Word: worldwatch
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Environmentalists must share part of the blame: they have not offered a coherent plan of action either domestically or internationally. Admits Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute: "The agenda is fairly confused. A number of environmental groups have grown up independently, with their own memberships, their own budgets and their own objectives." Thomas Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution is worried that the cacophony of environmental lobbying is beginning to be counterproductive. Says he: "I sense a real frustration among the more concerned and active members of Congress about enough being enough. If you wear out your best...
History shows that such environmental destruction can have far-reaching consequences. The salinization of irrigated land led to the fall of Mesopotamia and Babylon, and perhaps even the Mayan civilization of Central America. Similar pressures are at work today. Sandra Postel of Worldwatch Institute estimates that 60 million hectares (nearly 150 million acres) of irrigated land worldwide have been damaged by salt buildup...
...Brown, head of Worldwatch Institute, warns again this year of the globe's diminishing ability to produce enough food to keep up with population growth because of erosion, deforestation and air pollution. His annual State of the World report has sold out -- 100,000 copies -- and the presses are being readied for a new run. There are scoffers, principally in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who say we can release millions of acres of cropland from the soil banks, pour on the fertilizer and meet any food demand. But Brown, with his soft voice and his inevitable bow tie, holds...
...Missouri Botanical Garden, points out that humanity consumes or wastes 40% of the total amount of energy stored by photosynthesis in terrestrial vegetation. No one knows how much more people can devour before they begin to exhaust resources and crowd out vital ecosystems. Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute argues that global annual food production already falls short of human consumption and that environmental degradation reduces yields 1% annually at a time when world population is growing...
...Alexandria participants were: Lester Brown, Worldwatch Institute; John Chafee, U.S. Senate, Rhode Island; Michael Deland, Council on Environmental Quality; Kathryn Fuller, World Wildlife Fund; Albert Gore, U.S. Senate, Tennessee; Denis Hayes, Earth Day 1990; Thomas Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institution; Michael McElroy, Harvard University; Kenneth Piddington, World Bank Environment Department; Peter Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden; F. Sherwood Rowland, University of California at Irvine; James Gustave Speth, World Resources Institute; Mostafa Tolba, United Nations Environment Program; and Alexei Yablokov, Congress of People's Deputies, U.S.S.R...