NEW RELEASES
At Earth-Policy.org
9 March, 2005
Learning From China: Why the Western Economic Model Will not Work for the
World
Could the American dream in China become a nightmare for the world? For
China’s 1.3 billion people, the American dream is fast becoming the Chinese
dream. Already millions of Chinese are living like Americans—eating more meat,
driving cars, traveling abroad, and otherwise spending their fast-rising incomes
much as Americans do. Although these U.S.-style consumers are only a small
fraction of the population, China’s claims on the earth’s resources are already
becoming highly visible.
24 February, 2005
Ice Melting Everywhere
Ice is melting everywhere—and at an accelerating rate. Rising global tempera-
tures are lengthening melting seasons, thawing frozen ground, and thinning ice
caps and glaciers that in some cases have existed for millennia. These changes
are raising sea level faster than earlier projected by scientists, and threatening
both human and wildlife populations.
16 February, 2005
China Replacing the United States as World’s Leading Consumer
Although the United States has long consumed the lion’s share of the world’s
resources, this situation is changing fast as the Chinese economy surges ahead,
overtaking the United States in the consumption of one resource after another.
3 February, 2005
Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures Likely to Raise World Food Prices
In recent months, rising oil prices have focused the world’s attention on the
depletion of oil reserves. But the depletion of underground water resources from
overpumping for irrigation is a far more serious issue, says Lester Brown in his new
book Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling
Water Tables and Rising Temperatures. There are substitutes for oil, but there are
no substitutes for water.
22 December, 2004
World Population Grew by 76 Million People in 2004
During 2004, 133 million people were born and 57 million died, expanding world
population by 76 million. This excess of births over deaths was concentrated in
the developing countries, which added 73 million people compared with only
3 million in the industrial countries. World population, growing by 1.2 percent
annually, is projected to reach 6.4 billion in 2005.
9 December, 2004
Global Temperature Rise Accelerating
The average global temperature for the first 11 months of 2004—14.60 degrees
Celsius (58.28 degrees Fahrenheit)—makes it the fourth warmest year since
recordkeeping began in 1880. February, October, and November of 2004 were
the second warmest of those three months, and March and April were the third
warmest on record.
Paul Hawken’s Vision By David Whitford
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/articles/0%2C15114%2C361408%2C00.html