Lester R Brown

In Paris this week, leaders of the world's seven largest industrial democracies ended an economic summit with their first-ever call for concerted action to save the environment. In Washington, Worldwatch Institute's Lester R. Brown, who long has been preaching cooperative global action, applauded the political progress at the "green summit" but emphasized that the planet's survival depends on more than talk.

AT HOME: * Substitute fluorescent lights for traditional bulbs and help keep one half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the useful life of each bulb, or replace existing bulbs with lower-wattage bulbs when fluorescents are not suitable. * Weather strip doors and windows and save as much as 10% of annual energy cost. * Use cold water rather than hot water for your kitchen tasks and save the energy it take to heat the water unnecessarily.

A"sustainable" society is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations. At present, our society is not sustainable. We are borrowing from the future in a runaway binge of chopping, burning, draining and poisoning, leaving a wake of leaking landfills, oozing lagoons, sludges, slags and waste plastic.

In Paris this week, leaders of the world's seven largest industrial democracies ended an economic summit with their first-ever call for concerted action to save the environment. In Washington, Worldwatch Institute's Lester R. Brown, who long has been preaching cooperative global action, applauded the political progress at the "green summit" but emphasized that the planet's survival depends on more than talk.

AT HOME: * Substitute fluorescent lights for traditional bulbs and help keep one half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the useful life of each bulb, or replace existing bulbs with lower-wattage bulbs when fluorescents are not suitable. * Weather strip doors and windows and save as much as 10% of annual energy cost. * Use cold water rather than hot water for your kitchen tasks and save the energy it take to heat the water unnecessarily.

The world's ability to match its population growth with more bountiful grain harvests has finally come to an end, ushering in a new age of scarcity in which food prices could soar to record levels while food supplies fall to record lows, the Worldwatch Institute said Wednesday.

The killer typhoon that hit southern China this week is the latest in a summer of disasters causing huge losses for the country's industries and agriculture. In a new sign of impending problems, the government Wednesday issued an "urgent notice" calling for measures to stabilize prices of vegetables, pork and other foods. The prices of these items have been going up too fast this summer in the cities, the Ministry of Internal Trade said in its circular to officials nationwide.

A"sustainable" society is one that satisfies its needs without diminishing the prospects of future generations. At present, our society is not sustainable. We are borrowing from the future in a runaway binge of chopping, burning, draining and poisoning, leaving a wake of leaking landfills, oozing lagoons, sludges, slags and waste plastic.

Corn is a key element of the U.S. food supply. It is what dairy cows eat to make milk and hens consume to lay eggs. It fattens cattle, hogs and chickens before slaughter. It makes soda sweet. As the building block of ethanol, it is now also a major component of auto fuel. And that may signal trouble ahead.

People are smoking less, countries are cutting back armies and nuclear weapons, and industry is producing less oil and fewer ozone-destroying chemicals. Could the world be turning into a better place? Not yet, the Worldwatch Institute said in a report Saturday. But there are encouraging trends. A look at 36 environmental and social indicators in the report "Vital Signs" still shows trouble signs. But "there are . . . some positive trends beginning to emerge," said Lester R.