Vital Signs 2000

Citation

Brown, L.R., Renner, M. and Halweil, B. (2000), "Vital Signs 2000", Environmental Management and Health, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 476-477. https://doi.org/10.1108/emh.2000.11.5.476.3

This book is the ninth volume in the series from the Worldwatch Institute that shows in graphic form the key trends that often escape the attention of the news media and world leaders, and that are often ignored by economic experts as they plan for the future.

In addition to a comprehensive description of the environmental problems affecting the world, Vital Signs 2000 also describes some positive trends in renewable energy and efficiency technologies. For instance, 1999 saw wind power, the world’s fastest‐growing energy source, surge by 39 percent, production of solar cells expand by 30 percent, and sales of energy‐efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) grow by a robust 11 percent. As these energy alternatives are scaled up and take root in developing countries as well, they will make a serious dent in carbon output and help stabilize the climate.

Another instance of a positive trend that could be accelerated is organic farming. Much of the agricultural economy around the world has stagnated, but sales of organic products are growing by more than 20 percent a year. Organic farmers replace agrochemicals with a greater diversity of crops, rotations, and sophisticated pest control strategies. As a result, organic farming can reduce groundwater pollution, threats to wildlife, and consumer exposure to pesticides. Farmers in Europe have doubled the area cultivated with organic methods to 4 million hectares in only three years. In Italy and Austria, the share of agricultural land certified organic topped 10 percent in 1999. However, farmers around the world are expected to scale back plantings of genetically modified seeds in 2000.

According to Vital Signs 2000, tax reform is one of several policy tools that can accelerate positive environmental change. By levying taxes on fossil fuels and pesticides and other pollutants, governments can simultaneously reduce environmental decay and reduce levies on income, wages, profits, and built property. In the last decade, eight Western European countries pioneered “tax shifts”, raising taxes on environmentally harmful activities and using the revenue to cut conventional taxes. Although these nations have taken the first modest steps, environmental taxes must be boosted above the 3 percent of worldwide tax revenue they now generate if they are to halt global environmental decline.

International treaties can help to push reforms forward, according to the book. The list of international environmental accords now numbers almost 240. Five were forged in the past year alone, and more than two‐thirds of the total were crafted since the 1972 UN conference on the environment in Stockholm. The 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion is among the most successful pacts, spurring a nearly 90 percent drop in global chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) emissions. However, most of these treaties are neither strong enough nor monitored and enforced sufficiently to reverse ecological decline.

Vital Signs 2000 is also being published in Brazil, China, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain (Catalan), and the UK. It can be ordered in PDF form from http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/vs/vs00/index.html or by e‐mail through: wwpub@worldwatch.org