State of the World Series

Worldwatch's flagship publication, State of the World, has educated a broad audience—students, journalists, policymakers, and concerned citizens—about trends in sustainable development for a quarter century. The book has been published in 36 languages, and over the years it has authoritatively assessed a wide range of issues, from population, energy, and agriculture, to materials use, health, and trade policy. Topics are covered from a global perspective, and the stress is on innovation and problem-solving. State of the World is recognized as a classic of environmental literature, having attracted luminaries from Kofi Annan to Mikhail Gorbachev to write forewords for the book. News media, policymakers, and NGOs worldwide cite the book for its cutting-edge analysis, reliability, and careful documentation of its arguments, all marshaled to speed the global transition to a sustainable world with the chicken coop plans


 * State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World
 * What must we do in the 21st century—especially in 2009 and the years just following—to head off the kind of climate catastrophe that many scientists now see as likely? Available January 2009.


 * State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy
 * Environmental issues were once regarded as irrelevant to economic activity, but today they are dramatically rewriting the rules for business, investors, and consumers.


 * State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future'
 * In 2008, half of the Earth’s population will live in urban areas, marking the first time in history that humans are an urban species. State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future examines changes in the ways cities are managed, built, and lived in that could tip the balance towards a healthier and more peaceful urban future.


 * 'State of the World 2006: Special Focus: China and India
 * Worldwatch Institute's annual State of the World report provides a special focus on China and India and their impact on the world as major consumers of resources and polluters of local and global ecosystems. The report explains the critical need for both countries to "leapfrog" the technologies, policies, and even the cultures that now prevail in many western countries for the sake of global sustainability—and reports on some of the strategies that China and India are starting to implement.


 * State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security
 * Security concerns remain high on the world's agenda. In this year’s annual report, Worldwatch researchers explore underlying sources of global insecurity including poverty, infectious disease, environmental degradation, and rising competition over oil and other resources.


 * State of the World 2004: Special Focus: The Consumer Society
 * Think of the objects you buy and use in any given day. Now, try to imagine that there are more than 1.7 billion human beings in the consumer society—and their numbers are growing yearly. In many cases, excessive consumption burdens societies with bulging landfills, declining fish stocks, and rising obesity levels. Meanwhile, there are still another 2.8 billion who consume too little and who suffer from hunger, homelessness, and poverty.


 * State of the World 2003
 * If we are going to reverse biodiversity loss, dampen the effects of global warming, and eliminate the scourge of persistent poverty, we need to reinvent ourselves—as individuals, as societies, as corporations, and as governments.


 * State of the World 2002
 * Featuring a Foreword by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, State of the World 2002 includes chapters on climate change, farming, toxic chemicals, sustainable tourism, population, resource conflicts and global governance, with a special focus on the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in August/September 2002.


 * State of the World 2001
 * In State of the World 2001, the Institute's award-winning research team takes a fresh look at the most difficult challenge the world faces: how to build an environmentally sustainable economy before we do permanent damage to the natural systems that support our global civilization.


 * State of the World 2000
 * As the 21st century dawns, the Worldwatch Institute's award-winning research team takes a fresh look at the trends that have put the global economy on a collision course with the Earth's ecosystems. This first edition of the new century lays out the case for a rapid transition to an environmentally sustainable economy before we do permanent damage to the natural systems that support our global civilization.


 * State of the World 1999
 * State of the World 1999 presents evidence of the birth of an entirely new economy, an Environmental Revolution that may be as sweeping as the Industrial Revolution that put us on our present unsustainable course. The authors argue that, far from being too costly to consider, the transition to an environmentally sustainable economy represents the greatest investment opportunity in history. In country after country, community after community, people are making the changes needed to shift from today's fossil fuel-based, auto-centric, throwaway economy to a solar/hydrogen-powered, bicycle/rail-centered, reuse/recycle economy--an economy that will satisfy human needs while preserving the Earth's ecosystems.


 * State of the World 1998
 * In this fifteenth edition of State of the World, Lester R. Brown and the Worldwatch research team look at the environmental effects of continuing economic growth as the economy outgrows the earth's ecosystem. As the global economy has expanded from $5 trillion of output in 1950 to $29 trillion in 1997, its demands have crossed many of the earth's sustainable yield thresholds.


 * State of the World 1997
 * This fourteenth edition of State of the World coincides with two important milestones: the fifth anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the tenth anniversary of the 1987 Montreal protocol to protect the earth's ozone layer. With these two landmarks in mind, 1997 seemed a particularly good year to review progress in addressing global environmental problems.


 * State of the World 1996


 * State of the World 1995


 * State of the World 1994


 * State of the World 1993


 * State of the World 1992


 * State of the World 1991


 * State of the World 1990


 * State of the World 1989


 * State of the World 1988


 * State of the World 1987


 * State of the World 1986


 * State of the World 1985


 * State of the World 1984
 * State of the World began in 1984 as a new annual project created to measure worldwide progress in achieving a sustainable society. Sing a broad network of information sources, the report monitors changes in the global resource base (land, water, energy, and biological support systems), focusing particularly on how changes there affect the economy. A natural outgrowth of the Worldwatch Institute's ongoing progress, the book is published in response to a growing demand for policy-oriented interdisciplinary research.