Author Description

Widely recognized as an authoritative assessment of the world's natural resource base, the World Resources series offers a comprehensive guide to the global environment. Building on earlier volumes, the 1990-91 edition focuses on climate change the world over and provides an overview of Latin American environmental and resource issues. The section on global climate change offers analyses of topical and controversial issues such as the "greenhouse effect," and features a unique Greenhouse Index that ranks countries by emissions of gases that may lead to global warming. Also new is a discussion of how developing countries could better measure their progress toward sustainable economic growth. Other chapters cover population and health, human settlements, food and agriculture, forests and rangelands, wildlife and habitat, energy, freshwater, oceans, and coasts, atmospheric pollution, global monitoring systems, and policies and institutions. Each includes both updated information on resource conditions and trends, and coverage of new issues. As always, World Resources provides more than 120 pages of data tables covering 146 countries, and features a wide variety of charts, tables, and other graphics--many unique to this book--that make it the most complete and current reference available on the subject. With its wealth of information and data, and its attractive and easily accessible format, World Resources 1990-91 is an indispensable sourcebook for anyone concerned with the state of the world environment.Features:* The most authoritative source of information on natural resources, prepared by two leading policy research organizations* Readable and accessible* Special section on climate change discusses one of the most important environmental issues of our time* Concise accounts of the latest trends in population and health, human settlements, food and agriculture, forests and rangelands, wildlife and habitat, energy, freshwater, oceans and coasts, atmosphere and climate, global systems and cycles, and policies and institutions* 120 pages of data tables covering 146 countries* Fully cross-referenced and indexed