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Now in its eighth year, the Worldwatch Institute's "annual physical of the planet" has achieved semi-official international status. As environmental issues move from news headlines onto the political agenda, State of the World has become an indispensable guide for national leaders as well as concerned citizens on all continents. Charts and tables.

As the dust from the cold war settles, the battle to save the planet will replace the battle over ideology as the organizing theme of the new world order. During the twenty years since the first Earth Day in 1970, the earth lost tree cover over an area nearly as large as the United States east of the Mississippi River. Deserts claimed more land than is devoted to crops in China. Thousands of plant and animal species with which we shared the planet in 1970 no longer exist. The world's farmers lost as much topsoil as covers India's cropland. And more people joined the world's population than inhabited the planet in 1900.
How can we design a vibrant world economy that does not destroy the natural resources and environmental systems on which it depends? That is the question of the 1990s, and the question that State of the World 1991sets out to answer.
State of the World 1991 lucidly examines the options for restoring our planet's health. From energy production to urban transportation, and from forest management to the reuse of common materials like glass and paper, State of the World 1991 details how we can provide the energy and goods the world needs in a way that is sustainable ”that does not consume the resource base of future generations.
The authors of State of the World 1991 conclude that partially replacing income taxes with environmental taxes is the key to quickly transforming our environmentally unsustainable global economy into one that is sustainable. Such “green“ taxes would add charges to the burning of fossil fuels, the use of non-recyclable materials, and the discharge of toxic wastes while generating income for environmentally sound development.

Lester R. Brown

 

Lester Russel Brown is a United States environmental analyst, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, and founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, D.C. BBC Radio commentator Peter Day calls him "one of the great pioneer environmentalists."

Brown is the author or co-author of over 50 books on global environmental issues and his works have been translated into more than forty languages. His most recent book is Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, which was released in September 2012.

Brown emphasizes the geopolitical effects of fast-rising grain prices, noting that "the biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries," and one that could "bring down civilization." In Foreign Policymagazine, he describes how the "new geopolitics of food" has, in 2011, already begun to contribute to revolutions and upheaval in various countries.

The recipient of 26 honorary degrees and a MacArthur Fellowship, Brown has been described by the Washington Post as "one of the world's most influential thinkers." As early as 1978, in his book The Twenty-Ninth Day, he was already warning of "the various dangers arising out of our manhandling of nature...by overfishing the oceans, stripping the forests, turning land into desert." In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings “have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources,” while president Bill Clinton has suggested that "we should all heed his advice." In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.

In the mid-1970s, Brown helped pioneer the concept of sustainable development, during a career that started with farming. Since then, he has been the recipient of many prizes and awards, including, the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his "contributions to solving global environmental problems." In 1995, Marquis Who's Who selected Brown as one of its "50 Great Americans." He was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Italy and was appointed an honorary professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He lives in Washington, D.C.

 

Christopher Flavin

Christopher Flavin is Senior Fellow and President Emeritus of the Worldwatch Institute.  He previously served as Vice President for Research and President.

Flavin is a well-known expert on strategies for transforming energy systems to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and power a low-carbon future.  He advises governments, businesses, and international financial institutions, and lectures widely around the world.  

Mr. Flavin has authored three books: Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution, Running on Empty: the Future of the Automobile,and Renewable Energy: the Power to Choose.  He has also published scores of articles for popular and scholarly publications.

He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and serves on the Advisory Boards of the American Council on Renewable Energy and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.  He has a cum laude degree in economics and biology from Williams College.

Sandra Postel

Sandra Postel is a leading authority and prolific author on international water issues; she directs the independent Global Water Policy Project and in March 2010 she was named the National Geographic Society's first Freshwater Fellow.

In 1992 Postel authored Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity, which now appears in eight languages and was the basis for a PBS documentary that aired in 1997. She is also author of Pillar of Sand: Can the Irrigation Miracle Last? (1999) and co-author of Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature (2003). Her article "Troubled Waters" was selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Best American Science and Nature Writing. Sandra has authored well over 100 articles for popular, scholarly, and news publications, including Science, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.