than two weeks and
without fuel, food, and water, many of the passengers had died. At first
the dead were tossed overboard. But after a point, the remaining survivors
lacked the strength to hoist the bodies over the side. The dead and the
living were sharing the boat in what a rescuer described as "a scene from
Dante's Inferno." http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update33.htm
U.S. LEADING WORLD AWAY FROM CIGARETTES by Lester R. Brown
The United States--the country that gave the world tobacco--is now
leading it away from cigarettes. After climbing for nearly a century, the
number of cigarettes smoked per person in this country peaked at nearly
2,900 in 1976 and began to decline. By 2003 the figure had dropped to
1,545 cigarettes--a fall of 46 percent. If this trend continues for
another quarter-century, smokers will be a rarity in the United States.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update34.htm
THE SIXTH GREAT EXTINCTION: A STATUS REPORT by Janet Larsen
Almost 440 million years ago, some 85 percent of marine animal species
were wiped out in the earth's first known mass extinction. Roughly 367
million years ago, once again many species of fish and 70 percent of
marine invertebrates perished in a major extinction event. Then about 245
million years ago, up to 95 percent of all animals--nearly the entire
animal kingdom--were lost in what is thought to be the worst extinction in
history. http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update35.htm
CHINA'S SHRINKING GRAIN HARVEST: HOW ITS GROWING GRAIN IMPORTS WILL AFFECT
WORLD FOOD PRICES by Lester R. Brown
On February 8th, the Chinese government announced an emergency
appropriation, increasing its agricultural budget by 25 percent, or
roughly $3 billion. The additional funds primarily will be used to raise
support prices for wheat and rice, the principal food staples, and to
improve irrigation infrastructure. For the State Council to approve such
an increase outside of the normal budget-making process indicates the
government's mounting concern about food security.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update36.htm
EUROPE LEADING WORLD INTO AGE OF WIND ENERGY by Lester R. Brown
Europe is leading the world into the age of wind energy. In its late
2003 projections, the European Wind Energy Association shows Europe's
wind-generating capacity expanding from 28,400 megawatts in 2003 to 75,000
megawatts in 2010 and 180,000 megawatts in 2020. By 2020, just 16 years
from now, wind-generated electricity is projected to satisfy the
residential needs of 195 million Europeans, half of the region's
population. http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update37.htm
SAUDIS HAVE U.S. OVER A BARREL: THE SHIFTING TERMS OF TRADE BETWEEN GRAIN
AND OIL by Lester R. Brown
In 1970, a bushel of wheat could be traded for a barrel of oil in the
world market. It now takes nine bushels of wheat to buy a barrel of oil.
The two countries most affected by the dramatically shifting terms of
trade between grain and oil are the United States and Saudi Arabia.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update38.htm
WORLD FOOD PRICES RISING: DECADES OF ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLECT SHRINKING
HARVESTS IN KEY COUNTRIES by Lester R. Brown
When this year's grain harvest begins in May, world grain stocks will be
down to 59 days of consumption--the lowest level in 30 years. The last
time stocks were this low, in 1972-74, wheat and rice prices doubled. A
politics of scarcity emerged with exporting countries, such as the United
States, restricting exports and using food for political leverage.
Hundreds of thousands of people in food-short countries, including
Ethiopia and Bangladesh, died of hunger.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update39.htm
WORLD FOOD SECURITY DETERIORATING: FOOD CRUNCH IN 2005 NOW LIKELY by
Lester R. Brown
Closing the gap in the world grain harvest this year following four
consecutive grain harvest shortfalls, each larger than the one before,
will not be easy. The grain shortfall of 105 million tons in 2003 is
easily the largest on record, amounting to 5 percent of annual world
consumption of 1,930 million tons.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update40.htm
DEAD ZONES INCREASING IN WORLD'S COASTAL WATERS by Janet Larsen
As summer comes to the Gulf of Mexico, it brings with it each year a
giant "dead zone" devoid of fish and other aquatic life. Expanding over
the past several decades, this area now can span up to 21,000 square
kilometers, which is larger than the state of New Jersey. A similar
situation is found on a smaller scale in the Chesapeake Bay, where since
the 1970s a large lifeless zone has become a yearly phenomenon, sometimes
shrouding 40 percent of the bay.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update41.htm
COAL TAKES HEAVY HUMAN TOLL: SOME 25,100 U.S. DEATHS FROM COAL USE LARGELY
PREVENTABLE by Janet Larsen
Startling new research shows that one out of every six women of
childbearing age in the United States may have blood mercury
concentrations high enough to damage a developing fetus. This means that
630,000 of the 4 million babies born in the country each year are at risk
of neurological damage because of exposure to dangerous mercury levels in
the womb. http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update42.htm
THE SHORT PATH TO OIL INDEPENDENCE: GAS-ELECTRIC HYBRIDS AND WIND POWER
OFFER WINNING COMBINATION by Lester R. Brown
With the price of oil above $50 a barrel, with political instability in
the Middle East on the rise, and with little slack in the world oil
economy, we need a new energy strategy. Fortunately, the outline of a new
strategy is emerging with two new technologies.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update43.htm
FOREIGN POLICY DAMAGING U.S. ECONOMY by Lester R. Brown
Last week I spent two days at an international conference of
parliamentarians in Strasbourg, France, with delegations from some 81
countries, and two more days at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Although I was invited to talk about population, food, water, climate
change, and energy, the question-and-answer sessions and the individual
conversations invariably turned to U.S. foreign policy.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update44.htm
ECO-ECONOMY INDICATORS RELEASED IN 2004:
WORLD SALES OF SOLAR CELLS JUMP 32 PERCENT by Viviana Jiménez
World production of solar cells--which convert sunlight directly into
electricity--soared to 742 megawatts (MW) in 2003, a jump of 32 percent in
just one year. With solar cell production growing by 27 percent annually
over the past five years, cumulative world production now stands at 3,145
MW, enough to meet the electricity needs of more than a million homes.
This extraordinary growth is driven to some degree by improvements in
materials and technology, but primarily by market introduction programs
and government incentives.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/2004/indicator12.htm
CARBON EMISSIONS REACH RECORD HIGH by Lila Buckley
In 2003, carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels climbed to a
record high of 6.8 billion tons, up nearly 4 percent from the previous
year. Global emissions of carbon have been rising steadily since the late
eighteenth century—and rapidly since the 1950s. In fact, annual emissions
have quadrupled since 1950.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/CO2/2004.htm
EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE BOOKS:
We also not only post all of our publications online for free downloading
in pdf, but this year we made the book chapters easier to access by
posting them in html.
PLAN B calls for a worldwide mobilization to stabilize population and
climate to sustain economic progress worldwide.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/PlanB_contents.htm
ECO-ECONOMY provides a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy
along with a roadmap on how to get from here to there.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Eco_contents.htm
THE EARTH POLICY READER examines the economic costs of ecological deficits
and outlines 12 trends measuring our progress in creating an eco-economy.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/EPR_contents.htm
Our books are being published in 20 languages, including major languages
(those spoken by more than 50 million), such as Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi (India), Persian,
Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian, and several
minor languages including Catalan, Danish, Polish, Romanian, and Swedish.
There are three English-language publishers, U.S./Canada, India/South
Asia, and the U.K. and Commonwealth, and two Spanish-language publishers,
Spain and Latin America. http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/intl.htm
The staff of the Earth Policy Institute is grateful for the support you
have provided this year either by reading our material and talking about
the issues with friends and colleagues, by purchasing our books, and by
donations. http://www.earth-policy.org/Donations/index.htm
Wishing you a pleasant holiday season,
The staff of the Earth Policy Institute
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