A new look at the State of the World

Stat house
February 2002

A new look at the State of the World
Ten years after the Rio Earth Summit, world leaders are preparing for the United Nation's World Summit on Sustainable Development to take place in September 2002 in Johannesburg. The Worldwatch Institute published an analysis of the successes and failures since the Rio conference in its State of the World 2002 with these main questions to be answered: "Will the global economy find a new balance with Earth's natural systems?" and "Can we meet the basic needs of over one billion poor people today, as well as the 2-3 billion that will be added to the world's population in the coming decades?"

While many of the statistics look bleak, Worldwatch Director of Research Gary Gardner maintains that improving conditions is not impossible. He says, "In the decade since the historic Rio conference, the challenge of putting the world's economies on a sustainable track has only advanced slightly—but importantly. Trends are still headed largely in the wrong direction, but a shift in global consciousness is clearly discernible."

He says that determining a country's cultural and economic context will be critical in persuading it to change its policy. Of course, in many cases, financial benefits will be most persuasive, but people must also be persuaded out of concern for fellow human beings. Gardner says, "Only by using intelligent change strategies will politicians, citizens, and business people develop the political will for larger-scale change."

The following is a sampling of the numbers that shape the State of the World 2002:

Disease & Pharmaceuticals

Child deaths due to diarrhea were reduced by 50 percent from 1990-2000.

In the year 2000, substantially less people died of tuberculosis, measles, diarrhea, and lower respiratory infections than in 1990.

In 1990, 310,000 people died of AIDS. In 2000, 2,940,000 people died of AIDS. Nearly all of these deaths were in the developing world, 4 out of 5 were in sub-Saharan Africa.

1 percent of adults worldwide are infected with AIDS, 8 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with AIDS.

Only 13 out of 1,223 medicines commercialized by multinational drug companies were designed to treat tropical diseases.

90 percent of drugs sold worldwide in 2000 were sold in industrialized nations.

Five of the top ten classes of drugs sold worldwide are for heartburn, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

One third of European adults are overweight; nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight.

Education & Literacy

Nearly one in six adults worldwide cannot read or write.

99 percent of illiterate people are found in developing countries.

The number of children not in school dropped from 127 million in 1990 to 113 million in 1998, India brought its rates down by 10 percent.

Environment

The share of various wildlife groups threatened with extinction: 12.5 percent of vascular plants, 11 percent of birds, 20 percent of reptiles, 25 percent of amphibians, 25 percent of mammals, 34 percent of fish.

18 percent of the 11,000 threatened species are "critically endangered".

Global loss of forested areas numbers 2.2 percent over the decade.

Of the 500 million people living in and around tropical forests, 150 million are members of indigenous groups that depend on forests and forest resources for their way of life.

The average American uses 19 times more paper than the average person in a developing country.

27 percent of the world's coral reefs are effectively lost, up 10 percent from 1992.

Ice core readings suggest current atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at their highest level in 420,000 years.

Average global sea levels rose 10-20 centimeters in the last century.

U.S. carbon emissions rose 18 percent from 1990-2000, Japan's rose 10.7 percent, Australia's rose 28.8 percent, Canada's rose 12.8 percent.

Russia reduced its carbon emissions by 30.7 percent in the same time period, the European Union's dropped 1.4 percent.

At least 29 countries have enacted "take-back" laws that require companies to recycle or reuse packaging discarded by consumers.

Vehicular traffic is responsible for 88,739 tons of lead emitted into the atmosphere per year.

Organic agricultural area grew 42-fold in Europe between 1985 and 2000.

Global electricity generation from wind turbines grew ten-fold between 1990-2000.

Population

The United Nations Population Division estimates that the current world population of 6.2 billion will grow to anywhere between 7.9 - 10.9 billion by the year 2050.

In 1800, world population totaled 1 billion; In 1900, 1.6 billion; in 2000, 6.1 billion.

World population grows by 77 million people each year.

A moderate slow-down in fertility rates is occurring in industrialized nations, while rates continue to grow in the developing world.

Water Resources

1.1 billion people lack access to adequate clean water—more than double the number who use computers.

10 percent of the world's grain harvest is produced with water pumped from wells faster than it can be replenished.

About one third of the world lives in countries that find it impossible to meet all their water needs. That share could double to two thirds by 2025.

Nearly 3 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation.

10 million people die each year from lack of sanitation-related disease.

About half the people in the developing world suffer from diseases caused by contaminated water or food.

14,000 - 30,000 people die each day from water-related diseases.

Wealth distribution

In Zimbabwe, 700,000 whites (who are 0.5 percent of the population) own 70 percent of the land ( a situation changing radically because of a controversial and occassionally violent land reform currently under way).

In South Africa, blacks (75 percent of the population) own 15 percent of the land.

In Brazil, 3 percent of the population owns 66 percent of the land.

In the U.S., 16 percent of farmers control 56 percent of all farm land.

Worldwide, the top ten percent of the population owns over 40 percent of the land.

Socially responsible investment programs tripled in the U.S. between 1995-1999.

By the year 2000, socially responsible investments accounted for 12 percent of professionally managed funds in the U.S.—Tara Dix

For more information:
Worldwatch
Johannesburg Summit

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