The Worldwatch Institute is a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan Survey of Sustainability Experts.

Mission[link]

The Worldwatch Institute helps to inform policymakers and the public about the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems. Research conducted by the Institute is integrative or interdisciplinary in nature and global in scope.^[1]

Worldwatch Institute develops and disseminates data, analysis, and strategies to create an environmentally sustainable society that meets human needs and confronts the 21st century challenges of climate change, resource degradation, population growth, hunger and poverty.

Worldwatch’s priority programs include:

• Building a Low-Carbon Energy System that dramatically reduces the use of fossil fuels and lowers greenhouse gas emissions.
• Creating a Healthy Future for Agriculture that provides a healthy, nutritious diet for all while sustaining the land, water, and biological resources on which life depends. Current projects include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded, Nourishing the Planet, a comparative analysis of environmentally sustainable agriculture innovations to alleviate poverty and hunger.
• Developing a Sustainable Global Economy that meets human needs, promotes prosperity, and is in harmony with nature.

Worldwatch also monitors human health, population, water resources, biodiversity, governance, and environmental security.^[2]

Worldwatch's work relies on the generosity of its donors.

History[link]

• 1974—The institute was founded by Lester Brown.^[3]
• 1975—The first Worldwatch Paper was published.
• 1984—First State of the World published.^[4]
• 1988—World Watch Magazine was launched.
• 1992—Vital Signs, Worldwatch's third annual series, was premiered.
• 2000—Christopher Flavin became President of Worldwatch in October.
• 2008—Worldwatch hosted the 20th Anniversary of the James E. Hansen hearings.
• 2011—Robert Engelman became President of Worldwatch in October.

Publications[link]

Worldwatch Institute publications have been published in more than three dozen languages by its global partners in 40 countries.^[5] Worldwatch publications include:

• The State of the World report is an annual assessment of urgent global environmental problems and the innovative ideas proposed and applied across the globe to address them.^[6]

• State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet
• State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability^[7]
• State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World ^[8] ISBN 978-0-393-33418-0
• State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy
• State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future
• State of the World 2006: China and India
• State of the World 2005: Redefining Global Security
• State of the World 2004: The Consumer Society
• Vital Signs tracks social, environmental and economic trends and publishes data and analysis.
• Vital Signs 2011 is a book that documents the trends that are shaping our future in concise analysis and clear tables and graphs.
• World Watch Magazine
• Inspiring Progress: Religion’s Contributions to Sustainable Development
• Eat Here: Defending Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket
• American Energy Report
• Global Progress on Sustainable Biofuels
• Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy
• Oceans in Peril: Protecting Marine Biodiversity
• Winged Messengers: The Decline of Birds
• Financing the Earth
• Beyond Disasters: Creating Opportunities for Peace
• Venture Capitalism for a Tropical Forest: Cocoa in the Mata Atlantica
• Sustainable Aquaculture
• Catch of the Day: Choosing Seafood for Healthier Oceans
• Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry
• Liquid Assets: The Critical Need to Safeguard Freshwater Ecosystems
• Biofuels for Transport

Current Researchers and Fellows[link]

Erik Assadourian, Christopher Bright, Zoe Chafe, Ambika Chawla, Amanda Chiu, Robert Engelman, Hilary French, Gary Gardner, Brian Halweil, Yingling Lui, Mia MacDonald, Eric Martinot, Alice McKeown, Danielle Nierenberg, Sandra Postel, Michael Renner, Payal Sampat, Janet Sawin, Molly O'meara Sheehan, and Victor Vovk.

See also[link]

• Lester R. Brown, founder of Worldwatch Institute
• Ed Ayres, former editor of Worldwatch
• Sustainable Development
• Environmental Movement
• List of environmental organizations
• World Nuclear Industry Status Report

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Worldwatch Institute

• Worldwatch Institute
• Worldwatch Europe
• Worldwatch Brazil
• Worldwatch Japan
• Work on biofuels
• Renewables 2010 Global Status Report
• Renewables 2011: Global Status Report
• [1] endorsements for "State of the World 2009" by Bill McKibben and Alex Steffen
• The End of Nuclear, Worldwatch Institute, 2011.

This article is about Robert Engelman, the writer, not the film and television producer of the same name.

Robert Engelman is an author and former journalist who writes about the environment and population and serves as President of the Worldwatch Institute. His book More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want^[1] was published in 2008.^[2]

Biography[link]

Engelman received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Chicago and his masters of science from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which in 1976 awarded him a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship.

Engelman began his career as a newspaper reporter, working for the Associated Press out of Mexico City in 1977. He subsequently worked for the Kansas City Times in Kansas City and Washington, D.C., and then for the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News as its Washington correspondent. He later joined the national reporting staff of Scripps Howard News Service, eventually serving as its science, health and environment correspondent. In 1992 he left journalism and founded a research program on population and the environment at the Population Crisis Committee, a Washington-based research and advocacy non-profit that subsequently changed its name to Population Action International (PAI). He later became vice president for research at PAI. In 1997, he was among the founders of the Center for a New American Dream and served until 2007 as chair of its board of directors. While at PAI Engelman and colleagues published reports on the linkages of population dynamics and environmental change, one of them published in the journal Nature^[3] in 2000. In 2002 and 2003, Engelman served on the faculty of Yale University as a visiting lecturer on population and the environment.^[4]

In 2007, Engelman joined the staff of Worldwatch as vice president for programs, where he has continued his research and writing on population and the environment. He is one of several authors and one of three project directors of the Institute’s signature publication The State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World and co-directs Worldwatch’s fundraising from foundations and governments.^[5]. He now currently serves as the Institute's President.^[6]

Bibliography[link]

“Sealing the Deal to Save the Climate,” State of the World 2009: Into a Warming World, Norton, 2009, ISBN 13:978-0-393-33418-0

More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want, Island Press, 2008, ISBN 13:978-1-59726-019-0

Articles[link]

Population and Sustainability: Can We Avoid Limiting the Number of People? June 2009, Scientific American

Earth Hour? Why Not "Earth Until-We-Figure-This-Out?" March 2009, Huffington Post

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Worldwatch Institute
• More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want
• State of the World 2011
• Nourishing the Planet

Christopher Flavin (left) 2010

Christopher Flavin is the former president of the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization focused on natural resource and environmental issues, based in Washington, DC. He is also a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, the Climate Institute, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.^[1] His research and writing focus is international energy and climate policy.^[2][3]

Flavin has participated in several notable international conferences, including the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and the Climate Change Conference in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. He has testified before national and state legislatures and meets frequently with government and international leaders.^[3]

Flavin is a native of Monterey, California and a cum laude graduate of Williams College, where he studied economics, biology, and environmental studies.^[4]

Quotations[link]

• "Renewable energy provides 18 percent of total net electricity generation worldwide. Renewable energy generators are spread across the globe, and wind power alone already provides a significant share of electricity in some regions: for example, 14 percent in the U.S. state of Iowa, 40 percent in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 20 percent in the nation of Denmark. Some countries get most of their power from renewables, including Iceland (100 percent), Brazil (85 percent), Austria (62 percent), New Zealand (65 percent), and Sweden (54 percent)."

• "Solar hot water provides an important contribution to meeting hot water needs in many countries, most importantly in China, which now has fully 70 percent of the global total (180 GWth). Most of these systems are installed on multi-family apartment buildings and meet a portion of the hot water needs of an estimated 50–60 million households in China, or more than 150 million people. Worldwide, total installed solar water heating systems meet a portion of the water heating needs of over 70 million households."

• "Renewable biofuels are meanwhile making inroads in the transportation fuels market and are beginning to have a measurable impact on demand for petroleum fuels, contributing to a decline in oil consumption in the United States in particular starting in 2006. Although the rapid growth of previous years has slowed, production of biofuels for transportation grew 58 percent between 2007 and 2009. The 93 billion liters of biofuels produced worldwide in 2009 displaced the equivalent of an estimated 68 billion liters of gasoline, equal to about 5 percent of world gasoline production."

-- Christopher Flavin in REN21 (2010). Renewables 2010 Global Status Report p. 53.

Selected publications[link]

• Power Surge: Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution, W.W. Norton, 1994.
• Rising Sun, Gathering Winds: Policies to Stabilize the Climate and Strengthen Economies, Worldwatch Paper 138, November 1997.
• Regular contributions to State of the World , Vital Signs and World Watch.
• Low-Carbon Energy: A Roadmap, 2008.

See also[link]

• State of the World 2008
• Lester Brown
• Amory Lovins
• Nourishing the Planet project
• State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christopher Flavin