Worldwatch Institute

First Worldwatch Europe Branch Opens in Copenhagen

Amanda Stone — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:24:25 +0000

Friday, February 25, 2011

Event also announces the release of the groundbreaking report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet

Copenhagen, Denmark—The Worldwatch Institute today announces the opening of its first European office in Copenhagen. The opening will be celebrated at a major event starting today at 14:00 in downtown Copenhagen. More than 120 guests, including prominent researchers, policy makers, business leaders and press, have registered for the event.

The opening coincides with the release of the 27th annual edition of Worldwatch’s flagship publication, State of the World. The event features a policy debate on Europe’s role in developing and establishing sustainable agriculture practices, with the goal of creating a healthier global food system.

Worldwatch Europe will represent the formal extension of the Institute’s research and project activities into the European policy sphere. Bo Normander, Director of Worldwatch Europe says: “By expanding our research base into Europe, we aim to deliver these types of insights and to inform more environmentally sustainable decision-making across the European Union.”

Photo opportunity

Tree huggers will welcome all guests at the launch event today. The event includes prominent speakers such as Elsebeth Krogh, Chairwoman of ActionAid Denmark; Hans Herren, President of the Millennium Institute; Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency; and Christopher Flavin, President of the Worldwatch Institute.

Release of State of the World 2011

This year’s State of the World 2011 report:Innovations that Nourish the Planet, spotlights successful agricultural innovations and unearths major successes in preventing food waste, building resilience to climate change, and strengthening farming in cities. The report provides a roadmap for increased agricultural investment and more-efficient ways to alleviate global hunger and poverty.

“The progress showcased through this report will inform governments, policymakers, NGOs, and donors that seek to curb hunger and poverty, providing a clear roadmap for expanding or replicating these successes elsewhere,”says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin.

Drawing from the world’s leading agricultural experts and from hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground, State of the World 2011 outlines proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions for decreasing malnutrition, improving yields, and increasing farmers’ incomes.

Worldwatch's Director of the Nourishing the Planet program Danielle Nierenberg, who recently spent 15 months conducting on-the-ground research in over 25 countries across Africa, will also speak at the launch. She will present key findings from the report, including a roadmap for agricultural investment for top donor countries in successful projects that can prevent food waste, build resilience to climate change, and strengthen farming in cities.

Global food security initiatives

State of the World 2011comes at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives—such as the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)—can benefit from new insight into environmentally sustainable projects that are already working.

Investment in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations has risen in recent years but is still nowhere near what is needed to help the 925 million people worldwide who remain undernourished. In 2008, $1.7 billion in official development assistance was provided to support agricultural projects in Africa, a miniscule amount given the vital return on investment. Under current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.

“The international community has been neglecting entire segments of the food system in its efforts to reduce hunger and poverty,”said Nierenberg, co-director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org). “The solutions won’t necessarily come from producing more food, but from changing what children eat in schools, how foods are processed and marketed, and what sorts of food businesses we are investing in.”

Serving locally raised crops to school children, for example, has proven to be an effective hunger- and poverty-reducing strategy in many African nations, and has strong parallels to successful farm-to-cafeteria programs in the United States and Europe. Moreover, “roughly 40 percent of the food currently produced worldwide is wasted before it is consumed, creating large opportunities for farmers and households to save both money and resources by reducing this waste,” according to Brian Halweil, Nourishing the Planet co-director.

European tour

Beginning with a 16-country European tour, the project’s findings are being disseminated in over 20 languages to a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental and development communities. The Copenhagen launch event kicked off both the European tour and Worldwatch’s official entry into the European sphere.

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Notes to Editors:

The full programme for the Copenhagen launch event is attached to this document.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

For review copies of State of the World 2011:

Contact Amanda Stone at astone@worldwatch.org.

Press contacts:
Ann Sophie Friis and Xenia Trier, europe@worldwatch.org or Tel. (+45) 3336 7187 (in Europe)

Amanda Stone, astone@worldwatch.org or(+1) 202-452-1999 x514 (in U.S.)

Purchasing information:

State of the World 2011sells for $19.95 + shipping & handling / £14.99 + P&P.

It can be purchased via the Worldwatch website at http://www.worldwatch.org/sow11, by e-mailing wwpub@worldwatch.org, by calling toll-free (+1) 877-539-9946 (in the U.S.) or (+1) 301-747-2340 (from overseas), or by faxing (+1) 301-567-9553 with ISBN number 9780393338805.

See www.worldwatch.org for information about editions in other languages.

Valentine’s Day: What Women Really Want

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Flowers, cards, chocolate—maybe the chance to be romantic, loving and sexual without fear of health problems or unintended pregnancy is something women all over the world really want for Valentine’s Day.

Washington, D.C.—Valentine’s Day has long celebrated love with caring notes, decadent chocolates, and romantic arrangements of flowers. But this Valentine’s Day, perhaps it’s time to celebrate with a gift many of the world’s women desperately want and need: reproductive health.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 1,000 women die every day due to pregnancy or childbirth, or one woman every 90 seconds. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in the developing world, 90 percent in Africa and Asia. A handful of complications account for 80 percent of these maternal deaths—severe bleeding, infections, high blood pressure, obstructed labor, and unsafe abortion—and the bulk of these deaths are preventable.

“Reproductive health, including access to the information and means to plan a family, is a human right the world’s nations have recognized in various forms since 1968,” says Worldwatch Institute’s President Robert Engelman. “Access to family planning and other reproductive health services safeguard the lives of women and their children and promote families that are emotionally and economically healthy.”

In his book, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, Engelman explores centuries of reproductive history and concludes that, if given the chance to do what they really want, women on average have smaller families, with childbirths later in their lives. This pattern is safer for women and children, and promotes environmental sustainability through the slower population growth that lower fertility rates and later births bring about.

The Health of Women and Children

The UNFPA report Women and Girls in a World of 7 Billion notes that poverty, marginalization, and gender inequalities based on culture are key challenges to reproductive health. The report relays that women own less than 15 percent of the land worldwide; their wages, on average, are 17 percent lower than men’s; and they make up two-thirds of the world’s 776 million illiterate adults.

This means that women, particularly in the developing world, must often rely on men for financial support—creating situations in which women are subject to their partners’ views on contraception, feel trapped in physically or emotionally abusive relationships, and marry and have children young instead of pursuing further education or employment outside the home. In the developing world, one in seven girls will be married before she turns 15, and worldwide, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the leading causes of death for girls 15–19.

Many women are not empowered to make their own decisions regarding if or when to have children, how many to have, and how long to wait in between them. Some 40 percent or more of pregnancies are unplanned, with more than 21 percent of all births resulting from such pregnancies worldwide, according to estimates of the Guttmacher Institute. If given access to family planning, and permission by their families and societies to use it, fewer women and children would die from unsafe abortions and high-risk pregnancies.

The Health of the Planet

The United Nations Foundation sponsors Girl Up, an organization that encourages a world where young girls can avoid the pitfalls of too-early marriage and childbearing and can instead go to school, enjoy health and safety, and grow into the next generation of leaders. In the Amhara region of Ethiopia, where half of adolescent girls are married, Girl Up is helping to promote education for young girls. The project offers basic literacy classes, family planning information, and agricultural training.

“When women and girls are empowered with education and the capacity to make choices about sex, marriage and childbearing, they have opportunities to realize futures as farmers, businesswomen, politicians, or whatever dream drives them,” says Engelman. “These benefits ripple out from the lives of individual women and girls to their families, their communities, their nations—and ultimately to the entire world.”

In the Worldwatch report Population, Climate Change, and Women’s Lives, Engelman adds that if women are given access to increased reproductive health, they are better able to more naturally control the size of their families and counterbalance the resource depletion and pollution that are exacerbated by unabated population increases. “The importance of women and the autonomy they exercise may be far greater to the climate’s future than most experts and negotiators on climate change…have realized,” he writes.

What Women Really Want

Reproductive health is not about state-mandated family sizes; it is about freeing women to make their own choices about when and how often to give birth. According to Engelman, in all countries where affordable access is offered to family planning resources and women have the option of safe and legal abortions, women’s fertility rates drop to two or less children per woman. Such rates are normal for nearly half the world and are less than the “replacement fertility” rate of slightly more than two children per woman, that fuels present and future population growth.

When women are free to make their own choices, they improve their own health and that of their families. A study by the UNFPA and the Guttmacher Institute suggests that it would take US$24 billion to fulfill unmet reproductive health needs in developing countries, several times what countries spend today. According to the report, such an investment would “provide every woman with the recommended standard of maternal and newborn care” and would “[r]educe unintended pregnancies by more than 66 percent, prevent 70 percent of maternal deaths, avert 44 percent of newborn deaths, and reduce unsafe abortion by 73 percent.”

Notes to Editors:

For more information and for a copy of Population, Climate Change, and Women’s Lives, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org. Click here to purchase a copy of More:Population, Nature, and What Women Want.

Energy Poverty Remains a Global Challenge for the Future

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Lack of access to electricity results in health, environmental, and livelihood challenges.

Washington, D.C.—Despite massive gains in global access to electricity over the last two decades, governments and development organizations must continue to invest in electrification to achieve critical health, environmental, and livelihood outcomes, according to new research published by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online publication.

Between 1990 and 2008, close to 2 billion people worldwide gained access to electricity. But the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that more than 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity, while the United Nations estimates that another 1 billion have unreliable access. The UN General Assembly has designated 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All,” providing an opportunity to raise awareness of the extent and impacts of the electrification challenge.

“Modern energy sources provide people with lighting, heating, refrigeration, cooking, water pumping, and other services that are essential for reducing poverty, improving health and education, and increasing incomes,” write report authors Michael Renner and Matthew Lucky. “It will be difficult toachieve a number of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals without improving energy access.” Among the UN goals, targeted at 2015, are combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases and eradicating poverty and hunger.

At least 2.7 billion people, and possibly more than 3 billion, lack access to modern fuels for cooking and heating. They rely instead on traditional biomass sources, such as firewood, charcoal, manure, and crop residues, that can emit harmful indoor air pollutants when burned. These pollutants cause nearly 2 million premature deaths worldwide each year, an estimated 44 percent of them in children. Among adult deaths, 60 percent are women. Traditional energy usage also contributes to environmental impacts including forest and woodland degradation, soil erosion, and black carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change.

Electrification varies widely between rural and urban areas in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, the rural electrification rate is just 14 percent, compared with 60 percent in urban areas.

“As new approaches to electrification evolve—ones that don’t rely on expensive regional or national grids but rather a diversity of locally available energy resources—we can begin to reach for the goal of access to electricity for all, rural as well as urban,” said Worldwatch President Robert Engelman. “But access to electricity needs to be based wherever possible on low-carbon energy, since we need to preserve a climate conducive to health and well-being.”

Improved cook stoves can play an important role in reducing energy poverty, enabling people to utilize more modern fuels or to use traditional fuels more efficiently. Improved cook stoves can double or triple the efficiency of traditional fuels, reducing indoor air pollutants. Consuming less fuel also saves time and money, leaving people with more disposable income and allowing them to invest more in their futures.

A growing number of governments, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses are working to overcome energy poverty, focusing in particular on the use of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. To date, 68 developing-country governments have adopted formal targets for improving access to electricity; 17 countries have targets for providing access to modern fuels, and 11 have targets for providing access to improved cook stoves.

According to the IEA, some US$1.9 billion was invested worldwide in 2009 in extending access to modern energy services, such as electricity and clean cooking facilities. The agency projects that between 2010 and 2030, an average of $14 billion will be spent annually, mostly on urban grid connections. But this projected funding will likely still leave 1 billion people, largely those who live in the most remote areas of developing countries, without electricity. Average annual investments will need to rise to $48 billion to provide universal modern energy access, the IEA reports.

Further highlights from the study:

The largest populations lacking access to electricity are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Combined, these two regions account for more than 80 percent of all people worldwide lacking electricity access;
Latin America’s electricity access is generally quite high, at 93.2 percent overall, but Haiti remains a regional outlier, with only 39 percent of its population having access.
The largest populations that rely on traditional biomass for energy are in the developing regions of Asia, with 836 million in India alone. Altogether, 54 percent of the population of developing Asia relies on traditional biomass fuels.

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Use and Capacity of Global Hydropower Increases

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:03:57 +0000

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Industrialized and developing countries continue to rely on their critical water resources as a renewable electricity source.

Washington, D.C.—Global use of hydropower increased more than 5 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to new research published by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online publication. Hydropower use reached a record 3,427 terawatt-hours, or about 16.1 percent of global electricity consumption, by the end of 2010, continuing the rapid rate of increase experienced between 2003 and 2009.

The cost of hydropower is relatively low, making it a competitive source of renewable electricity. The average cost of electricity from a hydro plant larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. Hydropower is also a flexible source of electricity since plants can be ramped up and down very quickly to adapt to changing energy demands. Yet there are many negative aspects associated with hydropower: for example, damming interrupts the flow of rivers and can harm local ecosystems, and building large dams and reservoirs often involves displacing people and wildlife and requires significant amounts of carbon-intensive cement.

“In the future, hydropower is likely to continue to grow—despite the environmental challenges involved in expanding it—because of its competitive price and climate benefits, which make it an attractive option as countries seek to lower their greenhouse gas emissions,” said report author Matt Lucky, a Worldwatch MAP Sustainable Energy Fellow.

China was the largest hydropower producer and is expected to continue to lead global hydro use in the coming years. The country produced 721 terawatt-hours in 2010, representing around 17 percent of domestic electricity use. China also had the highest installed hydropower capacity, with 213 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2010. It added more hydro capacity than any other country, 16 GW in 2010, and plans to add 140 GW by 2015. This is equivalent to building about seven more dams the size of China’s Three Gorges Dam, currently the largest in the world.

“While hydropower energy production helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels and avoids much of their carbon dioxide emissions, this form of electricity generation is rarely without social and environmental cost and risk,” said Worldwatch President Robert Engelman. “Hydropower is indeed low-carbon renewable energy, but new hydro development nonetheless needs to pass rigorous tests for its environmental and social impacts.”

Hydropower is produced in at least 150 countries but is concentrated in just a few countries and regions. The Asia-Pacific region generated roughly 32 percent of global hydropower in 2010. Africa produces the least hydropower, accounting for 3 percent of the world total, but is considered the region with the greatest potential for increased production.

In 2008, four countries—Albania, Bhutan, Lesotho, and Paraguay—generated all their electricity from hydropower, and 15 countries generated at least 90 percent of their electricity from hydro. Iceland, New Zealand, and Norway produce the most hydropower per capita.

Micro-hydropower, which is defined as a plant with an installed capacity of 100 kilowatt (kW) or less, has grown in importance over the last decade and can be an effective means of providing electricity to communities far from industrial centers. As of 2009, roughly 60 GW of small hydro was installed worldwide, accounting for less than 6 percent of the hydropower total. Small hydro is likely to expand, especially as populous countries like India continue to pursue rural electrification.

Further highlights from the study:

Five countries—China, Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Russia—accounted for approximately 52 percent of the world’s installed hydropower capacity in 2010.
There are now three hydropower plants larger than 10 GW: the Three Gorges Dam in China, Itaipu Hydroelectricity Power Plant in Brazil, and Guri Dam in Venezuela.
A total of $40–45 billion was invested in large hydropower projects worldwide in 2010.

Note to Editors: For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Going Green in 2012: 12 Steps for the Developing World

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:46:18 +0000

Monday, January 16, 2012

As we start the new year, here are 12 steps we can take to reduce our impact on the environment

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia----Many of us are thinking about the changes we want to make this year. For some, these changes will be financial; for others, physical or spiritual. But for all of us, there are important resolutions we can make to “green” our lives. Although this is often a subject focused on by industrialized nations, people in developing countries can also take important steps to reduce their growing environmental impact.

“We in the developing world must embark on a more vigorous ‘going green’ program,” says Sue Edwards, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD). “As incomes rise and urbanization increases, a growing middle class must work with city planners to ensure our communities are sustainable.”

ISD’s Tigray Project recently received the Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development 2011, shared with Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Since 1996, Tigray has worked to help Ethiopian farmers rehabilitate ecosystems, raise land productivity, and increase incomes through such practices as composting, biodiversity enhancement, the conservation of water and soil, and the empowerment of local communities to manage their own development.

Broadening sustainability efforts is essential to solving many of the world’s challenges, including food production, security, and poverty. The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. “With so many hungry and poor in the world, addressing these issues is critical,” says Danielle Nierenberg, director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project. “Fortunately, the solutions to these problems can come from simple innovations and practices.”

Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet team recently traveled to 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and will soon be traveling to Latin America, to research and highlight such solutions. The project shines a spotlight on innovations in agriculture that can help alleviate hunger and poverty while also protecting the environment. These innovations are elaborated in Worldwatch’s flagship annual report, State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

Hunger, poverty, and climate change are issues that we in the developing world can help address. Here are 12 simple steps to go green in 2012:

1. Recycle:

Urbanization is on the rise throughout the developing world. According to the United Nations, the highest urban-area growth is 3.5 percent per year in Africa. But waste management is not keeping up with population growth. It is inefficient in urban areas and virtually nonexistent in rural areas, resulting in the pervasive unloading of waste in unmanaged dump sites and bodies of water and endangering public health.

What you can do:

Collect your household’s waste in two separate containers----one for organic waste like scraps of food and one for other waste like plastic, glass, metal, and paper. You can compost the organic waste (see #11).
Cities such as Johannesburg have recycling drop-off sites. If your city doesn’t, look for neighbors who are interested in salvaging and reselling items like cans. Brazil, for example, boasts a 96.5 percent aluminum can recycle rate due in large part to the 180,000 Brazilians who collect and resell cans for profit.

2. Reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Over the last two decades, roughly 75 percent of human-made carbon dioxide emissions were produced by fossil fuel burning. Coal and other environmentally polluting fossil fuels can be replaced by renewable resources, including biofuels.Globally, some 25 million homes convert biogas into energy for lighting and cooking, including 20 million households in China and 3.9 million in India.

What you can do:

Instead of burning coal or wood, use biogas converted from the methane produced by either livestock manure or weeds such as water hyacinth. In Rwanda, the government is working to make biogas stoves more affordable----by the end of 2011 they had hoped to see them being used in 15,000 households, and in Ethiopia, the target is 14,000 biogas digester plants with rural households by the end of 2013.
Use an environmentally friendly solar cooker to utilize solar energy instead of fossil fuels. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is committing $50 million to advance the goal of securing 100 million such stoves in developing countries by 2020.

3. Make the switch.

In 2007, Australia became the first country to “ban the bulb” and began a process to replace incandescent light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. By late 2010, incandescent bulbs had been totally phased out, and, according to the country’s environment minister, this move has made a big difference, cutting an estimated 4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The Ethiopian government is the first in the developing world to consider banning incandescent bulbs. Its distribution of 5 million compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) has created energy savings of 75 percent.

What you can do:

Although CFLs are initially more expensive, they use 75 percent less energy and last 10 times as long. The government of Australia estimates that the country’s switch to CFLs will save the average household 66 percent on their electricity bill.
Encourage your local and national governments to follow Ethiopia’s example and give free CFLs to consumers in exchange for their old incandescent bulbs.

4. Re-use water bottles

Worldwide, 900 million people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 4,000 children die each year from preventable diseases. As a result, many consumers use bottled water. We consume 200 billion bottles of water globally. It takes 1.5 million barrels of crude oil to produce these bottles and 2.7 tons of plastic, 86 percent of which ends up as garbage or litter.

What you can do:

Stainless steel reusable water bottles are the best solution, but you can also reuse plastic bottles every time you encounter a clean water source. When it is time for a new bottle, recycle the old one.
The Life and Water Development Group Cameroon has partnered with Thirst Relief International USA to bring clean water to those without access. One filtration unit uses layers of crushed rock, sand, and naturally forming bacteria to remove 99 percent of harmful bacteria from drinking water.

5. Conserve water.

Each of us requires 3,000 liters of water a day to meet our dietary needs. Yet half of people worldwide live in countries where water tables are falling. Because 70 percent of water is used to irrigate agriculture, it is important that we better conserve water as we grow our food.

What you can do:

Growing one ton of grain requires 1,500 tons of water, but many crops indigenous to the developing world require much less. In Asia and Africa, the pigeon pea is drought-resistant and can grow in low-nutrient soil with little water while still producing a yield that is 20 percent protein.
Rainwater Concepts in India is working to popularize simple rainwater harvesting techniques, successfully recharging 90,000 wells.

6. Turn down the AC.

Thirty of the world’s 50 most populous cities are located in the developing world, mostly in hot climates. Use of air conditioners increases 20-35 percent annually in developing countries, and the related chemicals emitted are stalling the global effort to heal the ozone layer, the part of our atmosphere that protects the planet from harmful solar rays.

What you can do:

Use fans instead of air conditioning to reduce the amount of harmful chemicals released into our air.
If you want to install air conditioning in your home or business, use ozone-friendly units instead of those that emit hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs).

7. Support food recovery.

Each year, roughly a third of all food produced for human consumption----approximately 1.3 billion tons----gets lost or wasted, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In the developing world, this often happens because of premature harvests or a lack of proper storage facilities, sufficient infrastructure, or appropriate preservation methods. Every metric ton of food waste sent to landfills emits 4.5 times the amount of carbon dioxide, and decomposing food in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

What you can do:

Farmers in Pakistan have saved 70 percent of their harvest by switching from jute bags and containers constructed with mud to more durable metal containers.
In West Africa, farmers use solar dryers to save the 100,000 tons of mangos that would otherwise go to waste annually. This technique can be used with other fruit to save them from perishing after harvest.

8. Buy local, indigenous crops.

Rice, wheat, corn, and soy are the crops that modern agriculture focuses on most. Reliance on so few crops is dangerous. The 2010 drought in Russia decimated a third of the country’s wheat harvest, and the developing world felt the shock as food prices skyrocketed. Indigenous and traditional crops, however, are often hardier and more resistant to pests and disease.

What you can do:

Find out what crops are indigenous to your area and which farmers are growing them. Buy directly from those farmers or ask your local market to carry their products.
Grow indigenous crops in your own garden (see #10) and share with your neighbors.

9. Plant a tree.

Globally, we have lost 13 million acres of forest each year since 2000. In Latin America, the expanding popularity of cattle operations and soybean farms trumps preservation of the Amazon. Brazil is the fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, not because of industry or automobiles, but because of deforestation.

What you can do:

Plant a tree or two at home. In addition to the environmental benefits, it will provide shade and keep your home cooler. If you plant a citrus or nut tree, you’ll enjoy the extra food as well.
Agroforestry, or planting trees among crops, can provide shade and help control erosion. In addition, leguminous trees can add nutrients to the soil naturally, making the soil more fertile and increasing crop yields.

10. Plant a garden.

Fourteen million people in Africa migrate from rural to urban areas each year, and studies suggest that by 2020, an estimated 40 million Africans living in cities will depend on urban agriculture to meet their food requirements. Home gardens helped families in Kibera, Nairobi, survive when unrest after the 2008 elections shut down roads and prevented food from coming into the city. And the sale of garden surplus is an excellent way to supplement family income.

What you can do:

If your access to land is limited, you can create a “vertical garden.” Fill tall sacks with soil, poke holes on different levels, and plant seeds in the holes. Use waste water from your home and compost (see #11) to keep your soil rich and healthy, improving the quality of your food. If you live in an urban area and don’t have access to land, reuse old tires or buckets to create portable planters.

11. Compost organic waste.

The World Bank estimates that 50 percent of an average developing country’s solid waste can be composted. By repurposing compostable waste such as food scraps, wood waste, and paper and cardboard products, we can reduce landfill space and add reclaimed nutrients to our agricultural efforts.

What you can do:

Work within your family to compost your own organic waste, or work with your community to establish a collective compost site.
To make the most of your compost, use it to nourish local gardening efforts.

12. Eat meat that is raised right...and eat less of it.

Livestock are raised on a third of the Earth’s land, accounting for approximately 18 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. In the developing world alone, 1 to 2 trillion cubic meters of water per year is needed to raise crops for these animals. Global meat production has increased 20 percent since 2000, and nearly 90 percent of additional growth is expected to occur in the developing world, predominantly on large, industrial farms.

What you can do:

Think about where your meat comes from. Giant, industrial farms pollute the environment through heavy use of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other harmful inputs. Pastoral farms can help reduce pollution and supports the livelihoods of local farming families.
If you’re a farmer, consider building a biodigester so that you can convert the organic waste from your animals into a nutrient-rich fertilizer and biogas, a renewable energy source that you can use for heating and electricity.

The most successful and lasting new year changes are those that are practiced regularly and have an important goal. As we embark on this new year, let’s all resolve to make 2012 a healthier, happier, and greener year for all.

Note to Editors: For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Youth Deserve Gold Medals for Sustainability

Cameron Scherer — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:55:22 +0000

Friday, January 13, 2012

Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet team highlights medal-worthy examples of youth-centered sustainability efforts from around the globe

Washington, D.C.----Over 1,000 young athletes from 70 nations will compete in the first ever Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Not only will they compete for coveted medals, they will cooperate in various hands-on workshops as part of a Culture and Education Program that includes the Youth Olympic Games Sustainability Project.

As we prepare to cheer the young athletes of the Winter Youth Olympics, let us also applaud the young leaders of sustainability efforts across the globe. Dedicating their time and energy to making the world better for themselves and for generations to come, they are not motivated by medals but deserve them nonetheless. Nourishing the Planet would like to honor 10 medal-worthy organizations and their youth-focused sustainability efforts:

1. Bridges to Understanding: Using digital technology and storytelling, Bridges to Understanding seeks to empower young people, promote mutual understanding across cultures, and cultivate a sense of global citizenship among youth. Students who participate are taught how to use cameras and editing software to create stories about their cultures and communities. These stories are shared online with other participating students in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Guatemala, India, Peru, South Africa, and the United States. While students in Kalleda, India, post videos about local water pollution, they can simultaneously watch videos from Seattle, Washington, about children who are learning to grow corn, squash, and beans using traditional Native American methods.

2. Care International's Farmers of the Future Initiative (FOFI): The FOFI works with children in primary schools in Rwanda, using school gardens to teach kids how to manage natural resources and develop rural enterprises. The project started with 27 pilot schools. Each school re-invested half of the profits from its garden into its own agricultural efforts and gave the other half to support other schools' development of new gardens. After three years, projects have been started in 28 new satellite schools.

3. China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN): Seven youth organizations merged in 2007 to become the CYCAN, the first network promoting the involvement of Chinese youth in the effort to combat climate change. CYCAN raises awareness about climate change, encourages public participation and government action, and connects Chinese youth to similar efforts internationally. Its projects include China Youth Climate Action Day, the International Youth Energy and Climate Change Summit, and the China Youth League to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17). CYCAN reports that youth from over 300 Chinese universities have participated in its events and that roughly 1 million Chinese have taken part in or been affected by one of the network's actions.

4. Climate Leaders India Network (CLeaIN): CLeaIN unites Indian youth with organizations that care about climate change and related environmental concerns. The network works to inspire Indian youth, unleash their leadership potential, and facilitate the movement of green technologies from laboratories to the lives of average Indians. CleaIN's Rural Energy Project introduces rural communities to solar cookers and sun-powered LED lighting systems. The network is also co-sponsoring a WAVE (World Advance Vehicle Expedition) Campaign that is traveling throughout India with five electric cars to create awareness.

5. Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (DISC): Because farming in sub-Saharan Africa is so labor-intensive, many young people have come to view farming as a last-resort occupation. But DISC, partnering with a local chapter of Slow Food International, is working in Uganda to change young people's relationship to agriculture, as well as to promote food sovereignty by teaching youth about local crops such amaranth, African eggplant, and indigenous maize. Through DISC, teachers and volunteers work with 1,100 school kids in 31 schools to grow, cook, and eat local crops. The lessons learned are then shared by the children with their families, multiplying the impact of the program.

6. Farmers of the Future (FOF): In Niger, FOF believes that subsistence farmers must branch into agribusiness in order to escape poverty. FOF works with children to help cultivate a new generation of agrarians who are open to innovation, market focused, and environmentally conscious. The project started with 50 children, ages 10-14, and includes access to agricultural learning environments such as tree nurseries, drip irrigate vegetable gardens, and animal fattening facilities.

7. Girl Up: The United Nations Foundation sponsors Girl Up, which educates Americans about the challenges faced by young women in other countries and provides them with opportunities to raise funds for those girls in need. Girl Up supports the Berhane Hewan project in Ethiopia (a nation where only 38 percent of girls 15-24 years old are literate and one in five are married before the age of 15) in its efforts to promote literacy, family planning, financial preparation, agricultural training, and household chore improvement.

8. Peace Child International: Using publications, trainings, and lesson-plan sharing, Peace Child works to educate young people in order to empower them to become change-makers. Based in the United Kingdom, Peace Child sponsors projects across the globe. The group's "Be the Change!" program provides small grants to young people to run their own community development projects. The ventures range from installing biodigesters in rural Costa Rica to planting 3,000 high-yield mango trees in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

9. TakingITGlobal (TIG): Combining online social networking and education programs, TIG seeks to provide young people with the information, tools, and networks they need to understand the world's problems and act to address them. TIG knits together 340,000 members and 22,000 non-profits across 13 different languages. It works with educators in over 2,400 schools in 118 countries. Through TIGweb.org, young leaders can network, research background information on issues, access tools such as petitions and toolkits, and publish their ideas and actions on youth media platforms.

10. UK Youth Climate Coalition (UKYCC): This coalition comprises and is owned and run by British youth who are dedicated to a future that is "happy, affordable, clean, and safe." In 2010, UKYCC helped establish the Youth Advisory Panel to their country's Department of Energy and Climate Change and this year sent a youth delegation to the COP17. Throughout the year, UKYCC sponsors trainings and campaigns, including their "Adopt an MP" campaign that encouraged 650 youth to hold their local Members of Parliament (MPs) accountable to their track record on climate change.

Note to Journalists: For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

What’s Population Got to Do with Sustainability? A Panel on People, Numbers and Upcoming U.N. Conference

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:14:33 +0000

Worldwatch President Robert Engelman joins Mary Robinson, other experts in weighing the links between human numbers, human rights and sustainable prosperity on the eve of the Rio+20 “Earth Summit”

When: January 12, 2012 – 12:30 p.m.

Who: Robert Engelman, President of the Worldwatch Institute

Mary Robinson, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation

Rachel Kyte, Vice President of Sustainable Development, The World Bank

Carmen Barroso, Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation

Where: Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington, D.C.

***

Twenty years after the 1992 “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro, the promise of sustainable development will be revisited in June 2012 in Rio. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission first coined the term “sustainable development” and called upon the world to recognize that development should meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also called the Earth Summit) established three pillars—economic, social, and environmental—as the interdependent foundation for developing sustainably. That summit produced a global agreement called Agenda 21, which included two chapters on the relation of demographics and gender to sustainable development in the 21 century.

Today, the planet continues to face soaring social inequity and growing environmental problems. In this time of global economic upheaval, it is more important than ever to prioritize sustainable development investments that provide multiple benefits for families, communities, nations, and the world. As momentum builds to address climate change and other major challenges, the upcoming U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (also called Rio+20 or the Earth Summit) summit presents a fresh opportunity to return anew to the critical question of how environmental, population, and economic concerns can be joined in a new vision for sustainable development.

Worldwatch President Robert Engelman will speak at the event. Engelman has researched and written actively, and is a renowned expert, on the environmental impacts and implications of population change. Prior to his work at Worldwatch, he served as the Vice President for Research at Population Action International.

Other environment and sustainable development experts will join Engelman on the panel:

Mary Robinson, the first female President of Ireland, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and founder and president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, will be sharing her expertise. In 2010, Robinson returned to Ireland to establish the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice in an effort to secure global justice for the many victims of climate change who are usually forgotten: the poor, the disempowered, and the marginalized across the world.

Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s vice president for sustainable development, will bring her expertise from the Bank’s global work in agriculture, environment, energy, infrastructure, urban, and social development.

Carmen Barroso will offer her perspective as a widely acknowledged leader in the field of sexual and reproductive health. Dr. Barroso served for 12 years as Director of Population and Reproductive Health at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was a founding member of DAWN (a network of Third World women), and is currently the western hemisphere regional director of International Planned Parenthood.

Going Green: 12 Simple Steps for 2012

Supriya Kumar — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:02:51 +0000

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

As we ring in the new year, here are twelve steps that we can all take to reduce our impact on the environment

Washington, D.C.—As we head into 2012, many of us will be resolving to lose those few extra pounds, save more money, or spend a few more hours with our families and friends. But there are also some resolutions we can make to make our lives a little greener. Each of us, especially in the United States, can make a commitment to reducing our environmental impacts.

“The global community, and particularly people living in industrialized societies, have put unsustainable demands on our planet’s limited resources,” says Robert Engelman, President of the Worldwatch Institute, a global environmental research organization based on Washington, D.C. “If we expect to be able to feed, shelter, and provide even basic living conditions to our growing population in years to come, we must act now to change.”

The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Broadening access to sustainable energy is essential to solving many of the world’s challenges, including food production, security, and poverty. “With so many hungry and poor in the world, addressing these issues is critical,” says Danielle Nierenberg, director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project. “Fortunately, the solutions to these problems can come from simple innovations and practices.”

The Nourishing the Planet team recently traveled to 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and will be soon traveling to Latin America, to research and highlight such solutions. The project shines a spotlight on innovations in agriculture that can help alleviate hunger and poverty while also protecting the environment. These innovations are elaborated in Worldwatch’s flagship annual report, State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

Hunger, poverty, and climate change are issues that we can all help address. Here are 12 simple steps to go green in 2012:

(1) Recycle

Recycling programs exist in cities and towns across the United States, helping to save energy and protect the environment. In 2009, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to require all homes and businesses to use recycling and composting collection programs. As a result, more than 75 percent of all material collected is being recycled, diverting 1.6 million tons from the landfills annually—double the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources necessary to generate roughly 7.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity—enough to power a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years!

What you can do:

Put a separate container next to your trash can or printer, making it easier to recycle your bottles, cans, and paper.

(2) Turn off the lights

On the last Saturday in March—March 31 in 2012—hundreds of people, businesses, and governments around the world turn off their lights for an hour as part of Earth Hour, a movement to address climate change.

What you can do:

Earth Hour happens only once a year, but you can make an impact every day by turning off lights during bright daylight, or whenever you will be away for an extended period of time.

(3) Make the switch

In 2007, Australia became the first country to “ban the bulb,” drastically reducing domestic usage of incandescent light bulbs. By late 2010, incandescent bulbs had been totally phased out, and, according to the country’s environment minister, this simple move has made a big difference, cutting an estimated 4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. China also recently pledged to replace the 1 billion incandescent bulbs used in its government offices with more energy efficient models within five years.

What you can do:

A bill in Congress to eliminate incandescent in the United States failed in 2011, but you can still make the switch at home. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use only 20–30 percent of the energy required by incandescents to create the same amount of light, and LEDs use only 10 percent, helping reduce both electric bills and carbon emissions.

(4) Turn on the tap

The bottled water industry sold 8.8 billion gallons of water in 2010, generating nearly $11 billion in profits. Yet plastic water bottles create huge environmental problems. The energy required to produce and transport these bottles could fuel an estimated 1.5 million cars for a year, yet approximately 75 percent of water bottles are not recycled—they end up in landfills, litter roadsides, and pollute waterways and oceans. And while public tap water is subject to strict safety regulations, the bottled water industry is not required to report testing results for its products. According to a study, 10 of the most popular brands of bottled water contain a wide range of pollutants, including pharmaceuticals, fertilizer residue, and arsenic.

What you can do:

Fill up your glasses and reusable water bottles with water from the sink. The United States has more than 160,000 public water systems, and by eliminating bottled water you can help to keep nearly 1 million tons of bottles out of the landfill, as well as save money on water costs.

(5) Turn down the heat

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that consumers can save up to 15 percent on heating and cooling bills just by adjusting their thermostats. Turning down the heat by 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit for eight hours can result in savings of 5–15 percent on your home heating bill.

What you can do:

Turn down your thermostat when you leave for work, or use a programmable thermostat to control your heating settings.

(6) Support food recovery programs

Each year, roughly a third of all food produced for human consumption—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted, including 34 million tons in the United States, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Grocery stores, bakeries, and other food providers throw away tons of food daily that is perfectly edible but is cosmetically imperfect or has passed its expiration date. In response, food recovery programs run by homeless shelters or food banks collect this food and use it to provide meals for the hungry, helping to divert food away from landfills and into the bellies of people who need it most.

What you can do:

Encourage your local restaurants and grocery stores to partner with food rescue organizations, like City Harvest in New York City or Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota.
Go through your cabinets and shelves and donate any non-perishable canned and dried foods that you won’t be using to your nearest food bank or shelter.

(7) Buy local

“Small Business Saturday,” falling between “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” was established in 2010 as a way to support small businesses during the busiest shopping time of the year. Author and consumer advocate Michael Shuman argues that local small businesses are more sustainable because they are often more accountable for their actions, have smaller environmental footprints, and innovate to meet local conditions—providing models for others to learn from.

What you can do:

Instead of relying exclusively on large supermarkets, consider farmers markets and local farms for your produce, eggs, dairy, and meat. Food from these sources is usually fresher and more flavorful, and your money will be going directly to these food producers.

(8) Get out and ride

We all know that carpooling and using public transportation helps cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as our gas bills. Now, cities across the country are investing in new mobility options that provide exercise and offer an alternative to being cramped in subways or buses. Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. have major bike sharing programs that allow people to rent bikes for short-term use. Similar programs exist in other cities, and more are planned for places from Miami, Florida, to Madison, Wisconsin.

What you can do:

If available, use your city’s bike share program to run short errands or commute to work. Memberships are generally inexpensive (only $75 for the year in Washington, D.C.), and by eliminating transportation costs, as well as a gym membership, you can save quite a bit of money!
Even if without bike share programs, many cities and towns are incorporating bike lanes and trails, making it easier and safer to use your bike for transportation and recreation.

(9) Share a car

Car sharing programs spread from Europe to the United States nearly 13 years ago and are increasingly popular, with U.S. membership jumping 117 percent between 2007 and 2009. According to the University of California Transportation Center, each shared car replaces 15 personally owned vehicles, and roughly 80 percent of more than 6,000 car-sharing households surveyed across North America got rid of their cars after joining a sharing service. In 2009, car-sharing was credited with reducing U.S. carbon emissions by more than 482,000 tons. Innovative programs such as Chicago’s I-GO are even introducing solar-powered cars to their fleets, making the impact of these programs even more eco-friendly.

What you can do:

Join a car share program! As of July 2011, there were 26 such programs in the U.S., with more than 560,000 people sharing over 10,000 vehicles. Even if you don’t want to get rid of your own car, using a shared car when traveling in a city can greatly reduce the challenges of finding parking (car share programs have their own designated spots), as well as your environmental impact as you run errands or commute to work.

(10) Plant a garden

Whether you live in a studio loft or a suburban McMansion, growing your own vegetables is a simple way to bring fresh and nutritious food literally to your doorstep. Researchers at the FAO and the United Nations Development Programme estimate that 200 million city dwellers around the world are already growing and selling their own food, feeding some 800 million of their neighbors. Growing a garden doesn’t have to take up a lot of space, and in light of high food prices and recent food safety scares, even a small plot can make a big impact on your diet and wallet.

What you can do:

Plant some lettuce in a window box. Lettuce seeds are cheap and easy to find, and when planted in full sun, one window box can provide enough to make several salads worth throughout a season.

(11) Compost

And what better way to fertilize your garden than using your own composted organic waste. You will not only reduce costs by buying less fertilizer, but you will also help to cut down on food and other organic waste.

What you can do:

If you are unsure about the right ways to compost, websites such as HowToCompost.org and organizations such as the U.S. Composting Council, provide easy steps to reuse your organic waste.

(12) Reduce your meat consumption

Livestock production accounts for about 18 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for about 23 percent of all global water used in agriculture. Yet global meat production has experienced a 20 percent growth rate since 2000 to meet the per capita increase of meat consumption of about 42 kilograms.

What you can do:

You don’t have to become a vegetarian or vegan, but by simply cutting down on the amount of meat you consume can go a long way. Consider substituting one meal day with a vegetarian option. And if you are unable to think of how to substitute your meat-heavy diet, websites such as Meatless Monday and Eating Well offer numerous vegetarian recipes that are healthy for you and the environment.

The most successful and lasting New Year’s resolutions are those that are practiced regularly and have an important goal. Watching the ball drop in Times Square happens only once a year, but for more and more people across the world, the impacts of hunger, poverty, and climate change are felt every day. Thankfully, simple practices, such as recycling or riding a bike, can have great impact. As we prepare to ring in the new year, let’s all resolve to make 2012 a healthier, happier, and greener year for all.

***

Notes to Editors:

For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

The Forgotten 1 Billion

Supriya Kumar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:10:18 +0000

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Washington, D.C.—The holidays are a time for putting others before ourselves. And with the recent news that the world’s population has surpassed 7 billion, there are a lot more “others” to consider this year. Nearly 1 billion people in the world are hungry, for example, while almost the same number are illiterate, making it hard for them to earn a living or move out of poverty. And 1 billion people—many of them children—have micronutrient deficiencies, decreasing their ability to learn and to live productive lives.

“As our global community continues to grow, so does the need to consider—and act on—the challenges we all face,” says Robert Engelman, President of the Worldwatch Institute. “Far too many women, children and men are living with less than they need and deserve.”

Fortunately, there are thousands of organizations working tirelessly in communities at home and abroad to fix these problems.

One Billion Hungry

“Although the number of undernourished people worldwide has decreased since 2009, nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry each night, a number that is unacceptably high,” according to Danielle Nierenberg, director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org). Malnutrition contributes to the death of 500 million children under the age of five every year, and in Africa, a child dies every six seconds from hunger.

But more and more organizations, such as the United Nations’ World Food Programme, are using homegrown school feeding (HGSF) initiatives to alleviate hunger and poverty. HGSF programs in Brazil, India, Thailand, Kenya, and elsewhere work to connect local producers with schools, helping to provide children with nutritious and fresh food while providing farmers with a stable source of income.

One Billion Tons of Food Wasted

Roughly 1.3 billion tons of food—a third of the total food produced for human consumption—is lost or wasted each year. Within the United States, food retailers, food services, and households waste approximately 40 million tons of food each year—about the same amount needed to feed the estimated 1 billion hungry people worldwide.

Organizations around the world are working to educate people on the importance of conserving food. In New York City, City Harvest collects surplus food from food providers and distributes it to more than 600 shelters and other agencies. And in West Africa, farmers are using the power of the sun to dehydrate fruits such as mangos and bananas. Experts estimate that, with nearly all of their moisture removed, the fruits’ nutrients are retained for up to six months, allowing farmers to save the 100,000 tons of mangos that go to waste each year.

One Billion Micronutrient Deficient

Nearly 1 billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, including a lack of vitamin A, iron, and iodine. Each year, between 250 million and 500 million children with vitamin A deficiencies become blind, and half of these children die within 12 months of losing their sight.

These problems could be alleviated by improving access to nutritious foods. In sub-Saharan Africa, AVRDC–The World Vegetable Center works to expand vegetable farming across the region, boosting access to nutrient-rich crops. And Uganda’s Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (Project DISC) educates youth about the importance of agriculture and nutritious diets. Students learn about vegetables and fruits indigenous to their communities, as well as how to process and prepare these foods for consumption. “If a person doesn’t know how to cook or prepare food, they don’t know how to eat,” says Project DISC co-founder Edward Mukiibi.

One Billion Overweight

Lack of access to healthy food doesn’t result only in hunger. More than 1 billion people around the world are overweight, and nearly half of this population is obese. Nearly 43 million children under the age of five were considered overweight in 2010. Surging international rates of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis are being attributed to unhealthy diets, and 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of overweight or obesity.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, has urged countries around the world to make firm commitments to improving their food systems. In Mexico, where 19 million people are food insecure yet 70 percent of the country is overweight or obese, De Schutter has called for a “state of emergency” to tackle the problem. He attributes the hunger-obesity combination to the country’s focus on individual crops and export-led agriculture, and argues that a change to agricultural policies could tackle these two problems simultaneously.

Nearly One Billion Illiterate

Over three-quarters of a billion people worldwide—793 million adults—are illiterate. Although the number of people unable to read has decreased from 1 billion in 1990, illiteracy continues to prevent millions of people from moving out of poverty. For farmers in particular, being illiterate can limit access to information such as market prices, weather predictions, and trainings to improve their production.

New communications technologies are providing part of the solution. A team of researchers known as Scientific Animations Without Borders is helping illiterate farmers around the world learn how to create natural pesticides or prevent crop damage using solar treatments, by producing short animated videos accessible on mobile phones. In India, farmers can receive daily updates via text or voicemail on weather and crop prices through subscription services set up by major telephone companies. Kheti, a system operated by the U.K.’s Sheffield Hallam University, even allows farmers to take pictures of problems they are having with their crops and to send them in for advice. With more than 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions globally, projects such as these have the potential to reach and improve the lives of many around the world.

As we gather together this holiday season to reflect on the things most important to us, let us also take the time to remember the billions of others who share our planet. Too many of the world’s neediest people will start the new year without sufficient food, nutrition, or education. But by acknowledging and supporting those organizations around the world that are finding ways to nourish both people and the planet, we can all make a difference.

***

Notes to Editors:

For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Global Natural Gas Consumption Regains Momentum

Supriya Kumar — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:23:22 +0000

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Rise in global consumption indicates renewed popularity of natural gas as an energy resource.

Washington, D.C.—Driven by surging natural gas consumption in Asia and the United States, global use of this form of fossil fuel rebounded 7.4 percent from its 2009 slump to hit a record 111.9 trillion cubic feet in 2010, according to a new Vital Signs Online report from the Worldwatch Institute. This increase puts natural gas’s share of total energy consumption at 23.8 percent, a reflection of new pipelines and natural gas terminals in many countries.

The world’s largest incremental increase in natural gas use occurred in the United States, where low prices triggered a 1.3 trillion-cubic-feet increase to 24.1 trillion cubic feet, just over one-fifth of global natural gas consumption. But the Asia Pacific region experienced the strongest growth as a share of 2009 consumption levels, with China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan all experiencing demand growth of over 20 percent. China, which surpassed Japan in 2009 to become Asia’s largest natural gas consumer, by and large led the region’s growth spurt by consuming 3.9 trillion cubic feet, or 3.4 percent of world usage.

The former Soviet Union, which experienced the largest regional decline in natural gas consumption in 2009, saw its demand bounce back by 6.8 percent in 2010. Russia, the world’s second largest natural gas consumer, single-handedly accounted for 70 percent of regional growth. In the European Union, natural gas consumption increased by 7.4 percent; however, the EU’s share of global natural gas consumption is on the decline. The Middle East, which is home to some of the richest natural gas resources in the world but lacks the proper infrastructure to facilitate much domestic consumption, saw a 6.2 percent rise in natural gas demand.

Natural gas producers have responded to this revived demand with a 7.3 percent boost in production. The United States maintained its position as the leading source of natural gas, accounting for just under one-fifth of the world’s total production in 2010. In Russia, which holds nearly a quarter of the world’s proved natural gas reserves, production jumped 11.6 percent. In the Middle East, growth in production of natural gas far outstripped that of consumption, rising by a full 13.2 percent. Last year, Qatar and Iran alone accounted for 29.4 percent of global proved reserves.

Reenergized global gas demand drove average prices up from their 2009 lows in nearly all markets. According to one index, the U.S. saw a 13 percent price increase over 2009 levels. Prices remained the highest in Asia, where consumption increased most rapidly between 2009 and 2010. The European Union, where prices fell 6 percent, proved to be the exception to this trend, thanks to an excess of liquid natural gas originally intended for U.S. markets.

Two major developments this year have significantly affected the stability of global natural gas markets. The political unrest brought about by the “Arab Spring” slowed production in a number of gas-producing countries in North Africa. Additionally, the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has led countries around the world to reconsider their dependence on nuclear power. “Natural gas is likely to play a major role in filling the gap left by idled and phased out nuclear plants,” write report authors Saya Kitasei and Ayodeji Adebola. “The unanticipated spike in public opposition to nuclear power can only increase global natural gas demand in the coming decade.”

Further highlights from the study:

The share of global natural gas trade represented by liquified natural gas (LNG) surpassed 30 percent in 2010 for the first time on record.
Russia maintained its status as the world’s leading exporter of natural gas, accounting for 27.5 percent of global pipeline trade.
Gas flaring, or the burning of excess gas, is on the decline in Nigeria but remains a substantial environmental threat in many countries around the world. It is estimated that 5 percent of global natural gas production is flared annually.

***

Notes to Editors:

For a full copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.