A Congressional report says China succeeded in acquiring highly sensitive U.S. nuclear secrets during three successive administrations, a charge China denies. The growth of cities is greatly outpacing the growth of human population. Cities now account for the bulk of carbon emissions, water consumption and other key aspects of human impact upon the planet. In 'The Long Boom,' author Peter Schwartz and colleagues argue that economic and social conditions could get steadily better for the majority of Earth's people in the years ahead. In much of the world, producing adequate supplies of food increasingly depends upon unsustainable levels of irrigation.
Methods exist to use available water much more efficiently, but time is running short.
There are growing signs that the world may be nearing an environmental revolution comparable to the political revolution that swept Eastern Europe a decade ago, according to the Worldwatch Institute. According to the Worldwatch Institute, the nuclear power industry is at its peak of power capacity now and will start declining within two years, toward eventual extinction sometime in the mid-21st century.