Product Description
The award-winning Worldwatch Institute reveals the often overlooked key trends that tell the true health of our planet.

This annual volume distills the "vital signs" of our times—which often escape the attention of the media, world leaders, and economic experts—from thousands of government, industrial, and scientific documents. It tracks the major indicators that show social, economic, and environmental progress, or the lack thereof.

Vital Signs 2007-2008 presents the latest data on environmental and sustainable development topics, such as food and agriculture, energy and climate changes, economic trends, transportation and communications, health and social trends, conflict and peace. Each trend includes analysis to provide context and interconnections, plus charts and graphs to provide visual comparisons of the trends over time.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 2 reviews)

A useful source for global data

I've read every issue of Vital Signs since Worldwatch introduced it years ago. It contains a useful series of statistics on the state of the planet. A problem with the book, however, is the limited time frame of many of the charts. A lot of key environmental trends need to be tracked far back in time to see the total damage. A better book would be Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition by Lester Brown. I have a review on that on its page. I also have a list of future studies books on my profile. Brown was the orginal creator of Worldwatch and Vital Signs but quit Worldwatch and now runs the Earth Policy Institute. If you want to dowload digital versions of the data (for a fee) you can go the Worldwatch website.
February 01, 2008

World energy consumption is consistently breaking records and undermining climate and life on the planet

World energy consumption is consistently breaking records and undermining climate and life on the planet, and the 44 trends tracked here in the annually-updated VITAL SIGNS are keys to understanding these trends and their sources. The largest polluter is the U.S.: the recommendation here is that Europe should be pressuring the US to join in international climate negotiations to head off catastrophic climate changes. High school, college and general-interest libraries alike will welcome this survey of facts which will provide both grounds for classroom discussion and food for thought.
November 04, 2007

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